Studies On Applications Of Silica Gel In Beer Brewing

There are mainly imported silica gels used in the brewery in China now. The production cost is high. An evaluation system of quality of silica gels, the effect of silica gels on beer brewing process and quality, and the proper application technology were studied.The effects of using silica gels on the non biological stability, filtration property and foam stability of beer were studied. The coefficient AI of gel application was introduced to evaluate the quality of silica gel.Three kinds of imported silica gels and domestic silica gel (MT-B 300) were studied. The results showed that, compared with imported silica gel 1 and silica gel 3, MT-B 300 also had the obvious effect on improving the non biological stability of beer. However, the selectivity adsorption ability of sensitive proteins of MT-B 300 was a little inferior to the silica gel 1 and 3. Through evaluation of AI, MT-B 300 had good brewing performance to improve the non biological stability of beer. The production cost of using silica gel was cut down.The effect of pH, alcohol content, adsorption time and adsorption temperature on adsorption property of silica gels were studied. The results showed that, temperature had little effect on the adsorption property of silica gel. The most suitable pH for silica gel was between 3.0 and 4.0. The suitable alcohol content for silica gel adsorption was between 2.5% and 3.0%. The adsorption action could be completed within 10 min. The suitable adding time of silica gel was found as during beer transferring and filtration process. It showed that the same effect could be achieved by these two methods.