How Beer Is Brewed Today

Beer brewing is an extremely complex bio-chemical process, perfected over literally thousands of years. It's designed to encourage the creation of distinctive flavors and aromas within a series of specified ingredients, acting not only to facilitate alcoholic content, but to enhance the beer's specific taste. Today's methods of brewing beer are much more sophisticated than those in ancient times--and microbrewing kits allow anyone to try his hand at it--but the fundamental process remains unchanged.

Beer is based on barley, which produces certain enzymes when it sprouts that are essential to the process. The brewer briefly soaks the barley in water (which stimulates the production of the enzymes) then removes it at just the right point and allows it to dry in a kiln (which preserves the enzymes properly). He then remove any growth from the barley grain and moves it on to the next stage.

With the barley now prepared, the brewer soaks the grains in warm water to create a mash. The water temperature is key (usually between 145 and 160 degrees F) because it further facilitates the activation of the enzymes, which then turns the starches in the barley into a form of sugar.

Once the mash is complete and the barley starches have all become sugar, the water is heated, drained and saved. The remaining grains are rinsed with fresh hot water (about 165 degrees F), which is then added to the original water. The resulting liquid is called wort: full of the sugars and proteins extracted from the barley.

The brewer brings the wort to a boil, which sterilizes it and helps burn off some of the water to improve the beer's richness. While it boils, the brewer adds hops to the mixture. The amount of hops added and the precise time they are added significantly affects the beer's flavor. The earlier the hops are added, the more bitter the beer (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, depending upon the kind of beer being brewed.)

When the wort is boiled for the proper length of time (usually about an hour or so), it is rapidly cooled and placed in a fermenter. The brewer then adds yeast, which consumes the sugar in the wort and replaces it with alcohol and carbon dioxide. The CO2 slowly bubbles out through an airlock in the top of the tank. Once the bubbling slows, the yeast has done its job and the beer is then removed to a second container. There it ages--stored in a cool place--until the brewer believes it's ready: a few weeks for ales, a few months for lagers.

Once the beer is aged to perfection, a small amount of sugar is added. This absorbs any remaining carbon dioxide and carbonates the beer. Modern breweries often bypass this stage by pasteurizing the beer (which achieves the same effect much more quickly). Once the beer is carbonated, it can be bottled and shipped to market, where it is stored at cool temperatures until it is ready to drink.