Lesson 4 - Wort Cooling and Oxygenation Technology
This lesson will firstly compare the design and operation of different wort cooling systems, and will give you enough information to help you describe why you would choose one wort cooling system over another. It will then move on to wort oxygenation systems, giving you enough information to help you make the same decision regarding this type of system.
Preface
We have clarified our wort. We now have to cool and oxygenate it before we pitch our yeast to the fermenter, or to the propagation vessel. Although this sounds simple, we must consider both the science involved and examples of best practice. This will ensure that we carry out this stage both effectively and efficiently. The wort clarity, the temperature and oxygen concentration, together with the amount of pitched yeast, all play a crucial role in the consistency of the fermentation that is to follow.
The above parameters are also the major inputs into our fermentation e.g. wort, oxygen and yeast. These parameters also make up a crucial part of our brand recipes. As inputs, they determine the type of beer that is to be brewed. We will briefly cover beer types and consider the key differences between our classic ales and lager beers, in relation to this stage of our brewing process.
To better understand the process of wort cooling and oxygenation, we must examine the key objectives and their importance to both our brewing process and the final beer quality. We will also consider what we as brewers can do to influence the outcomes.
We will specifically look at the design and operation of the different wort cooling and oxygenation systems. We will examine the advantages and disadvantages of these systems, as well as their selection criteria. This will in turn highlight current best practice.
Let us thus begin the final lesson of this course.