Did you know that beer is the third most popular beverage in the world? After water and tea, beer comes next in line.
It is the most popular alcoholic beverage.
But did you know too that beer is made from 4 basic ingredients? That's really incredible, especially considering the numerous styles of beer.
With only four ingredients huge varieties of flavors arise.
Water The most popular drink in the world, water is one of the key ingredients in beer.
In fact, most of the beer we drink is made of water, more than 90% in fact.
But while we think of water as tasteless, that couldn't be farther from the truth.
Water (not the distilled or purified kind) contains minerals like calcium, magnesium, sodium, sulfates and carbonates among others.
This gives water flavor, texture and taste.
Different water contains different amounts of these minerals.
In older times, the presence of a good water source was essential to beer.
The wrong kind of water can easily kill the beers flavor.
Today water is chemically mixed; there is no need to hunt for the perfect spring.
Malt Malt is made from barley.
It is one of the world's first cereal grains.
It was domesticated early and it is used widely throughout world.
It used for bread, porridge and health food.
But its most popular use is in beer.
Barley undergoes a process called malting.
Barley is transformed into malt and it is malt that is added to beer.
Malt adds sweetness to the drink.
It also adds the sugars that will be eventually fermented.
Hops Hops come from a family of plants, which includes cannabis.
While it may share the notoriety of its family, hops does not add hallucinogens to beer.
It doesn't even add the alcohol.
What it does is add flavor, specifically the bitterness and the fruity notes that can be detected in beer.
It balances the sweetness of malt.
The use of hops for beer is a relatively recent development.
The first mention of it in brewing beer was in 822 AD.
Before that other ingredients were used to flavor beer like gruit or other herb mixtures.
Drinking beer produced from long ago would produce a very different taste.
Yeast In many ways, yeast is the most important ingredient in beer.
It is the last one to be mixed.
The yeast's duty is very simple and very chemically complicated.
These unicellular fungi transform the mixture of water, malt and hops (aka wort) into beer.
It transforms the starches into ethanol and carbon dioxide.
Different brewers have their own specie of yeast that they culture and use in beer.
From these four ingredients, millions of tastes are achieved by beer brewers all over the world.
They use different kinds of water, malt, hops and yeast to produce unique beers and we are all richer their efforts.
It is the most popular alcoholic beverage.
But did you know too that beer is made from 4 basic ingredients? That's really incredible, especially considering the numerous styles of beer.
With only four ingredients huge varieties of flavors arise.
Water The most popular drink in the world, water is one of the key ingredients in beer.
In fact, most of the beer we drink is made of water, more than 90% in fact.
But while we think of water as tasteless, that couldn't be farther from the truth.
Water (not the distilled or purified kind) contains minerals like calcium, magnesium, sodium, sulfates and carbonates among others.
This gives water flavor, texture and taste.
Different water contains different amounts of these minerals.
In older times, the presence of a good water source was essential to beer.
The wrong kind of water can easily kill the beers flavor.
Today water is chemically mixed; there is no need to hunt for the perfect spring.
Malt Malt is made from barley.
It is one of the world's first cereal grains.
It was domesticated early and it is used widely throughout world.
It used for bread, porridge and health food.
But its most popular use is in beer.
Barley undergoes a process called malting.
Barley is transformed into malt and it is malt that is added to beer.
Malt adds sweetness to the drink.
It also adds the sugars that will be eventually fermented.
Hops Hops come from a family of plants, which includes cannabis.
While it may share the notoriety of its family, hops does not add hallucinogens to beer.
It doesn't even add the alcohol.
What it does is add flavor, specifically the bitterness and the fruity notes that can be detected in beer.
It balances the sweetness of malt.
The use of hops for beer is a relatively recent development.
The first mention of it in brewing beer was in 822 AD.
Before that other ingredients were used to flavor beer like gruit or other herb mixtures.
Drinking beer produced from long ago would produce a very different taste.
Yeast In many ways, yeast is the most important ingredient in beer.
It is the last one to be mixed.
The yeast's duty is very simple and very chemically complicated.
These unicellular fungi transform the mixture of water, malt and hops (aka wort) into beer.
It transforms the starches into ethanol and carbon dioxide.
Different brewers have their own specie of yeast that they culture and use in beer.
From these four ingredients, millions of tastes are achieved by beer brewers all over the world.
They use different kinds of water, malt, hops and yeast to produce unique beers and we are all richer their efforts.
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