Whether you manufacture alcohol in a professional plant or brew your alcohol at home, proper alcohol brewing process is vital for alcohol production since this process will result in alcohol with the desired strength, flavor and acidity. Even if you are just an alcohol aficionado, knowing how your alcohol is brewed can boost your knowledge on your favorite alcoholic drink.

All types of alcohol and spirits including beer, whiskey, vodka, rum, wine, etc need to pass through the brewing process that includes milling, mashing, fermenting, filtering and in some cases also distilling the alcohol or ethanol before packaging the final product. While alcohol production requires huge vats and tanks to brew the mixture, you can also brew your homebrew mash in small containers while following the same methods on a smaller scale.

The first step in brewing is to add water to the main ingredient in the required alcohol. This could be malted barley or even rice or corn in the case of beer, which acts as a starch source. It could be grapes in case of wine and barley or wheat in case of whiskey. The brewing process begins once the grains are mixed with water and allowed to remain in that state for several hours or days depending on the alcohol that needs to be produced. The mixture is then heated until the water evaporates and then milled again before being immersed back in hot water. This is known as mashing and the resultant mash is now ready for the fermentation process.

In alcohol brewing, fermentation plays a key role in converting all starches, carbohydrates and sugars into ethanol or alcohol as it is commonly called. In order for alcohol fermentation to take place, it is vital that the right type of brewing yeast is added to start the process. For example, beer might require brewer’s yeast that can produce alcohol with low alcohol strength or low proof levels. One such yeast preferred by many beer manufacturers is saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast, which is mostly used to brew lager.

However, wine will require wine yeast that can provide an alcohol strength of around 12% while stronger alcoholic fermentation to make spirits such as vodka require vodka yeast that can survive in stronger alcohols. Yeast temperature is also very important since yeast can only work at optimum levels when the mash temperature is between 15 and 27 degrees Celsius. The resultant sugar fermentation will turn the sugars present in the mash into alcohol.

Other additives such as hops in beer are added to provide the desired flavor to the final product even as the fermented mixture is conditioned and filtered before it is packed. Again, whiskey requires distillers yeast that provides extremely strong alcohol at the end of the fermentation process. Some yeast manufacturers have come up with turbo yeast and instant yeast that is tolerant to temperature variations to help commercial and home manufacturers quickly make high quality and stronger alcohol.

Brewing various mixtures is the key to producing alcohol of the desired strength and taste. This process involves mixing the ingredients, boiling, cooling, roasting and mashing them before fermenting the mash with the matching yeast. You can now see as to why proper alcohol brewing process is so vital for alcohol production.