I got into beer brewing after receiving my first starter kit. Beer has a long tradition in Germany and hence the brewing process is very well understood both empirically and technically. In this post I’m going to give you a general introduction to the ingredients and process of brewing your own beer.
For brewing beer four ingredients are required:
- Malt: grains that have been germinated and temperature treated (germination produces enzymes which at the end get deactivated by hot temperature)
- Water: quality and mineral composition of the brewing water has impact on the taste (since beer consists mainly of water)
- Hops: plant belonging to the Cannabaceae family (the other member being Cannabis), brings the unique and bitter flavor to the beer
- Yeast: microorganism belonging to the Fungus kingdom, responsible for the fermentation process that converts carbohydrates / sugar to ethanol
And just like that, the brewing process can be divided into four main steps:
- „Maischen“: Add malt to water under a controlled temperature curve with defined resting times
- „Läutern“: Filter out residual malt particles, the so called draff („Treber“), from the raw yield and so called wort („Würze“)
- „Würzekochen“: Boil the wort and add the hop
- „Anstellen“: Add yeast to the wort to start the fermentation process
(Some intermediate and finish steps have been omitted, but will be explained later).