When it comes to beer brewing, after the mash is finished, the mash must be separated into solids and liquids as quickly as possible. Usually, breweries refer to this process as lautering. The necessity of this process is that if the polyphenols in the spent grains are soaked for a long time, they will bring a bitter taste and a unique flavor of wheat bran to the wort and increase the wort’s color. By separating the solids in the mash in time, the brewery can obtain clear and transparent high-quality wort. Such wort quality improves the utilization rate of raw materials and lays a good foundation for the subsequent beer brewing process.
The lauter tun method is the lautering process method mostly used by breweries. It is a traditional method with simple operation and easy control of wort quality. In recent years, the modern lauter tun developed on the basis of the traditional lauter tun has made great improvements in equipment level and process operation, which can well meet the needs of modern beer production.
In the wort preparation process, the lautering process is a time-consuming brewing process link that has a decisive influence on the wort yield and quality. Tiantai aims to provide breweries with a set of efficient and reliable wort lautering process solutions. Therefore, according to the entire process flow, a professional and efficient lauter tun is designed to shorten the lautering process time of each batch of wort in the brewery as much as possible, thereby increasing the number of daily mashes.
Tiantai’s lauter tun is equipped with a variable speed rake and a wedge wire false bottom, which greatly improves the efficiency of the lautering process and helps breweries achieve efficient production.
The side of the equipment is equipped with a spent grain door with a glass observation port so that the operator can conveniently and intuitively monitor the slag layer and the entire lautering process to ensure the smooth progress of the lautering process.
At the bottom, the lauter tun is equipped with a spent grain discharge, which can realize the function of automatic slag discharge. At the same time, a wort collection circle is also installed at the bottom, and its conical outlet design can make the wort flow rate smooth, effectively avoiding the occurrence of extraction. The multi-point wort collection design ensures the uniformity of the wort flow rate, while the application of the wort collection circle ensures that no oxygen enters during the entire collection process, thereby maintaining the quality of the wort.
During the lautering process, breweries need to consider a variety of factors to eliminate or mitigate adverse effects and ensure the effective separation of wort and spent grains. The following are some key factors sorted out by Tiantai, their impact on the efficiency of the lautering process, and corresponding optimization suggestions:
- High-quality malt has good solubility and moderate crushing, which can speed up the lautering process of wort. Conversely, poor-quality malt will lead to a slow lautering process.
- The higher the concentration of the mash, the greater its viscosity, which will reduce the fluidity of the wort and thus slow down the lautering process. Therefore, it is necessary to reasonably control the material-water ratio to ensure that the concentration of the first wort is between 16 and 18°P and avoid exceeding 20°P.
- Higher temperatures can reduce the viscosity of the wort and make the spent grains layer looser, thereby increasing the lautering process speed. Usually, we control the temperature of the lautering process between 76 and 78℃ and pay attention to keeping the temperature stable during the lautering process.
- The appropriate thickness of the spent grain layer helps to improve the efficiency of the lautering process. Generally speaking, the thickness of the spent grain layer of 30 to 40 cm is ideal, and should not exceed 45 cm. A too thick spent grain layer will reduce the speed of the lautering process, while a too thin spent grain layer will make it difficult to ensure the clarity of the wort.
- The pH value of the mash will affect the viscosity of the mash and the dehydration and swelling of the spent grain colloidal substances. The pH value range that is most conducive to the lautering process is 5.5 to 5.8. Beyond this range, the speed of the lautering process will decrease with the increase of the pH value.
- The operating skills of the production staff have an important impact on the speed of the wort lautering process. Therefore, the brewery should cultivate employees’ standardized brewing operation habits, including reasonable control of the wort outflow rate, appropriate reflux time, top-down lees cultivation method, timely top water loosening of the spent grain layer, and reasonable lees washing process.
In short, mastering these key factors is the key to improving the efficiency of the wort lautering process and ensuring the quality of beer. Tiantai not only provides a full set of beer production equipment and services for craft breweries and scientific research institutions of all sizes but also focuses on the research and development and manufacturing of high-quality fruit wine, distillation, rice wine, and biological fermentation equipment, realizing a multi-field development business model centered on brewing technology. Choosing Tiantai means choosing professionalism and quality!
