Beer was a principal ingredient in the rise of almost every human civilization in the past 8,000+ years. Beer has had a direct impact in the creation of laws, new forms of technology, the survival of many of your ancestors, and the onset of sin taxes.

Beer and some form of taxes have gone hand in hand since the reign of Cleopatra VII. Later forms of taxes that were implemented on beer, had more to do with it’s ingredients than the finished product.

Beer has 4 main ingredients: Water, Barley (Malt), Hops, and Yeast. 3 of these 4 ingredients, water, barley (malt), and yeast, have been a part of every beer crafted since 8,000+ years ago in Mesopotamia. Hop’s, didn’t make their way into beer until the 8th or 9th century AD. Prior to hop’s introduction to beer and even after, brewers used other forms of spices to season and or preserve their beers.

It’s amazing to consider that under the constraint of only 4 ingredients, brewers can provide such diversity to your glass of beer. You can have the palest of ales, to the strongest of stouts, and they are all crafted on the backbone of just 4 ingredients.

Let’s walk thru the basics of each ingredient and its distinct contribution to your glass of beer.

Beer Ingredients 101

Try as you may, but you can’t deny the fact that water is the most prevalent ingredient in beer. Your average beer will contain 85-96.8% water. The percentage of water in your beer is based on two factors: the alcohol content and the amount of ingredients present in your beer.

No Water, No Beer

Water is known as the lifeblood of beer, because of its critical role in brewing beer. Historically breweries were built close to natural sources of water. Those natural sources of water impacted the beer styles and traditions in which historic breweries crafted their beer.

Breweries use a vast amount of water to produce beer. In addition to using product water, the water that will be present in your beer, breweries use water for processes, like cleaning and sanitizing, and they use water for services, such as cooling and heating. On average it can take 3-11 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of beer.

Natural Water Comes From 2 Different Sources:

Surface water (lakes, creeks, rivers, and reservoirs) is almost mineral free, because the water has recently fallen from the sky or melted from ice in the mountains. Since the water hasn’t passed through the ground little to no minerals have been absorbed from the ground.

1. Water: The Lifeblood of Beer

Ground water (wells or aquifers) can either be very low in mineral content or very high in mineral content depending upon the ground water geology. The higher the mineral content of the ground water geology, the higher the mineral content of the water coming from that ground, and vice versa.

Water Mineral Content and Beer

If it wasn’t for the hard water that was so rich in mineral content from Burton on Trent, craft brewers wouldn’t be brewing IPA’s. And if it wasn’t for the ultra-soft water, from Plzeň, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) there would be no Golden Pilsner Lagers.

In general the spectrum of water sought after brewers’ ranges from very hard water to very soft water. Hard water has high amounts of mineral content and will create and or emphasize more harsh flavors in your beer; think strongly hopped pales ales. Soft water has low amounts of minerals and allows softer and milder flavors to come through in your beer; think of the clean, crisp, and soft flavors of Pilsner beers.

Historically the water sources, as well as a breweries location to water was vital in the styles and traditions of beers that brewery could produce. However with the advent of the industrial water treatment in the early 20th Century, location to a natural water source is no longer critical. Breweries, brewers, and their chemists can design almost any style of water, from hard to soft and from low pH to high pH.

After water, barley (malt) is the most prevalent ingredient in beer. In order for barley to be used in the brewing process is has to be malted. There are many varieties of malt and most use a combination of malts to create a distinct experience of color, aroma, and mouth feel.

Barley Comes in Two Varieties:

Two-Row Barley:•Kernels are divided into two columns on the grain head (stalk) of the plant.•Kernels are larger than six-row barley kernels.•Lower in protein content than six-row barley.•Lower husk content than six-row barley.•Yields greater theoretical extract.•Kernels are uniform in size.

Six-Row Barley:•Kernels are divided into 6 columns around the grain head (stalk) of the plant.•Kernels are smaller than two-row barley kernels.•Higher in protein content than two-row barley.•Higher in husk content than two-row barley.•Kernels are not uniform or symmetrical in size.

Barley doesn’t acquire a soul until it is converted to malt in the malt house. Before barley is taken to the malt house it has to be grown, dried, cleaned, and stored. After storage, barley makes its way into the malt house to gain its own soul during the three stages of the malting process. During the malting process barley will be transformed from barley to malted barley.

2. Barley / Malt: The Soul of Beer

The Malting Process

Stage 1: SteepingBarley is steeped in water and then drained for two to three cycles, with air rests in between. This stage allows the barley to grow, absorb water and oxygen before it moves on to the next stage.

Stage 2: GerminationAs the moisture content rises, maltsters trick the barley into germinating. This process usually takes 3-5 days. During this time the enzymes in the barley break down the cell walls and some of the protein in the starchy endosperm.

Stage 3: Kilning (Drying/Cooking)After the maltsters trick the barley into germinating, they stop the germination process by increasing the temperature and essentially cooking the barley. The amount of time and the degree of temperature the barley is exposed to during the kilning process, determines the malt’s color, aroma, and flavor characteristics. Darker malts are kilned more intensely and pale malts are kilned less intensely.

After barley is given a soul and becomes malt, it is sent to the brewery. At the brewery the malt will be stored for at least a month before being used to craft a batch of beer. Malt’s importance can be felt by the 7 major contributions it makes to your beer: aroma, foam stability, body, mouth feel, color, flavor, and it provides sugar for the yeast to ferment.

The most precious substance in your beer is the spice known as hops. Hops are also known as humulus lupulus, a species of flowering plants. Hop plants can be male or female. But when it comes to beer hops, hop cultivators are only interested in growing female plants in their hop gardens to avoid pollination. After hops are cultivated, a decision to choose the final physical form in which they will be used in brewery is made. The physical form of hops are; whole hops, pellets, or plugs.

Hops are native to North America, Europe, and Western Asia, with greatest amount of hops being produced in Germany, and the greatest variety of hops coming from North America. Hops are thought to have originated in China thousands of years ago, but their first use in brewing wasn’t until the 8th or 9th Century AD.

The Spice Extends Life

Beer is a delicate substance and was prone to premature spoilage when it was being shipped on slow boats during The Age of Discovery. Hops are microbial and act as a natural preservative. These two characteristics led to beer hops gaining widespread use in all of Europe, with England being the last country to jump on the hop bandwagon. Hops ability to prevent premature spoilage and blend well with the sweet malt led to hops becoming a staple in almost every beer style by the 19th century.

3. Hops: The Spice of Beer

Beer Hop Categories

Beer hops fall into three categories: bittering hops, aroma hops, and dual usage hops.

Bittering hops•Bittering hops have high levels of alpha acids and low levels of beta acids.•Bittering hops derive their bittering characteristics from the alpha acids present in the hop resins.

Aroma Hops•Aroma hops have high levels of beta acids and low levels of alpha acids.•Aroma hops derive their aromas from the beta acids present in the hop oils.

Dual Usage Hops•Dual usage hops can have high concentrations of alpha acids and beta acids.•Dual usage hops can provide both bittering and aromatic qualities in your beer, depending upon when they are used in the brewing process.

All forms of hops contain resins and oils. The key difference between these three varieties of hops is the amount of resins and oils that are present and utilized by the brewer when they are crafting a batch of beer.

Let’s take a brief look at how bittering hops, aroma hops, and dual usage hops are used in a brewery.

Beer Hops at the Brewery

Bittering hops provide the balance to the sweet wort. For bitterness to be imparted on your beer, bittering hops have to be added earlier in the boiling of the wort, usually for 60-90 minutes, to isomerize the alpha acids in the hops, and create iso-alpha acids.

Aroma hops provide certain aromatic qualities to beer. Unlike bittering hops, aroma hops can be added at multiple stages of the brewing process. Aroma hops can be added anytime during the boiling of the wort, but preferably later in the boiling of the wort. When aroma hops are added to early in the kettle boil/wort boiling, the heat from the boil will burn off all of the aromatic qualities of the hops. Aroma hops can also be added in the whirlpool, when the wort is cooling, or after fermentation–which is known as dry hopping.

Dual usage hops which have gained favor among brewers in recent years, can be added at any stage of the brewing process because of their unique and high proportions of both alpha and beta acids.

Hops have become a staple of almost every single beer that is brewed in the world today. Some beers have high amounts of hops that either provide magnificent aromatic qualities or tongue biting bitterness. Hops are most known for adding aroma and bitterness to your beer, but there are other aspects that hops contribute to your beer.

Yeast is often the most overlooked ingredient in beer, and for good reasons, it’s the smallest ingredient in your beer. Yeast is a microorganism, which is classified as a fungi. Brewer’s yeast, in particular, is the little sugar eating fungi that creates alcohol, carbonation and other by-products, thru a process known as fermentation. Without spontaneous fermentation of barley grains thousands of years ago, you and I might not be having this conversation right now.

Yeast has been around since the dawn of civilization, if not earlier. People understood hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, that something was converting the wort into a bubbling euphoric liquid, known as beer. However, the timeline for yeasts official discovery is a little sketchy.

1690: Anton van Leeuwenhoek first microscopically observed yeast. Leeuwenhoek believed yeast to be immature forms of larger animals.

1789: Antoine Lavoisier described the fermentation process quite accurately as “grape must => carbonic acid + alcohol”

1815: Guy-Lussac understood that yeast converted the simplest sugars to ethanol/alcohol.

1818: Christian Erxleben, proposed that leaven and barm consisted of living vegetative organisms responsible for fermentation.

1857: Louis Pasteur, proved that conversion of simple sugars to ethanol required living organisms (yeast,) rather than a chemical catalyst. He is credited with the discovery and identification of yeast, thru the use of a process, now known as the Pasteur Effect.

4. Yeast – The Secret Ingredient

Brewer’s Yeast Species

There are over 1,500 different species of yeast. In beer we are mainly concerned with two species of yeast: Saccharomyces Cerevisiae (Ale Yeast) and Saccharomyces Pastorianus (Lager Yeast.) There are other classes of yeast used in brewing, but I’ll save those for another day.

Let’s get a little more familiar with these two classes of microorganisms and their contributions to your glass of beer before we get into their role at the brewery.

Saccharomyces Cerevisiae (Ale Yeast)•Ale Yeast is the oldest form of brewing yeast. Chemical traces of wild ale yeast have been found in 7,000 year old pottery from ancient Mesopotamia.•Ale yeast is a top fermenting yeast. Ale yeast flocculates to form foam at the top of the wort during fermentation. The foam is a result of ale yeast being hydrophobic and clinging to CO2 molecules that rise to the top of the fermentation vessel.•Ale yeast enjoy fermenting in warm temperatures, between 60-75 Degrees Fahrenheit.•Some ale yeasts produce aromatic fruity esters and other chemical byproducts. Those esters and byproducts add diversity to the aromatic and flavor profile of your ale.•Ale yeasts are responsible for the production of Ale Style Beers, which a majority of Craft Beers are classified as.•Ale yeast can provide strong, assertive, and robust taste profiles.

Saccharomyces Pastorianus (Lager Yeast)•Lager Yeast is a newer form of brewing yeast, with first traces of Lager Yeast being used in the 14th century. Lager Yeast is a hybrid of two separate species of yeast, one of which originated in Patagonia.

•Lager yeast is as a known as bottom fermenting yeast because they take longer to ferment, create less surface foam, and naturally settle at the bottom of the fermentation vessel.•Lager yeast enjoy fermenting in cool temperatures, between 40-55 Degrees Fahrenheit.•Lager yeast fermentation is much slower than ale yeast, with some lager beers fermenting for months.•Lager yeasts are responsible for the production of Lager Style Beers, which is the most consumed style(s) of beer in the world.•Lager yeast provides smooth, crisp, and subtle taste profiles.

Yeast at the Brewery

Without yeast there would be no alcohol in beer. It doesn’t matter if a brewer is using an ale or lager yeast, they will both produce alcohol, carbonation, and other byproducts in the final product. The amount of alcohol, carbonation, and by-products produced by the yeast will vary due to many factors: strain of yeast, wort strength, temperature, time, etc. Brewer’s Yeast isn’t used in a brewery until fermentation.

Beer Fermentation

Beer fermentation is a complicated metabolic process that occurs when yeast is pitched into cooled wort. The yeast converts the fermentable sugars in the wort to alcohol, carbonation (CO2), and other byproducts. There are three primary fermentation methods. These 3 methods are determined by the species of brewing yeast used in fermentation.

3 Primary Fermentation Methods

Warm Fermentation occurs when ale yeast is pitched to the cooled wort and the temperature of the fermentation vessel is 60-75 Degrees Fahrenheit. Warm fermentation is a rather quick process when compared to cool or spontaneous/wild fermentation. Some warm fermented beers can be ready within 21 days of primary fermentation.

Cool Fermentation occurs when lager yeast is pitched to the cooled wort and the temperature of the fermentation vessel is 40-55 Degrees Fahrenheit. Lagers take longer to ferment and the cooler the fermentation vessel the longer the fermentation time.

Spontaneous/Wild Fermentation occurs when the wort is exposed to wild yeast and bacteria. This fermentation process is not always deliberate and timed. In some cases Spontaneous/Wild fermentation could take years to produce a final product.

As I mentioned earlier beer is a delicate substance, and so is yeast. If you keep beer too hot or too cold you will cause irreparable damage. Keep beer for too long and you can destroy delicate flavors profiles, and be left with a beer full of snowflakes or off flavors. If yeast is pitched into boiling wort, it will die. If yeast is pitched into too cold of a wort, you may never jump start primary fermentation. And just like beer, if yeast sticks around too long, it will create off flavors in your beer that will ruin your drinking experience.

Brewer’s yeast is a peculiar little microorganism, which can impart more than alcohol or carbonation to your beer. Some of these by products are desired, think of the banana smell from a German Hefeweizen. Other yeast by products are not desired, like the smell of rubber or Band-Aids.

Yeast is the last major ingredient that is added in the standard brewing process. Sometimes all of the right ingredients can be put in place, but if yeast doesn’t act accordingly during fermentation nothing else matters and the batch of beer is ruined.

Those are beer’s 4 main ingredients: Water, Barley (Malt), Hops, and Yeast. But there is another common ingredient in beer, adjuncts.

The word adjuncts, just sounds downright dirty.

But it’s not.

5. Adjuncts – The Supplement in BeerAdjuncts have been a part of beer for thousands of years. Today however, adjuncts get a bad rap from many home brewers and small batch craft brewers because they feel adjuncts are unworthy additions to their beers. This negative outlook on adjuncts is tied to the “Reinheitsgebot,” a German Purity Law that was put in place in 1516. The Reinheitsgebot forbid the use of anything other than Water, Barley, and Hops (yeast had yet to be discovered) in the production of beer. Old brewing laws beer, just like old habits, are tough to kick.

Beer Adjuncts are difficult to pigeonhole, because not everyone defines them the same way. For the sake of simplicity: Beer Adjuncts are any source of starch (sugar) or additional ingredient which provide sugars but is not malted barley.

When it comes to brewing beer, adjuncts serve a variety of purposes:

•Enhance one of more characteristics of the four essential ingredients.•Add unique flavors and aromas to your beer that the four essential ingredients lack.•Improve mouthfeel, head retention, clarity, and finish.•Increase the amount of sugar in the wort.•Alter the way the beer ferments.•Cut costs•Add nutritional valueThere are 2 physical forms of adjuncts, liquid and solid and either of those two can be added to the kettle or to the mash.

The most popular adjuncts used in the brewing process:

•Grains that are not malted barley (unmalted barley, wheat, oats, rice, grits, corn, etc.)•Additional sugars (candied sugar, sucrose, dextrose, syrups)•Fruits or vegetables•Malt Extracts

In addition to the four main ingredients in beer, adjuncts have brought complexity to many beers today, and they are responsible for many historical styles from Belgium and the United States.

Some craft brewers frown upon adjuncts like corn or rice, because they feel they cheapen the beer drinking experience. Other craft brewers are adjunct addicts, throwing everything and the kitchen sink into their robust and status quo challenging beers.

Each one of beer’s ingredients play a distinct role in your glass of beer. Depending on the style of the beer your drinking, one ingredient may be more overpowering than another. The best beers in the world have a tendency for each one of the ingredients to play a supporting role, where the beer as a whole is the superstar and not just one ingredient.

What is the most balanced and out of balance beers you’ve ever experienced?

http://beersalesblog.com/beer-ingredients-101/

I appreciate you taking the time to read this article. If you found any of this information useful pass this document along to a friend or two or ten.

Arthur Palac

The Final Sip

Stay Connected