BEER, BEER EVERYWHERE... SO MANY DROPS TO DRINK!

Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors Light…who needs them. The craft beer movement is on the rise here in the United States. The great state of Michigan has provided the country with amazing craft beer. However the process of making these delicious concoctions is a difficult process. So let’s take a walk down the brewing process lane.

 

Beer typically has 4 main ingredients, water, barley, and yeast and hops. Sounds simply enough, right? But that’s just the beginning. The brewer beings by taking the malted grains after the milling process (the process of grinding the grains) and adding hot water then placing it into a churn to make a mash. The hot water allows the enzymes from the starches turn into sugar.

Once this process stops and the starches have turned into the sugars, the lautering begins. Transferring the mash into a new vessel to separate the wort (the sugary liquid). More water is added during this stage to ferment more sugars from the wort.

The sweet wort is then boiled to for a couple hours while the hops are added. There are many different types of hops from all over the world. This ingredient gives the beer its individual taste. The last couple minutes more hops are added to give the beer its distinct smell.

The final step is to let the mixture ferment and turn into alcohol. This begins by cooling down wort and transferring it to a fermenting vessel. At this point the brewer needs to decide if they will make an ale or lager. Ales are fermented at a higher temperature than lagers.  The fully fermented alcohol is placed in a conditioning cask to fully cool then on to packaging.

This is a very simplified explanation of the whole process but the end result is the best part… Delicious craft beer.

Beer U is a great source of information on the craft beer world.