Brewing beer can be traced back thousands of years to the ancient tribes of Sumeria. And even though the brewing process has changed over time, a lot of the basics are still the same.
Beer’s Four Key Ingredients
There are hundreds of beer styles and flavors, but most beers are made with four basic ingredients:
- Hops
- Yeast
- Malted barley
- Water
Hops
Hops look like cone-shaped flowers, or mini green pinecones. Think of hops as the spice and flavor of beer—they supply a distinct aroma and bitterness. As a bonus, they act as a natural preservative.
There are over 100 varieties of hops that provide aromas, like:
- Earthy
- Spicy
- Grassy
- Herbal
- Citrusy
- Floral
- Vegetal
- Tropical
Yeast
This ingredient plays a starring role. In short, it’s what creates the alcohol and carbonation in beer. The yeast eats the sugars from malt and converts them into alcohol and CO2 (carbon dioxide).
Yeast also turns the sugars into about 250 flavor components, so each beer gets a unique flavor. It can even add flavor notes, like:
- Green apple
- Pear
- Bubble gum
- Clove
- Banana
- Berry
- Pepper
Malted Barley
Malted barley is to most beers what grapes are to wine. It provides color and flavor to beer. It also provides sugars that act as food for the yeast, and are later converted into alcohol and CO2.
Malted barley is slowly dried or toasted in a kiln (a giant oven) at varying temperatures to add different flavors to each beer.
Malted barley also has a variety of flavor notes:
- Bread
- Coffee
- Honey
- Caramel
- Molasses
- Chocolate
- Roasted notes
Water
Over 90% of beer is water, so it also plays a major role in flavor. Different salts and minerals within water can affect the other ingredients within beer.
The Brewing Process
The brewing process might seem complicated at first, but it can be broken down into five steps:
Step 1: Malting
We start with grains, usually barley (most beers use barley, but some use wheat or rye). The grains are prepared for brewing during the malting process. They are soaked in water, allowed to sprout, then dried and heated.
Step 2: Mashing
Next we mash the grains and mix them in hot water (like making oatmeal). This activates the grains’ enzymes to break down and release sugars. Then we collect the sugary, nutrient filled liquid that we call wort and send it to the next stage.
Step 3: Boiling
Now we boil the wort for about an hour or two, adding hops and spices several times throughout. When we add hops, the variety and how much we add changes the flavor and bitterness of the beer.
Step 4: Fermentation and Aging
The wort (that sugary, nutrient filled liquid) is cooled, oxygen is added and is then transferred to a fermenter with yeast.
Ale yeast works quickly, fermenting the beer in a matter of days (4-7 days). Lager yeast works more slowly, with a fermentation time taking one to two weeks. For lagers, the beer may be stored in lagering or aging tanks for a matter of months to hone the flavor.
(To learn the difference between ales and lagers, go here.)
Step 5: Carbonation and Packaging
And there you have it—beer! The finished beer can be carbonated by pumping CO2 into the beer before packaging. As an alternative, the packages (bottles, cans, kegs) can be filled with flat beer and sugar, allowing the yeast to carbonate it naturally once the package is sealed.
