The Fundamental Steps of Brewing

Brief History of Beer

• Beer is one of the oldest beverages humans have produced, dating back to
at least the fifth millennium BC.
• 3900 years ago the Sumerians honored Ninkasi, the Goddess of beer
 Key Terms
ABV - Alcohol by volume. This is a measurement of the percent of alcohol
present
in a volume of liquid.

Fermentation - The reaction of the yeast consuming the sugars in wort in the
case of beer. This process creates alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Hops - Hops come from the Humulis Lupulus plant or vine. Cousin of Marijuana,
gives the beer its bitterness.

IBU - International Bitterness Unit. It is a number that rates the bitterness of beer.
The higher the IBU the more bitter the beer. Scale of 1-100.

Imperial - A beer which is stronger than the typical base style.

Session – A beer which is less strong, can sit down for a “Session”.

Wort – Wort is beer before it becomes beer. After you boil the ingredients
together
that mixture is called wort.
 The Main Ingredients of Beer

YEAST HOPS
Malt
Brewing begins with raw barley, wheat, oats or rye that has germinated in a malt house. The
grain is then dried in a kiln and sometimes roasted, a process that usually takes place in a
separate location from the brewery. At the brewery, the malt is sent through a grist mill, cracking
open the husks of the kernels, which helps expose the starches during the mashing process. The
process of steep milling, or soaking the grain before milling, is also an option for large-scale
brewers.
The combination of different types of grain used by a brewer to make a beer is often called
the grist bill.
Mashing
The first step in the beer-making process is mashing, in which the grist, or milled malt, is transferred to
the mash tun. Mashing is the process of combining the grist and water and heating it to temperatures
usually between 100 degrees Fahrenheit up to 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Mashing causes the natural enzymes
in the malt to break down starches, converting them to sugars, which will eventually become alcohol. This
process takes place in one to two hours. Mash temperatures can be gradually increased or allowed to rest at
certain temperatures, choices which are very much part of the brewer’s art. Different temperature levels
activate different enzymes and affect the release of proteins and fermentable sugars
Infusion vs. Decoction Mashing
Water is combined with the grist in one of two ways, infusion or decoction.
In infusion mashing, the grains are heated up in one vessel (the mash tun);
in decoction mashing, a portion of the mash is transferred from the mash tun and boiled in a
separate vessel (called the mash kettle), then returned to the original mash. Some brewers
repeat this process to achieve double decoction and a few are known to use triple decoction.
The liquid consisting of sugars and water resulting from mashing is wort.
Lautering
Lautering is the process of separating the wort from spent grain as
efficiently as possible. Generally, it is done in a separate lauter tun,
although the process of mash filtering can now be done by large-
scale or small-scale brewers. A lauter tun has a perforated or slotted
bottom with runoff ports. The solids from the mash settle on the
bottom and form a filter for the wort.
Lautering consists of three steps: mashout, recirculation and
sparging. The mashout consists of raising the mash temperature to
170 degrees Fahrenheit, which stops enzymatic reactions and
preserves the fermentable sugar profile of the wort, and also makes
the wort less viscous and easier to work with.

Next, the wort is drawn out from the bottom of the lauter ton and recirculated, causing loose grain
particulates to be filtered out naturally by the grain bed, allowing for more wort clarity.
Once the wort is transferred, the remaining spent grain, which consists of grain husks and particles left over
from the mashing, requires sparging. Sparging is the process of rinsing the spent grain with heated water to
get as much of the sugars as possible from the remaining grain for the wort.
After sparging, the spent grain is commonly recycled as feed for cattle and hogs, or can be used to make
bread.
Boiling
Once a brewer has wort, it is sterilized through a boiling process in a kettle, which halts enzyme activity and
condenses the liquid. During the boil, which typically lasts from 60 to 120 minutes, hops are added.

Hopping
The qualities of aroma, taste and bitterness that hops impart to beer depend on what point they are added.
Hops can be added early in the boil for bittering, with more time boiled resulting in more bitterness. They
can be added mid-boil for flavor, or late boil for flavoring and aroma.
Hops can also be added at stages after the boil during whirlpooling (flavor/aroma), fermentation (dry-
hopping for aroma) or maturation (dry-hopping for aroma).
Whirlpooling
Once the boil is complete, the whirlpool phase further clarifies the wort by removing protein and hop solids
through settling. These solids are known as trub. Although the boiling kettle can also be used as a whirlpool,
many brewers use a separate, specially designed container.
A hop back is a type of vessel for whirlpooling that employs fresh hop flowers or cones in a sealed chamber
for filtering the trub, which adds more hop aroma compounds to the wort. A hop back is often employed
when whole hop cones are used in the boil. A standard whirlpool is better at collecting trub created from
hop pellets.
Next, a heat exchanger is used to reduce the wort to the temperature desired for fermentation. Water
heated by this exchange is often used by brewers to start a new brewing cycle.
Fermentation
Wort is transferred to a fermentation tank and the yeast is pitched, or added. Ale yeast rises to the top of the
wort and lager yeast generally collects in the bottom. This stage is the primary fermentation -- the
conversion of sugars to alcohol and carbon dioxide that lead to an ale or a lager, depending on the type of
yeast used. (Hybrid beers also use one of these two types of yeast.)
Once yeast has been pitched at proper temperature, the beer is generally maintained from 60 to 68 degrees
Fahrenheit for ales, and 50 degrees Fahrenheit for lagers. The process of the yeast converting sugars to
alcohol generates heat and is monitored closely by brewers. The higher temperatures employed for ale yeast
result in more esters, or fragrant organic compounds.
Conditioning
During the conditioning process for ales and lagers, the beer will mature and smooth, and by-products of
fermentation will diminish. It is possible to dry hop during this stage for added aroma, and other methods
such as barrel aging can further introduce complexity.
The cold storage of beer for 30 days known as lagering is a key difference in the cleaner nature and more
defined flavors of lagers when compared to ale.
A type of secondary fermentation for lagers is known by the German word kräusening. Once the fermented
“green” beer is transferred to tanks for cold storage, kräusening is the introduction of actively fermenting
beer, including yeast, to the dormant new beer. The additional yeast helps carbonation and the elimination
of unwanted aspects of the primary fermentation such as diacetyl – or butterscotch flavors – and other
compounds.
The conditioning process can last from one to six weeks and sometimes more. Depending on the style,
brewers may choose to filter any remaining yeast or other particles from the beer and then store it in bright
tanks. Some pasteurize their beer to improve clarity and shelf life.
Packaging and Carbonation
Once the beer has fermented, it must be kegged or bottled and carbonated, either naturally or by force.
Force carbonation involves adding CO2 to a container under high pressure, forcing it to be absorbed into the
beer. Most breweries use force carbonation because it’s a much faster process and allows for greater clarity
in the beer.
Krausening is a method to introduce carbonation during the fermenting stage. Bottle conditioning – or
adding a small amount of sugar and yeast at bottling – is also used to generate carbonation. Cask-
conditioned real ale is carbonated by adding sugar, yeast and hops when the beer is first introduced to the
cask.
 Basic Styles
Ale – Ales are beers made with top fermenting yeast. They typically are fermented
between 68-75°F. Ales absorb some of the byproducts from the fermentation which cause
can a fruity or estery nose or flavor.

Brown ale – A British-style, top-fermented beer which is lightly hopped and

Cider - Alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples

IPA – India Pale Ale. A strong, hoppy Pale ale. The style originated in Britain in the 19th
century, hops are a natural preservative and were loaded in to keep the beer safe to
drink once it got to English troops in India. They acquired the taste of the bitterness.

Lager – Beer made with bottom fermenting yeast. Lager is fermented at lower
temperatures and usually takes longer to ferment than ales. Since the fermentation
is at low temperatures, the yeast byproducts are reduced and a cleaner more crisp
beer is the result. Discovered by brewing in basements.

Stout/Porter - Stout is a dark beer made using roasted malt or roasted barley, hops,
water and yeast
Corona Extra is a pale lager produced by
Cervecería Modelo in Mexico for domestic
distribution and export to all other countries
besides the United States, and by
Constellation Brands in Mexico for export to
the United States. The Corona brand is one of
the top-selling beers worldwide.
Alcohol by volume: 4.5%
Style: Pale lager
Manufacturers: Grupo Modelo,
Anheuser-Busch InBev
San Miguel Pale Pilsen
Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Style: Pale Lager - North Am. / Light
Brewed by: San Miguel
5.0% ABV
150 Est. Cal
Also known as San Miguel Beer and San Miguel Draft. Imported to the US as
San Miguel Premium Lager until some time between 2006 & 2008. San Miguel
Pale Pilsen, a pilsner popularly called San Miguel Beer, is the Company’s flagship
brand and the Philippines’ leading brew. It is one of the world’s largest selling
beers. Made from imported barley malt, as well as German and American hops,
it is exported to over 40 countries worldwide.
Sapporo Premium Lager
Tokyo, Japan
Style: Pale Lager - North Am. / Light
Brewed by: Sapporo Breweries
4.7% ABV
141 Est. Cal
Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (Indonesian)
Central Java, Indonesia
Style: Stout - Extra / Foreign
Brewed by: Pt. Multi Bintang (Heineken)
4.9% ABV
147 Est. Cal
The basis is an unfermented but hopped Guinness
wort extract shipped from Dublin, which is added to
local ingredients and brewed locally.
Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale
Bend, Oregon, United States
Style: Pale Ale - American / APA
Brewed by: Deschutes Brewery
5.0% ABV
40 IBU
150 Est. Cal
This is base camp, where any craft brew
exploration begins. A distinct hop nose and
hop-forward flavor make Mirror Pond the
quintessential Pale Ale. It is aromatically
complex, multi-layered, and unmistakably
“right.”
Anderson Valley Summer Solstice
Boonville, California, United States
Style: Flavored - Other
Brewed by: Anderson Valley Brewing Company
5.0% ABV
6 IBU
150Est. Cal
Summer Solstice® is a slightly sweet, malty session
beer with a creamy mouth feel and clean finish.
With hints of caramel in the nose and a touch of
spice, it’s become affectionately known as “cream
soda for adults”. The unique flavors and superior
drinkability make for the ultimate refreshment on a
hot summer day.
Tuatara Session IPA
Paraparaumu, New Zealand
Style: ISA - Session IPA
Brewed by:
Tuatara Brewing Company (DB Breweries)
4.6% ABV
25 IBU
138 Est. Cal
Look: Beautifully pale Aroma: Subtle passionfruit,
mango, melon and pine Taste: Distinctly quaffable.
Refreshing and juicy tropical fruits initally, finishing
with a gentle herbal spice and malt sweetness.
Hops: Motueka, Galaxy Malt: Toffee, Light crystal