Basic Ingredients

Beer is comprised of four primary ingredients: Water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. The yeast eats the sugar from the malted barley and converts it into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The hops helps to mitigate bacterial growth (infection).

Malting

Malted barley is produced by getting barley wet – causing it to germinate – and then drying it out once it begins to sprout, which halts the sprouting process. During the malting process, enzymes are produced that break down starch into a simple sugar called maltose.

Mashing

In all-grain brewing, the brewer uses a process called mashing to extract the maltose. The mash is the combination of warm water and malted barley. The warm water activates the enzymes in the malt and allows them to convert the remaining starches and complex sugars to maltose. The vessel that holds the mash is called the mash tun. The  warm, malty liquid produced by mashing is called wort.

Sparging

After the mashing process has completed – typically 30-60 minutes, depending on the recipe and style – brewers typically extract additional maltose from the mash by rinsing the grains in the sparge process.

The two most common methods of sparging are the batch sparge (less efficient and common with home brewers) and the fly sparge (more efficient and common with professional brewers).

Batch Sparge

The batch sparge method is the simplest and requires the least equipment. It involves lautering (draining) the wort from the mash tun into the lauter tun (or directly into the kettle), rinsing the grains with fresh, warm water, and then draining that wort into the same or a separate vessel. The first run of wort will have more maltose than the second, which means it will have higher alcohol content after fermentation. Making two beers – one stronger and one lighter – from the same mash is known as Parti-gyle brewing.

Fly Sparge

The fly sparge method uses a pump to recirculate the wort from the bottom of the grain bed and sprinkle it over the top. This method extracts the most maltose, which yields maximum efficiency. Higher efficiency translates into increased profits for commercial breweries, which is why they prefer this method.

Extract Brewing

A common alternative to all-grain brewing is extract brewing. This variation involves using malt extract instead of mashing. Malt extract comes in either wet or dry form. The wet form has a honey-like consistency, while the dry form is a powder. Both can be added to water to make wort.

Specialty Grains

Optionally, specialty grains can be steeped in the wort during or after the mash to affect characteristics such as color, flavor, mouthfeel, head retention, astringency, and more.

Boiling

The next part of the brewing process is called the boil. The wort is transferred to the kettle and heated to boiling temperature. During the boil, which typically lasts 60-90 minutes, the brewer will add the hops and any other optional ingredients. These are called additions.

Additions

In a beer recipe, additions list the time, quantity, and ingredient (e.g.: type of hop). The time of an addition is notated as the number of minutes remaining in the boil. For example, in a 60 minute boil, a 15-minute hop addition would be added 45 minutes after the boil begins.

Early hop additions (ones added near the beginning of the boil) are typically done with bittering hops (hops whose primary purpose is to add bitterness). Conversely, late hop additions (ones added near the end of the boil) are typically done with aroma hops (hops whose primary purpose is to add aroma and/or flavor). The reason for this is because the chemical compounds that produce bitterness are gradually and continually extracted from the hops throughout the boil and do not break down, whereas the compounds that produce aromas and flavors are extracted quickly and break down quickly in high heat. Zero-minute hop additions (ones added at the end of the boil) are a good way to maximize flavor and aroma while minimizing bitterness.

Another technique for maximizing flavor and aroma is called dry hopping and it involves adding dry hops to the wort at the beginning of the fermentation process.

Chilling

After the boil, the period of time that the wort is kept hot depends on the recipe. Typically, the cooling process is started within a few minutes using a wort chiller. Home brewers typically use an immersion chiller, which is a coiled copper tube connected to a faucet or hose bib that is mostly immersed in the wort, allowing a continuous flow of cold water to remove the heat from the wort. Professional brewers (and some advanced home brewers) typically use a counterflow chiller, which pumps wort through an inner copper tube in one direction while pumping cold water through an outer tube in the opposite direction. The counterflow chiller is a much faster and more efficient method of cooling wort than the immersion chiller.

Aerating and Transferring

Once the wort has been cooled to a temperature that is suitable for the particular strain of yeast being used to innoculate the wort, the wort is aerated and transferred to the fermenter. Aerating the wort gives the yeast more oxygen, which results in a more effective fermentation. The fermenter is a sanitized vessel that can be completely sealed to prevent microbial infection while the fermentation process takes place. Home brewers typically use food-grade plastic buckets with lids or carboys. A carboy is a cylindrical vessel that narrows at the top, and is usually made of glass or other clear material.

Measuring the Original Gravity

With the wort in the fermenter, the brewer takes a sample and measures the original gravity using a hydrometer. The original gravity is a measurement of the amount of dissolved sugar in the sample prior to fermentation. This measurement will be compared with other specific gravity readings throughout the fermentation process to determine how much of the sugar has been converted to alcohol.

Pitching

After recording the original gravity, the brewer pitches the yeast. Pitching the yeast simply means adding the yeast to the wort. Then the fermenter is sealed with an airlock, which is a water-filled one-way valve that allows carbon dioxide to escape but doesn’t let anything in.

Fermentation

The fermentation typically lasts two to four weeks, depending on the recipe and style. There are two phases to the fermentation: Primary and secondary.

Primary Fermentation

The primary fermentation typically lasts 5-7 days, depending on the recipe. This is the most active phase of fermentation and is when the bulk of the maltose is converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide. During this process, it is common for solid byproducts of fermentation to accumulate at the bottom of the fermenter. This accumulation is known as the trub. In a vigorous fermentation, it is also common for solid byproducts to accumulate at the top of the fermenter. Such accumulation is called a krausen layer.

Racking

In order to remove the trub and krausen, the beer is racked to the secondary fermenter. Racking involves using a sterilized siphon and hose to gently transfer the beer to the secondary fermenter without disturbing or aerating it, and leaving behind the trub and krausen. Done correctly, the beer should have a clear (i.e., not cloudy) appearance.

Measuring the Specific Gravity

After racking, the brewer takes a second gravity reading with the hydrometer. The difference between the specific gravity and the original gravity allows the brewer to calculate the alcohol percentage.

Secondary Fermentation

Afterwards, the secondary fermenter is sealed with an airlock. The secondary fermentation typically lasts about a week, depending on the recipe. During that time, the brewer will monitor the specific gravity by taking additional readings with the hydrometer one or more days apart until there is no change between readings, indicating that the fermentation process is complete.

Final Gravity

The last gravity reading is called the final gravity. It is compared against the original gravity to help determine the percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV).

Carbonation

After the fermentation is complete, the brewer will again rack the beer. This time, it will either go into a bottling bucket or a keg, depending on whether the beer will be bottle conditioned or force carbonated.

Bottle Conditioning

Bottle conditioning takes more time than force carbonating and involves adding priming sugar and then bottling. Priming sugar is typically dextrose (corn sugar). It does not add any characteristics to the beer, but gives the dormant yeast some food so that they can produce enough carbon dioxide to carbonate the beer. The amount of priming sugar needed depends on the recipe and style of beer; more priming sugar results in more carbonation.

Bottling requires clean, sanitized bottles and caps, a bottling bucket, bottling wand, and a bottle capper. This method is the oldest way to carbonate and it produces a living beer, which means that the beer contains live yeast.

Force Carbonating

Force carbonating is the quickest way to carbonate the beer. It requires a clean, sanitized keg, a carbon dioxide tank and a regulator. Once the beer has been transferred to the keg, it is pressurized with carbon dioxide. Over time, the carbon dioxide will dissolve into the beer, thereby carbonating it. Some home brewers speed up this process by forcing the carbon dioxide through a carbonation stone, which results in very small bubbles that are more readily dissolved in the beer. Another method for rapid force carbonation is to pressurize and then agitate (shake or roll) the keg. As with bottle conditioning, the optimal level of carbonation depends on the recipe and style of beer. The desired level of carbonation can be achieved by regulating the carbon dioxide pressure.

Drinking

Once the carbonation process is complete, the beer is ready to drink. The serving temperature depends on the style of beer. For example, a stout is typically served warmer than a lager.

Now that you know what goes in to making beer, you may find yourself appreciating your next one that much more.

Cheers! 🍻