INTRODUCTION

Few years ago a man encountered with jar containing honey and he tasted the honey and he came
across a very strange flavor and while his head started spinning and suddenly he started laughing and he
felt superior , the man then drank the same honey in the jar but he felt awful and experienced some
headache then felt dizzy followed by a very unpleasant taste , that was when alcohol was discovered
but it was the discovered by chance thus the discovery led to the formation of beer industries and that
was when scientists started to research on what really causes the fermentation process and all the
mechanisms used in the process of fermentation.

Over years people started to make alcoholic beverages through fruits e.g. production of wine from
grapes and beer from malted barley but during that time , people only knew that leaving these fruits or
grains in a covered container alcoholic beverages will be produced without any knowledge on how these
come to pass , they later chose to name this process fermentation from a Latin word which meant to
boil because of the fact that this process crushed all the grains and fruits they added in vessels and
produced bubbles which appeared like they were boiling but at the same time they felt this process was
very tricky since alcohol will not be produced when the container was left for a short period of time and
again when the container stays for a longer period of time the beverage produced will not be drinkable
which made them notice that temperature and the exposure to air has something to do with the
fermentation process and also a certain microorganism caused the whole fermentation process but
could not be seen with a naked eye.

During the 7th century a scientist called Antoni van Leeuwenhoek inverted a lens which enabled him to
see the yeast microorganism and he made drawings and found out that they have different shapes
which include a spherical shape , globose or tetrahedral shape , in the 8 th century a chemist called
Lavoiser worked on the nature of fermentation of which he then analyzed the nomenclature of sugars
and he discovered that sugars are composed of charcoal , oxygen and hydrogen but he was mostly
interested in the analysis of how the sugar is converted to alcohol and CO2 gas and in his experiment he
measured the amount of sugar he added to the water the added yeast only to find out that 2/3 of the
sugar was converted to alcohol and 1/3 was then oxidized to form the carbon dioxide gas he further
discovered that this reaction can be reversed to form the sugar again but he wondered about the yeast
but he just assumed that it was still there it nothing changed in it.

A scientist named Pasteur decided to work on the work started by the French chemists and he also
proved that yeast convert glucose in to ethanol but the process takes place in the absence of the oxygen
and he called this process respiration without air , he also went and discover that there is more
complexity in the fermentation process than as it was discovered by Lavoiser because he discovered
other products which include glycerin and amyl alcohol thus proving that fermentation is an organic
process. In 1856 another scientist called Bigot sought had problems with his fermentation process when
he was trying to produce some ethanol from the fermentation of a beetroot instead of having the
ethanol as a products he had something which was sour and the taste was similar to that of milk , upon
the examination of the product he found out that it was lactic acid instead of alcohol but it still
contained a few amount of yeast and he later concluded that the alcoholic fermentation is caused by
yeast and the lactic acid fermentation is caused by bacteria.

The aim of this experiment is to ferment beer in the laboratory and calculate the amount of ethanol and
carbon dioxide that was obtained .
PROCEDURE
RESULTS
Discussion

Before starting the fermentation process, all the equipment which were to be used were sterilized using
an iodophor and the liquid was used time and again for as long as it contained the pungent smell thus
this protocol was also observed by ( ) who stated that sterilization before the fermentation process is
very essential as it a very good aspect of making a good beer because all the bacteria and fungus found
on the surface of containers will be destroyed and its usually applied on fermentation of prickles , beer
and yogurt because if not bacteria and fungus will accumulate and cause contamination. All the dry
ingredients( sugar mixture , malt and yeast) for lager beer were poured in a boiled water of which cold
water was later added to make 11.5L and temperature was at 25˚C and this allowed them to dissolve
quickly and this is in accordance to ( ) who further said that using boiled water has a lot of
importance which includes the fact that the dry ingredients will easily dissolve and also boiled water has
less chances of contamination ad it also allows the yeast cells added to be active and start converting
the sugar to ethanol and carbon dioxide.