BEER
HOW IS BEER BREWED?
There are just three ingredients - water, barley and hops. Harder, more mineral-rich water goes into ale, whereas soft water is key to producing lager. It's added to barley grains to ‘malt’ them - triggering germination, then immediately drying them out. The drying influences the taste - the more it's ‘kilned’ or heated, the darker and more flavourful the brew.
Heard of the phrase ‘adding grist to the mill'? That's what comes next. The malted cereals are crushed to separate the grain from its husk. The grist is soaked in hot water, and the enzymes get to work to turn the malt into sugar and make a sweet ‘wort’ (pronounced wert - a beer starter or unfermented beer). This is separated and put into a copper to be boiled. The grain mush isn't wasted - it makes a rich animal feed.
The dried flowers of the common hop are the final ingredient, with different varieties of hops producing a more
