What ingredients are in Beer?

Get the insight knowledge and stories about Beer.

Almost everybody loves beer, drinks beer and talks about beer. But have you ever wondered what exactly is beer? To put it simply, beer is essentially made from four basic primary ingredients.

1. Malt

Most Alcoholic beverages start off with the source of its sugar. In this case, the source of the sugars in beer come from grains. The types of grain used will affect the color and taste of the beer.

Gains are turned into malt in a process known as “Malting”. This means that the gains are soaked in water to start the process of germination, and are then dried with heat.  This process converts all the starchy carbohydrates into simple sugars. The most popular malts are made from Barley and Wheat.

2. Water

Most Beers consist of about 90% water. Despite appearing simple, the water used to make beers need to comply with a lot of requirements. This is because water can affect the taste of the beer due to various factors. Therefore, this maybe the ingredient that most often overlooked.

Example of factors in water that can affect the taste and quality of beers. Is the water hard or soft? The PH Level of the water? The amount of chlorine in the water? What type of minerals are in the water?

Consequently, the location of the breweries and its source of water is also another important factor.

3. Hops

Hops are small, green, cone shaped flower that grow on a bine. Compared to malt which provides sweetness, hops make the beer bitter. Hops also provide flavors and aromas to the beer as well as helping to preserve the beer.

4. Yeast

Yeast is a single-cell micro-organism that converts the sugars from the Malt into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Yeasts can be categorized into 2 main groups.

Ale Yeast “Top Ferment” – Ale Yeasts ferment at room to warm temperature at around 15 to 22 Celsius where yeast cells collect at the top. This process is referred to as “top fermenting”. Fermentation takes relatively a short period of time, which ranges around 4 weeks.

Lager Yeast “Bottom Ferment” – Lager Yeasts ferment at cold temperature at around 4 to 10 Celsius where yeast cells collect at the bottom. This process is referred to as “bottom fermenting.”  Lager yeasts take longer time to ferment, which ranges from several weeks to months due to the slow chemical reactions as a result of the cold temperature.