Friday, October 4, 2024
HomeFood & DrinksHow Is Beer Made? The Basics Explained

How Is Beer Made? The Basics Explained

Did you know on Super Bowl Sunday, around 5 million gallons of beer were consumed in America? As you can tell Americans love their beer and football. Starting a brewery might be a good investment.

Now you might be wondering how is beer made? Well, you’ll need to get a few ingredients and follow a few steps.

Keep reading if you’re ready to learn how to make beer!

Ingredients

There are four main ingredients in beer: wheat, hops, yeast, and water. Each ingredient plays a specific role in the creation of a perfect beer.

Barley is the most common grain used in the beer process but some use corn, rice, or wheat. Breweries use hops, a type of flower, for their acid and bitterness.

Where the flower is from and how much of it is added determines the bitterness of the beer. The type of yeast that’s used determines the different types of beer. Yeast is a vital part, it starts the fermentation process of turning sugar into alcohol.

Brewing Process

Step 1: Malting

Take your grain and let it soak in water for a few days. Then transfer it into a tub with constant stirring.

This will allow the grain to turn into sugar which is needed for the fermentation process. You can browse here for equipment to help with this process.

The grain turns to the malt with the next step which is roasting the grain. Roasting it determines the beer’s color and taste. The longer you roast it the darker the beer will be.

You’ll then add hot water to get mash. You’ll bake it at high heat and then filter it, to get what’s called wort.

Step 2: Brewing

Now it’s time to brew, you’re going to boil the wort and add in the hops. How bitter you want it will determine how much hops you add but won’t need much.

Step 3: Fermenatation

How is beer made? By turning sugar into alcohol. This process takes a bit longer than the previous ones.

The amount of yeast you need to add is determined by the temperature and the amount of wort you have. The fermentation process can take 3 to 10 days depending on the temperature. A lager beer that has lower alcohol levels will take longer than an ale with a higher alcohol content.

Step 4: Maturing and Packaging

After the fermentation the beer won’t taste very good, it needs time to mature. You’ll store your beer for a few weeks to a few months.

When the beer is ready to drink you’ll bottle it and ship it out. Or keep it for yourself.

How is Beer Made

It may seem like a similar process but it takes time, trial, and error to perfect the beer-making process. Have some patience and soon everyone will be asking you, “how is beer made?”.

If you found this article helpful, check out our page for more tips and tricks.

RELATED ARTICLES

Most Popular

Recent Comments