Brewing
The process of crafting beer is known as brewing. Typically, a dedicated facility for producing beer is referred to as a brewery. Beer can also be concocted at home, in which case the brewing site is often called a brewhouse. Companies engaged in beer production go by the names of breweries or brewing companies. When beer is brewed on a small scale for personal use it is commonly referred to as homebrewing regardless of where the brewing takes place. The majority of homebrewed beer is indeed made in one’s own residence. In history, domestic beer was often termed farmhouse ale.
Brewing beer has been regulated and taxed for centuries. Taxation in the UK primarily limited brewing to commercial establishments from the late 19th century onward. The UK government relaxed these regulations in 1963. This was followed by Australia in 1972 and the United States in 1978. Individual states in the US had the authority to enact their own production limitations, these changes facilitated the rise of homebrewing as a popular pastime.
Objective of Brewing
The primary objective of brewing is to transform a starch source into a sugary liquid referred to as wort. Subsequently ferment the wort with yeast to create the alcoholic beverage known as beer.
The initial phase, called “mashing,” involves blending the starch source (typically malted barley) with hot water in a mash tun. This process lasts approximately 1 to 2 hours. It converts starches into sugars, yielding sweet wort that is then separated from the grain. Subsequently, the grains undergo “sparging,” a rinsing process that maximizes the collection of fermentable liquid. Wort separation, which filters out spent grain from the wort and sparge water, is achieved through a traditional method called lautering. In modern breweries, filter frames, which allow for finer grist.
Many modern breweries employ continuous sparging, combining the original wort and sparge water. However, multiple runs may be collected, each with diminishing fermentable content, a practice known as the second and third runnings, often referred to as parti gyle brewing.
Sweet Wort
The sweet wort derived from sparging is transferred to a kettle, often called a “copper” due to traditional copper construction. Here, it is boiled for approximately an hour. This allows the water to evaporate while preserving the sugars and other wort components. The process enhances starch source utilization and eliminates remaining enzymes from the mashing stage. During boiling, hops are added to impart bitterness, flavor, and aroma. Hops can be introduced at various times during the boil, affecting bitterness, flavor, and aroma differently.
Post-boiling, the hopped wort is cooled and prepared for yeast addition. In some breweries, the hopped wort may pass through a hopback. A hopback is a vessel filled with hops for aromatic infusion and filtration. Generally, the cooled hopped wort is transferred to a fermenter. This is where yeast is introduced. The fermentation process, spanning from one week to several months depending on yeast type and beer strength, converts wort into beer. During fermentation, ethanol is produced, and particulate matter in the wort settles. Once fermentation concludes, the yeast settles as well, resulting in clear beer.
Fermentation
Fermentation often allows carbon dioxide to escape through a trap. This leaves the beer lightly carbonated. Carbonation can be enhanced by transferring beer to a pressurized container and introducing carbon dioxide. Or by transferring it prior to full fermentation completion, building carbon dioxide pressure. Alternatively, unfiltered beer with yeast is sometimes bottled with added sugar to achieve desired carbonation levels.
Fermentation may occur in two stages: primary and secondary. Most alcohol production is in primary fermentation. Then the beer is often moved to a new vessel for secondary fermentation. Secondary fermentation is employed when extended storage or greater clarity is needed.
Once the beer completes fermentation, it is packaged, typically in casks for cask ale or in kegs, aluminum cans, or bottles for other types of beer.
Ingredients
Beer’s fundamental components include water, a starch source (like malted barley or malted maize, as seen in the preparation of Tiswin and Tesgüino), brewer’s yeast for fermentation, and flavoring agents such as hops. When a combination of starch sources is used, often with an adjunct like maize (corn), rice, wheat, or sugar, it is termed an adjunct. Less commonly used starch sources include millet, sorghum. In Africa cassava root is used. In Brazil potato and agave in Mexico. The collective composition of these starch sources in a beer recipe is referred to as the grain bill.
Water
Water plays a pivotal role in beer, constituting about 93% of its weight. While water itself is ostensibly flavorless, the level of dissolved minerals, specifically bicarbonate ions, influences the beer’s final taste. Regional variations in water properties historically defined particular beer styles in different areas. For example, Dublin’s hard water suited stout production like Guinness. The soft water of the Plzeň Region in the Czech Republic was ideal for brewing Pilsner (pale lager), like Pilsner Urquell. In Burton, England, gypsum-rich water benefitted pale ale production, leading brewers to introduce gypsum in a process called Burtonisation.
Mash
The “mash ingredients” serve as the starch source in beer,. They provide fermentable material and significantly affect the beer’s strength and flavor. Malted grains are the most common starch source. This is produced by soaking grains in water, initiating germination, and drying them in a kiln. This malting process generates enzymes that convert grain starches into fermentable sugars. Varied roasting times and temperatures yield different malt colors, with darker malts resulting in darker beers. Barley malt is the predominant starch source in most beers due to its fibrous hull, which remains attached during threshing. After malting, barley is milled, removing the hull and breaking the grain into large pieces. These pieces remain with the grain during mashing and function as a filter bed during lautering, the process of separating sweet wort from insoluble grain material. Brewers may also use other malted or unmalted grains, including wheat, rice, oats, rye, and less commonly, corn and sorghum. Gluten-free beer has been developed for those unable to consume grains like wheat, barley, and rye, using sorghum without barley malt.
Hops
Hops are the primary commercial flavoring agent in beer. The hop vine’s flower is utilized for flavoring and preservation in almost all modern beers. These hop flowers are frequently referred to as “hops.” The earliest historical record of hop use in beer dates back to 822 AD in monastery rules penned by Adalhard the Elder. Nevertheless, the widespread cultivation of hops for beer is primarily attributed to the 13th century. Before hops became the dominant flavoring, beer was flavored with other plants such as grains of paradise or alehoof. Combinations of aromatic herbs, berries, and even ingredients like wormwood were combined to create a mixture known as gruit. They served the same purpose as hops do today. Some contemporary beers, like Fraoch’ by the Scottish Heather Ales company and Cervoise Lancelot by the French Brasserie-Lancelot company, employ alternative plants for flavoring.
Hops contribute several desirable characteristics to beer, including bitterness that balances malt sweetness (measured on the International Bitterness Units scale). Hops also add floral, citrus, and herbal aromas and flavors. They also add antibiotic properties favoring brewer’s yeast, and aiding “head retention” (the longevity of a foamy head created by carbonation). Hops also serve as a preservative due to their acidity.
Yeast
Yeast is the microorganism responsible for beer fermentation. Sugars extracted from grains is metabolized by the yeast, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide, transforming wort into beer. Yeast not only drives fermentation but also shapes the beer’s character and flavor. The two predominant types of yeast used in beer production are top-fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae and bottom-fermenting Saccharomyces pastorianus. Brettanomyces yeast ferments lambics. Torulaspora delbrueckii is used in Bavarian weissbier. Before the role of yeast in fermentation was understood, wild or airborne yeasts drove fermentation. Some styles, like lambics, still rely on this method today. Most modern brewing uses pure yeast cultures.
Clarifying Agents
To clarify beer, some brewers incorporate clarifying agents or finings that precipitate (collect as a solid) along with protein solids, typically present in trace amounts in the final product. This process enhances beer’s clarity and brightness. Unlike traditional and older styles of beer, such as wheat beers, which often appear cloudy. Clarifying agents may include isinglass from fish swimbladders, Irish moss from seaweed, kappa carrageenan from Kappaphycus cottonii seaweed. Artificial agents like Polyclar, or gelatin may also be used. Beers marked “suitable for vegans” are clarified with seaweed or artificial agents.
A Brewed History
A 7 part series on the history of beer. We start at the beginning and work our way through the brewing, the industry, varieties, culture and more. Read all 7 parts!
Part 1 – A Brewed History – The Beginning
Part 2 – A Brewed History – Brewing (Current Page)
Part 3 – A Brewed History – Brewing Industry
Part 4 – A Brewed History – Varieties
Part 5 – A Brewed History – Measurement
Part 6 – A Brewed History – Serving, Packaging and Storing Beer