All About Beers

Beer is the generic term for all fermented beverages made from malted grain (usually barley), hops, and water.

Beer is the worlds oldest and most popular alcoholic beverage.

It is produced by the fermentation of sugars derived from starch-based material the most common being malted barley

The starch source is steep in water, along with certain enzymes, to produce sugary wort.

This is then flavored with herbs, fruit or most hops.

Yeast is then used to cause fermentation, which produces alcohol and other waste products from anaerobic respiration of the sugars.

Beer uses varying ingredients, production methods and traditions. The type of yeast and production method may be used to classify beer into ale, lager and spontaneously fermented beers.

Some beer writers and organizations differentiate and categorize beer by various factors into beer styles.

Alcohol beverages fermented from non-starch sources such as grape juice (wine) or honey (mead), and distilled beverages are not classified as beer.

History of Beer

Beer is known to have existed 7,000 or more years ago. Pottery from Mesopotamia dating back to 4200 B.C. depicts fermentation scenes and shows kings sipping their version of beer through gold tubes.

References to brewing have been found in hieroglyphics on walls of ancient caves in Egypt.

In the 3rd century B.C. in China, beer was known as Kin.

Even the Vikings made beer at sea in their war ships and drank it out of the horn of a cow.

In the middle ages, brewing was done in the home by the women who were known as brewsters.

On February 13, 1602, the father of bottled beer, Dr. Alexander Nowell, died. He was the first to put ale into a glass bottle and seat it with a cork. Dr. Alexander Nowell

Brewing:

Beer is made by brewing.

The essential stages of brewing are smashing, sparging, boiling, fermentation and packaging.

Most of these stages can be accomplished in several different ways, but the purpose of each stage is the same regardless of the method used to achieve it.

Mashing manipulates the temperature of a mixture of water and a starch source (known as mash) in order to convert starches to fermentable sugars.

The barley malt is ground into grist, which is fed into a container called mash tun along with hot water. Adjuncts usually corn or rice are precooked and added to the mash tun.

Everything is mixed and cooked together at low temperatures (up to 169 0F or 76 0C) for one to six hours. During this process the malt enzymes are activated and turn starches to sugar. The grain residue is strained out (sparging) and the remaining liquid now called wort is conveyed to the brew kettle.

Sparging (a.k.a lautering) extracts the fermentable liquid, known as wort, from the mash.

During sparging the mash is in a vessel known as a lauter tun, which has a porous barrier through which wort not grain can pass. The brewer allows the wort to flow past the porous barrier and collects the wort.

The brewer allows adds water to the lauter tun and lets it flow trough the mash and collects it as well. This rinses fermentable liquid from the grain in the mash and allows the brewer to gather as mush as fermentable liquid from the mash as possible.

The leftover grain is not further used in making beer.

Boiling (a.k.a. brewing) sterilizes the wort and increases the concentration of sugar in the wort.Brew kettle

Boiling the wort with hops this extracts the distinctively bitter hops flavor that makes beer taste like beer. In huge copper or stainless steel brew kettles, the wort-plus-hops is kept at a rolling boil for one to two and a half hours.

The boiling also sterilizes the wort and draws out antiseptic elements in the hops that protect beer from spoilage.

After brewing, the hops are strained out and the wort is cooled. At this point the techniques very according to whether a lager beer or an ale is being made.

For ales the wort is cooled to 500 to 700F (100 to 210C).

For lager beers it is chilled to 370 to 490F (30 to 100C).

Fermentation uses yeast to turn the sugars in wort to alcohol and carbon dioxide.

If a lager beer is being made, the yeast settles to the bottom. The yeasts for ales different strains that work at warmer temperatures rise to the surface and work from the top.

The usual fermentation time is a week or more a bit less for ales, a bit more for lagers. During fermentation the carbon dioxide being given off may be collected and stored under pressure, to be added again at a later stage.

Lagering storing or conditioning (from the German word lagern, to be stored) matures or ripens the beer, mellowing its flavor. Some further slow fermentation may also take place and impurities may settle out.

Lagering of beer takes place at near-freezing temperatures. It may last for several weeks to several months. Ales are ripened too, for a much shorter time at warmer temperatures.

Both beer and ale are matured in stainless-steel or glass-line tanks, in contrast to the wood casks in which spirits are aged. Wood casks spoil the beer taste.

Packaging, the final stage of the brewing process, prepares the beer for distribution and consumption.

During packaging, beer is put into the vessel from which it will be served a keg, bottle or can. Beer is carbonated in its package.

Kegs, or half-barrels containing 15 gallons, provide bar supplies of draft beer beer drawn from the tap into the glass.

Ingredients of Beer:

The basic ingredients of beer are water, a fermentable starch source, such as malted barley; and yeast. It is common for a flavoring to be added, the most popular being hops.

A mixture of starch sources may be used, with the secondary starch source, such as corn, rice and sugar, often being termed as adjunct, especially when used as a lower cost substitute for malted barley.

Malted barley before roasting. Malt is the soul of beer. Malt is barley, a cereal grain that has been soaked in water, germinated and then kilned. The amount of heat and water sprayed on the grain during malting also produces varying colors, with further roasting giving the deepest color and flavors. The blend of these types of malt give beers their color, body, and fermentable sugars.

Malt provide color to the beer.

Pale malt gives us golden beers. 100% pale malt is used in Light Lager.

The Pale Ale has pale malt and a little caramel, or roasted malt for its copper color. Pale caramel and chocolate, dark roasted malt, give the Brown Ale and Porter their distinctive deep brown appearance.

Water. Beer is composed mostly of water, and water used to make beer nearly always comes from a local source.

The mineral components of water are important to beer because minerals in water influence the character of beer made from it.

Water makes up 92-95% of each glass of beer.

Starch source. The starch source in a beer provides the fermentable material in a beer and is a key determinant of the character of the beer. The most common starch source used in beer is malted grain.

Grain is malted by soaking it in water, allowing it to begin germination, and then drying the partially germinated grain in a kiln. Malting grain produces enzymes that convert starches in the grain into fermentable sugars. Different roasting time and temperatures are used to produce different colors of malt from the same grain. Darker malts will produce darker beers.

Hops. If malt is the soul of beer, then hops are the spice.

Hops provide bitterness and aroma to beer.

Hops grow on vines, producing tiny flowers that look like soft pine cones. They are resinous and sticky. Once they are harvested and dried, they are vacuum packed as whole hops or hop pellets.

Add whole hops in cheesecloth bags to the cellar tanks to provide a more intense hop aroma. This process is called dry hopping. The flower of the hop vine is used as a flavoring and preservative agent in nearly all beer made today. The flower themselves are often called hops. Hops were used in beer by Jews in Babylon around 400 B.C. and by monastery breweries.

Hops contain several characteristics that brewers desire in beer, hops contribute a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt, hops also contribute flora, citrus, and herbal aromas and flavors to beer, hops have an antibiotic effect that favors the activity of brewers yeast over less desirable microorganisms, and the use of hops aids in head retention, the length of tie that a foamy head created by carbonation will last.

The bitterness of beers is measured on the International Bitterness Units scale. Beer is the sole major commercial use of hops.

Yeast. Is the microorganism that is responsible for fermentation in beer. Yeast metabolizes the sugars extracted from grains, which produces alcohol and carbon dioxide, and thereby turns wort into beer. In addition to fermenting the beer, yeast influences the character and flavor.

The dominant types of yeast used to make beer are ale yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisae) and lager yeast (Saccharomyces uvarum); their use distinguishes ale and lager. Saccharomyces cerevisae(Top-fermenting yeast ale beers)Saccharomyces uvarum(Bottom-fermenting yeast lager beers

Clarifying Agent. Some brewers add one or more clarifying agents to beer. Common examples of these include Isinglass finings, obtained from swim bladders of fish, kappa carrageenan, derived from seaweed; Irish moss, a type of red alga, polycar (artificial), and gelatin.kappa carrageenanIsinglass finingsIrish moss

Types and Styles of Beer

The traditional European brewing regions Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, The Netherlands and Australia have local varieties of beer.

In dome countries, notably the USA, Canada, and Australia, brewers have adapted European styles to such an extent that they have effectively created their own indigenous types.

Beers divide into two major classes:lager beers and ales.

A lager beer is fermented by yeast (Saccharomyces uvarum) at the bottom of a cold tank at 370 to 490F (30 to 90C), a process called quite logically bottom fermentation. It is then stored, or lagered to mellow for several weeks or even months before packaging.

An ale is fermented at somewhat warmer temperatures (500 to 700F or 100 to 210C) by a yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisae) that rises to the top of the liquid that is by top fermentation. It is stored only a few days.

Type of Lager Beers:PilsnerLight BeerMalt LiquorBock BeerSteam BeerDry Beer

Pilsner a lively, mild, dry, light-bodied, amber-colored, thirst-quenching liquid that may or may not say pilsner on the label.

It is a style of beer rather than a distinctive type.

The term is borrowed from the classic Pilsner-Urquell made in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia.

They include the best selling Budweiser, Millers High Life, Busch, Coors, and the super premium Michelob.

Generally they contain 3.2 to 4.5 percent alcohol by weight (4 to 5 percent by volume).

Light beers are variants of the pilsner style. Catering to todays health-and-fitness vogue, these beers typically have one-third to one-half less alcohol and calories than the regular lager beers 100 calories or less per 12-ounce serving compared to 135 to 170 calories for a regular beer, and 2.3 to 2.8 percent alcohol by weight, 3.2 to 3.9 percent by volume.

Current favorites are Miller lite, Bud Light, and Coors Light.

Malt liquors are lager beers with high alcohol content than pilsners- generally 5.5 to 6 percent or more by weight frequently produced by adding extra enzymes to increase fermentation.

The name of this beer is misleading, it is neither very malty not is it a liquor.

Colt 45 is todays leading seller.

Bock beers are traditionally strong, heavy, dark lagers with high alcohol content and a rich malty flavor.

They are mainly German beers, originally brewed seasonally to celebrate the coming of spring and other special times of year but they can be and are made at any time. Nor are they always dark; they may be pale, or amber, or bronze. And they are not always German.

Steam beer is a truly American invention the only kind of beer not borrowed from Europe.

Its method of production developed in California during the Gold Rush days and combines the bottom fermentation of lager beer with higher temperatures of ale.

It makes a beer with a lively head and the body and taste of ale with an alcohol content of 4 percent by weight, 5 percent by volume.

The name has nothing to do with brewing, but comes from the steam released when the barrels are tapped.

Dry beer was introduced from Japan with great success in 1987 with Asahi Extra Dry. Besides being less sweet, dry beer is typically clean, lively, and refreshing with little or no aftertaste.

Types of Ales:Cream AlePale AleIndia Pale AlePorterStoutWheat Beer

Cream ale is golden in color and mild and rather sweet in taste.

Pale ale is copper-colored and stronger in flavor yeastier and more hoppy than cream ale. The term pale applied to an ale means translucent rather than light in color.

India pale ale a superpremium style borrowed from the British. The best known of the British ales is bitter, a copper-colored pale ale high in flavor and low in alcohol, drunk by pint in the British pub.

Porter a dark bitter sweet brew.

Stout the successor to porter in England fuller flavored, darker, more alcoholic. It ranges from 3 to 7.5 percent alcohol and from sweetish to bitter.

Wheat beer also known as white beer, is first cousin to the other ales, being top-fermented brew. Its distinguishing feature is a high percentage of wheat in the malt up to 60 percent with the balance malted barley.

Wheat beers have a fruity tartness and aroma and are often laced with fruit, such as cherries or raspberries. Refreshingly and thirst-quenching, they are cherished as summer drinks.

Nonalcoholic beer is in a class by itself. It must be labeled a nonalcoholic malt beverage containing less than 0.5% alcohol.

These beers are made either by removing the alcohol after brewing or by stopping the fermentation process before alcohol forms.

An added attraction for many customers is their low calorie count about as half as high as regular beer and a third less than a light beer.

Storing and Caring for Beer:

Beer has the shortest shelf life of any alcoholic beverage.

Even pasteurization does not confer indefinite shelf life.

All beers should be kept cool and used promptly. Beers kept too long will lose both flavor and aroma.

Although canned and bottled beers are either pasteurizes or specially filtered, they still have a limited shelf life.

They should be used within three to four months of the date of packaging.

Some brewers mark each package with a pull date, the date you should pull it off your shelves if you havent served it yet.

Cans and bottles will stay fresh when stored between 400 to 700F (40 to 210C). Unpasteurized beers should be refrigerated at all times.

Temperatures above 700F (210C) will destroy flavor and aroma.

Light will also cause deterioration, sometimes giving the beer a skunky taste.

Direct sunlight will bring about change in a matter of minute. This effect of light is the reason beer is put in brown bottles. But dont depend on bottles; keep it away from light and heat in all cases.

Bottles should be stored upright, to avoid contact of the beer with the bottle cap.

Draft beer must be kept cold from brewer to distributor to storeroom to bar, preferably at 360 to 380F (20 to 30C).

Since it has not been pasteurized in the way that bottled beers have been, it is much ore susceptible to deterioration. Even at ideal temperatures its shelf life is 30 to 45 days in their untapped keg.

Troubleshooting Draft-Beer Problems:Trouble:Causes:

Flat beers - -Greasy glasses.-Beer drawn too soon before serving-Pressure: too low, leaky pressure line, sluggish regulator, pressure shut off overnight.-Obstruction in lines.-Loose connections (tap or vent).-Long exposure to air instead of carbon dioxide pressure.-Pre-cooler or coils too cold.

Trouble:Causes:Wild beer-Beer drawn improperly.-Too much pressure: faulty pressure valve or creeping gauge.-Beer to warm in keg or lines.-Lines: too long, poorly insulated, kinked or twisted.-Faucets in bad condition.

Trouble:Causes:

Cloudy beer-Beer to warm at some time (storeroom or delivery).-Beer frozen at some time.-Beer too cold.-Defective valves at keg.-Old beer (was stock properly rotated?)-Lines: dirty, hot spots, poor condition.

Trouble:Causes:

Bad Taste-Keg too warm; 500F and over at some time cause secondary fermentation and sour beer.-Glasses: not beer-clean. Not wet.-Dirty lines, dirty faucets.-Failure to clean beer lines.-Bad air in lines, oily air, and greasy kitchen air.-Unsanitary conditions at bar.

Trouble:Causes:

Unstable head-Beer drawn incorrectly (tilt of glass).-Glasses not beer-clean.-Too short a collar.-Flat beer causes (see above).

The End

Malting begins by soaking the raw barley. It is dumped in steeping tanks where it spends a couple of days soaking up water. The barley is then transferred to a huge room where it is aerated and held at around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. It is also regularly turned This is all done to encourage the grain to sprout without putting down roots which it does in around five days. It is now called green malt. The maltsters then kiln or dry the green malt by slowly raising the temperature to over 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The final temperatures vary depending on what kind of malt they want in the end. The result, however, is the same, regardless of the final temperature - the growth of the sprouts is stopped. That is because the maltster has what he is looking for, a dried barley grain full of sugar, starch and a particular kind of enzyme called diastase. After the grain is transferred to the brewery the brewer will add the grain to hot water. This will encourage the diastase to convert the starch into simple sugars. Once those sugars are dissolved in the hot water, the brewer will have her wort and she will be ready to make beer.*