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Making a better beer with chemistry

Aug 3, 2020

Article

Lager or ale? Pale ale or stout? Specialty beer, or basic draft? This week, to celebrate the International Beer Day on Friday, August 7th, I have chosen to write about a subject near and dear to me: how to make a better beer! Like many others, at the beginning of my adult life, I enjoyed the beverage without giving much thought to the vast array of styles and how they differed, beyond the obvious visual and gustatory senses. However, as a chemist with many chemist friends, I was introduced at several points to the world of homebrewing. Eventually, I succumbed.

Back in 2014, my husband and I bought all of the accessories to brew 25 liters (~6.5 gallons) of our own beer at a time. The entire process is controlled by us, from designing a recipe and milling the grains to sanitizing and bottling the finished product. We enjoy being able to develop the exact bitterness, sweetness, mouthfeel, and alcohol content for each batch we brew.

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Back in 2014, my husband and I bought all of the accessories to brew 25 liters (~6.5 gallons) of our own beer at a time. The entire process is controlled by us, from designing a recipe and milling the grains to sanitizing and bottling the finished product. We enjoy being able to develop the exact balance between bitterness, sweetness, mouthfeel, aroma, and alcohol content for each batch we brew.

Over the years we have become more serious about this hobby by optimizing the procedure and making various improvements to the setup – including building our own temperature-controlled fermentation fridge managed by software. However, without an automated system, we occasionally run into issues with reproducibility between batches when using the same recipe. This is an issue that every brewer can relate to, no matter the size of their operation.