Back to Basics!

Sadly, many people really do not understand just what beer actually is or what goes into making it. If you’re a frequent drinker of certain "beer" products, you might assume that horse urine mixed with more water is the key combination- I can assure you that it is not!

So let’s start back to the basics of what beer is. Beer, in its most basic form, is comprised of 4 ingredients: water, barely, hops, and yeast. In fact, the often acclaimed German “Reinheitsgebot” of 1516 at one time limited any beer in Germany to only those 4 ingredients. While laudable in theory, such a law greatly hinders artistic creativity in producing many beers- such as a spiced holiday ale or a fruit infused Belgian Wit. So let’s take a closer look at some of those main ingredients.

Water

While one might think water is water, this is far from the truth for a number of brews. For instance, want to mimic that great Pilsner you had in southwest Germany (cough Tannenzäpfle cough)? You better have some extremely soft water to get the correct mouth feel and hop interaction. In general for brewing, a good spring water will do just fine (read: NO distilled water- it lacks many minerals needed for proper taste and reactions).

Barley

From your standard 6 row used *somewhat* in Budweiser to the better 2 row barley, this grain plays a vital role in the production of beer. To understand their role, we have to understand a simplified fermentation process:

Fermentation is the process of yeast cells essentially feeding on sugars and pooping out alcohol and farting out carbon dioxide (C02). 

Now, to get those sugars, we have to utilize grains and get fermentable sugars from those grains. This can be done in many ways, from purely extraction to a full all grain mash- theories we’ll get into in another post.

So, sugars extracted from the grains give us the base needed for fermentation to occur, but they do so much more. Ever wonder why those stouts are so dark or those rye ale’s so amber? It all comes down to the grain that is used. You lightest beers, such as American lagers, will used lightly colored barley (or other adjuncts such as corn or rice) to keep the body light, flavor light, and color light. Your dark Porters will utilize a grain that has been roasted for a period of time. Often these roasted grains themselves look like small coffee beans and in fact taste like coffee. Thus, many stouts or porters have a roasted, smoky, dark chocolate, or coffee type taste. You might think some voodoo magic happens to make those “big, dark, scary” beers, but it really is just what type of grain is used and in what combinations. Keep in mind that grains besides barely are used as well: rye, wheat, and many more.

Hops

 

The wonderful female flower that serves a multitude of purposes. Dating back to 8^th century BC, these flowers were used starting in roughly the 11^th century to both bitter and preserve beers. Before hops were cultivated for use, brewers often used a multitude of other herbs and flowers to flavor and preserve their beer. 

Hops serve typically two main purposes in modern brewing: to both add bitterness and aroma. You might ask, why is bitterness needed? Well, all of those sugars that we get from the grains in beer make for a sweet, sugary beverage. To balance out this sweetness, hops are utilized to give a more symmetrical flavor. Depending on which hops are used and at what intervals, a topic we’ll discuss further in the blog, the hops will either add bitter flavor or hop aroma or both. There are dozens of hops all around the world, with Germany, the U.S., and the U.K. producing the most. We will dedicate an entire post to hop varieties in the future, but this should get you started.

Yeast

Last, but certainly not least, is what we call the fighter. Yeasts are micro-organisms used to ferment those sugars into alcohol and CO2. There isn’t just “yeast”, but literally thousands of different strands- all individually affected by their surroundings, geography, and other factors. 

There are two main types of yeast: bottom feeders (lager) and top feeders (ale). Lager yeasts (Saccharomyces Uvarum) are slow but diligent workers that like to do their work in colder temperatures around 40-55 degrees for initial fermentation- a period that typically lasts longer than Ale fermentation. Then, these beers must be “lagered” or stored at cool temperatures in the 30’s for a determined amount of time for further processing. Lager beers often have a clean, crisp quality about them often from the yeast and lager time utilized.

Ale yeasts (Saccharomyces cervisiae) on the other hand like to work at temperatures anywhere from 60-85 degrees, hence why the first beers in the world (and most) are “ales”. The important thing to remember is that the strain of yeast is just as important as the grains and hops used in terms of determining the flavor and aroma profile. Ale yeasts are often more robust in terms of flavors and aromas, not to mention they are easier to brew for most beginner or intermediate brewers who lack fermentation temperature control mechanisms. 

So, we now should have a basic understanding of the four main items needed to make a beer: water, barley, hops, and yeast. We will dedicate future posts to much further examination of each of those areas, but the standard information provided should give you a roadmap to understand both drinking and making beer. 

Stay tuned for our next post in which we’ll walk you step-by-step through our latest beer creation, an American Brown Ale. This is an extremely easy beer to make, and with a few pieces of equipment (which we will also cover), you can make this beer in 1-2 hours and be drinking it in 3-4 weeks! Thanks for stopping by, and as always: support a homebrewer or craft brewer if you’re out and about this weekend having a pint!