This is Part 8 of The Story of Beer, our journey through the people, ingredients, discoveries, and traditions that put beer in our glass.

Beer can be remarkably complicated for something built around such a short ingredient list.

At its simplest, beer comes down to four essentials:

Water.

Malt.

Hops.

Yeast.

Change the variety, quantity, treatment, timing, or combination of those ingredients and you can produce dramatically different beers.

Water: The Ingredient Nobody Talks About

Beer is mostly water, so water chemistry matters.

Historically, brewers had to work with whatever water was available locally.

That helped shape regional beer traditions.

Dublin’s mineral rich water worked well for dark beers such as stout.

The softer water around Plzeň, in what is now the Czech Republic, helped make pale lager possible.

Water around Burton upon Trent in England contained minerals particularly suited to pale ales.

Modern brewers can adjust water chemistry, but centuries ago geography helped determine what kind of beer a region became known for.

Malt: Where the Sugar Begins

Barley is the most common grain used for brewing.

Before brewing, it is usually malted.

The grain is soaked in water and allowed to begin germinating before being dried in a kiln.

This creates the enzymes needed later to turn starches into fermentable sugars.

How malt is dried and roasted also affects color and flavor.

Lighter malt helps create pale beer.

Darker roasted malt contributes deeper colors and roasted flavors.

Brewers can also use wheat, oats, rye, rice, corn, sorghum, and other starch sources.

Hops: The Balancing Act

Hops provide bitterness that helps balance malt sweetness.

They can also add floral, citrus, herbal, and other aromas and flavors.

Their natural properties historically helped preserve beer too.

Long before anyone was discussing hop varieties at the bar, brewers valued hops because they made beer taste better and last longer.

Yeast: The Tiny Workforce

Yeast does the heavy lifting.

It consumes sugars from the wort and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Different yeasts also contribute different flavors.

Two major brewing yeast families became associated with ales and lagers, while some beers use other yeasts or rely partly on wild fermentation.

Before brewers understood what yeast actually was, fermentation could seem almost mysterious.

The beer fermented because, well, that’s what it did.

Eventually science caught up.

Other Ingredients

Beer has never been limited entirely to those four ingredients.

Brewers throughout history have used fruits, herbs, spices, honey, and numerous grains and starches.

Modern experimentation isn’t really a new development.

Brewers have been tinkering with beer for a very long time.

Next Pour

Those ingredients can produce an enormous variety of beer.

But most beer eventually falls into two very large families.

Ale and lager.

Next, we’ll figure out what separates them without requiring you to memorize a brewery textbook.

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