Brewing
Brewing
Brewing is a multistage process during which the brewer encourages a grain such as barley to germinate briefly, steeps the grain in water to release its sugars, and adds yeast to the mixture, which ferments the sugar, turning it into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Around the world, people have brewed grains and starchy vegetables for thousands of years from ingredients as varied as rice, corn, cassava, pumpkins, sorghum, and millet, to brew beverages that are staples in the diets of many cultures.
History
Archaeologists have turned up evidence that the Sumerian people in the Middle East were brewing barley as long as 8,000 years ago. These early brewers may have discovered the fundamental processes of brewing as they observed—or tasted—what happened when they left fruit juices or cereal extracts exposed to the wild yeasts that naturally float in the air. Native Americans made a beer from corn, which they softened by chewing and mixing into a pulpy mass with saliva. They then set this masticated corn out in a vessel to ferment, and enjoyed the resulting drink.
Throughout Europe, breweries sprang up where there was good water for brewing. During the Middle Ages, monasteries became the centers for brewing, and the monks originated techniques and created many of the beers still popular today. Early European settlers in North America brought with them from Europe a taste for beer, but followed the Native Americans’ example and initially made beer from corn and pumpkins, which they flavored with such local additives as the tops of spruce trees.
With the spread of the British empire and rise of industrialization over the past 150 years, traditional European beer began to move from its local markets to towns, pubs, and countries far away from its place of origin. This emigration was aided with the introduction of bottled beer in 1875 by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the later advent of canned beer in the 1930s.
Brewing process
The brewer’s first step in making a beer the malting process, in which kernels of grain are wet to encourage their germination, or sprouting. During this process, the germ or embryo of the grain breaks down slightly, releasing the enzymes that turn starches, complex sugars, into simple sugars. The brewer allows the grain to germinate for a short period and dries it quickly in a kiln. Dried, malted grain is very durable and easily stored.
KEY TERMS
Ale— A top-fermented beer that, until the latter part of the nineteenth century, was not flavored with hops; traditionally British ale has a higher alcohol content than lagers.
Fermentation— The process during which yeast consumes the sugars in the wort and releases alcohol and carbon dioxide as byproducts.
Hops— The cone of the flower of the vine Humulus lupulus, which is cultivated throughout temperate regions for use in brewing. The addition of hops gives beer its characteristic bitter flavor and aroma.
Lager— Lager (“cellar” in German) is a traditional Bavarian beer made with bottom-fermenting yeast. These beers are lighter in color and lower in alcohol content than ales. Over the past few decades, lager surpassed ale in popularity.
Malt— Grain that has germinated, or sprouted, for a short period and is then dried. During germination, the enzymes in the germ of the grain are released, which will make the sugars in the grain available to the yeast.
Wort— The sugar water solution made when malted barley is steeped in water and its complex sugars break down into simple sugars.
Yeast— A microorganism of the fungus family that promotes alcoholic fermentation, and is also used as a leavening in baking.
The brewer next mixes the dried malt with water to create a porridgelike substance called mash. During this phase, the mash is brought to a temperature of around 150°F (66°C) and is kept there a number of hours. The starchy components of the grain break down during mashing, and are converted into simple sugars, which yeast will be able to digest during the fermentation phase.
The brewer now adds more water to the mash and rinses out a watery sugar solution called wort, which is heated to a boil. At this point, the brewer adds hops, the flower of the Humulus lupulus vine, which give beer its characteristic bitter flavor and aroma.
When the wort has cooled to the temperature most friendly to yeast (50-60°F [10-16°C]), these organisms are added and go to work consuming the sugars in the wort, growing to be as much as five to ten times their original weight. They fuel their growth with the sugar and in the process, change it from carbohydrate to ethanol, a form of alcohol, and carbon dioxide, the gas that is responsible for beer’s foam and bubbles.
Types of beer
Most familiar beers are barley-based beverages. In Europe and the United States, beer is usually one of two types, ale or lager. Ale is a traditional British beer that, until the latter part of the nineteenth century, was not flavored with hops. Ale is made with a variety of yeast that rises to the top of the fermentation tank, and that produces a higher alcohol content than lagers. Ales range from pale ales such as Kolsch (from a district around Cologne, Germany) which is strongly hopped and not sweet, to strong, dark, ales such as porter and stout. Lager (which means cellar in German) originated in the Bavarian region of Germany. Lager is made with bottom-fermenting yeast, and is lower in alcohol content than ales. Lagers include: pilsner, a pale beer with a distinctive hop flavor; bock, a strong dark beer; weiss, a pale beer made with wheat that is usually served with slices of lemon or flavored with fruit juices.
Future developments
Current research in brewing technology focuses on events at the cellular level. For example, brewery researchers are studying methods that will rapidly and accurately detect the presence and identity of unwanted yeasts or other microorganisms that find their way into the beer during brewing, changing its flavor. (Potentially problematic organisms include Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, and Obesumbacterium. ) Some of the methods already available or soon to be available include those using DNA probes, and protein and chromosome fingerprinting. Some of these techniques are already used in tests designed for at-home pregnancy testing, drug screening, AIDS testing, and tests for the presence of environmental contaminants such as pesticides.
Breweries also use biotechnological techniques and genetic engineering to select and propagate choice characteristics in barley, rice, corn, yeast, and hops. Some characteristics that brewery researchers are working toward include disease resistance in the crops, and in yeast, the ability to resist contamination and to ferment carbohydrates that yeasts have been incapable of fermenting. Micropropagation is a new and experimental technique that involves making any number of genetically identical copies of a plant, by removing minute quantities of its growth points and placing them in a medium that encourages the rapid growth of shoots. This process is then repeated again and again. Mutation breeding is a process for creating mutations, some of which may be desirable, by exposing the plant to x-rays or chemical mutagens; and transformation technologies, which allow the breeder to make a change in a single gene by adding or deleting it.
See also Fermentation; Yeast.
Resources
BOOKS
Briggs D.E., and J.S. Hough. Malting and Brewing Science. Volumes 1 & 2. London: Chapman and Hall, 1981.
Gourish and Wilson. The British Brewing Industry, 1830-1980. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Gump, Barry, ed. Beer and Wine Production: Analyses, Characterization, and Technological Advances. American Chemical Society Symposium Series 536, American Chemical Society, Washington D.C., 1993.
Hough, J.S. Biotechnology of Brewing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
OTHER
Carlsberg Research Center. “Production of Beer” <http://www.crc.dk/flab/beerprod.htm> (accessed November 6, 2006).
Tanglefoot. “Brewing Process” <http://www.tanglefoot.co.uk/beer/brewingprocess.asp> (accessed November 6, 2006).
Beth Hanson
Brewing
Brewing
Brewing is a multi-stage process during which the brewer encourages a grain such as barley to germinate briefly, steeps the grain in water to release its sugars, and adds yeast to the mixture, which ferments the sugar, turning it into alcohol and carbon dioxide . Around the world, people have brewed grains and starchy vegetables for thousands of years from ingredients as varied as rice , corn, cassava, pumpkins, sorghum , and millet, and brewed beverages are staples in the diets of many cultures.
History
Archaeologists have turned up evidence that the Sumerian people in the Middle East were brewing barley as long as 8,000 years ago. These early brewers may have discovered the fundamental processes of brewing as they observed—or tasted—what happened when they left fruit juices or cereal extracts exposed to the wild yeasts that naturally float in the air. Native Americans made a beer from corn, which they softened by chewing and mixing into a pulpy mass with saliva. They then set this masticated corn out in a vessel to ferment, and enjoyed the resulting drink.
Throughout Europe , breweries sprang up where there was good water for brewing. During the Middle Ages, monasteries became the centers for brewing, and the monks originated brewing techniques and created many of the beers still popular today. Early European settlers in North America brought with them from Europe a taste for beer, but followed the Native Americans' example and initially made beer from corn and pumpkins, which they flavored with such local additives as the tops of spruce trees.
With the spread of the British empire and rise of industrialization over the past 150 years, traditional European beer began to move from its local markets to towns, pubs, and countries far away from its place of origin. This emigration was aided with the introduction of bottled beer in 1875 by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the later advent of canned beer in the 1930s.
Brewing process
The brewer's first step in making a beer is to wet the kernels of grain, promoting their germination , or sprouting. During this process, the germ or embryo of the grain breaks down slightly, releasing the enzymes that turn starches, complex sugars, into simple sugars. The brewer allows the grain to germinate for a short period and dries it quickly in a kiln. Dried, malted grain is very durable and easily stored.
The brewer next mixes the dried malt with water to create a porridgy substance called mash. During this phase, the mash is brought to a temperature of around 150°F (66°C) and is kept there a number of hours. The starchy components of the grain break down during mashing, and are converted into simple sugars, which yeast will be able to digest during the fermentation phase.
The brewer now adds more water to the mash and rinses out a watery sugar solution called wort, which is heated to a boil. At this point, the brewer adds hops, the flower of the Humulus lupulus vine, which give beer its characteristic bitter flavor and aroma.
When the wort has cooled to the temperature most friendly to yeast (50–60°F [10–16°C]), these organisms are added and go to work consuming the sugars in the wort, growing to be as much as five to ten times their original weight. They fuel their growth with the sugar and in the process, change it from carbohydrate to ethanol , a form of alcohol, and carbon dioxide, the gas that is responsible for beer's foam and bubbles.
Types of beer
Most familiar beers are barley-based beverages. In Europe and the United States, beer is usually one of two types, ale or lager. Ale is a traditional British beer that, until the latter part of the nineteenth century, was not flavored with hops. Ale is made with a variety of yeast that rises to the top of the fermentation tank, and that produces a higher alcohol content than lagers. Ales range from pale ales such as Kolsch (from a district around Cologne, Germany) which is strongly hopped and not sweet, to strong, dark, ales such as porter and stout. Lager (which means cellar in German) originated in the Bavarian region of Germany. Lager is made with bottom-fermenting yeast, and is lower in alcohol content than ales. Lagers include: pilsner, a pale beer with a distinctive hop flavor; bock, a strong dark beer; weiss, a pale beer made with wheat that is usually served with slices of lemon or flavored with fruit juices.
Future developments
Current research in brewing technology is focusing on events at the cellular level. For example, brewery researchers are working on methods that will rapidly and accurately detect the presence and identity of unwanted yeasts or other microorganisms that find their way into the beer during brewing, and that change the flavor of the beer. (Potentially problematic organisms include Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, and Obesumbacterium.) Some of the methods already available or soon to be available include those using DNA probes, and protein and chromosome fingerprinting. Some of these techniques are already used in tests designed for at-home pregnancy testing, drug screening, AIDS testing, and tests for the presence of environmental contaminants such as pesticides .
Breweries are also using biotechnological techniques and genetic engineering to select and propagate choice characteristics in barley, rice, corn, yeast, and hops. Some of the characteristics that brewery researchers are working toward include disease resistance in the crops , and in yeast, the ability to resist contamination and to ferment carbohydrates that yeasts have been incapable of fermenting. Micropropagation is a new and experimental technique that involves making any number of genetically identical copies of a plant , by removing minute quantities of its growth points and placing them in a medium that encourages the rapid growth of shoots. This process is then repeated again and again. Mutation breeding is a process for creating mutations, some of which may be desirable, by exposing the plant to x rays or chemical mutagens; and transformation technologies, which allow the breeder to make a change in a single gene by adding or deleting it.
See also Fermentation; Yeast.
Resources
books
Briggs D.E. and J.S. Hough. Malting and Brewing Science. Volumes 1 & 2. London: Chapman and Hall, 1981.
Gourish and Wilson. The British Brewing Industry, 1830-1980. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Hough, J.S. Biotechnology of Brewing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
other
Gump, Barry, ed. Beer and Wine Production: Analyses, Characterization, and Technological Advances. American Chemical Society Symposium Series 536, American Chemical Society, Washington D.C., 1993.
Beth Hanson
KEY TERMS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .- Ale
—A top-fermented beer that, until the latter part of the nineteenth century, was not flavored with hops; traditionally British ale has a higher alcohol content than lagers.
- Fermentation
—The process during which yeast consumes the sugars in the wort and releases alcohol and carbon dioxide as byproducts.
- Hops
—Comes from the cone of the flower of the vine Humulus lupulus, which is cultivated throughout temperate regions for use in brewing. The addition of hops gives beer its characteristic bitter flavor and aroma.
- Lager
—Lager (which means cellar in German) is a traditional Bavarian beer made with bottom-fermenting yeast. These beers are lighter in color and lower in alcohol content than ales. Over the past few decades, lager surpassed ale in popularity.
- Malt
—Grain that has germinated, or sprouted, for a short period and is then dried. During germination, the enzymes in the germ of the grain are released, which will make the sugars in the grain available to the yeast.
- Wort
—The sugar water solution made when malted barley is steeped in water and its complex sugars break down into simple sugars.
- Yeast
—A microorganism of the fungus family that promotes alcoholic fermentation, and is also used as a leavening in baking.
Brewing
Brewing
Brewing is the multistage process of making beer and other alcoholic malt beverages. Brewing has taken place around the world for thousands of years, and brewed beverages are staples in the diets of many cultures. Although the main modern ingredients in beer are water, barley, hops, and yeast, people have brewed with products as varied as rice, corn, cassava, pumpkins, sorghum, and millet.
History
Archaeologists have turned up evidence that the Sumerian people in the Middle East were brewing barley grain as long as 8,000 years ago. Ancient
Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese, and Inca also made beer. These early people may have discovered the basic processes of brewing when they observed—and then tasted—what happened to fruit juices or cereal extracts left exposed to the wild yeasts that naturally float in the air.
Over the centuries, breweries sprang up throughout Europe where there was good water for brewing. During the Middle Ages (400–1450), monasteries became the centers for brewing, and the monks originated brewing techniques and created many of the beers still popular today.
Bottled beer was introduced by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1875. The Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company released the first canned beer in America in 1935.
Words to Know
Ale: A top-fermented beer that until the latter part of the nineteenth century was not flavored with hops.
Fermentation: Process during which yeast consume the sugars in the wort and release alcohol and carbon dioxide as byproducts.
Hops: Dried flowers of the vine Humulus lupulus, which give beer its characteristic bitter flavor and aroma.
Lager: A traditional Bavarian beer made with bottom-fermenting yeast.
Malt: Barley grain that has germinated, or sprouted, for a short period and is then dried.
Wort: The sugar-water solution made when malted barley is steeped in water and its complex sugars break down into simple sugars.
Yeast: A microorganism of the fungus family that promotes alcoholic fermentation and is also used as a leavening (fermentation) agent in baking.
Brewing process
The basic steps to brewing beer are malting, mashing, boiling, fermentation, aging, and finishing. During malting, barley grains are soaked in water until they begin to germinate, or sprout. The brewer then removes the grains and quickly dries them in a kiln. The dried barley grains are called malted barley or just plain malt. During the mashing phase, the brewer mixes the dried malt with water and heats the mixture until the starchy components in the malt are converted and released into the mixture as simple sugars. The malt is then removed from the mixture, leaving an amber liquid called wort (pronounced wert).
The wort is then heated to a boil and maintained at that temperature for a period of time. During boiling, the brewer adds hops, dried blossoms from the hop plant, which give beer its characteristic bitter flavor and aroma. After the wort is cooled, yeast is added to begin the fermentation stage. These organisms consume the simple sugars in the wort, giving off alcohol and carbon dioxide in the process. The brew is then stored in tanks for several weeks or months while it ages and its flavor develops. To finish the beer, the brewer clarifies the liquid by filtering out the yeast, then packages it in kegs, bottles, or cans.
Types of beer
Beer is usually categorized into two types: ale and lager. Ale is made with a variety of yeast that rise to the top of the fermentation tank and that produce a higher alcohol content than lagers. Ales range from fruity-tasting pale ales to dark and roasty stouts. Lager (from the German word meaning to store) originated in the Bavarian region of Germany. Lager, the most popular beer style in the United States, is made with bottom-fermenting yeast. Lager styles include pilsner (a golden beer with a distinctive hop flavor) and bock (a dark, strong, malty beer).
[See also Fermentation; Yeast ]
Brewing
BREWING
BREWING. Like wine making, brewing has existed for millennia as an art; only in the twentieth century have its practitioners attempted to transform it into an applied science. The earliest settlers brought beer from England with them to America. At that time, brewing was a household industry, carried on primarily by farmers and tavern keepers, but commercial breweries soon emerged, selling to local areas they could reach by horse and wagon. William Penn established such a business in Pennsbury in 1683, not only to make a profit but also to encourage the drinking of beer rather than hard liquor, in the interest of temperance.
The early process of brewing began by heating and soaking barley to force germination. Producers then mixed the end product, called malt, with water and boiled it to form what brewers called the wort. They then added hops to the boiling liquid to give it a pleasantly bitter taste and a distinctive aroma. After straining the liquid, brewers added yeast and allowed the wort to ferment for a few days. Until the twentieth century, brewers governed the proportions of the ingredients and the exact timing of the process by age-old recipes or simply by rule of thumb. The reputation of a commercial brewery depended greatly on the skill of its brewmaster rather than on any particular technology or equipment.
Early American beer was similar to English beer, which was fermented with yeast that floated on top of the wort. Near the middle of the nineteenth century, the many German immigrants to the United States brought a different type of beer. Following German brewing traditions, they used a yeast that stayed at the bottom of the wort during fermentation. Then, after its removal, they
allowed the fermented wort to age at low temperatures for some weeks. The milder and more aromatic German lager soon captured most of the beer market, and the English type of fermentation became confined to ale.
From about 1875, technological and scientific changes took place in brewing that made it very difficult for the amateur or small-scale operator to compete with the up-to-date, large brewery. The railroad made it possible for breweries with limited local markets, such as those in Milwaukee, Wis., to seek nationwide distribution—which, in turn, required beer able to withstand temperature changes, bumping, and the lapse of time. From the 1880s, pasteurization checked bacterial growth, chemical additives were eliminated (this was enforced by law in 1907), bottling became mechanized, and brewers devised new methods to artificially control carbonation levels. In addition to changing their product, commercial brewers infiltrated the territory of local brewers by devising new business tactics to influence local sellers, ranging from discounts and credits to purchases of saloon properties.
The brewing industry that revived after the years of Prohibition (1919–1933) had most of the same large producers but operated in a quite different environment from the old one. Because Prohibition had accustomed people to drinking hard liquor, it took a dozen years to build the market for beer back to its pre–World War I size. As late as 1970, domestic consumption of beer still remained slightly less per capita than it had been in 1914. Meanwhile, the motor truck, cans, and a more exact understanding of the chemistry of brewing aided the competitive position of the larger breweries relative to would-be small-scale producers. There were only 150 brewers in 1970, compared to 1,400 in 1914, and fewer than a dozen sold their product throughout the nation. Since all these companies could make reliable beer with many desirable qualities and were forbidden by federal law from controlling outlets, competition was chiefly in marketing and rapid adjustment to changes in public taste.
In 1976, however, the federal government legalized home brewing, and in the late 1970s and 1980s a number of small-scale "craft" brewers emerged to capture loyal local, regional, and eventually national followings. Craft beer sales began to grow exponentially in the 1990s, as sales from larger commercial brewers flattened out, causing some to declare a "Beer Rennaissance" in the United States and leading many larger brewers to begin marketing their own versions of the stronger, darker beers that regional breweries and microbreweries had so successfully popularized.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baron, Stanley Wade. Brewed in America: A History of Beer and Ale in the United States. Boston: Little, Brown, 1962.
Cochran, Thomas C. The Pabst Brewing Company: The History of an American Business. New York: New York University Press, 1948.
Thomas C.Cochran/c. w.
brewing
From the beginning of the 18th cent. rising population accelerated a long-term trend towards larger breweries. Among the more important firms established at the time were Whitbread, Guinness, and Younger. From the outset these and other family firms dominated an industry which expanded rapidly along parallel paths. Every town of consequence had its brewery, while in the cities like London, Edinburgh, and Dublin much larger units began to evolve. The spectacular growth of Burton upon Trent was in part due to the excellence of the local water, but it also benefited from the town's central position once a national canal network had been established. The size of a brewery generally reflected the size of its immediate market, since beer is a bulky commodity and transport costs were high. Partly to counter this, brewing had its own peculiar marketing arrangements, with a high proportion of output sold through tied houses under the ownership of the brewing companies themselves. Concentration also made the industry an increasingly easy target for the excise, though the strength of beer and the duties payable have varied considerably since the 18th cent.
The expansion of the industry during the latter half of the 19th cent. outstripped its earlier growth. Brewing benefited from rapid advances in science and technology, especially from a deeper understanding of the chemistry involved, and from developments like refrigeration and bottling. The Institute of Brewing was set up in 1886 to disseminate this research. By this time the brewing industry encompassed hundreds of firms of various sizes across Britain, retailing beer through thousands of outlets. The industry was pervasive in other respects. Through its raw material needs it retained close links with agriculture and the countryside; it continued to be conspicuously taxed; and the sale of beer was increasingly enmeshed in complex licensing laws. In all these areas, especially when the temperance movement was active, the industry was forced into the forefront of national politics.
The years from the First World War to the late 1950s were characterized by rationalization and amalgamation, an almost continuous decline in production, and increased taxation. Notable product changes, begun in the Victorian era, saw a shift from dark, heavy beers to lighter, brighter beers and ales. Lager, pioneered by Tennent in Glasgow and Jeffrey in Edinburgh, along with bottled beers, increased greatly in popularity. Experimental canning was tried in the 1930s. After some painful readjustment in the 1950s and early 1960s, the industry was dominated by six conglomerates, mainly producing keg and lager beers. However, about 80 regional and local brewers managed to maintain their independence, and partly encouraged by the Campaign for Real Ale, successfully maintained the production of traditional cask beers.
Ian Donnachie