Welcome to the first Original Gravity, a series on brewing. BeerPal.com is a wonderful site, but it needs a true guide to the brewing process. Lo and behold, here it is. I, with the help of my far smarter friends on this site, will bring the curious masses just that. From commercial brewing to home brewing to wine, mead and cider, everything should get some attention, in one manner or another.
Just how does brewing work, you ask? Well, slow down, there, Timmy. Brewing can be just as simple or as complicated as you want. Let’s start with the complicated, then, shall we? You may well know that brewing beer requires four ingredients, but I will introduce you anyway, meet: grains, hops, water and yeast. That’s right, grains, not just barley, nor even just malted barley, but there will be more on that later. Start with grains then malt them. Simple enough? Right and wrong, Buster.
Following harvest the grains are delivered to the malting company. Just like breweries have brewers, malting companies have maltsters, the fine employees who malt the grains. Malting begins with steeping the grains in water for a few days until germination begins, which is the seed preparing itself for sprouting. Grains are filled with mostly starches and some proteins with a few other odds and ends. The malting process produces enzymes within the grains which are vital the brewing process. The maltster’s work is not finished yet, not by a long shot.
Once germination has commenced, it is time to dry, or kiln the malts. By varying the temperatures, through which the grains are passed and their moisture content throughout, malts of a great variety can be produced, from pilsner malt to the powerful black patent malt. The starting barley counts for something, as well. The two main categories of grains are the two row and six row varieties, one first of higher quality flavor, the latter with higher enzyme content. Once the maltster is done with the grains, they are ready for the brewer.
The brewer’s first task is to mill the grains. This is not like milling for a bakery, here the brewer wishes to crack the grains, not grind them, exposing the enzymes and starches needed during the mash and leaving the husk relatively in tact to act as a natural filter later on. The mashing process has one singular purpose when you get down to it, which is to convert the starches in the grains into fermentable sugars. Mashing can be just that simple, and it can turn into a massive ordeal. The most essential part of the mashing process is what is called the saccarification rest. The purpose of this rest, or stage of steady temperature, is to allow the alpha and/or beta amylase enzymes to convert the malt starches into sugars, mostly maltose. Saccarification takes place between 140 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit. The sweet liquid produced during the mash is separated from the grains.
The grains are now called ‘spent grains’ and the liquid is now called ‘wort’. Pronounced “wert”, this is the unfermented beer, but it’s not ready for that just yet, first comes the boil. Not all beers go through the boil, but the vast majority does. Boiling serves to sterilize the wort prior to fermentation, and is essential for hop usage. Hops can be added in a variety of ways to a beer. First wort hopping involves adding hops as the wort is collected from the mash, bittering hops are added early in the boil, flavor hops are added in the middle to close to the boil’s end, while aroma hops can be added near the end of the boil, after the boil ends, or even after much of the fermentation has taken place.
Bittering is the central purpose of the hops. They lend the balancing bitterness to counteract the residual sweetness left in the beer from the malt. The major bittering compounds found in hops are alpha and beta acids, with alpha acids taking far higher priority. During the boil the alpha acids are isomerized, or altered in chemical structure to become the bitterness we know and love.
Immediately once the boil is concluded, the hopped wort must be separated from the hops and then cooled very quickly to pitching temperature. At 70 degrees Fahrenheit or lower the wort is ready to accept brewer’s yeast, which comes in two varieties.
Top fermenting yeast is ale yeast, while bottom fermenting yeast is lager yeast, the lager yeast thrives at lower temperatures than ale yeast and generally provides a cleaner and maltier profile than the generally fruity ale strains.
Primary fermentation is where the majority of the malt sugars and other sugars added to the kettle are evolved by the yeast into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. Secondary fermentation allows the beer to both age and further ferment. Depending on the process, the beer can next meet a few different fates. If the beer is to be filtered, it must be force carbonated, whether in kegs or bottles or cans. Left unfiltered, it may still be force carbonated, or it can be naturally carbonated in its container by adding a very small portion of sugar and/or yeast to it prior to packing, allowing carbon dioxide to gradually form in the beer itself.
