The ingredients for the wort are mixed with the appropriate proportions as required by the recipe of the beer. This mixture of ingredients is called the mash. The mash is transported to the boiler where hot water is added. The enzymes in the malted barley are reactivated by the hydration and starch-to-sugar convergence is continued. The whole wort solution is brought to a boil for a set time, usually around thirty minutes. The grains must then be removed from the wort so they will not enter the fermenters as warned from before. Once the grains are extracted, the end transparent mixture is a complex solution of sugars. The hops are then added to the boil for the bitterness flavor. The boiling extracts the bittering qualities of the hops. It is necessary to boil for at least half an hour to allow the bittering resins to dissolve into the wort. The process automatically coagulates and precipitates out the unwanted proteins from the wort. The coagulated proteins are transferred out of the system, in preparation for fermentation.
The picture below depicts a boiler used for the first boiling of the mash. The mash is introduced in the boiler from the top.
During boiling, the solution is passed trough a filter in the boiler inorder to remove the barley grains. The picture below shows the bottom of the boiler with a portion of the filter tray separated. The wort exits the boiler from the bottom and is returned to the top. This recycle allows the wort to passed through the filter repeatedly until it is relatively clean of grains.
Another boiler, used for the adding and boiling of the hops, is depicted below.
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