ALL ABOUT BEER

Beer very interesting topic to discuss as its one the most consumable drink in the world after water and tea. It's an ancient drink with a varied history to tell.

what is beer?

The answer is simple “Beer” refers to any fermented beverage made from grain.

who invented Beer?

The earliest records of brewing have been found in Sumeria, which is in modern Iraq. They date back over 4,000 years ago, so there isn’t really a “who.”

so there is no clear picture of invention.

Questions are endless to ask with endless answers.

Over the years beer gains its popularity with its style and types, It is now part of happy moments of most of us. When taken in limited amounts, there are several benefits of beer. It is also important to remember that too much of anything is bad, this holds true for beer too. Too much beer every day can lead to several health issues as well.

Since it's close to most of us and we call us" beer Lovers" so I thought why not share you something in an easy way to understand your beer, so without wasting your time Come and Explore beer with me.....

Let's understand the process of beer making and the key ingredients in beer...

Beer is made of four ingredients:

· Grain (mostly malted barley but also other grains can use )

· Hops (grown in many countires with many different varieties )

· Yeast (responsible for fermentation; based on style top and bottom-fermented)

· Water (accounts for up to 95 percent of beer's content)

wait I know most of us confused here with some technical terms like malted barley and fermentation and all so let's go a bit in deep to understand better.

Malt: Is a germinated grain that has been dried in the process of malting. So basically, in simple writing malting process in which we get malt from the grain after following certain steps.

Process of making Malted grain is complete with three steps:

1. Steeping/soaking

2. Germinating/Sprouting

3. Kilning/drying

Steeping / Soaking: The first and very critical step in creating quality malt is steeping. This is when the grain kernel is cleaned and brought to life with water and oxygen. This is done by immersing or “steeping” the grain in water, followed by an air rest period that allows the water content of the grain to increase. In short in this process, you soak your barley grain in water for 2-3 hours until it absorbs water and reach the bottom of the vessel and after straining the grain from water and make them completely dry by using withering process and keep in the open air with certain temperature for 6-9 hours and the same process you keep on doing for 3 days till it reaches 42-46% moisture in grain.

The steeping process can vary with grain type and size but typically occurs over a period of 24-48 hours. The steeping is complete when the barley has reached a sufficient moisture level to allow a uniform breakdown of starches and proteins.

Germination: The second step is to continue the germination process that started in steeping. In this process growth of grain occurs basically grain start sprouting here. Here, growth and modification of the grain occur. Modification is the breakdown of protein and carbohydrates and results in the opening up of the seeds’ starch reserves. This process typically takes 4-6 days and results in what is called “Green Malt.” maltster controls temperature and moisture levels with regulated airflow and uniform water spray. To avoid grain clumping, non-uniform heating, and varying rates of germination, the grains are separated with periodic rotation.

Kilning: The third and final step in the malting process is kilning. Convection heat treatment dries the green malt to prevent further germination.

So why to stop germination?

If germination continued, the kernel would keep growing and all of the starch reserves needed by the brewer would be used by the growing plant.

Also killing is further additional drying because it reduces moisture content and prepares the malt for flavor and color development. Other important results achieved during the kilning process include enzymatic activity. In this step, it produces a wide range of malt colors and flavors used by brewers in crafting their unique and distinctive ales and lagers.

Yeast :

There are literally hundreds of varieties and strains of yeast. In the past, there were two types of beer yeast: ale yeast (the "top-fermenting" type, Saccharomyces cerevisiae), and lager yeast (the "bottom-fermenting" type, Saccharomyces uvarum, formerly known as Saccharomyces carlsbergensis). Its main ingredients to make a different style of beers.

Hops:

Hops are dried female flowers of the hop plant Humulus lupulus. The main purpose of hops is to flavor and bitterness.

Advantages of hop addition in beer are;

• Provide beer with its pungent and aromatic character

• Provide tannin which helps in coagulation of remaining protein

• Contains pectin which is responsible for foam characteristic of beer

• It works as a preservative

Water:

As per me, it is the most important ingredient beer which brewer use carefully, Water makes up 90 – 95% of the total ingredients in beer. the character of the water will determine the flavor of the wort, which is the liquid extracted from the mash in the brewing process. Secondly, the pH of the water also impacts the perceived bitterness of the beer, And finally, any contaminants or chlorine in the water can result in the beer tasting “off.”

That's why distillers like Jack Daniel use specific water Tennesse water to make his whiskey and lots of other whiskey distillers also to maintain its quality, same beer brewers also use particular water to produce beer and maintain the quality.

Production Process

1. Milling: malt is crushed together to break up the grain kernels in order to extract fermentable sugars to produce a milled product called grist.

2. Mashing: The grist is then transferred into a mash tun, where it is mixed with heated water in a process called mash conversion. The conversion process uses natural enzymes in the malt to break the malt’s starch down into sugars.

3. Lautering: The mash is then pumped into the lauter tun, where a sweet liquid (known as wort) is separated from the grain husks.

4. Boiling: The wort is then collected in a vessel called a kettle, where it is brought to a controlled boil before the hops are added.

5. Colling/Wort separation: After boiling, the wort is transferred into a whirlpool for the wort separation stage. During this stage, any malt or hop particles are removed to leave a liquid that is ready to be cooled and fermented.

6. Fermentation: To start the fermentation, yeast is added during the filling of the vessel. Yeast converts the sugary wort into beer by producing alcohol, a wide range of flavors, and carbon dioxide (used later in the process to give the beer its sparkle).

7. Maturation: After fermentation, the young beer needs to be matured in order to allow both a full development of flavors and a smooth finish.

8. Filteration and carbonation: After reaching its full potential, the beer is filtered, carbonated, and transferred to the bright beer tank, where it goes through a cellaring process that takes 3-4 weeks to complete. Once completed, the beer is ready to be packaged

Types Of Beer

All beers are either lagers or ales, and that's determined by the type of yeast used during the fermentation process as we discussed earlier.

Also Once you’ve figured out if your beer is a lager or an ale, there is further differentiation determined by the flavor, color, and aroma of the beer. These determine what style of the family a given beer falls into. Within that style family, there are varieties, which have even more distinct characteristics.

Example of top-fermented beer is porter, stout, wheat beer, Indian pale Ale (IPA) and bottom-fermented beer examples are lagers and pilsners.

Storing

Whenever we plan to drink beer the first thought come in mind is temperature, we always listen from our surrounding that beer keep always in the fridge and serve cold and hot beer is not good.

Taste of beer change with its storage temperature and it's important to know all about it.

Can we drink beer at room temperature (20 to 25°C)?

The short answer is “Yes, you can bring it up to room temperature again. No, it won’t ruin the beer.”

But the best and universal way of drinking beer is chilled but remember a good beer is best served not less than 6°C and best at 8°C to 11°C.

Interesting Fact of beer

1. Egypt was likely the first civilization to tax beer.

2. Germany’s Octoberfest is the world’s largest beer festival in the world. The country holds the event annually in Munich, with a 16 to 18-day folk festival running from mid or late September to the first Sunday in October.

3. Although there are two major categories of beer (ales and lagers), beer has hundreds of varieties. They differ in terms of yeast fermentation in the brewing process.

4. According to research, men who are in the late 70s and 80s that have been boozing one alcoholic beverage per day tend to have a clearer thinking ability compared to non-drinkers.

5. ‘zythology’ is the study of beer. Zythology provides more insight into beer’s ingredients, sophistication, and brewing process.

and there endless good and bad interesting fact on beer

Drinking too much beer, or any other type of alcohol is bad for you. "Heavy alcohol consumption wipes out any health benefit and increases the risk of liver cancer, cirrhosis, alcoholism, and obesity," Rimm says.

Thanks,

Navin Sharma

Liquid chef