BEER 101 MALT HOPS WATER

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1 BEER 101 Beer in its most basic form is carbonated alcoholic beverage made from fermented grains. It is primarily made up of four key ingredients: malt, hops, water, and yeast. MALT Malt is the basis for all the color, alcohol content, viscosity, carbonation, and subsequent mouthfeel of beer. Malts are cereal grains that have gone through the malting process or, more simply, malting. Malting starts out with a germination process. The cereal grains (most frequently barley, but rye and other grains are used) are soaked in water and allowed to just begin to sprout during the malting process. The growing process is immediately halted as soon as the cereal grain sprouts by a quick drying. This process allows the starch that exists in the seed to be usable as a fermentable sugar. During the brewing process, yeast consumes that sugar, and the byproducts of that process are carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), or carbonation (beer bubbles), and alcohol. Once the grain is dried, it is roasted or baked or smoked or kilned to every degree of lightness or darkness under the sun, from the palest of pale to the deepest black malt. The color to which the malt has been roasted (and the combination of the colors of malt) is solely responsible for the color of that beer. (The color of the beer has nothing whatsoever to do with the strength, alcohol content, bitterness, or heaviness of that beer. Just because beer is dark in color does not mean that it is heavy or bitter. Judging a beer by its color is like judging a book by its cover.) The amount of malt used, in conjunction with the amount of yeast used, is solely responsible for the alcohol content and carbonation of that beer. HOPS Hops are the female flowering cones of the vining hop plant: scientific name Humulus lupulus. Hops look like delicate, tiny green pinecones and are in the family Cannabaceae, which also includes the genus cannabis (which explains why sometimes the nose on a beer smells a lot like marijuana). Hops come in many varieties and can easily dominate the flavor and aroma of beer and can range from flowery to quite bitter. WATER Water type and quality are very important in the brewing of beer. The use of hard or soft water affects the flavor of beer in the same way that it affects any beverage, such as coffee or tea. YEAST Yeast is a living organism, which forms colonies of single, simple cells. Officially, scientists call this organism a fungus. Yeasts are hungry little buggers who are responsible for eating" fermentable sugars, producing CO 2 (beer bubbles) and alcohol. The yeast you are probably familiar with is bread yeast, which has been specifically cultured to make bread and not beer. Beer yeast (scientific name Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is specifically cultured for the fermentation of beer. Some bread recipes do call for brewer s yeast, but if you try to use bread yeast for beer, you will be disappointed with the results. And brewer s yeast that you can find at a health food store is inactive and is to be consumed for its high protein and vitamin B content. If you use either of these in beer making, fermentation would not take place, and there would be no alcohol. FERMENTATION Fermentation is where the magic happens. In beer, fermentation is when yeast consumes the sugar provided by the malt and creates the byproducts alcohol and CO 2. Thus, fermentation is what makes beer beer. Carbonation, technically, is CO 2 dissolved in liquid. It's what gives beer its bubbly effervescence and plays a

2 big part in the balance of beer. The head on a beer is just the CO 2 being released from that beer. The carbonation bubbles become the vehicles in which the aromatics of the beer ride from the glass to your nose. ALE VS. LAGER All beers fall into one of two categories: ale or lager. Most people don't know the difference between the two and use the terms interchangeably. An ale is a beer that uses yeast that has been cultured to ferment at the top of the fermentation vessel at high temperatures (60 F to 75 F), resulting in a quick fermentation period (seven to eight days or less). Ale yeasts are generally known to produce fairly big flavors (there are exceptions). You'll often get a lot of aromatics from the whiff of an ale. Ales tend to have more residual sugar (the sugar that has not been consumed by the yeast during the fermentation process). Because of their much faster fermentation time, ales tend to be more frequently brewed by craft brewers than are lagers. The word lager comes from the German word meaning to store." A lager is a beer that uses yeast strains that are cultured to ferment at the bottom of the fermentation vessel at low temperatures (34 F to 50 F), resulting in a long fermentation time (weeks to months). Lager yeast produces fewer byproduct characters than does ale yeast, which tends to create a cleaner, crisper taste (there are exceptions). Remember that the color of a beer tells you nothing about whether the beer is an ale or a lager. The type of beer has everything to do with the process by which it was fermented. You can have a very light-colored, light alcohol content, nuanced, bright, and crisp ale. Likewise, you can have a very dark, high alcohol content, viscous, sweet, and malty lager. INGREDIENTS TRANSLATED INTO TASTE MALT IN TRANSLATION There are several ways to see, taste, and feel malt in beer. First and foremost, malt is reflected in the color of the beer, but the malt can also give off different flavors. When you look at a very light-colored beer, you might determine that you'll taste bready and biscuity qualities that exist in the very pale malts that were used during brewing. If you're looking at a very dark beer, you might expect chocolate, coffee, and roasted notes that are often present in very dark colored malts. (This does not mean you can judge a beers and higher flavor profile by its color. The type of malt is a hint about the flavor notes. You may taste the does not tell you about the yeast or hop aspect, so tasting is still important.) Many people will describe certain beers is malty. What does that mean? Usually they are not referring to the qualities that come from the roasted malt. They are usually talking about the residual sugars and additional alcohol content that can remain in beer and an especially large amount of malt is used in the brew. This results in a prominent sweetness of flavor and a viscosity and heat in the mouthfeel. When people first start drinking beer, they are usually drawn to much darker, maltier styles because they favor the sweet familiar flavors of chocolate, hazelnut, coffee, and toffee, that these beers often in part on the palate, rather than the bitter styles that come from highly hopped beers, which are often an acquired taste. TRUE HOPPINESS You cannot tell how bitter the beer is by looking at it is. Hops are totally invisible in a finished beer (this is part of why you can't determine a beer s taste just by looking at it). After the hops qualities are extracted through boiling and steaming, the actual hop cones are strained out of the beer. If the beer tastes in any way bitter, if the beer feels in any way dry, or if the beer causes you to feel astringency on your tongue, you are tasting the hops. As true dryness in a beverage technically means having a lack of sugar, there is not actually dry (sugar exists in the malt), but the tannins in the hops can contribute a balancing dry feeling that is essential to great beer. Hops also provide major aromatics in beer, and sometimes hops are added only to provide aromatics. These amazing aromas can range from pine tree, grass, citrus, herbs de Provence, and hops close relation, marijuana. Hops

3 also act as a preservative in beer, due to their antimicrobial properties, which help keep the beer stable. Some brewers like to go further than that balance and create a bold, hop-driven beer, in which the bitterness is dominant. This can often taste like a wet pine tree married with notes of citrus. New beer drinkers are often initially turned off by this bitter, aggressive flavor, as their palates grow, they find they crave that bite of hops, just as one craves a sharp shot of espresso. In fact, some people have become so addicted to the hop experience that they have sparked a movement in the craft beer world to push hop bitterness to the extreme. These "hopheads" are on a beer-quest to find the most intense hop experience out there. WHY WATER MATTERS IN BEER Since beer is about 90% water, just as we are, its origin and makeup play a major role in a beer s ultimate flavor and texture. Whether the water source for beer is hard, containing a lot of minerals, or soft, containing fewer minerals, will greatly affect the character and style of that beer. Minerals found in hard water, like calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, and sulfates, can play an important role in the brewing process and can enhance dry and sharp flavors. Soft water, however, lacks the minerals and is, therefore, generally better for beers with lighter, more nuanced flavors. In the craft beer world, brewers are considered more honest if they use local water sources. Different regions have water with different mineral components. As a result, different regions are better suited to making certain types of beer. For example, Dublin has a type of hard water that is perfect for making the thick, chalky, dark stout for which the Irish are famous. Plzen (or Pilsen) in the Czech Republic has very soft water that produces a nuanced subtleness in a beer called Pilsner. Overall, there are over a dozen compounds found in water that are significant factors in what that final beer will taste like, so the source of water in each specific beer is of vital importance. DETERMINING YEAST IN BEER Crisp, clean beer styles benefit from a fine filtration process which either physically or chemically filters the yeast out of a finished beer. Some beer styles, however, are not served by having the yeast removed. For example, Belgian and German specialty wheat beers use specific types of yeast that impart very complex flavors. Not only is there a fuller, rounder mouth feel that the unfiltered yeast provides many additional flavors and aromatics in the form of esters. Esters are the chemical compounds that yeast emits in beer. There are many different combinations of esters but simply put, they are chemical compounds that are brain perceives as pleasant flavors and aromas. Brewers can choose these flavors and aromas based on the yeast strain they use. For instance, Hefeweizen yeast gives off banana and clove esters. Esters can be fruity like pears, strawberries, plums, and figs; they can be spicy like cloves, nutmeg, and pepper; they can be flowery like geranium and jasmine; and they can be herbaceous like sage and lavender. These are flavors you want hanging out in a wheat beer. ADJUNCTS AND FLAVORINGS Sometimes a brewer wants to add something to the mix that is not a basic ingredient. These are called adjuncts and flavorings. This is a big trend in brewing in America today and makes beer one of the most diverse and interesting beverages on earth. Adjuncts are unmalted grains that are added as a supplement to malted barley. These may be used to provide more sugar or to add a specific mouth feel or flavor. Flavorings are any herb, spice, flower, and so on that are added to lend a specific flavor to the brew. Here are some examples of ingredients that might be added by creative brewers: Adjuncts: oats, rice, rye, corn, candy, sugar (often used in Belgian beers and parentheses, and wheat are all common adjuncts used produce anything from a richer flavor to a specific mouth feel or head retention. Flavorings: fruits (cherry, curaçao orange peels, juniper berry, peach, apple, currant, raisin, strawberry) have been used to enhance beer, and herbs, spices, and other crazy stuff (sage, chamomile, coriander, clove, nutmeg,

4 rosemary, chilies, chocolate, coffee, honey, molasses, nut extracts, spruce tips) have been used as additional flavorings in beer. There are some purists, however, who don't agree with this type of beer making. The Germans are among the brewers to disapprove of the addition of anything other than the original for ingredients--malt, hops, water, and yeast--to make their beer. BEER STYLES Most every beer is given a name based on its general flavor profile, its origin and history, or both. This name is known as the beer's style. The style is usually the first thing you know about a beer, as it is often on the label, so it's helpful to understand the attributes of the various beer styles. In addition to the categorization of ales and lagers, beer is further broken down into styles. Beers are categorized on the basis of historical tradition, ingredients, and sensory characteristics. According to the Beer Judge Certification Program, which is highly respected in the beer world and the go to for beer style guidelines, flavors that are most important to a beer style art type and strength of malt, yeast strain, strength of bitterness, and type and strength of hops. Aromatics that are most important to a beer style include strength and type of malt aroma, strength and type of hop aroma, and yeast. Esther aroma. The feel of the beer in the mouth, from the thickness of the liquid to the amount of prickliness from the carbonation, are also important factors in determining a beer style. The visual characteristics that are most important to a beer style are color, clarity, and the nature of the head (for example, the thickness). There are many variations of each particular style, and each firm makes his or her own version of specific styles, but knowing a beer's style gives you a general idea of what to expect. Here are some examples of common beer styles: AMERICAN ALL-MALT LAGER: The designation "all-malt lager" means that no adjuncts were used. Though pale in color, these beers will display a broad depth of flavor and a more complex bitterness than the industrialized mass-produced lagers permitted during football games. PILSNER: A type of lager named after the city in which it was created, Plsen, Bohemia (in what is now the Czech Republic). The beer is crisp, clear, and light straw to golden in color, finishing clean and dry. PALE ALE: a type of English ale that is usually better (hoppy) and higher in alcohol content than your average Pilsner. INDIA PALE ALE (IPA): a beer created by British birders who were sending their pale ales to India. They found that the ales were going bad on the long journey, so they added more alcohol and hops to help preserve them, creating a bigger brew. IPAs today are generally bitter and higher in alcohol than a Pale Ale. WHEAT BEER: simply put, and ale or lager brewed with a portion of malted wheat in the mash. There are two common types of wheat beers: Hefeweizen (light, fruity, unfiltered wheat beer) and Dunkleweizen (darker unfiltered wheat beer). WITBIER: A Belgian-style ale that's very pale in color, but cloudy in appearance, both because it is unfiltered (meaning the yeast has been kept in) and because a high level of wheat and sometimes oats are used in the brewing process. These beers are spiced, often with coriander, orange peel, or herbs. The crispness and slight twang comes from the wheat and the high level of carbonation. A popular style often replicated well in the United States. BROWN ALE: Brown Ales are typically rather malty and often full in body. They tend to have a nutty, toasty character, somewhat lighter notes and others with a heavy malt quality.

5 PORTER: This is a dark ale and is generally not too high in alcohol content. The name of the style comes from its popularity with the street and river porters of London in the 18th century. STOUT: Porters were so popular that the English started making Double Porters and Extra Stout Porters, which eventually became known simply as Stouts. These ales are black ales that use deeply roasted barley for their toasty character and dark color. Stouts vary greatly in alcohol content, sweetness, and bitterness. Though these attributes change from Stout to Stout, the richness of the roasted barley is a common thread. DUBBEL: A Belgian-style ale that is usually dark in color, with a dark fruit profile of figs and plums, and the spice profile of clove, nutmeg, and similar spices. Dubbels have a mild hop bitterness and are effervescent and medium to full-bodied. Dubbel refers to the use of up to twice the amount of malt used in a standard Belgian ale. TRIPEL: Tripel refers to part of the brewing process in which brewers use up to three times the amount of malt used in a standard Belgian ale. Traditionally, tripels are yellow to golden color with a dense, creamy head. The aroma and flavors are complex, often spicy, yeasty, and fruity, with a semisweet finish. Small amounts of spices and herbs are sometimes added as well. Triples are notoriously alcoholic, and the best crafted ones hide this character, so proceed with caution: sip slowly. QUADRUPEL: Inspired by the monk brewers of Belgium, a quadruple is a Belgian-style ale of great strength, bigger in flavor then it's double and triple sister styles. The colors range from deep red to brown. These ales are usually full-bodied with a rich multicharacter. They are often sweet on the pallet and rarely bitter, but the alcohol is there all the way; average alcohol by volume (ABV) range: 9% to 13%. SAISON: These are farmhouse ales that were traditionally brewed in the winter, stored, and consumed throughout the summer months. This is a complex style, and many are very fruity and spicy and aroma and flavor, with earthy yeast tones, and finishing with a tartness or sourness. They are often described as dry, making them perfect companions for food. BIЀRE DE GARDE: This ale is usually golden to deep copper to light brown in color. It is moderate to medium in body. This style of beer gives off a toasted malt aroma, sometimes with a bit of fruit in the nose and a slight malt sweetness and medium hop bitterness on the time. Earthy, cellar-like, musty aromas and flavors are possible. FRUIT BEER: any beer (ale or lager) made with fruit. The sweetness, sourness, bitterness, alcohol content, and viscosity depend on the fruit used. HERBED/SPICED BEER: this is a style of beer (ale or lager) that is specially herbed or spiced to make anything from the common spiced fall pumpkin beer to Christmas beers with nutmeg and cinnamon to ginger beers to heather ales. Brewers like to get crazy with things like hot peppers, hemp, ginseng, and spruce needles. Many of these beers will blow away your idea what a beer can be.