Microbrewery Process Aids

It used to be that brewing a beer meant having to deal with unwanted issues relating to things you cannot change—issues such as the type of water you had, the malt available to you, or the vitality of your yeast. Thankfully the brewing industry has changed, with hundreds of improvements and innovations available to home brewers and microbreweries to make brew days easier and more successful.

Many of these innovative solutions to brewing problems have been developed as process aids. These additives have been created to specifically target certain jobs within the brewing process, and at Get Er Brewed we offer a wide selection of the highest quality brewing process aids on the market directly from our suppliers to you.

Antifoam Process Aids

Antifoam process aids are developed to control the level of foam produced by wort in the kettle or fermenter. Too much foam can be detrimental to a microbrewery, as it effectively increases the volume needed to contain the brew. 

Foam is also responsible for a loss of proteins within the brewing process, by allowing them to be left on brewing surfaces once the foam has dissipated. This is also true of alpha-acids from hops. Less protein in the finished beer can affect the level of desired head retention once the beer is packaged.

Finings

Finings are used to clarify beer, removing proteins from suspension and leaving beer with a pin-bright, clear finish. There are many types of finings, used in different ways. For more information, head to our finings page. [LINK HERE]

Stabilisers

Some beers produce a haze after they have been packaged, and this might not be suitable depending on the style of beer you’ve brewed. Stabilisers are added to the brew either in the maturation tank, or just before the beer enters this stage, to inhibit haze-producing proteins by absorbing or neutralising them in solution. 

Stabilisers are completely insoluble, meaning they will not become part of your beer and can be filtered out once they have done their job.

Enzymes

Enzymes can be used in brewing to stabilise and reduce haze, and also to prolong shelf life once the beer is packaged. Their usefulness doesn’t just stop there, however. Enzymes can be used to target a number of issues in the brewing process, and companies like Murphy & Sons have developed specific enzyme products to make brewing more efficient and encourage brewing ingredients to be more effective.

Off flavours, extraction, head retention, the performance of your fining additions, even the level of fermentable sugars are all issues that can be corrected, or at least improved, by adding the right enzymes to your brew. They can aid mashing in by reducing the viscosity of your mash, and improve the conversion of starch to fermentable sugars. Enzymes can also be used to control chill-haze in packaged beer. Once you unlock the power of enzymes, you’ll never look back!

Antioxidants

In a world of so-called miracle drinks and superfoods, we’ll forgive you for thinking that adding antioxidants to your beer might somehow make it healthy or good for you. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. But there are still good reasons to use antioxidants in your microbrewery!

Have you had issues with your beer losing its bright colour after packaging, and oxidising into a dull, brownish colour? Antioxidants can help with that. They can also help improve and stabilise the flavour profile of your beer, particularly if your recipe has a lot of fresh or dry hop inclusions or a bold malty flavour. It can help slow and even halt the oxidation of those polyphenols and lipids by basically blocking oxygen within the solution, stopping your beer from prematurely going stale. 

Looking for advice on developing the perfect combination of process aids for your microbrewery? Get in touch with our team of professional brewers today. 

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