Enzymes in Beer, Wine and Spirits. Page 1

            Beer, wine and spirits have been around for several millennium of human history but recent discoveries in bio-processes have begun to change the process of their manufacture.  By understanding the complex work of naturally occurring enzymes in biological systems today’s beverages are made with a new level of control that has never before been possible.  The market for low calorie beer would not exist without modern process designs that use enzymes.  Wine makers can now use enzymes to boost production from the same acreage of vineyards.  In every fermentation process enzyme activity works to improve the growth of yeast cells.

            This is a very exciting area of bio-process engineering and life sciences to get in to.  Enzymes and their uses are still being discovered and have broad implications that go way beyond beer, wine and spirits.  This particular field of interest, adult beverages, is worth getting in to since these marketable consumer goods have shown, through several recessions, to be relatively unaffected by economic downturns.  As an industry it is a very stable business climate.  Beer is also something that not every person can successfully create and it is something worth taking pride in when others, in mass, enjoy and celebrate your product.  For these reasons I find the topic of using modern science and engineering to produce a better tasting beverage very interesting.

            From the beginning there was always biological processes happening in the production of beer, wine and spirits.  Beer has always been made by steeping grains in water and then fermenting the liquid.  During the early stages of soaking the grains, the grain seeds begin to germinate.  This process of germination does a few things that all vitally important to successful beer and one unfortunate side effect.  The germination of the grain seeds increases the water content of the grain, causes the grain seed to produce its own natural enzymes, and uses some of the starch stores in the grain to begin germination. 

            Of all the enzymes needed to make good beer only one, beta-amylases is present before germination.  The others: beta-glucanases, xylanases, alpha-amylases, proteases, carboxypeptidases, and lipoxygenases are all produced as a result of germination.

Enzymes and Alcohol (part 1)

This is just the introduction of my paper as I am beginning to write it.  At the moment I am having trouble finding good, useable patents that I can discuss.  (My prof wants at least 3 patents to be discussed.)

Enzymes have been of increasing interest in the field of beer and spirits.  Various enzymes are used in the brewing and fermentation processes at nearly every step.  There are some differences in the types of enzymes used for the production of beer and alcohol, but the processes of rendering fermentable sugars from a source and then fermenting them are similar.  There has been considerable work on enzyme science and the production of alcohol.  The creation of new processes to prevent deactivation of enzymes in low calorie beer production, to genetically altered enzymes that can split non-fermentable dextrins in to fermentable sugars, are two examples that will be covered in better detail later.  A secondary area of study on alcohol and enzymes has been on human enzyme mutations that effect alcohol metabolism in the body and how these differences are split by ethnic lines.

In simple home brewing operations there are only two basic enzymes that are of concern, alpha-amylase and beta-amylase.  These two enzymes can control flavor, body, alcohol content, and a creamy feeling.  An entire family of enzymes known as proteolytic enzymes is capable of splitting complex protein chains in to simpler proteins and amino acids which can affect rate of fermentation, clarity, quality of the beer, and the head of the beer.  Small scale home brewers would not have to worry about enzyme concentration in most cases but as production moves to large scale manufacturing enzyme controls can give a much better control of the end product as well as speed up processes.

MEW

Enzymes and Alcohol paper

This is just a reference dump for my upcoming paper on enzymes and alcohol.  Most of these sources are availible on the Amazon Kindle, which I totally love mine.

Enzymes in Industry and Medicine Gordon Bickerstaff.

Varitations in Alcohol Metabolizing Enzymes in People of East Indian and African Descent in Trinidad and Tobago

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Pg.242-252

Alcohol Production From Various Enzyme Converted Starches PDF file.

I have this coming weekend off, at work so I am aiming to have the rough draft pretty well hammered out by this coming Saturday evening.

MEW

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.

Coming Out Forever

I AM GAY!  So stop assuming I am straight.

I recently switched jobs at the auto factory where I work here in Michigan.  At my previous job all my coworkers knew I was gay and only a few of them had a problem with it, and yes they were exactually the types you would expect to be homophobic.

Now I work in an entirely different area of the plant with people that I have never worked with before.  In the first week all the typical co-worker banter was brought up, "Are you married?  Do you have kids?  Do you have a girlfriend?"  It is really hard to know people well enough to know if they open minded enough to come out or if it would cause huge problems to come out to them.  They are all women and I don't think there would be a problem, but people talk and rumors fly pretty quick in that factory.

I also have a lot of reservations about coming because I know there are alot of bigots that work in this area.  These pictures all came from the handicapped stall in the men's room on this side of the plant.  There are a few racially charged comments written on the walls too.  Seeing this doesn't really make me fell better about the idea of coming out at work, FOR THE 3RD TIME.

I am 31, I have been open about my sexuality for the last 12 years but I am getting really tired of having to constantly come out to people all the time.  I know I don't really seem "Gay" but why does that mean you should immediately assume I am straight.  More importantly why does it freaking matter.

It's funny, It's been a while. (Perspectives on Alex Jones)

I am sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything on here, if any one still checks this blog at all.   I am also sorry that this post has almost nothing to do with beer.  However with all the debate over gun control in the United States there is something I need to talk about, and specifically about the Piers Morgan interview of Alex Jones.
First of all if you didn't see the Alex Jones interview it is on youtube.&nbsp
A lot of people have had a lot to say about this interview on facebook and twitter since it happened.  The jist of it being "Alex Jones proves in 7 minutes why gun control is needed."  I agree, he loses it pretty quickly during this interview, but I have some incite in to Alex Jones.  (Did you know he has made quite a few movies.  I have seen some of them.)
So back in 2006 and 2007 I was heavily involved with a few of the anti war, anti Bush organizations that existed.  One of them, The World Can't Wait, I held office positions which included President of our local chapter.  (Latter I learned that organization was deeply entwined with The Revolutionary Communist Party.)  There was another member of our group that was always spreading the latest news to come from a website infowars.com .  This is Alex Jones' website.
This fellow protester I once stood with was always burning dvd copies of movies, "Lose Change", "Terror Storm", and "Freedom to Facisim".  The first two are both conspiriacy theroy movies made in a documentary style, suggesting that the terrorist attacks on 9/11 were organized by the government.  "Freedom to FacisIm" is a movie claiming that income taxes are unconsitutional, the IRS, Federal Reserve, and the Treasury take our income taxes and pocket them, and that there is a huge banking conspiracy to rob us and our country of all our valuables.
Alex Jones made both "Terror Storm" and "Freedom to Facisim".  I do not recall who made Loose Change.  So that is who Alex Jones is, a conspiracy theorist who believes the government and banks are trying to enslave us with phony money that has no real value.
I was cleaning out my apartment this past weekend, to get ready to brew beer later this winter, and happened to come across a copy of Terror Storm by Alex Jones while I was cleaning, and that is when all this suddenly hit me.
I was drinking his Kool-Aid without question when it suited the emotions I had about George W. Bush and the Iraq war.  But now that I am not in that scene anymore and my emotions have calmmed and I can see him for the unstable scared white man he is. This is what has gotten me to thinking about what else my emotions may have clouded my judgement on and what everyone else's emotions have done to their judgement concerning the recent debates on gun control.
Emotions are running high on the gun control debate for sure, there have been a lot of horrible shooting tragedies in the news the past year and a lot of other news stories that scare us all in to feeling the need for increased self protection.  But if we could set the emotions aside and just look at the facts we would see what real problems and solutions are.
I just had a conversation with a coworker, an avid hunter and sportsman who grew up in the inner city of Detroit in the 60's.  I learned a lot from him just now about the gun control debate that makes me rethink things and some of it that I would need to look in to. What strikes me the most is that the majority of the gun control laws we need are already on the books but law enforcemnt is so under funded in these areas that these laws are uneffective.  In many other instances common sense is simply lacking on the part of gun owners.  As my coworker and I discussed if everyone that owned guns was required to safely store them in a un safe or other lockable area to prevent theft and child endangerment a lot of te recent gun violence would prevented.  We also discussed how there really isn't an effective way to track second hand gun sales, which is the way most criminals aquire guns.
So in conclusion it sounds to me like the logical solution is beef law enforcement so they can enforce the laws already on the books as well as re-educating the gun owning public on the responsibilities of gun ownership and how to safely store guns and prevent gun violence in their community.
I would like to thank Alex Jones for unintentionally awakening me to how my own emotions can cloud my better judgement and my logical thought processes.

Half an apple per acre

Making hard cider?  Maybe not this year.

It is October now.  We should be in the thick of apple cider season but thanks to the weather extermes of this year apple cider is in short supply.

There is a 127 acre apple ochard 6 miles from my apartment.  I went to pick up some apple cider, I need like 6 gallons to make a batch of hard cider, and found out that through all 127 acres they found a total of 6 use-able apples.  They have no fresh pressed apple cider this year.

There was an irregular warm spell in late Feburary early March that was strong enough to start the apple trees blooming.  Then mid March and April the weather went back to normal and destroyed the apple blossoms.  Then were was two weeks this summer of temperatures over 100 degrees and no rain.  All of this adds up to apple cider only being availble in chain stores, and for over 6 dollars a gallon.

I am now rethinking my brewing plan, Mead is now looking like the fall brew of choice.