The Malt Of Beer

The Malt Of Beer

We tend to think of "malt" as a thing. Of course there is the candy malt and there is the old fashioned "malted" that was the stable of 1950s "malt shops" which in our mind is more like a modern day milk shake.

But when it comes to beer, just about anyone, even people who are not involved in home brewing can list the ingredients as hops, malt, and grains. So as part of our quest to become more familiar with all of the aspects of beer making, it’s a good idea to explore more deeply what exactly the malt in beer is all about.

When you hear the word "malt" in regards to the brewing of beer, the reference is actually to malted barley. Malt is the outcome of the process of malting which starts with pure barley grain, the same grain you might use to make muffins or barley soup. That is a good way to ground the concept of malting to something very familiar.

But even then the term "malted barley" is not specific enough. Malting gets right to the heart of how beer is made because the core ingredient of beer are what results when the sugars from malted barley are fermented. Those sugars are scientifically named maltose, hence malt. So the malt used to make beer is the outcome of fermenting the sugars from malted barley whereas the candy or desert form of malt are those sugars themselves, unfermented. That makes good trivia for the new home brewers club meeting. But what makes brewers malt so useful in beers is that there are a wide variety of types of maltose sugars that result from the fermentation. And each of these can be brewed into a very unique beer.

How malt is produced can make for even more interesting trivia. And it gives you insight into how the malts you use in your home brewing come to be. The process of malting barley begins with jump starting the germination process that is nature's way of preparing the barley plants to grow from seeds into sprouts. The barley is soaked and then they are drained fairly soon so the seeds will be stimulated to begin to germinate. The part of the germination process that is interesting to brewers happens when certain enzymes are released by germination. These enzymes are powerful chemicals that convert the stored sugars and starches in the seeds which become food to power the germination and growth of the plant. But it is those enzymes that the brewer is looking to capture.

The entire objective of malting is to activate those enzymes in the seeds and release them so the brewer can capture them for the brewing process. So as soon as the germination process starts, the grain is quickly dried so the enzymes are captured in that raw state to be processed into malted barley. Once the brewer has the malted barley in the condition we just went through, that malt is saturated in hot water. This stimulates and activates the enzymes and puts them to work again. Under the controlled conditions of the brewing process, the enzymes do their job of converting the starches in the barley to sugars. And as those sugars go directly from conversion to be boiled with hops and then combined into fermented yeast, the result is this little thing we call -- beer.

Now this is all good information but most of us who are making beer at the amateur level. For our purposes, malt extract that is sold by your home brewing supplier is a great way to have all of that skilled preparation at your disposal without you having to do all the work. By buying the malt in extract form, it is ready to go into your boiling water and join the home brewing process in full swing. As you add the malt, those enzymes will kick in and the chemical reactions needed to create great tasting beer will be well underway.
Maybe there will come a time when you will get more involved in the more complicated procedures of brewing or at least visit a brewery where the malting process is underway. But since our love of home brewing is about learning all we can about how beer is made by making it ourselves, getting a feel or the malting process is both educational and fascinating as well.

Micro Brews Of The Northwest

Micro Brews Of The Northwest

The ideal place to sample the best of Northwest handcrafted ale is a well run brewpub, which will stimulate the human spirit with warmth, the scent of malt, pleasant conversation, and hearty food. Helping to combat the chilly, damp climate of the region, brewpubs have become great places of refuge where you can shake off the tears of a hostile world, order a pint of cask beer,


then savor a complex beer that will caress every one of your senses. Microbreweries (companies that produce less than 20,000 kegs a year) can be found everywhere from Minneapolis to Maui, although it all began in the Pacific Northwest. On any evening, many dozen locally brewed beers and ales are available for your enjoyment in Portland and Seattle. Most East Coast microbreweries produce German style lagers, which is the most famous style of brewing for American palates.

The microbreweries of the Northwest go all out for wildly adventurous bitters, stouts, and porters. With all of these amazing beers to choose from, you may be wondering where to begin. When you look for a micro brew, you should always be thinking about variety. At any time in both Seattle and Portland, you can find several dozen fresh, locally made brew on tap. They all range in strength from the standard 3 1/2% to a very potent 8 1/2%. As for the flavor, you'll have to taste it for yourself.

There's the rich sweetness of malt, balanced well with good bitter hops. Then, there's also the mocha java overtones of roasted barley, used with stouts and porters, and the spicy kick of malted wheat. There are also the sweet ales and tart ales, mild ales, and ales that are so charged with flavor that they linger on the tongue. No matter which type of micro brew you choose, your sure to get a flavor that will make you come back for more.

Beer Ingredients

Ingredients In Beer

The primary ingredients found in beer are water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. Generally there are other ingredients like flavoring, sugar, and other ingredients that are normally used. Starches are used also, as they convert during the mashing process to easily ferment sugars which will help to increase the alcohol content of beer while adding body and flavor.

Water -  Seeing that how beer is mainly made of water, the source of water and its components have a really significant effect on the character of the beer. A lot of beer variations were determined by the characteristics of water in the region. However the effect of minerals in brewing, water is complex, hard water is more suitable for dark styles, while soft water is more suitable for light styles.

Malt - Amongst malts, barley is the most commonly used due to its high amylase content, and a digestive enzyme that helps the breakdown of starch into sugars. Based upon on whatever can be cultivated locally, other sorts of malts and unmalted grains can be used, like wheat, rice, oats, and rye. Malt is attained by soaking grain in water, letting it to germinate, and then drying the germinated grain in a kiln. By just malting the grain, enzymes will ultimately convert the starches in the grain into fermentable sugars.

Hops- Ever since the seventeenth century, hops were normally used as a bittering agent in beer. Hops help to add a bitterness which will balance the sweetness of the malts. They also bring aromas which vary from citrus to herbal. Hops also supply an antibiotic effect that favors the actions of brewer's yeast over the less desired microorganisms. The bitterness in beer is generally measured on the International Bitterness Units scale.

Yeast -  is a microorganism which is responsible for fermentation. Certain strains of yeast are picked based on the kind of beer made, because the two primary strains are ale yeast and lager yeast, using other variations available too. Yeast assists to metabolize the sugars that are extracted from the grains, and makes alcohol and carbon dioxide as a end result. Well before the functions of yeast were known, all fermentation was done using wild or airborne yeasts.

Clarifying agent - A whole lot of beer brewers choose to add more than one clarifying agents to beer that aren't requested to be used as ingredients. Examples include Isinglass finings, which are attained from swim bladders of fish and Irish moss, that is a type of red alga. Considering these ingredients can be attained from animals, people who are concerned with either the use or ingestion of animal products should obtain detailed information from the brewer.