Start at the Start, what goes into making a great beer?

Before I go on to discuss various beer styles, different breweries, traditions etc, I thought I would start at the absolute beginning, and briefly describe the brewing process and the ingredients involved. While many of you reading this may already have a good understanding it is always interesting to take a step back and see that craft beer at its basic level comes from just four ingredients. The German purity laws or "Reinheitsgebot" which were initially introduced in 1516, stated that any beer made must only contain four ingredients, BARLEY, WATER, HOPS, & YEAST (the later initially not mentioned as it was undiscovered in 1516!). 

So without getting too deep into the historic reasons behind these laws, we are left with four simple ingredients. 

BARLEY: Barley is a basic cereal grain which is very important in the brewing process. The grain is high in starch content, which after malting (soaking, germinating, drying) enables the grain to produce fermentable sugars and then reacts with the yeast to produce beer. While barley is commonly used, rice, wheat, corn, rye and other substitutes have also been used to produce different outcomes. 

WATER: Water makes up 90% of beer and so is obviously vital to the final product. Water is different all over the world and this plays a huge roll. Certain areas are known for certain styles of beer and this can be a result of the water type. eg. Dublin has hard water, which is good for making stouts.....any famous stout made in Dublin come to mind?

HOPS:Hops have been the primary flavouring ingredient in beer since the Middle Ages, however were also included due to their preservative characteristics. Hops are basically the female flower produced by the Hop plant (Humulus Lupulus). They generally give off a tangy, bitter flavour, however in recent times new varieties of hops have been grown which add distinctive flavours, eg. 'C-Hops' add a more citrusy profile. Hops also add aroma to beer.

YEAST: Yeast is a microorganism that is responsible for fermenting sugar into alcohol. Not only does it convert sugary flavoured water into beer, different yeast strains also add different flavours to the beer. Yeast also gives off carbon dioxide (CO2) which helps carbonate beer.  

While these are the four key ingredients in making beer, the brewing process has evolved with creative brewers adding a variety of other ingredients to impart flavour. Examples include chocolate, coffee, spices, nuts, fruits to name a but a few. The process of aging beer in barrels which previously contained whiskey, bourbon, wine or cognac has also become very popular. 

Just like people now want to know exactly what is in the food they eat and where their foods come from, I think it is equally important to know what is in your beer, and where your beer is coming from. This is one of the major arguments against (some) large corporate breweries, who use cheaper ingredients to remove flavour and aroma, while craft breweries are striving to use quality ingredients, to enhance the beer and add more flavour. 

Stay tuned for a snapshot of the brewing process, and find out how these ingredients are transformed to produce a delicious, frothy brew!