Brewer Brewing Process & Techniques Flashcards
7 cards from real Master Brewer Certification practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Brewer Brewing Process & Techniques flashcards as text
What is the purpose of adding calcium sulfate (gypsum) to brewing water?
Answer: To accentuate hop bitterness and dryness by lowering mash pH
Calcium sulfate lowers mash pH, accentuates hop dryness and bitterness, and promotes yeast flocculation and beer clarity.
During fermentation, what is the Crabtree effect and how does it impact yeast metabolism?
Answer: Yeast preferentially produce ethanol even in aerobic conditions when glucose concentration is high
The Crabtree effect causes Saccharomyces cerevisiae to produce ethanol via fermentation even in the presence of oxygen when sugar concentrations are high.
What is the significance of the terminal gravity (FG) being higher than expected?
Answer: Suggests underattenuation, possibly from poor yeast health, low pitching rate, or a high percentage of unfermentable dextrins
Higher-than-expected FG indicates incomplete fermentation, which may result from unhealthy yeast, insufficient pitching rate, or a mash profile that produced too many unfermentable dextrins.
Which mash temperature range (°F) favors the production of more fermentable wort by favoring beta-amylase activity?
Answer: 149–153°F
Beta-amylase is most active at 149–153°F, cleaving maltose units from starch chains to produce highly fermentable wort.
What is the role of zinc in yeast nutrition during fermentation?
Answer: Zinc is a cofactor for alcohol dehydrogenase and other enzymes critical to yeast metabolism
Zinc is an essential micronutrient and enzyme cofactor for yeast, particularly for alcohol dehydrogenase, and deficiency leads to sluggish fermentation.
What does the term 'apparent attenuation' mean in brewing?
Answer: The percentage of extract consumed by yeast, calculated from hydrometer readings of OG and FG
Apparent attenuation is the percentage of the original gravity that appears to have been fermented, calculated as ((OG-FG)/OG)×100 using hydrometer SG readings.
What is the primary reason brewers perform a 90-minute boil for certain lager styles?
Answer: To drive off DMS (dimethyl sulfide) precursors from high-SMM lager malts
Lager malts contain higher levels of S-methylmethionine (SMM), the precursor to cooked-corn off-flavor DMS, requiring a longer boil and vigorous evaporation to volatilize it.
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