What’s in Your Beer? Ingredients Revealed
Do you know what you are putting into your body when you drink beer? Here is a quick list of the main ingredients in most beers:
- Water
- Malted Barley
- Hops
- Yeast
Other ingredients will change from one beer to a different beer, but could include sugar, a wide variety of flavorings, and starches. Starches are important because they are very easy to convert into fermentable sugars during the mashing process. This is important because it adds flavor and increases the alcohol content in the beer.
Water
Water seems like a rather simple ingredient that doesn’t need much explanation, but where the water comes from actually makes a pretty big difference in the final product. For instance, many of the popular beers over the years have given a lot of credit to the characteristics of the water in their local region of brewing for their flavor and texture.
This is because water from different regions and countries will have different mineral compositions. Darker beers are better when brewed with hard water, but a lighter beer will do much better with softer water.
Malt
The exact type of malt used to make a beer often depends upon what is accessible from the local area in which the beer is being brewed. Some commonly used malts today include:
- Barley
- Wheat
- Rice
- Oats
- Rye
Barley is the most frequently used malt because it is rich in a digestive enzyme called amylase. It is very efficient at turning starches into sugars, which is beneficial to beer brewing.
The malt is actually made from these grains by soaking them in water so that they are able to germinate, and then drying it back out in a kiln. Starches in the grain are converted into fermentable sugars through this process. This is what gives beer its sweet flavoring.
Hops
Hops has been used in beer since the 17th century and is known for adding the bitter taste that you often taste in beer. Different flavors of beer are created by adjusting the content of hops versus the content of malt. You can also get different flavors by using hops, ranging from a citrus scent to more herbal scents. How bitter a beer is will be measured through the International Bitterness Units scale today.
Another added benefit of using hops in beer is that it is an antibiotic that favors brewer’s yeast over microorganisms that can be harmful.
Yeast
There are different types of yeast that can be used in beer, but the most commonly used options are lager yeast and ale yeast. They are essentially tiny microorganisms which are used for fermentation during the brewing process. The type of beer being produced will determine the type of yeast chosen.
It used to be that wild and airborne yeast was used for the beer brewing process, but today there is a better understanding of how yeast works. It essentially takes the sugar produced from the grains and turns them into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Clarifying Agents
You won’t see clarifying agents listed in the ingredients of a beer because they are not required to be listed. Many beer brewers today will include at a couple of these, such as Irish moss (red algae) or Isinglas finings (fish bladders). The main concern with these ingredients not being listed on the ingredient labels is that vegetarians who wish not to eat animal byproducts may not realize they are in there!
Visit us at Beer-Junction.com for more information on home brewing and making your own beer.
Author: Larry D. Baker
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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