The brewing process in general.... The brewing process is filled with lots of complex chemistry, but it can also be a pretty straightforward event. In a nutshell, malted barley is crushed in a mill and then steeped in hot water in a tank called a mashtun. This process causes an enzyme in the grain to convert the stored starches in the grain to sugar (the sugar produced from malt is called maltose). Once the brewer is confident that the conversion of starch to sugar is complete, the hot, sweet liquid (called wort) is drained, our lautered, from the mashtun and transferred to the boil kettle. Once all of the wort has been lautered from the mashtun to the boil kettle, it is brought to a boil for at least one hour. During the boil, hops are added to the wort. Typically, a variety of hops are added, in different quantities and at different time intervals during the boil. The hops help shape the taste and the aroma of the beer. Hops added early in the boil contribute to a beer's bitterness, while hops added toward the end of the boil contribute to the aroma of the beer. After the brewer has boiled the wort for the specified amount of time (the boil time can vary for each recipe, but it will boil for at least an hour), the wort is rapidly chilled and transferred into yet another vessel, called a fermenter. This is when the yeast is added, or pitched, to the wort. Once the yeast has been pitched, the yeast cells begin to reproduce. When the number of yeast cells have grown to a sufficient amount (billions!), this yeast army begins to consume the maltose sugar in the wort. When the yeast cells consume sugar, this is called fermentation. The two primary byproducts of fermentation are ethyl alcohol (ethanol) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Once fermentation begins to subside (usually around 5-7 days for ales, quite a bit longer for lagers), the beer remains in the fermenter where it is cooled and it begins to settle naturally. At this point, the beer is drinkable but it is not carbonated. Carbonation can happen in a couple of different ways. One way is to carbonate the beer by injecting it with carbon dioxide while it's still in the fermenter (or sometimes it is transferred to a special tank where the carbonation occurs). In a closed system, the beer will absorb the added CO2, and is now ready for kegging or bottling. Another way of carbonating beer is to add priming sugar to the beer and immediately bottle it. The tiny bit of yeast that is still suspended in the beer will consume this priming sugar and – you guessed it – release CO2 in the capped bottle, which is then absorbed by the beer in the bottle. This second method is called natural, or bottle, conditioning. Once the beer is chilled, it is ready to enjoy!
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