Enzymatic processes in brewing and other fermentations

Later this month I have a 6 page research paper, rough draft, for a class I am currently taking in Bio process Engineering.  I am part of a 3 member team that choose to do a presentation at the end of the year on industrial enzyme production and use.  The area that I am focusing in on is alcohol and fermentation related.  My professor doesn't allow presentations on making beer, he used to but after too many people bought "Home Beer making:  The Complete Beginner's Guidebook" by William Moore Click here for the Amazon link., or other books like this, and presented their findings as a book report instead of an actual research project, he black listed this topic.  So I am only being allowed to do my paper and 1/3 of the presentation on this if I focus on enzymes and think outside of the box.

The next couple of weeks I hope to have a lot of information dumps on this blog for you to look at and even the various drafts of my paper.

At the moment I want to share some of the starting points that I have for this paper and presentation.

• Why home brewed beer is a healthier alternative to store bought beer, the mechanisms that cause higher yeast concentration in home brew to have higher levels of complete B vitamin complexes.
• Several enzymes are listed by name in section 3.6 of "Bio process Engineering, Basic Concepts" Click here for the Amazon link as useful in beer making and fermentation, so I would like to dive in to what those enzymes are doing.
• I would also like to explore how some yeast strains can produce higher alcohol content beer and what gives these yeast strains the ability to be resistant to higher alcohol concentrations.
• Finally, I recently bought an ingredient kit for Milk Stout which includes lactose and maltodextrin, how does this effect the fermentation process and what can we assume about the flavor of the end product.