11/20/11

Yesterday, a gray autumnal morning, I brewed up the current iteration of our house Pale Ale.  This is an  American-style pale ale, a refreshing and hoppy adaptation of the English Pale Ale, made with New World ingredients.  I've had some non-brewers ask me about the ingredients that go into beer - I hope this brief article will be helpful to non-brewers or beginning brewers.  Lets use the recipe for our American Pale Ale to introduce you to the ingredients that go into your beer. 

Water +/- 9 gallons

This might seem obvious, but water is a key ingredient of beer.  Historically, some of the flavor profile of regional beers developed because of the unique characteristics of the local water.  For example, the waters around Burton-on-Trent in England led substantially to the character of many British ales, including the ESB. The Burton waters contain a high proportion of dissolved salts, due to the gypsum in the surrounding hills. 

The water in Oak Lawn comes from Chicago, which tests pretty good for brewing.  Some very serious homebrewers start with reverse osmosis water and build it up with mineral additions.  Because our water is generally considered good for beer, I only add potassium metabisulfite to drive off the chloramines that are added to the drinking water.  Chloramines serve a similar purpose to chlorine and will adversely affect beer. 

Malted Grains - 9 lbs Pale Ale, 1 lb Wheat, 1 lb Munich, 0.75 lb Caramel 60L

Malted grains provide the sugars needed to make beer, as well as coloring and flavors.  Malted barley is the most common grain in beer - all of the malts used in this recipes are barley except for 1 lb of wheat malt.  Malt is germinated grain that has been dried in a 'malting' process.  The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, then the germination process is stopped by drying in hot air.  Malting develops the enzymes needed to convert the grain's starches to sugars.  Want to know more?  Follow this link to the Maltsters Association of Great Britain. 

In this recipe, Pale Ale malt is the base malt - it is made from two-row barley.  I add a pound of wheat malt because it will help with the formation and retention of the finished beer's head.  Munich malt is kilned at a higher temperature than the Pale Ale malt and adds a malty, sweet character to the beer as well as a reddish-amber color.  Caramel malt also adds sweetness and color, as well as body and mouthfeel to the finished beer. 

All of my grains today except for the Caramel were malted by Gambrinus Malting, which has the distinction of being the smallest malting house in North America.  The malthouse originally belonged to the Schlossquell Brewery in Heidelberg, Germany.  In 1992, it was dismantled and reassembled in Armstrong, British Colombia, Canada.  The malthouse produces approximately 6,200 US tons of malt each year. 

For what its worth, I use certified organic malts and hops.  Follow this link for a brief summary on why

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Hops - 1/2 oz Bravo (60), 1 oz Ivanhoe (20), 1 oz Centennial (10), 1 oz Cascade (5), 1 oz Cascade (dry hopped)

Hops add bitterness to beer, balancing the malt and sweetness.  They also add flavor and aroma.  The hops I used for our Pale Ale are all American varieties, which tend to give a brighter, more citrus flavor and aroma than European varieties.  The numbers following the hop name indicate how long I boiled the hops.

The Bravo hops were our basic bittering hop - by boiling it for 60 minutes, it will add bittering and not much flavor or aroma to the beer.  The Ivanhoe, an older American variety that has recently begun to be cultivated more widely again, was boiled for 20 minutes and is considered a flavoring hop.  The Centennial and Cascade are related hops, strongly citrus, and will add to the beer's aroma.

When the beer is finished fermenting, I will add another ounce of our homegrown Cascade hops in a process that is called 'dry hopping'.  The Cascade hops will soak in the finished beer for 5-7 days, to add even more fresh hop aroma to the beer. 

Yeast - Edinburgh Strain

Yeast turn our grain and hop soup (called wort) into beer.  It is a living organism, technically classified as fungi, which eats the sugars in the wort, converting them to alcohol and carbon dioxide.  While 'wild' yeasts are all over the place, brewing yeast (saccharomyces cerevisia) is the variety brewers use to make ale.

It is critical to brewing good beer to add or pitch enough viable yeast cells and to be sure that those cells are healthy and vital.  Then, its important to give the yeast cells an environment that is well suited for them.  For example, I am controling the temperature at which our Pale Ale is fermenting, at around 62 degrees Fahrenheit.

There are many strains of yeast available - I use the Edinburgh (Scottish) strain for many of our beers, including the Pale Ale, because it offers a 'clean' flavor profile if fermented at lower temps and a more estery profile at slightly higher temps, and accentuates malt flavors without suppressing hop flavor and bitterness.  I use yeast produce by White Labs and you can take a look at all the strains available from White Labs by following this link. 

That's it - the basic ingredients that go into making beer.  Many ingredients may be used in beer recipes, but using our Pale Ale as a model gives you a good introduction to what goes into the beer in your glass.  Cheers, Salud and Skal!