Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, at home by a homebrewer, or communally. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archaeological evidence suggests that emerging civilizations, including ancient Egypt, China, and Mesopotamia, brewed beer. Since the nineteenth century the brewing industry has been part of most western economies.
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay into pottery, tiles and bricks. Various industries use rotary kilns for pyroprocessing and to transform many other materials.
Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar, confections such as Maltesers and Whoppers, flavored drinks such as Horlicks, Ovaltine, and Milo, and some baked goods, such as malt loaf, bagels, and Rich Tea biscuits. Malted grain that has been ground into a coarse meal is known as "sweet meal".
Homebrewing is the brewing of beer or other alcoholic beverages on a small scale for personal, non-commercial purposes. Supplies, such as kits and fermentation tanks, can be purchased locally at specialty stores or online. Beer was brewed domestically for thousands of years before its commercial production although its legality has varied according to local regulation. Homebrewing is closely related to the hobby of home distillation, the production of alcoholic spirits for personal consumption, but home distillation is generally more tightly regulated.
Single malt whisky is malt whisky from a single distillery.
Sprouting is the natural process by which seeds or spores germinate and put out shoots, and already established plants produce new leaves or buds, or other structures experience further growth.
A culm is the aerial (above-ground) stem of a grass or sedge. It is derived from Latin culmus, meaning "stalk." It originally referred to the stem of any type of plant.
Smoked beer is a type of beer with a distinctive smoke flavour imparted by using malted barley dried over an open flame.
Brown rice (malt) syrup, also known as rice syrup or rice malt, is a sweetener which is rich in compounds categorized as sugars and is derived by steeping cooked rice starch with saccharifying enzymes to break down the starches, followed by straining off the liquid and reducing it by evaporative heating until the desired consistency is reached. The enzymes used in the saccharification step are supplied by an addition of sprouted barley grains to the rice starch or by adding bacterial- or fungal-derived purified enzyme isolates.
Acoustic cleaning is a maintenance method used in material-handling and storage systems that handle bulk granular or particulate materials, such as grain elevators, to remove the buildup of material on surfaces. An acoustic cleaning apparatus, usually built into the material-handling equipment, works by generating powerful sound waves which shake particulates loose from surfaces, reducing the need for manual cleaning.
Wood drying reduces the moisture content of wood before its use. When the drying is done in a kiln, the product is known as kiln-dried timber or lumber, whereas air drying is the more traditional method.
Mash ingredients, mash bill, mashbill, or grain bill are the materials that brewers use to produce the wort that they then ferment into alcohol. Mashing is the act of creating and extracting fermentable and non-fermentable sugars and flavor components from grain by steeping it in hot water, and then letting it rest at specific temperature ranges to activate naturally occurring enzymes in the grain that convert starches to sugars. The sugars separate from the mash ingredients, and then yeast in the brewing process converts them to alcohol and other fermentation products.
Wort is the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer or whisky. Wort contains the sugars, the most important being maltose and maltotriose, that will be fermented by the brewing yeast to produce alcohol. Wort also contains crucial amino acids to provide nitrogen to the yeast as well as more complex proteins contributing to beer head retention and flavour.
Grain bins are bulk storage structures for dry wheat, soybean, maize, oats, barley and more. Grain bins are cylinders made of corrugated sheets or sheet metal with a coned metal roof that has vents. The floors of grain bins have aeration systems to keep good air flow through the commodities and keep it at a good temperature and humidity level to prevent spoilage. At the top of each grain bin there are tubed conveyors to transport the grain. The grain bin sits on top of a strong concrete base to help the structure withstand high winds and the massive weight from the grain.
A malt house, malt barn, or maltings, is a building where cereal grain is converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The malt is used in brewing beer, whisky and in certain foods. The traditional malt house was largely phased out during the twentieth century in favour of more mechanised production. Many malt houses have been converted to other uses, such as Snape Maltings, England, which is now a concert hall.
A Saladin box is an instrument used for malting barley. It consists of a large rectangular container about 50 meters in length, and a set of vertical screws attached to a crossbar. The crossbar moves horizontally across the length of the container while the motion of the screws raises the barley from the bottom to the top. Combined with mechanical air flow across the barley for cooling, this allows for beds of barley between 60 cm (24 in) and 80 cm (31 in) deep to be turned over two or three times a day. The screws are moved and turned by a system of pulleys and belts.
Grain drying is the process of drying grain to prevent spoilage during storage. Artificial grain drying uses fuel or electricity powered processes supplementary to natural ones, including swathing/windrowing for air and sun drying, or stooking before threshing.
Toowoomba Maltings is a heritage-listed malthouse at 11 Mort Street, Newtown, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1899 to 1907. It is also known as Black Gully Malthouse, Darling Downs Malting Company Ltd, Paterson Redwood and Co, Queensland Brewery Co, Carlton Maltings, Northern Australia Brewers Ltd, Queensland Malting Company Ltd, Redwood's Maltings, State Wheat Board, and William Jones and Son (Maltsters) Ltd. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 January 1998.
Grain storage on a subsistence farm is primarily based on minimizing grain loss. In modern agricultural practices there are methods of managing under 1% grain loss, but small subsistence farms can see 20% - 100% of grain loss. This causes starvation and an unstable food supply. Grain loss can be caused by mold growth, bugs, birds, or any other contamination.
Corn wet-milling is a process of breaking corn kernels into their component parts: corn oil, protein, corn starch, and fiber. It uses water and a series of steps to separate the parts to be used for various products.
