Here at the Beer Store we love our beers. What isn’t there to love about beer? With so many styles on the market there is sure to be a beer that appeals to you... the trick is to find that beer! It’s a full-time job for many of us and a great social experience for others.
To fully appreciate beer we must first look at how beer is made. We will run through a few aspects of the history of beer, the brewing process, different styles of beer, and terminology.
What is beer?
By definition, beer is any fermented beverage brewed with a cereal grain.
Note: Although not typically known as a beer, popular Japanese rice wine, Sake, also falls under this category.
What are the ingredients?
There are four main ingredients in beer, each playing a very important part in the production of beer. The brewer goes about creating a beer much the same way a chef goes about making a fine cuisine.
The four ingredients are:
Grain: Beer is usually made from barley, wheat or rice. The grain is soaked, allowed to ferment, and then dried. At this point, it is referred to as malt--dark malt is produced by drying the grain quickly at high temperatures, and pale malt is made by gently roasting the grain.
Hops: The so called “seasoning” of the beer. The longer the hops are in the beer, the more the beverage will take on their characteristics (or the more "hoppy" the beer will become). Well hopped beers taste distinctly herbal, and not sharply bitter.
Water: Basic H20, but the quality of the water impacts greatly the quality of the resulting beverage.
Yeast: As any baker will tell you, there's a number of yeast varieties each having their own characteristics. Without going into great detail here, remember this fact and that the type of yeast used determines if the beer is considered an ale or lager.
Lagers and Ales?
Most beers can be categorized as a lager or ale, which are roughly the equivalent of red and white wine:
Lager: A lager, roughly analogous to white wine, is generally lighter in color, body and taste. You'll also hear beer types talk of Pilsner and bock styles, which are included in the lager family. Lagers are bottom fermenting beers.
Ales: Darker and more robust, typically with a more complex flavor profile which for the sake of discussion we'll consider as the equivalent of red wine. Stouts and wheat beers are members of this family. Ales are top fermenting beers.
The two distinct families of beers can be subdivided into many smaller families.
How is beer made?
Beer making dates back to 5,000 BC when yeast was first discovered in a sugar-water mixture. The yeast consumes the sugar for its own energy and growth, and the primary byproducts are ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. Wine is made when yeast consumes the natural sugars in fruit such as grapes, and beer is made when yeast consumes the sugar derived from grain. The naturally occurring starch found in grain must be converted into sugar before yeast can consume it. This, beer making is a more complex art than wine making.
The process of beer making can be broken into two separate processes – malting and brewing.
Malting: Malting is the processing and preparation of grains for brewing and is rather complex. It begins by soaking grain in water long enough to begin germination (or sprouting). The grain is then heated in a kiln (large oven), which arrests germination, and retains some sugar for the brewing process. The malts will develop a different flavour and colour depending on the temperature of the roasting. These differences will be reflected in the qualities of the different beers.
Brewing: The malt grains are first crushed so that they will dissolve easily in water. Hot water is added ad slowly increased. This mixture is called the “mash”. This water extracts the fermentable sugars from the spent grain. The malt soaks in the water until all the sugar has been extracted – known as “mashing”. The porridge like mix is then filtered to separate the liquid from the spent grain. At this stage, the liquid becomes the “wort” and the residue becomes the “daff” – a by-product of the process and often used for cattle feed or in Australia’s very popular, Vegemite. Hot water is usually added two or three times, then the mixture is filtered to extract as much sugar as possible.
The wort is then transferred to boiling vats, where the critical stage of “boiling” occurs. At the stages, aromatic flavours and hops are added which affect the colour, flavour and aroma of the beer. Hops give bitterness to the beer to usually offset the sweetness of the wort. Sugar is also added at this stage. Depending on the type and quantity of sugar, a hundred different varieties of beer can be obtained. The heating process sterilizes the wort by killing off the enzymes. When the boil is completed, the wort is transferred to a heater exchange to cool it down to its preferred temperature for the yeast that is being used.
As the wort exits the heat exchange, it goes into a fermenter where yeast is added to the cold wort. This converts the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The type of yeast used during this fermentation, determines whether the beer is an ale or a lager and the taste of the beer.
The final stage involves giving the beer a personal touch. Many brewers add different substances to their beer to give it a characteristic flavour. Like the Colonel Sander’s Chicken, these are generally protected by trade secrecy. We do know, however, that they may include real fruit, spices, different sugars, honey, etc.
Once the beer has fermented, the beer still has to mature. Depending on the type of beer, this maturation or secondary fermentation process can be between one week and several months (sometimes even a year or more). During the secondary fermentation, the yeast precipitates out of suspension, carbonation develops, and the beer matures. The beer is then filtered, except for beers that undergo secondary fermentation in the bottle (as in Trappist beers), to make the beer bright and clear.
And that is how we come to enjoy our beer...