The main and most important ingredient is barley . Most notably malted barley .
Traditionally this would be the only grain used , with an exception for wheat .
Barely provides the beer with sugars , which in turn are converted to alcohol
and C02 .
Step 1 : Mashing
Water is added to malted barley .It's temperature is usually favorable to the
enzymes that are naturally occurring in the barley . These enzymes convert
starch into sugar and would be beneficial to the barley plant during sprouting .Maltsers
have leaned to use this natural occurring phenomena to their advantage ( BEER! )
Favorable temperatures for these enzymes are between 150-160 F . Once a good
amount of starch is converted , the mash is strained in a device called a lauter
tun .
step 2: Boiling the Wort .
After the straining this liquid is called wort . It is brought up to boiling
temperature . This is done for a number of reasons .It kills any harmful
bacteria that may be present in the grain . It coagulates protein . But most
importantly , it allows for the addition of hops . The vigorous boiling extracts
acids and flavor to the hops . Generally an hour of boiling is standard .Hops
will add the bitterness and spice to the beer . It also has preservative
qualities.
step 3: fermentation
The wort is then cooled to appropriate temperatures , ( 50-90 F) . Then Yeast is
added . Those little buggers eat the sugar that was carefully placed their for
them . They convert these sugars to alchohol ( woo-hoo!!!) and C02 .
Step 4 : packaging
It is then kegged , bottled , or canned . Then it is consumed at every decent ,
god loving , American celebration .
This is by no means an exhaustive detail of the process of beer making . I'll
try to update this soon .
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