Technical Description Brewing Made Simple

Technical Description

Brewing Made Simple

Human beings have been brewing and drinking fermented beverages since the dawn of agriculture. However, few people in the 21st century know exactly what goes into the process of brewing beer because of the commercialization of the industry. More and more people are becoming interested in home brewing, especially because making beer is a relatively simple, straightforward process. First, we need to define what beer is and what makes beer different from other fermented beverages. A basic definition of beer follows.

Beer: Beer is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting malted grain (grain that has been germinated, or sprouted, before being dried). Barley is the most common grain used in beer. Most beer also contains hops and/or other botanical additives for flavoring and is usually fermented by the addition of yeast. The interaction between the yeast and the sugar-containing malt creates alcohol as a by-product.

This general definition of beer belies the vast variety of brewing traditions. For the most fundamental home brewing needs, you only need to be concerned with two basic types of beer: ales, and lagers. The main difference between ale and lager is the type of yeast used in the fermentation process.

Ale: Ale is a beer made with top-fermenting yeast, which rises to the top of the fermentation vessel. Ales are generally fermented at relatively high temperatures (up to 70 degrees F. But no cooler than 60) for relatively short periods of time, especially when compared with lagers.

Lager: Lager is a beer made with bottom-fermenting yeast, which sinks to the bottom of the fermentation vessel. Compared with their ale counterparts in the world of beer, lagers are generally fermented for longer periods of time at cooler temperatures (as low as 32 degrees F. during certain phases of the brewing process).

To make brewing simple, we will confine our discussion to how ales are made because ales are generally easier to brew at home. First, you will need to assemble all the ingredients necessary to make beer. These include the following, all of which can be found at home brewing supply stores.

1. Malted grain (preferably barley)

2. Brewer's yeast (yeast is a living organism, a fungus, that catalyzes sugars and converts them into alcohol)

3. Hops (either fresh or in the form of pellets).

The type of malt, yeast, and hops depends on taste more than anything and is not important for learning the general brewing process. In addition to the fundamental ingredients, you will also require a good deal of equipment to brew beer. Most of the equipment is available also from home brewing supply stores. At the very least you will need:

1. Mash tun (a vessel used to steep the malted grain in hot water)

2. Lauter tun (used to strain the steeped grain liquid, called wort)

3. Mash filter (used to hold the already steeped grain, which is called mash)

4. Large kettle for boiling

5. Large kettle for fermentation and conditioning

6. Optional filtering and/or bottling equipment

Once the ingredients and equipment are assembled you can begin the fascinating process of brewing beer, which is basically a liquid bread. First, soak whatever grain you selected in hot water. Temperatures and steeping times will vary depending on the type of malt you bought and the style of beer you wish to create. This step is called mashing, which is a critical phase during which sugars in the malted grain are released into the warm water. The resulting sweet grain water is called wort, and the remaining spent grain is called mash. Next you will want to separate the wort from the mash in a process called lautering. At this phase, the mash might be rinsed, too, a process called sparging, before being pressed to extract all the wort. The resulting liquid is then boiled for one to two hours and while the liquid boils you will add the hops. Finally, the liquid will be left to cool and then yeast is added so that it will ferment.

Fermentation is the essence of brewing beer. Fermentation can be best defined as a chemical breakdown. Atoms and molecules re-form and create new substances. In beer, the most desirable new substance is ethyl alcohol, more commonly known as grain alcohol because of its being derived from grain-based sugars such as those contained in barley malt. During the fermentation process, all the sugars from the wort will be converted into ethyl alcohol by the brewer's yeast.