The Role of Lactic Acid in Decreasing pH-Value in Wort and Its Impact on the Quality of Beer
Session
Agriculture, Food Science and Technology
Description
As in all food and beverage production processes, the pH value is of high importance in wort and beer production, too. There are several processes and changes that proceed considerably faster and better at low pH-values. The pH of unboiled wort without mash acidification is about 5.6 to 5.8 and the pH of cast wort is about 5.4 to 5.6. At a lower pH many processes proceed better and faster, such as good precipitation of protein-polyphenol complexes when boiling wort at pH 5.2, less increase in wort colour, a better and clean tasting hop bitterness at a lower pH, micro-organisms less resistant at a lower pH, the range of enzymes is considerably improved because all the important enzymes, with the exception of α-amylase, are activated, the supply of zinc is increased, the extract yield is increased, etc. Therefore, it is preferable to acidify biologically during the mashing and at the end of the boiling of wort. This also impacts the other processes during fermentation and impact directly on some quality parameters of the final beer.
Keywords:
acidification, beer, colour, fermentation, pH-value, wort.
Session Chair
Kastriot Pehlivani
Session Co-Chair
Violeta Lajqi Makolli/ Ismet Babaj
Proceedings Editor
Edmond Hajrizi
ISBN
978-9951-437-96-7
Location
Lipjan, Kosovo
Start Date
31-10-2020 9:00 AM
End Date
31-10-2020 10:45 AM
DOI
10.33107/ubt-ic.2020.187
Recommended Citation
Pehlivani, Kastriot; Elshani, Arsim; Lajqi, Xheme; and Pajaziti, Mybeshir, "The Role of Lactic Acid in Decreasing pH-Value in Wort and Its Impact on the Quality of Beer" (2020). UBT International Conference. 29.
https://knowledgecenter.ubt-uni.net/conference/2020/all_events/29
The Role of Lactic Acid in Decreasing pH-Value in Wort and Its Impact on the Quality of Beer
Lipjan, Kosovo
As in all food and beverage production processes, the pH value is of high importance in wort and beer production, too. There are several processes and changes that proceed considerably faster and better at low pH-values. The pH of unboiled wort without mash acidification is about 5.6 to 5.8 and the pH of cast wort is about 5.4 to 5.6. At a lower pH many processes proceed better and faster, such as good precipitation of protein-polyphenol complexes when boiling wort at pH 5.2, less increase in wort colour, a better and clean tasting hop bitterness at a lower pH, micro-organisms less resistant at a lower pH, the range of enzymes is considerably improved because all the important enzymes, with the exception of α-amylase, are activated, the supply of zinc is increased, the extract yield is increased, etc. Therefore, it is preferable to acidify biologically during the mashing and at the end of the boiling of wort. This also impacts the other processes during fermentation and impact directly on some quality parameters of the final beer.