Prices are accurate at the time of publication. Beer is made with malted grains, hops, water, and yeast. Master1305/Shutterstock Beer is an alcoholic beverage made from barley, water, hops, and yeast.
Brewing is a complex process where the ingredients are combined and fermented to become alcoholic. Even small changes in the recipe can impact the color, aroma, and flavor of beer. From the first barley drinks fermented in the Fertile Crescent thousands of years ago to the remarkable array of styles brewed today, beer has retained its status as one of the most popular beverages across human history.
Although the process has been streamlined and industrialized over the years, beer is still made with the same ingredients and the same basic processes that were used a millenia ago. So how is beer actually made? We stopped by Firestone Walker Brewing Company and talked with their brewmaster, Matt Brynildson to get the lowdown on how to brew beer. What are the main ingredients of beer?Hops balance bitterness and ask as an antimicrobial ingredient in the beer making process.
Dylan Ettinger/Insider”Beer is basically liquid bread,” Brynildson says. “The same ingredients that go into good bread go into good beer. “Malt: Beer is made from fermented grains, primarily malted barley, or barley that has been partially germinated to aid the brewing process.
The malted barley provides the sugars that the yeast later converts into alcohol. Other grains, known as adjuncts, can also be used in addition to the barley. Hops: Hops is a flower from the Humulus Lupulus plant.
It’s added to beer because of its natural antimicrobial and stabilizing properties. “Hops help beer ferment cleanly,” Brynildson says. The addition of hops also contributes a balancing bitter flavor along with floral and fruity notes.
Water: Not only is water the main ingredient in beer, but it also helps to convert the starches in the grain into sugars. Yeast: Yeast is a living organism that feeds on sugar and converts it to alcohol and carbon dioxide. Different strains of yeast can also affect the flavor of the beer in different ways.
How is beer made? “Brewing beer is a beautiful mix of science and art,” Brynildson says. Taking barley, water, yeast, and hops and creating something delicious requires quite a bit of technical know-how, but here’s a quick overview of the most important steps in the brewing process:MaltingIn order for barley to be made into beer, it must first be malted. “The malting process renders the grain usable to the brewer,” Brynildson says.
“It’s basically taking a live seed, steeping it in water and tricking it into thinking it’s time to grow. ” The grain starts to ready itself to grow into a plant but the germination is then stopped by drying the barley. Malting helps to create the enzymes necessary to convert the starches present in the seeds into sugars.
Without malting, the beer would not have enough sugar content to properly ferment. MashingThe malted barley is crushed or milled and then soaked in warm water in order to create a sugar solution known as wort. Any other grains used in the brewing process are also added at this point.
Soaking the grains in warm water helps to further convert the starches into the sugars necessary for fermentation. “Wort is a perfect nutrient for yeast,” Brynildson says. After enough sugars have been extracted from the malt, the wort is separated from the solid grain.
BoilingThe wort is then moved to a copper pot and boiled. During boiling, some of the water in the wort evaporates, leaving behind a higher concentration of sugars. Boiling also helps to sterilize the mixture in preparation for fermentation.
“It sterilizes the wort, so when we add the yeast, there’s no microbiological competition for the yeast,” Brynildson says. Hops are added to the wort during this step. “Brewers figured out over time that if they added hops to the boil, you get a cleaner fermentation,” Brynildson says.
Hops act as an antimicrobial and also contribute to the flavor and character of the beer. Hops can be added at different times during the boil and in different quantities to change the flavor of the beer. FermentationAfter boiling, the solid hops and grain are removed, and the mixture is cooled.
The brewers then add yeast to this mixture. Fermenting with yeast is what makes beer alcoholic. “For every gram of sugar yeast consumes, it produces half a gram of alcohol and half a gram of carbon dioxide,” Brynildson says.
The time it takes to ferment a beer varies based on type of yeast and style of fermentation, but most beers take about a week to ferment. Different strains of yeast and different fermentation techniques determine what kind of beer is being made and how it will taste. For example, when making a lager, the yeast ferments at the bottom of the wort at a cooler temperature.
Ales are made with a different strain of yeast, and top fermented at warmer temperatures. After fermentation, the beer is then cooled again before bottling or canning. Additional ingredientsAdding fruit, chocolate, coconut, and other ingredients to beer has become a common brewing practice in the craft beer movement.
“In America, if it’s legal to put into food, you can put it in beer,” Brynildson says. Depending on the ingredient, the quantity, and the intended flavor, these additives are introduced to the brewing process at different points. Ingredients like fruit can be added during fermentation, but most ingredients are infused into the beer after brewing.
What differentiates types of beer?During the production process, the brewer can change their beer’s color and taste by adapting fermentation and ingredients. Dylan Ettinger/Getty ImagesAlthough all beer is made from the same basic ingredients, there are many different styles of beer that taste and look very different from each other. “There are many different levers that brewers can pull to change the flavor of the finished beer,” Brynildson says.
“Most of the differentiation lies in the recipe or the grain bill. ” Basically, making small changes to the ingredients and the base recipe has a dramatic effect on how the finished beer looks, tastes, and smells. Lagers vs alesAll beers fall into two broad categories: lagers and ales.
The type of beer is determined by differences in the fermentation process. Ales are top-fermented at room temperature, and lagers are bottom-fermented at a cooler temp. Lagers and ales have their differences, but even types of ale, like an IPA, porter, and stout, can taste and look dramatically different.
Stouts and portersIn the case of stouts and porters, the barley is roasted after the malting process. Roasting, or “kilning”, the barley gives these types of beer their trademark dark color along with flavor notes of chocolate, coffee, and vanilla. “For a stout you would use a higher portion of heavily roasted barley than you would in a pale ale,” Brynildson says.
IPAsIPAs use a lighter roasted grain than a stout and get their distinct flavor and aroma from the use of different amounts and different varieties of hops. “When I’m making our IPAs, I tend to use more pungent and intense hop cultivars at higher rates to get a lot of flavor,” Brynildson says. Through a process called dry hopping, where hops are added during fermentation, more of the hops aroma and flavor is infused into the beer, creating beers with complex aromas of pine, citrus, and fruit.
How is beer different from other types of alcohol?”Beer is defined by its ingredients,” Brynildson says. “The malted grain-based brewing process and the use of hops are unique to beer. “Unlike whiskey, which is made with many of the same core ingredients, beer is not distilled.
Distillation is the process of heating an alcoholic liquid and then condensing vapors into a more concentrated, higher ABV spirit. There are other non-distilled alcoholic beverages, like wine and cider, but beer is the only one made with malted barley and hops. Another thing that defines the spirit is its lower ABV when compared to spirits and wine.
“There’s a limit to the amount of alcohol you can get in a beer with a natural fermentation,” Brynildson says. Most beers top out at around 12% ABV, while distilled spirits generally get to 40% or higher. Insider’s takeaway Beer is a fermented alcoholic beverage, composed simply of grain, water, yeast, and hops.
By preparing those ingredients in different ways and by making small changes in the brewing process, brewers can make a wide variety of unique styles of beer. That simplicity and capacity for variation and innovation is why beer remains one of the most popular drinks in the world today. Read the original article on Insider.
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/guides/kitchen/how-is-beer-made
