How much do you know about the treatment of beer brewing water

We all know that water is very important as one of the main ingredients in the process of using beer equipment. In order to brew good beer, the water quality must be well protected.

1.Boiling method

Principle: CaCO3 or magnesium dissolved in water to form insoluble CaCO3 or magnesium precipitate to reduce most of the temporary hardness of water.

Method: normal pressure boiling method, in any vessel, the water heated for dozens of minutes, and constantly stirring, exclude CO2, calcium carbonate formed natural deposition, deposit at the bottom, using decanting method to separate the treated water. If the treated water contains more magnesium bicarbonate, because the precipitate formed is slow to precipitate, and its solubility increases with the decrease of temperature, it must be filtered immediately after boiling or filtered with coagulant.

Advantages: the method is simple, does not need special equipment, suitable for small factories. 

Disadvantages: long time, high heat consumption, high cost; The water temperature after treatment is high, and it can only be used for saccharification after cooling. Not effective in water high in magnesium bicarbonate.

2.Add lime method

Principle: reduces the temporary hardness of water and other harmful components.

Methods: The water to be softened was poured into a cylindro-conical tank, and the pre-digested lime milk solution was added. At the same time, the water was fully stirred with compressed air for 10~20min, and the precipitation was left standing for 4~5h. The treated water was extracted from the upper part of the container and the precipitation was discharged from the bottom of the cone.

Dosage:

Advantages: Lime treated water, most of the temporary hard is removed, and has a reduction effect on organic matter, silicate and iron ions.

Disadvantages: (1)residual Ca(OH)2 is not allowed in the water, otherwise the saccharification will be seriously affected; (2) When the raw water contains less calcium carbonate, large precipitates cannot be formed after adding lime, so it is difficult to remove the precipitates, and coagulants should be added; (3) need to have a large volume of storage tank.

3.With gypsum method

Principle:Counteract the acid-lowering effects of bicarbonate.

Methods: According to the calculated amount, gypsum was directly put into the saccharified water.

Dosage: Add 50~200g gypsum per ton of water.

The calculation formula is as follows: m=ηV×3.07×1.3

The meaning of the letter in the formula

m---Gypsum of water for saccharification should be added（g）

η---Carbonate hardness of water for saccharification

V---Total water for saccharification

3.07---The corresponding coefficient of gypsum is required for each 1g of calcium oxide

1.3---Additional coefficient of gypsum required

Advantages: the method is simple and commonly used

Disadvantages: after the chemical reaction, gypsum with calcium phosphate precipitation, that is, the loss of some soluble phosphate; The water with high hardness of calcium sulfate should be added less or not added gypsum, otherwise the harm is much less beneficial.

4.Other improvements

In addition to the above several commonly used water treatment methods in production, there are ion exchange method, reverse osmosis method and electrodialysis.

①Ion exchange method: with a kind of ion exchange agent material to treat water, you can choose to remove some ingredients in water, its advantages: reliable method, good water quality after treatment. According to different design can meet different technological requirements; Large water output and moderate water treatment cost.

Disadvantages: complex management, discontinuous water flow in the multi-bed system, frequent regeneration and long regeneration cycle; Large amount of acid and alkali for regeneration.

②Reverse osmosis method: in the external high pressure, so that it overcome the water solution itself permeability pressure, and the water molecules through the semi-permeable membrane, and salt permeable not more than half permeable membrane, so as to remove all kinds of salt in water.

③Electrodialysis method: under the action of external direct current electric field, the use of anion, cation exchange membrane on the water ion selection through, so that part of the ion transfer to another part of the water so as to achieve the purpose of desalination.

These are our brewery fermentation tanks of 2000L 

If you are interested in beer equipment, or have any questions during the brewing process. Please feel free to contact me Alice.

Email:dgequipment@degonget.com