Well, as you
stare into your glass, would it surprise you that beer is the third most
popular drink in the world? Water and Tea take the two top slots (really). It
certainly would not surprise you to discover that beer is the most widely
consumed alcoholic beverage. Or that beer predates both wine and liquor to
claim the title of world's oldest alcoholic beverage.
Beer as a
beverage probably dates back on the early Neolithic era, some 11,000 years ago.
The process of brewing beer was, most likely, discovered by many cultures
independent of each other. The earliest chemical evidence of beer was found in
the Zagros Mountains in western Iran.
Brewing beer
and distributing it are referenced in some of the earliest human writings.
Remember your high school history and the "Code of Hammurabi"? If
not, that's okay. Anyway, this Babylonian code of laws was written almost 4,000
years ago and it contains rules regarding the production and distribution of
beer. Or how about this; in Mesopotamia they had a beer goddess, Ninkasi, and
one of the prayers recited to her was a recipe for beer! In fact, several years
ago, Anchor Brewing Company made a limited edition and branded it Ninkasi. The
recipe was based on a reconstruction of the original ancient one and included
twice baked bread, malt, honey and dates. Interestingly, it did not include
hops so it ended up being much sweeter than modern beers. This just proves that
those golden suds have a much more interesting history than you knew!
All beers
are classified into two main types: Pale Lagers which are the most popular
around the world, and Ales which are distinct to the region where they are
brewed. These two main types are further defined into other varieties like
stout, brown ale and pale ale. Beer is usually produced with about 4%-6%
alcohol but can contain as little as less than one percent or, rarely, over
20%!
Beer was
introduced to Europe around 5,000 years ago and was most certainly not the same
sort of beer we know today. In those days beer brewing used fruits, honey,
various types of plants, spices and even some narcotic herbs.
Notice that
hops are not on the list. The first mention of hops in the brewing of beer
comes 1,200 years ago by an Abbot (by the 7th century beer was being brewed and
sold by monasteries).
It took the
Industrial Revolution to bring beer brewing into what we would recognize today.
It was during this time that both hydrometers and thermometers were invented.
These gave the brewers much more control over the process and the ability to
predict the results. This ability to standardize results led to brewing in much
larger quantities and shipment over much wider areas.
Now, the
brewing industry spans the globe. Where there are several huge international
companies that dominate the market, there are literally thousands of small
brewers also producing beer. Here is another fun fact: in 2006 more than 35
BILLION gallons of beer were sold for about $294.5 billion dollars.
How much of that did you spend?
The traditional brewery (building containing a brew house) was built on at least three levels. This was done to allow gravity to do much of the work of moving the grain, grist, mash, wort and spent grains. It was also important that the fermenting and conditioning tanks be in cellars where the temperature was optimum for the fermenting and conditioning the beer.
Ale can be fermented and conditioned at higher temperature than Lager, but both need cool stable temperatures to produce the best product.
Grist
The first step is to crush the grain into grist. The grain is rolled between metal rollers that are set a specific distance apart so that the crushing is done without turning the grain into flour. The grain should be just crushed to allow for optimum extraction of the fermentable sugars from the grain when hot water"liquor" is added to create the "mash." The crushing also leaves the husk of the grain intact so that it can form a "bed" at the bottom of the large kettle where the mash is allowed to convert the starch in the grain into sugars and fermentable substances. This large metal container (often copper clad to efficiently distribute heat to the mash) is called the Mash Tun. When the mash is done, as much of the starch has been converted to sugars and fermentable substances, the liquid in the mash tun is drained through the bed of husks and spent grain in the bottom of the mash tun. This sweet liquid is now called "wort."
Now hot water/liquor is sprayed on the grains that are left in the mash tun after the wort has been drained. This is done to extract as much fermentables as possible. This process is called "sparging".
The Mash
The crushed grain (grist) is shoveled into the mash tun where hot liquor (water) is heated to the optimal mash temperature depending on the style of beer being brewed. This turns the enzymes found naturally in the grain to starches that will later be fermented by the yeast later in the process.
The temperature range of the mash creates the optimum environment for the enzymes. In General, the higher mash temperatures will produce dextrinous (heavy bodied beer) worts in a very short active period, while lower tempuratures produce more fermentable (lighter bodied beer) worts over a longer period.
The time it takes to fully covert starch to dextrins and fermentable sugars varies with temperature, amount of enzymes and amount of starch to be converted.
At this point the sweet liquor, now called "wort", is piped into a kettle where it is boiled, with the hops, until the proteins are extracted from the wort and the essential oils are extracted from the hops. The hopped wort is then quickly chilled to around 60F and piped into fermenting tanks.
The fermenting tanks (traditionally open in a clean room) are filled with the cool wort and then, either top fermenting or bottom fermenting yeast is "pitched" (added) and fermentation takes place. Basically, this is when the yeast metabolizes the sugar in the wort and the resulting products are ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide.
When almost all the fermentable sugar has been changed into ethyl alcohol and CO2 the brew is filtered and piped into special "finishing tanks", where the yeast is allowed to finishing fermenting. These fermentation tanks are designed to withstand the pressure created as the yeast produced the CO2 necessary for effervescence in the beer.
In some commercial mass production breweries this step is bypassed and the fermented brew is injected with CO2. This process is much faster than "natural" conditioning.
The brew is then bottled, kegged, or, in the case of pub-breweries, drawn by taps in the bar, and served to customers.