Job Descriptions - Definitions - Career Fields: Brewer

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Brewer

The modern brewing industry is a highly sophisticated one and you would need an aptitude for science and technology, a responsible and dedicated attitude, the ability to work accurately and make good decisions and be able to work on your own.
Most brewers were practical chemists, biochemists or microbiologists before they became brewers.

The raw materials used to make beer include malt, (barley), maize, sorghum grass, hops, yeast and water. Barley is the one of the world's largest food crops but very little of it is actually eaten. In Europe, barley is the major raw material for beer of which 15,5 thousand million gallons (700 million hectolitres), are drunk every year. In order to turn barley into beer, harvested barley grains are moistened with water and allowed to germinate until they sprout. This sprouted barley is called malt and it is dried for later use. Modern breweries buy this malt, soak it in water (the mashing process) before extracting the liquid which is called wort. This liquid wort is boiled with hops, cooled and selected strains of yeast are added. For ale, the brew is fermented at 20 to 27 degrees Centigrade for two to six days. Temperatures of 10-15 degrees Centigrade are used for lager which requires a lower temperature in order to grow. At the end of the fermentation period, the beer is filtered or spun in a cylinder called a centrifuge which removes the yeast cells. It is then pasteurised by heating to give it a longer life and casket, bottled or canned. Beer usually contains 85-93 % water, a small percentage of sugar, 2-10% alcohol and some minerals and B vitamins.

Cloudy, unfiltered beers like those made from other cereals such as maize and sorghum grass in Africa contain higher levels of B vitamins that can save people on poor diets from contracting nutrient-deficiency diseases such as pellagra.

Quality Control starts at the raw material stage and continues through the entire production process with scrupulous chemical and microbiological analyses. Before the beer is bottled, canned or kegged and packed, you would have to ensure that it was of the best quality. Your working environment would be very hygienic but a little smelly at first until you grew accustomed to the odour of the ingredients. Most of the modern machines are fully automated and each one would have a trained staff member to monitor its efficiency. Your task would be to make sure that high standards of brewing are maintained at all times.

Training involves general analytical work and microbiology. You would also be taught to taste beer professionally before learning about quality control in the brewing and packaging departments. This would be followed by a training in manpower management, budgeting and control, packaging, warehousing and distribution.

In the Research Department, you would be looking for ways to improve the product and the testing methods.

* Brewing Consultancy:

Highly experienced brewers would advise you on process, plant and quality issues. Extensive in-company experience is needed for this position.

* Chemistry:
This consists of a quality assurance group that offer analytical and auditing services to breweries, a gas chromatography group and a general analytical staff responsible for updating and developing analytical methods.

* Biochemistry Section:
In this section, different groups develop new methods, screen varieties and measure the quality of barley, malt and hops.

* Process Innovation:
The people in this field work at producing a beer more economically without effecting quality.

* Microbiology:
A yeast technology and a yeast research group all provide various services to the Breweries.


Career Fields


Science and Technology      
 
 



 
 

Courtesy: CareerExpo

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