How Beer is Made

One of my viewers on YouTube made a request that I make a video article series on how beer is made. I figured that this would be a fun adventure and that it would also make a great article for the blog, which hasn't received an update for a while (sorry guys!). So without further adieu, let me go into the process on how beer is made. There are four key processes that I will be highlighting for you, and they are malting, brewing, hopping, and fermenting (yeast).

Malting

Barley is the most common malted grain.

Malting is the process of beginning the germination of grains, and then halting the process through drying or baking. The main grain that is used for the production of beer is barley. Other grains can be malted as well, such as wheat, corn, rye, and oats. The grain that will be used for the beer is soaked in water long enough for the grains to begin to germinate, or sprout. This causes enzymes to develop in the process that break the starches in the grains down into sugar- something that is critical later on in the brewing process.

There are two common methods of malting. The first method is called floor malting. The grains are literally spread out on a floor and soaked to germinate. The second method is the most common, called pneumatic malting. In pneumatic malting the environment is controlled and the process usually takes place inside tanks or drums. In both processes, the grains are soaked and watched carefully until they begin to sprout. Once they begin to sprout, they are removed from the water and begin the second part of the malting process- drying.

As I mentioned in my Origin of Beer article, early man would eat barley sprouts that had been dried out, due to the fact that they were sweet and easier on the digestive system than raw grains. It was when these grains were re-submersed in water and combined with yeast that the first natural beer was born. The drying process today usually occurs in a kiln, otherwise known as a large oven, where the germinated grains are cooked long enough to dry. Some beers use roasted malt, which is cooked longer and roasted to bring out darker colors in beer along with a more distinctive caramel flavor.

Once the malt is dried out in the manner appropriate to the style of beer that it is to be used for, it is then stored to be used for the brewing process. When it comes time to brew the beer, the brewer weighs out the amount of grain that is going to be used for the recipe and then sends it through a malt mill that cracks the grain, turning it into grist. Grist is defined as a grain that has been separated from its chaff. This grain is collected in a grist case, which has a valve at the bottom. When the valve is opened, the grist drops into the mash tun, where it will become mash.

Brewing

The mash tun is where the grist is mixed with water and heated

Mash is produced in a mash tun, which is a large container, usually made with copper or stainless steel. This container has a bottom that has a strainer that is used to catch the remainder of the grist after it has been used. The entire point of mashing is to convert starches into sugars that can be fermented. The grist is mixed with water and then heated up to controlled temperatures, which usually vary depending on the style of the beer that is desired. During this heating period, enzymes are activated that help in the conversion of starch to the desired fermentable sugars.

There are several ways of mashing that revolve directly around the temperatures used and the consistency of those temperatures. In some cases the mash is kept at the same temperature the entire way through the process. Some mashing involves multiple temperature changes, and in most lagers, a portion of the mash is drained, boiled, and then returned to the main mash. When the mashing is completed, the liquid, which is now known as wort, is removed and the remaining grains, or grist, is strained and kept out of the wort.

The lauter tun is where the grains are rinsed after mashing

The grain is rinsed at this point to remove as much sugar that remains as possible, which is a part of the wort. This process is called sparging, and is done in a lauter tun. Once all of the wort is collected, it is then moved to a brew kettle. It is in the brew kettle that the wort is then boiled; usually for one to two hours. It is during this boil that hops are introduced to the wort. Now, the stage of the boil that the hops are added is critical to the character of the beer. Adding hops early on will result in a much heavier bitterness in the beer, but a lot less hop flavor. Adding the hops late in the boil will give more flavor and aroma, but usually result in less bitterness. Some brewers add hops at multiple points throughout the boil.

Hops

Hops are the flower clusters of a plant that is closely related to hemp, believe it or not. They are used for flavor and as a stability agent for beer, but have other herbal and medicinal purposes that I will not go into. Different varieties of hops are usually associated with different styles and regions of beer. Pale ales are usually brewed with European noble hop varieties such as Saaz, Hallertau and Strissel Spalt. British ales are usually brewed with Fuggles, Goldings and Bullion hops and North American beers tend to use Cascade, Columbus, Centennial, Willamette and Amarillo hops. There are many other varieties of hops, but I do not have the time or space to go into every single one of them in detail.

Hops were first added to beer to sterilize it and keep it fresh

Noble hops are generally used for their ability to add aroma, while not adding much bitterness, which is a characteristic of the pale ale. Fuggles and Bullion hops tend to add much more bitterness and earthy flavors to beer while the Goldings hops add more sweetness in British style beers. In North America, the three most popular types of hops are classified as the "Three Cs", which are Cascade, Columbus, and Centennial. These three hop varieties all give a strong citrus or grapefruit aroma, while the Columbus variety is slightly woody.

Most hops are dried in an ousthouse before they are used during the brewing process. Some "wet hops" are used in certain beers, but it is not very common. Depending on the style of the beer, the hops are added at different stages of the boil. Once the boil is completed, the hops themselves are strained out of the hopped wort, which is sent into a wort chiller that rapidly decreases the temperature of the wort to about eighty degrees farenheit. Now the wort is ready to be fermented.

Yeast

The type of yeast used to ferment the wort is the main determining factor for whether the resulting beer is of the lager class (lagers, pilsners) or the ale class (Ales, Stouts, Porters, etc). There are some exceptions to the rule, but for the most part if a top fermenting yeast is used, it will result in the production of an ale, and if a bottom fermenting yeast is used, it will result in the production of a lager. The most common top fermenting yeast is known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which has been used in baking as well as beer brewing for thousands of years. Most yeasts used in beer production are related to Saccharomyces cerevisiae in some manner- usually via crossbreeding Saccharomyces cerevisiae with another yeast.

The adding of the yeast to the wort is calling "pitching the yeast" and is done in a fermenter. The temperature is also important in the fermenting process as lager yeasts are able to ferment at forty degrees where ale yeasts go dormant. Ales are therefore fermented at warmer temperatures than lagers, and a lot of their fruity flavors come when the wort ferments at seventy degrees, where "fruity esters" are released into the wort. The initial fermentation stage lasts three to seven days, and lagers are kept in cold storage usually for several weeks. Ales typically have a shorter fermentation period.

Saccharomyces uvarum is the most commonly used bottom fermenting yeast, which produces a lager. Saccharomyces uvarum is the cross between Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces monocensis. This yeast is able to ferment at much colder temperatures than Saccharomyces cerevisiae and doesn't produce the foam on top of the wort that a top fermenting yeast typically does during fermentation. The selection of yeast and fermenting temperature is extremely important to the production of a beer, as the same recipe can be used twice, and if it is top fermented in one case and bottom fermented in another, each beer will be uniquely different.

During the first stage of fermentation is when the yeast goes to work eating the fermentable sugars in the wort. The result of the consumption of sugar is the release of alcohol and carbon dioxide, which carbonates the beer naturally. During secondary fermentation the yeast that has collected at the bottom of the fermenting tank is removed. The remaining yeast then precipitates out of suspension and the beer matures.

Bottling Time!

Once the beer has matured, it is usually filtered. In some cases, especially in the brewing of wheat beers, the beer is actually bottled without any filtering at all, but any beer that you can see through has typically been filtered. Unfiltered beers usually have a cloudy or hazy look as the yeast and other particles that have remained in the beer remain. The beer is then transferred to bottles, cans, casks, kegs, or whatever other containers are used. And finally it is delivered to the drinker, who without really thinking about the long journey that their beverage has gone through, opens it up and enjoys it. But then, that is the part that you care most about anyway, isn't it?

Thanks for reading, and I will be posting the video series on YouTube that matches this article over the course of this week. You guys keep drinking good beer!

The History of Wheat Beers

As you may have noticed, I have had the tendency to review quite a few wheat beers.  In the poll I placed on this blog, wheat beer is also showing itself as the steadfast favorite of the readers, and many people request reviews of wheat beers on a consistent basis.  However, wheat beer has not been as popular as it is today for quite some time, despite being one of the oldest styles of beer in our history, as well as being the beer most similar to the original beer that I mention in my article, The Origin of Beer.  So, today I am going to go back in history and detail the rollercoaster ride that wheat beer has gone through, and all of the obstacles that had almost wiped this style off of the face of the Earth.

The wheat didn't fall far from the beer tree

There are a number of different kinds of wheat beer, but they pretty much all fall into two categories (with a couple exceptions).  These categories are mainly separated by region; the historical witbier comes from the Brussels area in Belgium and the historical weissbier comes from Germany.  The most renowned of the weissbiers is the hefeweizen, which is a term for wheat beer in its natural, unfiltered form.  The origin of wheat beer itself, however, comes from Babylon, around the year 2000 BC.  The Babylonian god, Marduk, was the beer brewing god and wielded a pickaxe, which became the earliest known brewer's emblem.  This god brewed and drank a beer that combined wheat mash with barley mash in the brewing process.  If you would note, Babylon occupied the same area that the Mesopotamians occupied, which could be why this wheat beer was so similar to the first beer ever created.

Germanic Tribes helped the spread of weissbier

As I highlighted in the Origin of Beer, beer existed in Egypt at this point as well, with the first recorded evidence of a brewery being written on a clay tablet that dated back to 1600 BC.  It is believed that the Egyptians also brewed wheat beer during this time period.  By 800 BC, wheat beer had begun to be brewed on German soil.  Evidence shows that the style survived and continued to thrive during the time of Christ, with the Romans referring to the weissbier as a "drink of savages".  Weissbier would continue to be a choice of refreshment among the Germanic tribes for a long time to come, with several famines causing the beer to fade away as wheat was deemed needed for bread instead of beer, followed by the beer returning to relevance once wheat became more available.

The first beer brewery in Munich arrived in 815.  However, food shortages and other political events made it extremely hard for many of the brewers to establish themselves, and wheat beer almost died away.  In 1363 we find the first evidence of the "brewery near the Franciscans", which was on the opposite corner of a Franciscan monastery.  This is where the name "Franziskaner" comes from.  Franziskaner is the oldest privately owned brewery in Munich, still brewing wheat beer to this day.

The Bavarian Purity Law

Meanwhile, wheat beer is not documented in Belgium until 1445, east of Brussels.  The witbier became extremely popular throughout the 1500s, and separated itself from the flock with the use of coriander and orange peel in the brewing process.  However, while the witbier was flourishing in the 1500s, the weissbier ran into some troubles.  In 1516, Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria issued the Bavarian Purity Law, which outlaws any beers brewed with anything other than malt, hops, and water.  Although wheat can be used in malt form, the new law severely limits weissbier by not allowing the use of yeast.  With weissbier already struggling, a near fatal blow is dealt in 1567 when Duke Albrecht IV of Bavaria declares that weissbier is unhealthy and outlaws it entirely.

During the struggles that weissbier endured in the 1500s, witbier continued to remain popular in other areas.  Almost as if on opposite sides of a swinging pendulum, the two styles of beer continued to flourish and flounder while the other style was doing the opposite.  In 1602, Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria placed all of the weissbier breweries under state ownership after determining that not only is weissbier safe, but it is refreshing.  This is actually a move that was performed to balance the budget, and due to violation of the Bavarian Purity Law, Duke Maximillion I agreed to pay a fine to the chamber of representatives.  As weissbier made its return, witbier began to fade away once again, this time fading almost into extinction through famines, wars, and the great movement toward lagers in the 1900s.

The town of Hoegaarden now holds a piece of beer history

Weissbier suffered a similar decline as people in the area began to move to brown ale and other dark beers.  In 1798, Prince-Elector Theodore of Bavaria suspended the state ownership of weissbier breweries, as they were no longer profitable to the state.  Although weissbier had a much longer heritage than witbier and more periods of prosperity, it would be the witbier style that would eventually allow wheat beers to flourish once again.  In 1966, a man by the name of Pierre Celis established the De Kluis Brewery next to his home in a small Belgian town called Hoegaarden.  This man would later be known as one of the greatest and most influential minds in modern brewing, and his product would set the industry standard for Belgian Style witbiers.

Wheat beer is yummy!

The resurgance of witbier on the world scale brought attention back to the German weissbier as well, allowing breweries such as Franziskaner to begin to flourish once again.  Since then, the Belgian and German recipes have been imitated or replicated in many other countries, including the United States with the most notable names being Blue Moon, Leinenkugel's and Sam Adams.  Mainstream macrobreweries have also presented their own renditions of wheat beer as well, such as the new Bud Light Golden Wheat.  Despite the rough patches in the history of wheat beers, we all can be thankful that this style of beer has pulled through to remain with us today.  The sweet, spiced, and crisp qualities of a witbier and the clean, smooth, sweet taste in a weissbier will forever remain a refreshment on a sunny summer day.

So, now that you know the history of wheat beers, perhaps when you are enjoying one; perhaps you already are even as you are reading this, (if you are smart, and can read and drink wheat beer at the same time that is) now you can appreciate the great heritage and tradition that has brought that beer into your glass.  Or perhaps you don't really care about that and just want a good beer- and have found just that in your hefeweizen glass.  Either way, thanks for reading and keep drinking good beer!

The History of Coors

It was a typical fall day in Golden, Colorado.  People going about their business on November 14, 1873 hadn't the faintest idea of what was being born in the now abandoned Golden City Tannery.  German immigrant Adolph Herman Joseph Coors invested $2,000 to go in with Jacob Schueler on a venture that would change the world of beer in America as we know it.  This is the story of Coors, The third largest beer brewer in the United States, and now a regional division of the fifth largest brewing company in the entire world.  Above all things, Coors is known for their creation and operation of the single largest brewing facility in the entire world.

Adolph Kuhrs was born in northwestern Germany

Adolph Kurhs was born on February 4, 1847 in Barmen, Prussia which is now part of Germany.  At the age of 15, both of his parents died, leaving him orphaned.  He was an apprentice for a brewery owned by Henry Wenker at the time and completed his apprenticeship to become a paid employee of the Wenker Brewery in Dortmund.  He continued to work for the Wenker Brewery until May of 1867.  He then worked for three breweries in Kassel, Berlin, and Uelzen to finish out the year.

Early the next year, Adolph Kuhrs immigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City.  He then made his way to Chicago, IL where he arrived on May 30, 1868.  His name changed from Adolph Kuhrs to Coors when he arrived in the States, a name that would live in fame in centuries to come.  Coors never forgot his origins, always finding himself in a brewery.  In the spring of 1868, he would work as a laborer, but in the summertime, he worked as a brewer.  During the fall and winter, he worked as a fireman, loading coal into the firebox of a steam engine. 

Naperville was home to Coors for 4 years

During the spring and summer of 1869, Adolph became an apprentice bricklayer and stone cutter but returned to brewing once again on August 11, of the same year when he became the foreman of John Stenger's Brewery in Naperville (Naperville is the neighboring town to me, so I literally live down the street from beer history!).  His tenure at Stenger's Brewery had been his longest at any job he had had in the United States to that point, but on January 22, 1872, Adolph Coors submitted his resignation and began his journey west.

After a couple of gigs in Denver, Colorado, Adolph finally began what would root him into the profession he had always known- for the rest of his life.  He paid $2,000 against the $18,000 investment of Jospeh Schueler to found the Schueler & Coors company on November 14, 1873.  The once defunct Golden City Tannery had been converted to brew beer, and the company sold its first beer in February of 1874.  Six years later, Adolph Coors purchased Schueler's interest in the company, renaming it the Adolph Coors Company.

The Origin of Beer

The beer industry is a mammoth of production, producing the third most consumed beverage in the world.  Over 35 billion gallons of beer are enjoyed per year, and the industry experiences over $294 billion in annual revenues.  Water and tea are the only beverages that have managed to top beer in consumption, and I suppose that has to do with children not being allowed to drink alcoholic substances...

But the question of the day is this- where did this wonderful elixir have its humble beginnings?  Surely beer could not have simply appeared out of nowhere; or could it have?  Today, I invite you to join me in a thrill ride full of inquiry, laughs, and discovery, as I present to you- The Origin of Beer.

Many people imagine the invention of beer as some dude sitting around in his house and throwing a bunch of ingredients together, letting it ferment and then enjoying the result.  This is not how it happened.  11,000 years ago, in ancient Mesopotamia, humanity was made up of hunter-gatherers who had probably just learned how to create fire.  There were no roads, irrigation, chariots, catapults, or any real primitive technologies at all at this point.  These people didn't even know how to make bread.

Basically, these people were as ignorant as they come and without fate, our entire civilization would not have advanced.  Without the magical elixir known as beer, you would not have your cell phone, your laptop computer or your I-Pod.  And we feeble humans couldn't even create this magical elixer on our own either...