Knowing beer productionEngland is a beer brewing country. Is the second beer producer of the world with 45 millions of beer hectoliters per year and the sixth world beer consumer. But one thing is loving and drinking beer and other knowing how it is made. Alex Brandon-Davies, brewer from The Leeds Brewery Company, where traditional beer is still produced, explains the whole process.

The blend is transferred to the third tank; the heat exchanger, where it will be cooled with cold water. The cooling before fermentation is the key to make possible the yeast growing, because it can’t grow in high temperatures. On the way to the fermentation room the wort is oxygenated.

The first thing to be known is the ingredients, in the case of Leeds Brewery they use: 95 % of tap water, British malted barley, hops and Yorkshire ale or lager yeast. Water is mixed with the barley in the mash tun during one hour. ‘It converts the cereals’ straches into sugars’ explains Alex.•

A non-alcoholic and non-bitter liquid is obtained from this first step. The mash goes to the kettle. Here is boiled with the hops. ‘This is the most important and interesting part of the process because the flavour and bitterness of the beer are determined at this point’ says the 28-year-old brewer.

• 6th world beer consumer

The blend is transferred to the third tank; the heat exchanger, where it will be cooled with cold water. The cooling before fermentation is the key to make possible the yeast growing, because it can’t grow in high temperatures. On the way to the fermentation room the wort is oxygenated.

‘We check beer’s density everyday. By measuring we find out how alcoholic and how strong it is’: says the Leeds brewer. The more it sinks, the more the density is reduced. At the beginning is very dense. The goal is obtaining a thin mash.

‘After the cooling, yeast is added to the wort in the fermentation room. The fermentation process begins and it will become alcoholic later on ’ explains Yorkshire brewer Alex Brandon-Davis. It remains in the tanks between 3 and 5 days, depending on the strenght of the beer.

‘We check beer’s density everyday with an hydrometer. By measuring it we find out how alcoholic and how strong it is’ says the Leeds brewer. The yeast eats the sugars in the wort producing alcohol which is less dense than water. That is the goal, reducing density to achieve a thin fermented wort.

‘The yeast is removed from the tank and put in the fridge for the next brew. It is reusable, we could say that it can be used infinite times’ explains Alex. The wort is conducted to a tank, covered with a cooling jacket, which will stop the fermentation and cool down the beer to 12º.

‘After fermentation, the beer is moved to the conditioning tank where it will mature during 48 hours. A second fermentation will take place in the racking casks’ says the brewer. During cask filling isinglass (swim bladder of sturgeon) is added to help the sedimentation of yeast in the cask.

‘To improve the beer’s clarity we add finings. This way the remaining yeast and any solid left in the beer will be removed and we will obtain the final product: clear, traditional and quality Leeds’ beer’: explains the 28-year-old brewer, who has been producing beer for more than 5 years.

Survey done to 50 people between 18-60Do you know how is beer made? YES 56% NO 44%Would you be able to explain the process to someone? 73% NO 27% YES