Don’t tell mum: uni's micro magic

The Corvinus University’s Faculty of Food Science, Department of Brewing and Distilling takes its curriculum so much to heart that it operates its own micro brewery. The establishment has educational, research and modeling functions, of course, but the development of new beers is also conducted here. The capacity of the plant is 50 liters; enough amount for experimenting. Though only the first two of the three beer making stages – brewing, fermentation, and filtering – are done here, students get hands-on experience and become practiced in identifying typical beer problems. Large breweries also use the plant to have a new beer tested before its launch.
And the university is experimenting with novelties like beer for sportspeople, or gluten-free beer. But, whatever beer is made, brewing consists of the same steps.
 Dr Beáta Hegyesné Vecseri, assistant professor at the Faculty, explains the process: “Malt is created during the germination of barley. Two types of malt; Pilsner and Viennese, are used. The first one is very light, with rather a neutral taste, the second one is more aromatic.”
Depending on the desired effects, the two can be mixed in virtually any proportion. To ensure sweet aroma and color, caramel and color-malt is added.
The hardness of the water strongly influences the taste of the beer, too. In hard water, the aromas of malt are dominant, while soft water enhances those of the hop.
“Nowadays companies can create the same quality by using,for example, an ion exchanger.”

Germination

Brewing starts with mashing (a process that takes 1.5-2 hours). Ground malt and water is mixed in the mash copper where extracts are “solved,” with the aid of enzymes created during the germination. Mashing is complete when there is no starch left in the solution.
The next step is filtering (which takes about one hour), when the mash is placed in a sheet filter to separate the dissoluble extract (the spent grain) from the liquid wort. As spent grain is still rich in extracts, hot water is poured over it to get the rest of them.
This process is called máslás in Hungarian, and the almost equally unknown sparging in English.
Then the wort and sparging are put in the wort kettle, and, while it is boiled for 60-90 minutes, hops are added.
Bitter hops are responsible, as you might expect, for bitterness; aroma hops lend, well, aroma to the ale/beer. Boiling results in a clearish brown clear wort. Brewing is over, next comes fermentation.
“Breweries buy the yeast from yeast banks, where a description including the yeast’s characteristics is available. Companies choose based on what beer they wish to produce.”
In the first phase of the fermentation, yeast turns sugar into alcohol and carbon-dioxide. To preserve the CO2 content, and allow the creation of the final aromas, freshly fermented beer is conditioned.
“This stage used to last for half a year. But now, due to financial considerations, it takes no longer than three weeks.”
After fermentation, most of the yeast is taken away. The process in the mini-brewery ends here. In larger plants, beer is cooled down to -2oC (28oF) to separate proteins dissolving in low temperature. Finally beer is filtered with powder filters and packaging can start.