For anyone who drinks enough beer to know the different
varieties, it is surprising to see what little things can make big
differences in brewing the beers. While almost every beer is made
with the same main ingredients
– barley, hops, water and yeast – brewmasters can use them to
create a wide array of flavors.
For anyone who drinks enough beer to know the different varieties, it is surprising to see what little things can make big differences in brewing the beers. While almost every beer is made with the same main ingredients – barley, hops, water and yeast – brewmasters can use them to create a wide array of flavors.
“It’s like music – there’s only 88 keys on a piano, but how many songs can you make?” Brewmaster Geno Acevedo said. “It’s pretty infinite and can be a beautiful thing.”
Most beers go through the same basic brewing process.
“The main ingredient is barley,” Coast Range Brewmaster Peter Licht said. “Depending on what we’re brewing, we add malt.”
Barley and malt are placed in the hopper and dropped into the masher, where the first important part of beer-making occurs when hot water mixes with the barley.
“The enzymes that are naturally in the barley break down the starches into sugars,” Licht said. “You end up with a real sweet liquid.”
That sweet liquid is called “wort,” and those sugars will be turned into alcohol later in the process.
The wort is strained as it leaves the masher and is pumped into the kettle. The sweet wort is boiled in the kettle and hops are added for bittering.
“The hops are the balancing thing,” Brewmaster Bill Millar said. “The brewer has different things he can throw in there to change the flavor.”
The liquid is chilled on the way to the fermenting machine using a heat transfer device. The wort enters at around 200 degrees and exits the small machine at about 60 degrees.
In the fermenting machine, yeast is used to ferment the wort into beer. Each brewery has different kinds of yeast, making the beers stand out from other brands.
“The yeast I got wasn’t being used by anyone else in California,” said Acevedo, who uses a liquid yeast that must be kept by a lab and sent out on the day it’s used.
The fermentation process can take a few days to more than week, Acevedo said.
“The primary fermenting happens in the first four days,” he said. “And it calms down after that.”
Once the fermentation process is complete, the beer is about ready for bottling.
“It can be as long as two weeks from brewing to the package,” Licht said.
But once it reaches bottles or kegs, it takes no time at all to get them on local shelves and into the pub.
“It’s a real fresh product,” Millar said.
Making beer is no problem, right? Well, unfortunately, while making beer is the fun part, the not-so-fun part is paying for all the equipment and permits needed, Millar said.
“Here’s the bummer part of it: The brewing equipment is the cheapest part. You can get all the equipment I have for $20,000,” he said. “The permits will cost you $500,000.”
When it comes to drinking the beer, Licht said there are a few ways for people to make sure that it tastes the way the brewer intended.
“Almost always, beer is better the fresher it is,” he said. “Anyone who likes beer should patronize the local brewery. That’s where the freshest beer is.”
Licht said once you have the beer, don’t leave it in the trunk of a car or where light can get to the beer.
“The better you take care of it, the better it will taste,” he said. “Of course, when you drink the beer, it’s important to keep it at the right temperature. The warmer it is, the more flavor there is, which may or may not be a good thing.”
Licht said using a fluted glass is better for tasting and smelling the beer. He added that by pouring the beer into a glass, it will help mix up the ingredients in the beer and oxygenate it – beer is actually “oxygen deprived” once the fermentation process begins.
“It’s definitely different,” he said. “Plus, you form the head and get the aromas.”
