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BEER 101 |
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Beer isn't as simple as your average six-pack. Here's an introduction to the building blocks of beer.
Beer basics
Beer is essentially fermented, hop-flavored,
malt sugar tea. The basic building blocks needed to make
beer: water, malted barley and hops. Yeast is used to ferment the
tea into an effervescent liquid with an average of between three
and seven per cent ethyl alcohol by weight.
Water
More than 90 per cent of beer is water, which therefore has a great effect on the taste of the final product. Brewers can, and do, chemically adjust any water to create the exact style of beer desired.
Malted Barley
Barley, a basic grain, must be malted before it can be used in the brewing process. Malting is the process of bringing grain to the point of
its highest possible starch content by allowing it to sprout roots, then heating the grain to a temperature that stops growth. Once malted, barley
is high in the enzyme diastase, which converts into a rich sugar called maltose. This sugar is metabolized by the ale or lager yeast to create carbon dioxide and ethyl alcohol.
Portions of this malted barley are then roasted by being heated at higher temperatures. This roasted malted barley no longer has the active enzymes needed to
turn the starches into sugars, but it does take on characteristics that add to
the flavor of the beer.
Yeast
Yeast is the organism that metabolizes the sugar (maltose) into ethyl
alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO2). The fermentation process is done in two
steps. The primary fermentation converts most of the maltose to
ethyl alcohol and CO2. The secondary fermentation finishes
metabolizing the remaining sugar into the CO2 necessary to give the beer
effervescence.
In traditional beer-making there is also a priming that restarts
the last of the fermentation in the bottles or kegs. This priming ensures that
the beer has natural carbonation. In mass-produced commercial beers and ales,
the carbonation is injected into the beer when it is bottled or kegged.
Hops
This herb is actually the flower of a perennial vine. Different brewers use
different varieties of hops. Each variety has a particular bitter flavor as
well as aroma and the two characteristics are important to remember when
tasting a beer. The combination of the bitter flavor and floral aroma from the
hops, when combined with the sweet and sometimes astringent flavors of the
malts, are also influenced by the flavors created by the
specific yeast used to ferment the beer.
Additional ingredients
Although malt and hops are the main contributors to the flavor of beer and
ale, in some cases there are additional flavors. Depending on whether you are
drinking a beer or an ale you may also detect flavors that are created by the
yeast during fermentation. The ale yeast creates esters that smell like apples,
bananas, pears and oranges.
Lager yeast creates much fewer esters, mainly those reminiscent of new-mown
hay or, in some cases, citrus. These esters are the exception rather than the
rule because lager yeast ferments the sugars much more thoroughly than ale
yeasts. Lager yeast takes at least 32 days to complete fermentation, while ale
yeast takes a week at most.
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