Beer

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A glass of lager Helles, typical of Southern Germany.

Beer (from Latin cerevisĭa) is an alcoholic beverage, not distilled, with a bitter taste, which is made with germinated barley grains or other cereals whose starch it is fermented in water with yeast (mainly Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Saccharomyces pastorianus) and is often flavored with hops, among other plants. It is the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world, and one of the most consumed drinks, only behind water, tea and coffee.

Several types are known of it with a wide range of nuances, due to the different ways of making it and the ingredients used. It generally has an amber color with shades ranging from golden yellow to black through reddish brown. It is considered "gaseous" (it contains dissolved CO2 in saturation that manifests itself in the form of bubbles at ambient pressure) and is usually crowned with a more or less persistent foam. Its appearance may be crystalline or cloudy. Its alcohol content can reach up to about 20% vol., although it is commonly between 4% and 6% vol.

Background

Chimay bottles depicted in a mural of Lovaina-la-New (Belgium).

According to Anderson and Hull, "hops give beer that limpid and bitter taste, without which it can hardly be called a beer". From then on, the drink that we identify today as beer, different from malt wine, was born. Such a custom originated in Germany about a thousand years ago. Hops replaced the flavorings hitherto used, giving alcoholicly fermented barley its characteristic bitterness. Hops also contribute decisively to its preservation. It also works as an effective antiseptic and stabilizer. It also serves to stop acetic fermentation and clarify the liquid, causing the precipitation of albuminous substances. The first testimonies we have about the use of hops date back to Germany in the XI century, due to taxes by the use of the so-called grut, which in English is called gruit —the set of herbs used in brewing—, which was replaced by hops.

Without the use of hops, the fermented wine from barley is no more than a malt wine —which does not contain hops and, if it does, it cannot be fresh—, which is more reminiscent of wine than of wine due to its flavor Beer. The less hops used, the more winey the drink is. If the malt is very roasted, it is not necessary to use as much hops to avoid the winey taste. In French malt wine is called vin d'orge, in English barley wine, in German Gerstenwein and Maltonwein and in Italian vino d'orzo. It tastes like wine, it is served in a wine glass, it has a graduation similar to that of wine and the same uses as wine. Malt table and dessert wines are even distinguished. They are not considered a beer, although Belgium's famous malt wines—garnished with fruit—are often included in the discussion of beers as "special beers." Tritton points out in his manual that, to make beer instead of malt wine, just add hops and a ferment used to make beer. In the case of malt wine, hops are omitted and wine ferment is used instead of beer ferment. Hops identify the individuality of beer as much, if not more, than barley or other cereals. Nor are they considered beer, nor is it called beer, since it lacks hops, the alcoholic fermentation, of about 7% vol. from which whiskey is distilled.

In addition to malt wine, there are other alcoholic beverages with different characteristics or appearance but also made from fermented starch that, when they do not have a specific name —as in the case of sake—, They are assimilated to beers. In the latter case, a complement is added to the name "beer" in order to avoid misunderstandings (for example, banana beer). Non-alcoholic beer is a special case since its alcoholic content is negligible or null, although it shares the same basic characteristics as the rest of the beers because it has been dealcoholized during production.

One could classify sake as rice beer —although there are several differences— if an analogical criterion were adopted. Beer is to Europeans what sake is to the Japanese. In an analogical sense, beer can also be classified as a sake. Analog classifications are often scientifically rejected as not being rigorous, since they do not adequately distinguish the genus from the species. If we call all mammals "cows", then we must distinguish between "proper" cows and other animals that are only cows by assimilation. There is no word to designate all beverages made from alcoholicly fermented cereals. For English, Harold J. Grossman has proposed brews and malt beverages.

In Japan, beer, as it is known in the West, was initially an imported product. Today there are Japanese breweries and to designate this drink the phrase bier was adapted to that language as biiru (ビール). Although rice is often used to make beer, not only the preparation is different, but also the fermentation. In the Eastern tradition, in the alcoholic fermentation of rice, sorghum or millet, the ferment used comes from those same cereals, and is based on the spores of Aspergillus Orizae, an asexual fungus that produces the enzyme called takadiastase. This ferment is called koji, a word of Japanese origin, but which is used in any language if you want to designate that ferment. Koji does not only include Aspergillus Orizae, related to rice, but also others such as A. sojae relating to soybeans. It has the virtue of making not only sucrose, but also lactose, ferment in alcohol. In obtaining these drinks, the cereal is not roasted. The preparation of the wort is also different accordingly. In a brewing culture where classifications are made as subtle as the distinction between ale and beer it would be very difficult to classify sake as a >ale or as a beer.

Unlike beverages obtained from fermented fruit juices, such as wines, in beer the base cereal originally contains neither water nor sugar, both deficiencies characterizing the production process. To get sugar from cereal starch, it is first necessary to modify it by malting and immersing it in water at the right temperature in order to complete the conversion. The resulting liquid, made up of sugars, proteins and residues from the cereal, is filtered, boiled vigorously and hot hops are added, although there is also the custom of cold hopping —dry hopping, "dry", in English -, an operation that consists of adding the flowers to the already cold must, either in the fermentation vats or in the storage vats. Once cooled to a temperature that allows the development of yeasts, they are added and fermentation begins that will produce alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO₂).

Etymology

There are several opinions:

One, by Joan Corominas, says that “cerveza” comes from Latin cervêsïa, that in turn takes this word of the gallon, a Celtic language. Celtic root seems to be related to Welsh cwrw and the Gaelic coirm. For cervoise understand Petit Larousse Illustré of 1918 “close to the ancient gallows”.
- Another, by Phillippe Duboë-Laurence and Christian Berger (The book of the beer lover), suggests that cervoise comes from cerevisiabut then they add that this voice would come from "Ceres", Latin goddess of the earth and cereals, and visforce. Such etymology belongs to that genre of fantasy etymologies that philologists^{[chuckles]Who?]} Don't take it seriously. The zythology specialist Laurent Vacher, holds the idea that cerevisia comes from "Ceres vitis", that is, "the vineyard of "Ceres", a Roman goddess of agriculture.

In any case, the common root is easily appreciable in its Spanish words «cerveza», Portuguese cerveja, Catalan cervesa, Galician cervexa, Extremadura cervécia and Romanesque gervosa. In other European languages, derivatives of the same root as the Germanic word bier are used, such as English beer, French bière and Italian. beer. In English the word ale is also used, equivalent to öl, which is the Scandinavian word for beer. Charlie Papazian argues that ale originally meant mead —mead in English— greatly diluted with water, while strong mead was called biuza, where it comes from the word beer.

History

Main article: History of beer

Beer bar.

Historically, beer was developed by the ancient Elamite, Egyptian, and Sumerian peoples. The oldest evidence of beer production dates from around the 4th millennium BC. C. and were found in Godin Tepe, in ancient Elam (now Iran). Some place it together with the appearance of bread between 10,000 B.C. C. and 6000 a. C., since it has a similar preparation, adding more or less water. It seems that the primitive beers were denser than the current ones, similar to the current African pombe. According to the oldest known recipe, the Papyrus of Zosimus of Panopolis (III century), the Egyptians brewed beer from undercooked barley loaves left to ferment in water. Their beer was known as zythum, which is a Greek word, but at a later stage. Formerly in the East rice and also bamboo were used. From bamboo, as from sugar cane, what is fermented is its sap; but not its fruit. Such is the ulanzi proper to Tanzania. It cannot be considered an alcoholic fermentation of cereal. The oldest alcoholic beverages may be derived from milk. Michael Jackson, in his Michael Jackson's Beer Companion, collects the opinion of University of Pennsylvania professor Salomon Katz, who dates the appearance of an alcoholic fermented barley drink in Mesopotamia from the year 4000 a. C. with the name of sikaru , but he points out that it was made with barley bread; that is, it was what today is called kuas, which is not properly considered beer, although it is an alcoholic fermentation from cereal. Beer itself appears in Europe in the XIII century, to the extent that the concept of beer includes the bitterness of beer. hop. The malted had already been invented before. In the first chapter of his Études sur la bière, Louis Pasteur notes that when it is said that in the fourth century B.C. C. Theophrasto already spoke of "beer", in fact he did not speak of beer, nor of cervoise, nor of beer, but of barley wine (οίνος εκ κριθεόν). Attributing a very ancient origin to beer is done on the basis of providing a very broad concept of what is to be understood by beer.

The oldest archaeological remains of beer production in Europe were discovered in 1999 at the Cova de Can Sadurní site in the municipality of Begas (Barcelona, Spain). The remains found were from the Neolithic in a stratification between 5500 B.C. c.-4000 a. C., by Manel Edo Benaiges, Pepa Villalba Ibáñez and Anna Blasco Olivares, from the University of Barcelona (UB). Undoubtedly, this finding displaced what until then was believed to be the oldest brewing discovery in Europe at the Ambrona Valley site, within the municipality of Miño de Medinaceli (Soria, Spain), and which It dates from around the 25th century BCE. C., according to the archaeological work of the team led by Professor Manuel Ángel Rojo Guerra, from the University of Valladolid. Archaeological evidence of brewing has also been found at the Genó site, in Aitona (Lérida, Spain)., after the archaeological research work directed by Professor José Luis Maya González, which established that these remains dated from around the 12th century B.C. c.

The Celts knew how to brew beer and they took this knowledge with them when they spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula, where its use and brewing developed very early.

Over the centuries, especially after Romanization, the Mediterranean was consolidated as a basically wine-producing area, while beer was produced in northern and central Europe and acquired the form of what is understood Today for beer. In this way, the use of malt as the main ingredient is extended and the use of hops as flavoring is also beginning to be introduced. This cannabaceous plant gives beer its characteristic bitter taste, while also favoring its conservation.

In 1516, Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria drafted the first law establishing what was meant by beer. This purity law (Reinheitsgebot) established that only water, barley malt and hops could be used to brew beer. On the other hand, in England, Henry VIII prohibited the use of hops, under pressure from the brewers' union; ban lifted by his son Edward VI, and continued for some time in Scotland. English brewers were slow to accept the use of hops. At the time, beer without hops was called ale and beer with hops was called beer. Still today, to designate malt wines without hops rather than barley wine, which can simply designate a high-grade beer, we speak of gruit ale.

Beer began to recover its social presence in Spain from the reign of Emperor Charles I, who brought master brewers from Germany with him. All of this is reflected among the emperor's belongings upon his death in Yuste by his secretary Martín de Gaztelu.At that time, beer was still a seasonal product. It was not known how to preserve and with the heat it lost all its strength. The beer called lager, however, receives that name because of its storability. It was made in autumn, to be consumed in spring. Low fermentation and low temperature favors its conservation. It was actually slowly fermenting while in storage. Currently all beers, even those with high fermentation, are storable and have an expiration date of about three years. Lager has undergone a semantic change, and has come to mean bottom-fermented beer.

Picture of the early twentieth century The White Cross, beer factory installed in Santander in 1860 (Thomas Collection).

The preservability of beer is due not so much to the invention of electric refrigerators as to the invention of preservatives other than hops, and the possibility of large-scale brewing with ease in hermetically sealed containers. Mass-produced industrial bottles appear in the 19th century. Before they were made by blowtorch. Canned beer begins in 1933 in the United States, after the abolition of dry law. Wooden beer barrels have practically disappeared. One cannot speak of a true brewing industry until the XIX century, when small factories that are more industrial than artisanal begin to appear.

The first large brewery in Spain was opened in 1864 by the Alsatian Louis Moritz in Barcelona. Brands such as La Salve Bilbao (1886), Mahou (1890), La Zaragozana (1900), Cruzcampo (1904) and Estrella Galicia (1906) followed.

Ingredients

Barley planning.

Cereals

Main article: Cereal

Brewing can be done with any grain that can produce fermentable sugars. For this, it must be prepared so that the vast majority of its sugars are fermentable. In some cases a simple cooking is enough (as in the case of corn) and in other cases it is necessary to "malt" the cereal. Numerous cereals are used in the preparation of beer in their raw or malted state, barley being the only one that must necessarily be malted and the most used in western brewery.

The malt

Barley grains used for brewing beer. To the left, clear malt, to the right above, black malt, and to the right below, amber-type semi-cut malt

The sugars contained in the barley grain are not immediately accessible and, in a previous phase, it is necessary to activate some enzymes present in the grain itself that will reduce the long chains of starch to release sugars. This operation, also called malting or malting, simply consists of making the grains germinate. When it is estimated that the enzymatic activation of germination is at its optimal point, the process is stopped, reducing the humidity of the grain to its minimum. This product is called green malt. Then you have to bake it. At low temperatures, roasting is minimal and we speak of clear malts (also called lager or pale malts depending on the country in which they are produced).. As the kiln temperature is increased, the resulting malt is darker and darker. It can get to the point of burning it, producing “black malt”. The degree of roasting of the malt determines the color of the beer. The other cereals can be used by previously malting them, although it is only essential to do so in the case of barley. With the other cereals, malting is used to achieve differentiated aromas or specific technical effects.

Mixing

Mix refers to the mass of grain that will be used to make the must. It can be a single type of malt or the result of a mixture of malts, or of malts and raw grain. The proportions and components of this mixture are basic to determine the type or style of beer that you want to produce.

Type of grain

The various cereals used for the brewery each present botanical varieties that multiply the possibilities of choice for the brewer. Up to 60 different types can currently be found on the market, a figure that increases considerably if we take home malting into account. Basically cereals are distinguished into four categories:

Basic Malta. Clear, little baked with great enzymatic power, which usually form the largest part or the whole of the mixture. Specifically these malts are called lager, Pal or pilsAccording to the manufacturer.
Special Malta. They are colored malts that go from amber to black, very baked and with little or no enzymatic power. They are usually used in small quantities to affect the color or taste of beer or for some technical reason of the elaboration. There is then a great variety, including black malts, chocolate malts or toasted malts.
Mixed Malta. These malts are more toasted than base malts but retain enough enzyme properties for at least their own sugars, so they can be used as a base or as additives. In this category we find the candy and amber malts known in England as malts Crystal (and derivatives) and in Germany as malts Candy.. In this area, there are two malts Candy. private calls Munich and Vienna very important in the brewery of those countries.
Crude, toasted or gelatinized cereals. As already said, cereals can be used without malting to add variety in tastes, aromas, texture and other characteristics to beer. They are often used in small quantities.
New alternatives to the malteo process. The process of malting requires high energy consumption, due to the cost derived from the germination and drying process. This is why production techniques have begun to develop without malt. The process of malting is required for the production of certain enzymes that favor the depolimerization of grain starch and provide a particular body to beer. That is why the new alternatives consist of adding directly the enzymes, developed through bioengineering, and proceeding to the maceration of the virgin grain. That would mean a reduction in the CO2 footprint of the brewing process.

The quality of the cereals, their varieties, and the quality of the malting process largely define the quality of the beer. Alcoholic beverages made from the fermentation of sugars obtained from other sources are generally not called beer, despite being produced by a process similar to the biochemical reaction of yeast. As examples, fermented apple juice is called cider, fermented pear juice is called perry, and fermented grape juice is called wine.

Fragrance additives

Hops

Main article: Lip

Illustration of the hop.

Currently, in Western brewing, the main additive used to counterbalance (if you prefer) malt sweetness is hops (Humulus lupulus). The female flower, called “cone”, is used without fertilizing this plant, except in England. Male and female flowers grow on different plants, so it is usual to suppress the male ones, thus obtaining seedless female inflorescences. In England, however, it is customary to have one male hop for every two hundred female hops, so the "cones" have seeds. This seems to provide greater resistance to plants.

At the base of its bracteoles, there are glands that contain lupulin, which is the ingredient that will give the beer its bitter taste and its own aromas. Bitter acids are responsible for the bitterness and the aromas come from elemental oils made up especially of fairly volatile and delicate compounds based on esters and resins. There are numerous botanical varieties of hops that are the subject of intensive research. Hops are the cause of the appetite stimulation that beer produces. For your understanding, they are also classified into categories:

Lovers of bitterness

These hops are the ones that contribute more bitter acids than aromas. The best-known representatives of this category are the brewer's gold and the northern brewer or nordbrauer.

Aromatic impulses

Logically, they provide more aromatic elements than bitter. In this section, the saaz/zatec that define the pilsner style of beer, the spalt and the tettnang are especially known. > in the German area, and the golding and fuggler in the English-speaking area.

Mixed pulseswhich provide both characteristics together but less accentuated. This category is very variable and poorly defined. We should also quote hallertau and above all its botanical derivatives, as well as the hersbrucker and its derivatives.

The hops are very delicate, they can only be used fresh during the few months of their harvest, which coincides with that of the vineyard: late August to October depending on the varieties and the site. Outside this time interval, it has to be conditioned, so that the market presents various forms ranging from dehydrated hops to hop extract. Logically, with each manipulation, characteristics are lost and it is not the same to use a fresh or frozen hop as an oil from hop concentrate. The organoleptic effect on beer is very different. The variety and freshness of the hops have a very significant influence on the final quality of the beer. The forms of use are extract, pellet or powder; although the most usual form is in pellet.

Hops can be purchased and used in the form of "pellets", an English word used in brewing jargon, which means "little pill". There are two kinds: to impart bitterness and to impart aroma. The pellets have the advantage of avoiding the rapid degradation of the flowers. The big factories use hop extract, which has hardly any aroma; but the great mass of drinkers is not aware of it. They also sometimes use extracts of oil essences to give aroma. They have the drawback that they contain "myrcene" to a greater or lesser extent, which also provides an unpleasant odor. Those extracts are added immediately before bottling.

Other ingredients

Cherries Lambert).

Besides hops, history includes numerous botanical additives. Today we can cite the following:

Fruits. It is usually considered that fermenting fruit must is obtained wine. But we currently describe beers that in an operation prior to fermentation are added fruit, fruit juice or syrup, thus proceeding to an addition of sugars that cause a second fermentation. Historical types are cherry beer (kriekand the raspberry (frambozen). There are others of much more recent creation, of kiwi, apricot or banana, for example. These specialties are typical and almost exclusive of the Senne Valley in Belgium.
Plants. The use of hops has already been commented, but in addition, aromatized beers are described apart from this plant or as a substitute with hemp, rosemary, chestnut, etc.

Rosemary in flower.
Spice. Before the generalization of the hop as well as the plants, the spices had their moment of glory. Even today they make scented beers with ginger, coriandro, orange peel from Curaçao, pepper, nutmeg, etcetera.
Other. Beer can serve as an excipient or more or less original mixing support tested by the most daring makers. Let's cite as an example the scented beer with pretty fashionable honey in the French microcerveceries, or the scented beer with wine.

Water

Main article: Water

Between 85 and 92% of beer is water.

Apart from the bacteriological and mineral characteristics of drinkability, each type or style of beer will require a different quality of water. Some require water with low mineralization, others need hard water with a lot of lime. Today, beers are hardly made as they flow. Almost all the breweries treat the waters in such a way that they always have the same characteristics for the same beer recipe.

Among the minerals in water that brewers are most interested in include calcium, sulfates, and chlorides. Calcium increases the extraction of both malt and hops in the mash and brew and lowers the color and opacity (or how cloudy it is) of the beer. Copper, manganese and zinc inhibit yeast flocculation. Sulfates reinforce the bitterness and dryness of the hops. Chlorides give a fuller texture and enhance sweetness.

Currently, approximately 3Hl of water are consumed for every Hl of beer produced. For this reason, the trend is to reduce water consumption.

Yeast

Main article: Lev

Most styles of beer are made using one of two single-celled species of microorganisms of the Saccharomyces type commonly called yeasts, fungi that (as their name implies) consume sugar and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. carbon. There are two different basic types of yeast that define the two large stylistic groups of beers:

The yeast high fermentation is usually found in nature. Taxonomically receives the name of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It is found in grain stems and in the mouth of mammals. It was discovered by Louis Pasteur in 1852 in his research on beer. This variety acts at temperatures between 12 and 24 °C and is located on the surface of the must. Beers that are obtained with this type of fermentation are called high fermentation or Ales. There are many variations of this yeast adapted to each style of beer. In particular, there is one that is usually called "Weizen" and which brings to the beers of southern Germany its special taste.
The yeast low fermentation is a variety unintentionally discovered by the brewers of southern Germany who submitted their beers to a low-temperature maturation in the caves of the Alps. These mushrooms, of the species Saccharomyces uvarum (also called) S. carlsbergensis)^{[chuckles]required]}, they operate at temperatures between 7 and 13 °C and are usually placed at the bottom of the fermenter. Beers made with this variety are calls for low fermentation or lager.

In the elaboration of the beer, especially in the calls of spontaneous fermentation, other yeasts can also intervene. In these beers the brewer does not select any yeast but allows all the airborne yeasts to be introduced into the wort. These yeasts produce a tumultuous fermentation similar to that of wine, not particularly localized either at the top or bottom of the container. Apart from Saccharomyces, more than 50 different fermenters are installed, including Lactobacillus (it is a bacterium), which produces lactic acid, and Brettanomyces, which produces acetic acid. These beers are therefore acidic by definition, and their preparation requires special procedures designed to lower the acidity.

Crafting

This section is a brewing extract.[chuckles]edit]

A 16th-century brewery (J. Amman's illustration).

The brewing of beer is divided into two main processes: the first corresponds to the conversion of the starch of a cereal into fermentable sugars by action of the enzymes that are found in the malt and the subsequent alcoholic fermentation of them by the action of yeast. This method, although it has as its main objective the production of beer, is very similar to that used in making drinks such as sake, hydromel and wine. The brewing of beer has a very long history, and historical evidence says it was already employed by the ancient Egyptians. Some recipes for the preparation of old beer recipes come from sumerian writings. The beer industry is part of the activities of the Western economy.

Illustration of the hops plant.

The six basic ingredients that are usually involved in brewing are:

Malta: it is one of the initial elements of brewing, consisting mainly of barley seeds that have been harvested for a limited period of time, until they have sprouted about two or three centimeters and are subsequently withdrawn and dried. The brewing of beer can be done with any cereal that is "bad" (i.e. any seed that possesses starch and is susceptible to germination); the barley has between 60%-65% of starch. The aim of this step is the production of amilasa that will be used to decompose starch.
Water: another main element, intervenes not only in the initial moments mixed with malt, but in some of the subsequent filters, introduces a characteristic flavor (it is famous the saying that a pilsener of Dortmund knows different from one of Munich). Between 85 and 92% of the beer is water.
Lip: The Humulus lupulus is a relatively modern ingredient in beer, it is a climbing plant of the cannabis family that, in addition to providing a characteristic bitter taste, is responsible for stabilizing the foam. The hops are responsible for the aromas and floral flavors of some types of beer, especially those of the United States and England. This plant uses the female flower without fertilizer. This ingredient has many medicinal properties, including tranquilizers. Other fundamentals of the addition to malt are the braking of enzyme processes after the first filter.
Levadura: is thus called the unicellular organisms (size 5 to 10 microns) that transform by fermentation the glucids and amino acids of cereals in ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO)₂). There are two types of fermentation: the high fermentation, which corresponds to the floating yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), which generates the Ale beer and the low fermentation that corresponds to the yeasts that go to the bottom during the fermentation Saccharomyces carlsbergensis or Saccharomyces uvarum which serves for the brewing of Lager beer. High fermentation results in fruity flavors and other atypical characteristics of the lagers, due to the production of esters and other fermentation by-products.
Grits: they are added that make the processing more stable, usually another type of cereal, such as wheat, oats, corn and even rye. In addition to foam stabilization, these cereals add different flavors to beer and increase the perceived 'density' of the drink itself.
Sugar: Sometimes, sugar is added during the boiling phase to increase the amount of alcohol in the final product or even to dilute it.

Stages

Mix of grain. This stage consists of the dry mixing of the various grains, whether or not they are involved in the recipe. The proportion of the constituents defines the profile of grain, colour and transparency of beer.
Start of maceration. The grain is thrown into the water at a temperature of 67 °C.
Maceration. It is necessary to submit the mixture prior to a series of operations aimed at activating various enzymes that reduce long sugar chains in other simpler and fermentable ones. Mainly, it is about making the mixture go through various stages longer or less temperature, because each stage is optimal for different enzymes.
End of maceration. When the developer considers that the mixture contains all the necessary elements for its recipe, it stops all chemical operations and carries that mixture at the temperature of 82 °C, which destroys all enzymes.
Filtered. The grain of the mixture must be removed. This is done for leakage. The result is on the one hand the must, a liquid that contains everything that the maker has extracted from the grain and is dissolved in water, and on the other the left grain or bagazo that is normally used in animal feed.
Cooking and hops additions. The developer submits the must to a cooking of between a quarter of an hour and two hours. This cooking mainly serves to destroy all the microorganisms that have been able to be introduced into the must. It also has other technical functions such as now the control of the pH of the must, etc. During this stage the hops are introduced. Those who contribute mainly bitterness are added at the beginning while the aromatics enter at the end of the stage, as their principles are volatile. After this operation, the remains of hops are removed. At this time, the must is a crop broth that could be quickly infected.
Refrigeration. By not being able to inoculate yeast at temperatures higher than 35 °C, and to prevent any other microorganism from entering the must, it cools as quickly as possible.
Inoculation of yeast. The developer introduces the cultivation of yeast that he himself has developed or has obtained in a yeast bank.
Fermentation. The yeast first reproduces very actively using the oxygen contained in the must. It is the spectacular stage in which you can see a lot of foam and an important bubble. When oxygen is finished, yeast begins to consume sugar and transforms it into alcohol and carbon dioxide. These stages can last between one and three weeks. At the end of this time beers Lager (low fermentation) industrial are filtered, pasteurized, packaged with an added CO2 and distributed.
- Second fermentations. The most crafty beers are packed with additions of sugar (or must) and fresh yeast. This causes a second fermentation in the bottle, responsible for the ferment of beer.
Madura. Normally, the best beers receive a prudential time of ripening in controlled environments to favor the second fermentation and the proper development of tastes and aromas. The ripening time can go from two weeks to three months. Some types of beer already made to be matured for a long time can be subjected to maturitys of up to three years.

Classification

There are various criteria for classifying beers. The various associations and experts agreed in the 1970s to develop a classification of beers based on these criteria and the descriptions of the brewers themselves.

Lager beer in a Viking vessel (an Icelandic brand).

Ingredients

Usually it is customary to indicate which grain the beer has been made with when it has not been made exclusively with barley malt: wheat beer, oat beer, etc. In most cases it is a mixture of barley malt and the indicated grain. It is not usually indicated with which hops the beer is made, but there is a particular style that is defined by the use of one in particular: it is Pils or Pilsener beer., which originally had to be made with barleys from Moravia and Žatec (or Saaz) hops from Bohemia. Some historical German imitations made with barleys and hops very similar to the original Pils can also be called Pils.

Appearance

Many beers are distinguished by their color: amber, red, blonde, black beer. Others are defined by their transparency: cloudy or translucent beers. Normally, the translucency of a beer can be due to the proteins in suspension, coming from the grain (less than barley), or it can be due to the fact that it is little or not having been filtered and having yeast in suspension. Black beers are named for the use of roasted or burnt malts in the recipe. Some particularly robust black beers are commonly named stout.

Procedures

Some beers are defined by a particular procedure: Rauchbier (smoked beer) is made with malts that have been roasted allowing wood smoke to permeate the grain. The Dampfbier or Steambeer are defined by the use of steam machinery in its production. They are not exactly styles but they are defined in this way. Some German beers, in winter, were served hot and an iron rod (Stachel) was also used to be dipped in red to increase the temperature and caramelize some sugars: Stachelbier. This procedure has also been described in Ireland. The Steinbier is a specialty in which the must is heated by throwing very hot stones (Stein) at it.

Cerveza Hacker Pschorr, Oktoberfest in Munich in 2007.

Origin or denomination of origin

Many beers are defined by their place of origin or by a controlled denomination of origin. It is necessary to speak especially of the abbey beers, which usually receive their name and denomination due to their relationship, not always evident or direct, with a monastery. The best-known example is that of the Trappistes beers exclusively dependent on monasteries of this order. These beers are usually dense and with a notable alcohol content. There are two denominations of origin: the bière de garde from the North of France, and the Kölsch, which can only be made in Cologne. Regional beers are also very characteristic, such as German beers or Belgian craft beers (Bush, La Binchoise, De Coninck, etc.).

However, unlike what happens with wine, the marketing of beers is not based on a system of “appellations of origin”, to which a “certain region” is assigned that is the only one in which that it is allowed to manufacture the corresponding product and the only one that has the right to use that “designation of origin”. The beers adopt registered trademarks by name in the usual patent and trademark registries. Many beer brands are famous. A large factory orders the production of the same beer in different countries, on the basis of demanding a very specific recipe. Production is not tied to a “certain region”. The consumer drinks “the same beer” regardless of whether it is brewed in Japan, Spain or Bordeaux.

Graduation

This is the simplest classification. Depending on the type of fermentation, beers are divided into two large groups: lager with low fermentation, and ale with high fermentation, which also includes those with spontaneous fermentation..

However, this is too generic a division, so beers that do not have any other special characteristics are usually called lager. lager beers are generally light, clear, fairly fizzy, and have a moderate alcohol content. They are also usually very refreshing. ale, on the other hand, are less common, at least in the Mediterranean, although in the United Kingdom and central Europe they are the most popular. These are darker, thicker beers with little gas. They tend to have a higher graduation and a much more intense flavor, in which the cereal is more noticeable. The name ale is usually applied only to English beers, while the rest tend to adopt their name based on other properties.

Evolution and historical expansion

Pan.

The invention: beer and bread

Human beings began to cultivate cereals between the 11th millennium B.C. C. and the seventh millennium B.C. C. in the area of Mesopotamia. It is then quite probable that both bread and beer were discovered at the same time (see: History of bread). It is only a question of proportions: if you put more flour than water and let it ferment, you would get bread; if the proportion was reversed by adding more water than flour and left to ferment, beer was obtained. The oldest traces that testify to the existence of bakery and brewery appear in Mesopotamia, but it would be idle to look for a relationship with identical procedures discovered in the rest of Europe. Given the climatic circumstances that were taking place after the recession of the last known ice age in the part of the Mediterranean basin as well as in the mouth of the Euphrates, the Nile delta and other places, we tend to believe that beer was discovered or invented in many places in the Mediterranean and Europe quite simultaneously.^{[citation needed]}

Beer as food

Originally it is necessary to conceive beer as a food that offered two basic advantages. First of all, it allowed a more restrained use of an ingredient that was not very easy to grow at first. Indeed, it was easier to make a lot of beer with a little grain than a lot of bread with the same amount of grain. In fact, many beers were made by soaking fermented, cooked breads in water and allowing the mixture to ferment. The beer was sucked with reeds to avoid encountering lumps of bread. Secondly, the fermentation produced alcohol and disinfected the water thus offering a clean drink of bacterial contamination. It is not for nothing that in places like the Czech Republic or Bavaria, beer is still called "liquid bread".

Sacred Brew

The phenomenon of fermentation was conceived as an act coming from the divinities with a strong magical character. This is how beer was conceived as a sacred drink pleasing to the gods. And the texts in which an offering is described in which beer appears as sacred food are not rare.

Vulgar beer

When beer was produced in large quantities, its quality also dropped significantly. This is how beer appeared as a tavern drink in many places in the classical Mediterranean. The only place where beer didn't seem to have much of a role was in ancient Greece, where wine dominated. Throughout the rest of the basin, beer was the popular and sacred drink. Specifically, in Rome, in the underworld, it was consumed in huge quantities. And to make it, vines had to be uprooted, which created an important conflict with the followers of wine.

The ingredients

Wheat planting.

Originally, beers used to be made with a cereal ancestor of wheat called spelt. But wheat and barley quickly took over at the brewery. Wheat, more pleasant in its solid form, was reserved for baking and barley for beer. Curiously, already in very remote times, barley was not served raw. Some breads were made, cooked at different levels and which kept very well. To make the beer, bread was broken into pieces and mixed with water. After heating and cooking the mixture, it was left to ferment for a few days. There are many graphic and documentary testimonies in the Mesopotamia region that describe how consumers used a cane to drink the beer without encountering the pieces of bread. The Egyptians started their brewery with breads like the Sumerians, but it seems that they were the inventors of malting. And in both Mesopotamia and Egypt, large quantities of beer of many different types identified by their color were made, which indicates that they already controlled the degree of roasting of the breads or grain.

Social importance

Beer had great social importance until recently. The nutrition of a Babylonian consisted mainly of beer, grain, fruits, vegetables, and onions, a diet little different from that of most modest people of antiquity. Many salaries were collected in grain or directly in beer. People with more purchasing power did not change consumption although they made it more sophisticated: they filtered the beer, making it denser (more expensive). It even describes how the poor drank beer with straws from the river, while the rich had gold tubes to do the same service. Another indication of the social importance of beer is the fact that in those countries, brewers did not have to participate in wars. Instead, they were forced to follow the armies in order to ensure their supply of beer. As it was a staple food, beer, throughout history, has been the object of various covetousness by powerful people, who in some cases became a monopoly. He also charged trade with significant taxes or established laws for the exclusive use of some cereal to favor a monopoly of said cereal. Some clashes and riots are described at various times and in various places when this pressure proved unbearable.

Contribution to health

Beer has a high content of vitamins, mineral salts, proteins, fibers, micronutrients and carbohydrates. According to a study carried out at the University of Cardiff (United Kingdom), beer increases “good” cholesterol, improves blood clotting, has a high nutritional value and favors digestion.

The moderate consumption of fermented beverages, such as beer, can be part of a healthy diet such as the current Mediterranean Diet, due to the properties that their low alcohol content gives them and the raw materials with which they are made. For this reason, the Spanish Society of Community Nutrition (SENC) includes optional and moderate fermented beverages (beer, wine, cava or cider) in the Healthy Eating Pyramid —the main reference in nutritional matters in Spain. healthy adult diet

Monastic beer, secular beer

North of the Pyrenees, the Middle Ages were the golden age of beer, and producing it was a favorable business that even extended the practice to the friars. Soon, a conflict of interest arose between the secular producers who had to pay taxes of all kinds and the monastic processors who had raw materials in large quantities and under very advantageous conditions thanks to various tax exemptions, a flagrant case of unfair competition. Around the 15th century, lay brewers had to invent a new, cheaper type of beer that would allow them to survive despite from the competence of the friars. Here lies the historical difference between the cerevisia of the friars, denser, more flavored, and more expensive, and the bier/beer/bière of the laity, less nutritious, more refreshing and cheaper, simply flavored with hops.

Sanitary and commercial laws

The history of beer can also be analyzed from the angle of sanitation. Indeed, it has already been said that the presence of alcohol has always allowed the consumption of a drink without some common bacteria such as salmonella and others. But also since long before, brewers have added numerous things to beer. Even exaggerations such as calf liver are documented. So much so that since the XIV century, laws appeared in Germany and England to regulate what was added to beer. The culmination of all these laws is the Bavarian purity law (Reinheitsgebot) issued by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria on St. George's Day in 1516. In it, the king determined that beer could only be made with water, barley malt and hops. This law made many particular beer recipes disappear from the territories where it was applied, especially specialties in which it was necessary to add some sugar or vary the botanical flavorings. In other countries, the laws were not so strict and it was allowed to keep recipes that contained some additives. The purity law also contributed significantly to the fortunes of the king, who had a monopoly on barley production.

Transparent beer

La Camarera (1878-1879), Manet. Musée d'Orsay.

During the 19th century Czech and German brewers invented and developed a beer that had to look good, because it the use of transparent containers was beginning to expand. Various and more effective ways of filtering beer and making it clearer were invented. One way to clarify drinks was to considerably lengthen maturation at low temperatures. This is how beer Lager (in German, «warehouse, cellar») appeared and the bottom fermentation yeast itself that was identified later. Currently, most industrial beers are made according to this system. Within the category of Lager beers, the Pils, originating in the Czech town of Pilsen, are made with Moravian malts and, above all, hops ( Hopfen, in German).

Industrial processing

Precisely since the end of the XIX century, the history of beer is confused with the development of methods that allowed mass brewing of beer, often to the detriment of quality criteria. Until well into the 1970s, large numbers of recipes gradually disappeared and production became standardized worldwide, mainly of medium to low quality lager beers, at the same time that increasing amounts were made and consumed. bigger. Even so, some associations of producers and consumers, especially English, German and American, continue to demand quality beers.

Homemade

Precisely in the 1940s, it can be said that the idea of producing homemade beer reappeared. In fact, 80% of all historic beers are house or craft. European women were excellent brewers but, as has been said, the custom of homebrewing disappeared, and it sprang up again because of the interest shown by American homebrewers in reproducing traditional European beers. To the point that important medium-sized producers have opted to produce historic beers and to resurrect lost recipes. The associations of brewers and consumers also developed (or promoted) the tasting and the scientific or professional appreciation of beer. This current crossed the Atlantic again to arrive in the 1980s first in England and then in the rest of the European countries. At present there are various manuals and texts for the home brewing of beer.

Economy

Beer did not see mass production until the late 18th century, not gaining relative importance until the mid-19th century. Until 1914 the first producers were Germany and Great Britain, from then on the first producer was the United States. In the interwar period, world production reached 250 million hectoliters, with the Soviet Union being one of the main producers.

Spain is a beer producing power, it is the fourth largest beer producer in the European Union, behind Germany, the United Kingdom and Poland, with a production of 33 million hectoliters in 2012 and a per capita consumption of 47, 5 liters per person and year. Worldwide, it is in tenth position. In 2011, the last year for which official data is available, the turnover from beer sales in Spain was almost three billion euros. In Mexico, from the XXI century, the rise of "craft beer" began. Tijuana was considered "the capital of craft beer in Mexico", due to the large number of recognitions in international awards.

World production

Available data on world barley beer production in 2018, in million tons per year:

Post	Country	Millions of tons
1	China	38.12
2	United States	21,44
3	Brazil	15,31
4	Mexico	11.97
5	Germany	8,65
6	Russia	7.76
7	Vietnam	4,30
8	United Kingdom	4,15
9	Poland	4.14
10	Spain	3,83
11	South Africa	3.13
12	Japan	2.91
13	Netherlands	2.47
14	Colombia	2.27
15	France	2.23
16	Philippines	2.22
17	Canada	2,16
18	Czech Republic	2.12
19	Belgium	2,10
20	South Korea	2.00
21	Thailand	1.92
22	Argentina	1.91

Types of beer

Audiovisual material

Fernández De Piérola Martínez De Olkoz, Inés y Pasteriza Martínez, Alejandra. (2001). The beer. Madrid: National University of Distance Education. ISBN 978-84-362-4435-9 (a didactic videotape and a guide).
Beer in Spain(2003). Madrid: Cátaro Editions. ISBN 978-84-95875-07-5 (CD-ROM).

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