/. Inst. Brew., September-October, 1975, Vol. 81, pp.

375-380 375

ASPECTS OF ADJUNCT FERMENTATION

I. ANALYSES OF BEERS

By J. R. A. Pollock and M. J. Weir

(Pollock and Pool, Ladbroke Close, Woodley, Reading RC5 4DX)

Received 21 February 1975

The separate fermentation of malt wort and a carbohydrate solution (the adjunct
fermentation process) is discussed in relation to factors which have to be taken
into account when calculating the volumes of malt and adjunct worts which are to
be fermented and to effects of this method of making beer on various aspects of
beer analysis. These effects indicate that a beer of desired original gravity can be
made by use of the adjunct fermentation process from about 1% less raw material
than when conventional methods are used, and that the additional degree of
freedom which the adjunct fermentation process introduces can be turned to
account in making easier a precise control of beer analyses and in optimizing the
malt: adjunct ratio to make products of desired type.

Key words: adjunct, analysis, beer, fermentation Ideal gravities for the all-malt and adjunct worts.—
In general, one of the desiderata is to make, by the
Introduction adjunct fermentation process, a beer having a specified
original gravity, say p° Plato, and to achieve this by
In 1973, Pollock & Weir1 described the volatile sub
using a malt: adjunct ratio identical with that which
stances present in, and the flavours of, beers which
is used to make a conventional beer (say m% of
were made by fermenting an all-malt wort and,
malt and 100-m% of adjunct on a dry basis). The
separately, a so-called "adjunct wort" prepared by
possibility exists of varying the gravity of the all-
diluting a carbohydrate syrup derived from the
malt wort M°P and of the adjunct wort A°P indepen
hydrolysis of starch, and blending the resulting beers
so as to obtain products similar to or identical with
dently; and it is desired to have the largest possible
volume of adjunct wort.
those produced by the fermentation of worts pre
In these circumstances, assuming that the original
pared, as in the conventional procedure, by mashing
gravities of the derived beers are the same as those
malt and adjunct together. The process has obvious
of the worts from which they are made, that the
advantages, especially in lager breweries, because the
yield of extract from the malt is e%, and that the
beer produced from the adjunct wort does not need
volume of adjunct wort to be made is Va% of the
to be stored for precipitation of haze substances,
total volume of the final beer, then for every unit
jS-glucans, and general maturation, as it does not
contain these precipitable materials; consequently, weight of total raw material (dry basis), t^ is
there should be a major saving in capital cost of a
new brewery when this method is used, and it malt. The extract from malt will therefore be
can be used to expand considerably the output of an e m

existing lager brewery. lob x loo'

The effects of these advantages are discussed in In the case where the adjunct is a water-soluble
later papers. The present paper is concerned with the carbohydrate preparation the weight of extract it
general aspects of the process and with the general provides will be
chemical analysis of beers made in this way. 100-m
The following factors have been considered:
100
ideal original gravities for the all-malt beers and for
The total extract present will therefore be
the adjunct beers;
ideal fermentability levels in the adjunct beers; 100-m(l - jgg)
calculated original gravities of the all-malt beers, e m 100 — m
adjunct beers and blended beers, and the comparison Too x Ioo+ 1000 100
of these with the corresponding wort gravities;
soluble nitrogen and a-amino nitrogen contents of We consider the case in which it is desired to
the various beers. make 1 hi of beer of original gravity p° Plato.
376 POLLOCK AND WEIR: ADJUNCT FERMENTATIONS—ANALYSES [J. Inst. Brew.

The extract contained in the worts used to make this from which, for a given malt-adjunct ratio and
should be d0 p kg, where do is the specific gravity of specified malt wort gravity and desired original
the wort having a specific gravity equal to the gravity of the final beer, the proportion by volume
original gravity of the final beer. and the necessary specific gravity of the adjunct
Of this malt provides wort can be read off.

e m
Fermentability requirements in adjunct worts.—
ioo X 100 x dop In the case where an existing beer is to be made by a
100 -m(l - method involving a change of procedure form the
"lOO* conventional method to adjunct fermentation, the
100 fermentabilities of the all-malt wort and that of the
adjunct wort, as well as their gravities, determine
emdoP the alcohol content of the final beer. When the
ka
adjunct is a sugar preparation which, conventionally,
is added to the copper, separate fermentation of a
solution of the adjunct and of the all-malt wort will
give the normal content of alcohol. When the
and the adjunct provides adjunct is a cereal preparation which, convention
ally, is mashed with the malt, the fermentability
100-m
of the carbohydrates produced when the adjunct is
100 present has to be compared with that of an all-malt
(100-- m) dop wort so as to determine what should be the fermenta
Kg. bility of the adjunct wort to retain normal levels of
e
100 100-m alcohol and dextrins. It is difficult to find a specific
~ ~" ioo reference to this in the literature. The actual figures
100
will presumably be affected by the conditions which
are used for mashing. In experimental mashes, using
If d, and d, respectively are the specific gravities 70% of malt and 30% of maize (dry basis) in a
of the adjunct and all malt worts, the volumes of the mashing programme described in the experimental
two worts, Va and Vm respectively, required to make section, the fermentabilities of the worts were
1 hi of final beer, are given by found to be as follows:
% fermentability
=| hL Wort from malt + adjunct
100 d,M -m(l_ JL)J mashed together 79-8
All malt wort 80-1
and From these results, it appears that in this case the
Va = 1 - Vm = fermentability of the carbohydrates derived from
the adjunct did not differ greatly from that of the
1 -" hi. substances arising from the malt itself. The adjunct
wort, if used separately from the malt wort, may thus
in this case have a similar fermentability to that of
an all-malt wort, given use of a conventional mashing
dpP (100 - m) programme. It would, of course, be possible also to
Since, also, Va
adjust the mashing conditions in the all-malt mash
100 d^UOO - m (100 - ^ so as to reduce the fermentability of the resulting
wort and thus allow a more fermentable adjunct to
be used; however, it is in principle better to use a
dop (100 — m) highly fermentable all-malt wort with a less ferment
d,A
able adjunct wort because a high concentration of
alcohol in the fermented all-malt product favours
such changes as precipitation of protein-tannin
From these relations, it can be seen that the complexes, jS-glucans, etc., which are important in
gravity of the adjunct wort is fixed by the gravity of the all-malt part of the final beer.
the desired blend and that of the all-malt wort,
and by the desired proportion of the total raw Original Gravity.—Because no growth of yeast
materials which adjunct provides. The relationships occurs during the fermentation of adjunct worts,
can be expressed as the curves shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the original gravity of a fermented wort of such a
Vol. 81,1975] POLLOCK AND WEIR: ADJUNCT FERMENTATIONS—ANALYSES 377

18 18

m,60
m,70 .m,50 ™ m'60
m,70. ^ \m,50
\

\
\

16 16

14 14

p,13% p,12%

lit I lit ■ ■ i i t ■ i

9 11 13 9 11 13

A% A%

18 18
m,60
n,50
m,50
m,70

16

14 14

P,10%

11 13 11 13

A% A%
Fig. 1. Gravities (A) of adjunct worts in relation to gravity of malt wort (M), malt percentage of grist (m) and
original gravity of final beer (p).

kind, as calculated from its alcohol content and that in this system there is, overall, less growth of
residual extract, would be expected to be slightly yeast than in the conventional process as a result
different from its actual original gravity. To establish of the fact that growth is possible only in the
the magnitude of any such effect, adjunct worts volume of the all-malt wort, and that the relatively
were fermented at a series of actual original gravities limited volume of this limits yeast growth because
and the original gravities were calculated from the the oxygen available is in turn controlled by the
alcohol content and residual extract of the derived volume of the wort (see Schaus2). The general effect
beers. The results (Fig. 3) showed that in fact a here is that, when it is required to make a beer of a
regularly high level of original gravity was found in given original gravity, about 1 % less raw material is
the beers from adjunct worts. The excess amounted required when adjunct fermentation is involved than
on average to 4%. No such effect, of course, was when conventional procedures are adopted.
observed with the all-malt worts, so that there was a
small excess of original gravity (Fig. 4) in the final Effects on soluble nitrogenous compounds.—For
blended beers made by mixing a fermented all-malt a series of beers made by the adjunct fermentation
made at 16°P (1064°) and a fermented adjunct wort process, the soluble nitrogenous substances remaining
of 9°P(1036). The effect is no doubt due to the fact in the beers were estimated, with the results shown
378 POLLOCK AND WEIR: ADJUNCT FERMENTATIONS—ANALYSES [J. Inst. Brew.

.m,70 m,60 m,50

m,60
m,70
m,50
18 18

14 14

04 06 0-4 06
V.

m,70 m,60 m,50

18 18

12 12

0-4 0-4

Fig. 2. Volumes (Va) of adjunct worts as influenced by gravity of malt wort (M), malt percentage of gristj(m) and
original gravity of final beer (p).

in Fig. 5. There was a clear tendency for these beers to beer made with 13% of adjunct. The increased
have higher concentrations of these substances than quantity of nitrogenous substances does not appear
did beers made by the conventional process. This to affect the flavour of the beer and it may equally
is, no doubt, as with the effect on original gravity, be true that their removal by increasing the propor
because of the small amount of yeast growth which tion of adjunct used would lead to beers of quality
occurs in the process examined: that this is so is also similar to those of conventional beers of the
further supported by the similar effects which the same soluble nitrogen content. This aspect merits
process has on levels of a-amino nitrogen, as shown further study. It is interesting, for instance, that a
in Fig. 6. In this respect, therefore, beers made by beer having a soluble nitrogen analysis similar to
this process have analyses which are like those of that of an all-malt beer could be made using about
beers in which less adjunct was used than was 20% of adjunct if this process were used.
actually the case. Thus, a beer made with 40% of
adjunct by the adjunct fermentation process would
have a soluble nitrogen content similar to one made Experimental
conventionally with 29% of adjunct, and an a-amino Pale ale worts of average analysis were used to
nitrogen content similar to that of a conventional prepare malt worts. Adjunct worts were made by
Vol. 81,1975] POLLOCK AND WEIR: ADJUNCT FERMENTATIONS—ANALYSES 379

1050
1055

1030 1050
1055

Actual

1030 1050 Fig. 4. Original gravities of a series of beers made by

conventional fermentation (-O-O-) or separate
OG beer
adjunct fermentation (-#-©-):
_ _ actual, as deter
Fig. 3. Original gravities of fermented adjunct solutions mined by the standard method; theoretical,
(OG beer,") as compared with specific gravities of predicted from the specific gravities of the consti
tuent worts.
the worts from which they were made (SO wort,").

diluting with water a corn syrup having a carbo

hydrate composition as follows:
%(asis)
Glucose 31-5
Maltose 24
Maltotriose 6-5
Unfermentable carbohydrate 18 600

In order to compare the fermentabilities of an

all malt wort and a wort made from 70% malt
and 30% maize, worts were prepared using the
following mashing conditions:
500
(a) For preparing malt worts.—75 g of pale ale
malt was mashed into 200 ml of water at 37°C and
the temperature was increased to 47°C in lOmin
and held at this temperature for a further 10 min.
The temperature of the mash was then increased to
50°C in 5 min and held at this temperature for 400

20 min. A further temperature increase was made

to 65°C in 15 min and the mash held at 65°C for
30 min, at which point an additional 100 ml of
liquor was added. Finally, the temperature was
increased to 76°C in 10 min and held at this tempera
10 30 SO
ture for 10 min, before cooling to 20°C, adding
distilled water to make up to a weight of 450 g and a%
separating the wort.
Fig. 5. Total soluble nitrogen (TSN, mg/1) in beer as
(b) When maize was incorporated into the mash influenced by adjunct percentage (a) for conven
it was treated as follows: tional fermentation (-©-#-) and separate fer
mentation of adjunct (-O-O-). Final beers were
(/) Maize Mash.—2A g maize grits + 1 g of ground at original gravities of 13°P and the separately
pale ale malt was mashed into 100 ml of water at fermented malt wort was fermented also at 13°P.
380 POLLOCK AND WEIR: ADJUNCT FERMENTATIONS—ANALYSES [J. lust. Brew.

of cold water and added to a malt mash when this

had also reached 65°C during the temperature-
programme mash described below.
(i?) Malt Mash.—50 g of pale ale malt was
mashed with 100 ml of water at a temperature of
37°C. The mash was treated in a similar way to that
described under (a) above, until the temperature
reached 65°C, when the maize mash was added.
The temperature programme used until the mash
was completed was as described under (a) above.
Original gravities, soluble nitrogen and a-amino
nitrogen were determined according to the Recom
mended Methods of the Institute of Brewing.
40 Fermentations were conducted at 18°C on a
4-5-litre scale with a strain of Saccharomyces
cerevisiae which fermented maltotriosc. All fermenta
tions were conducted under anaerobic conditions
using water traps. For malt worts, the pitching rate
was 1 lb per barrel (280 g per hi) and adjunct worts
were pitched at the rate of 2800 g per hi. Fermenting
10 30 50 adjunct worts were stirred magnetically. For malt
or malt/adjunct worts, fermentation was continued
a%
until the gravity was within 0*5°P of the limiting
Fig. 6. a-Amino nitrogen (a-N, mg/1) in beer as attenuation gravity. With the adjunct worts, a period
influenced by adjunct percentage (a) for con of 48 h was allowed for the stirred fermentations: in
ventional fermentation (-#-#-) and separate all these cases the final gravity was within 0-25°P
fermentation of adjunct (-O-O-). Final beers
of the limiting attenuation gravity. At the end of
were at original gravities of 13°P and the separately
fermented malt wort was fermented also at 13°P. fennentation the yeast was allowed to settle and the
beer was decanted and filtered. Beers were then
blended as appropriate.
65°C and this temperature was maintained for
10 min. The temperature was raised to 76°C in a
References
10 min period and held for a further 10 min at this
temperature and then increased to 100°C in IS min 1. Pollock, J. R. A., & Weir, M. J., Proceedings of the
American Society of Brewing Chemists, 1973, 1.
and maintained at 100°C for an additional IS min. 2. Schaus, O. O., Technical Quarterly of the Master
The mash was then cooled to 65°C by the addition Brewers Association of America, 1971, 8 (1), 7.