Brewing

Abstract

When the Royal Society of Edinburgh was founded, the art of beer brewing had already been practised for well ov,er five thousand years, initially in Mesopotamia, then in Egypt and, for the last two millennia, in Continental Europe and in Britain. The procedures used were —and still are —essentially simple. First, barley is malted by growing the grain to allow it to form an assortment of enzymes, some of which, particularly the proteinases and β-glucanases, gradually free the starch granules of the endosperm from their enclosing organic matrix. The enzyme-amylase is also synthesised during malting and, though it has a limited action on the starch in the intact grain, it assumes major importance later during mashing. As a result of the enzymic activity during malting, the endosperm becomes friable instead of tough and the germinated barley, now known as malt, is kiln-dried so that it can be safely stored.