Yeast! The magical... fungi?

Yeasts are a fungi with 1,500 different species. One species in particular, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, has been used for thousands of years in baking and alcoholic beverages. Through the process of fermentation, carbohydrates (starches or sugars) are converted into alcohols and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is what makes bread leaven by creating air pockets in the dough, carbon dioxide gas is also used to create...Pop Rocks! The alcohol is the product of yeast that is important in beer. However, the spent yeast itself lends a flavor and aroma to beer.

Bread leavened by carbon dioxide from yeast

Brewing yeasts can be classified as "top-fermenting" or "bottom-fermenting." Top fermenting yeasts got their name because they produce a foam at the top of the wort (liquid extracted from mashing) during fermentation. Dependant on the style of beer you are producing, you may decide to purchase a certain strain of yeast. Top fermenting yeasts are used in brewing porters, ales, stouts and more. Bottom fermenting yeasts are used in pilsners, bocks and more. Other than the carbon dioxide and alcohol that yeast produces, it can also leave behind other flavors and aromas such as butterscotch, sulfur, or green apple. Learn more about top and bottom fermenting yeasts and yeast flavors.

Head (foam) of a beer

Yeast can be purchased in many different forms: liquid, pressed, crumbled, active dried, and instant dried. When I used to work making fresh pizza dough in a restaurant, we would always use pressed yeast because it was shipped in blocks and the proper amount (1/2 a brick) could easily be thrown into the mixing bowl. Click to learn more about these different forms of yeast.

Any cereal (edible component of grain) containing sugars can undergo fermentation due to wild yeasts in the air. As far back as 7000BC, Chinese villagers were producing alcoholic drinks. Beer was part of the daily diet of Egyptian Pharaohs over 5,000 years ago, it was made from baked barley bread and was used in religious practices as well. Tutankhamum Ale is limited edition beer has a very interesting past. It was brewed in the basement of the laboratory of Cambridge from a recipe that was discovered at Queen Nefertiti’s temple in Egypt. Average retail for this beer is $52 per bottle. Learn more here!

Tutankhamum Ale

Certain yeasts can be used in microbial fuel cells, and other types are pathogens that can cause infections in humans.  Yeast cells are also used to do genetic studies, as they have similar features to human calls. They can be engineered to produce proteins which can be used to treat human disease. Yeast is often taken as a vitamin supplement because it is 50% protein and a rich source of B vitamins. Yeast sure is a magical fungi!

When brewing beer, have you ever used liquid yeast? We Want to hear from you

Malts: The Grains of Paradise

In order to understand the brewing process, you first have to understand the ingredients that go in to making beer. Over these couple of posts, I will be discussing in short what each ingredient does to a beer. Now, we already covered hops. They are what gives beer it's bitterness and citrusy/floral aroma. This week, we are moving over to malt, the ingredient that really gives beer almost every essential characteristic that determines just what style the beer is.

icture Showing Different Range of Malts

Malts are the ingredient in beer that balances out the bitterness that hops give. They create the sugars that are essential in giving the beer it's alcohol content and carbonation. The malts also give the beer it's color. The lighter the beer, the less amount of time that the malts were put into a kiln or dried. The darker the beer, the longer the malts have been roasted or kilned. Without malts, beer would be so bitter that it would be impossible to enjoy. Not only that, it would most likely always be green and would not have the visual and taste characteristics that it has.

Malts give beer it's color and sweetness.

Malting actually defines a process in which grains, like barley and wheat, are taken and brought to a state that forces them to release the starches and sugars that are essential in the fermentation of beer. What happens in the process of malting is actually pretty simple. When the grains are brought in, they are first soaked in water. Once soaked, they are taken out and drained. Then the grains are left to germinate which activates the process in which the starches that are in the grain become converted into sugars. This is important because the sugar is what the yeast feeds on to create the alcohol and carbonation of beer. (More on this subject in a later post.)

When the seeds of the grain begin to sprout, they are put into a kiln or oven and dried so that the enzymes do not continue to do their work and end up ruining the malt so that it can't be used. This process can define the flavors that and contributed by the malts. Base malts are kilned for the least amount of time and are usually the main ingredient to any beer recipe. The Crystal or Caramel malts come about my allowing the enzymes in the grains to break down carbohydrates to sugars before being put into the kiln. These malts tend to lend lighter flavors and color to beer like toast, biscuit, or nutty. These malts vary in a range of color and flavors that they impart on the beer. When these grains are roasted, they are put in the oven at a higher temperature that causes them to become a darker brown color and even sometimes black. These roasted malts give characteristics of burnt, chocolate, and coffee to beer. An example of a beer that uses these roasted malts is Guinness. Their brewing process, including how they uses their malts, is described HERE.

Malts in different states of roasting.

Upon being dried, or roasted fully, the grains are then crushed and put to soak in hot water. This creates the mash, where the enzymes are reactivate and become accelerated within a short period of time. This causes the last bit of starch in the mash to become broken down into sugar. Once this is done, the hops and are added to the boiling mixture. Once cooled down a bit, the yeast is added, thus making the mixture that will become one of the most infamous beverages around the world, beer!

So there is a little bit of information about malts. Hopefully you have gotten a better understand about an ingredient that is crucial to the making of beer.

What is your favorite Stout? What is it about that Stout that you prefer over other Stouts?

The Brewing Process, Simplified

You too can make beer! Brewing is the production of beer through steeping a starch (usually grains) in water and fermenting with yeast. The process of brewing is the process of steeping, such as with making tea. Brewing has taken place since the 6th millennium BCE in ancient Egypt. The basic ingredients of beer are water, a fermentable starch source (can be converted to alcohol) such as malted barley, a occasionally a secondary starch source (adjunct) such as corn or rice.

There are several steps in the brewing process, these are: malting, milling, mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting, conditioning, filtering and finally packaging. But first, let us go over the basic ingredients of a beer. Water, beer is composed mostly of water. Different regions have water with different mineral components, better suited to making different types of beer. Dublin, Ireland has hard water suited to making a stout style (like Guinness). Pilsen, Czech Republic has soft water, well suited to making pale lager (like Pilsner Urquell).

The next ingredient needed is a starch, a fermentable ingredient that determines the strength and flavor of the beer. The most commonly used starch is malted grain. Grain is soaked in water and then dried in a kiln. Malting the grain produces enzymes that convert starches into fermentable sugars. Some brewers have produced gluten-free beer made with sorghum (a grain that does not contain gluten) with no barley malt for people that cannot digest gluten-containing grains.

Our next ingredient is hops, the flower of the hop vine. It is used as a flavoring and preservative agent. Hops lend several characteristics to beer, they contribute a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt. The bitterness of beers is measured on the International Bitterness Units (IBU's) scale. For more in-depth information about hops, read the blog post titled The Little Hop That Could. Our next important ingredient is yeast. Yeast metabolizes the sugars extracted from grains and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. Some brewers add a clarifying agent to beer, this makes the beer appear bright and clean, rather than cloudy. Ok, now that you know the basic ingredients let's look at the brewing process!

All beers are brewed using a simple process. Refer to the Wachusett Brewing Company "Process" diagram above and use it as a guide. The malt is crushed to break apart the grain kernels and expose their carbohydrates and sugars, this process is called "milling". These cracked grains can better absorb water and their starchy insides are now exposed. Mashing is the next process, in which the starches are turned into sugars which can be fermented. Hot water is added, and naturally-occurring enzymes in the malt break down the starches into sugars. This conversion from starch to sugar is "saccharification" (a nice vocabulary word). The result of this mashing process is called "wort" (pronounced "wert"). The wort is strained through the mash tun in a process called lautering.

The wort is moved into a large tank and boiled with hops and occasionally with other herbs and/or sugars added. Boiling terminates the further breakdown of starches. At the end of the boil, the hopped wort settles in a vessel called a "whirlpool" in which solids are separated out. Boiling the wort ensures its sterility and prevents infections.  After the whirlpool, the wort is transferred rapidly to a heat exchanger to be cooled. Yeast is unable to grow in high temperatures, so an ideal temperature is very important. When the yeast is added to the wort, the frementation process begins and sugars become alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The beer then sits and conditions. Flavors become smoother, and unwanted flavors dissipate. Conditioning may take a week to several months, so the next time your favorite craft brewery runs out of a particular style, please be mindful of this potentially long conditioning process! Some beers are then filtered and are ready to be kegged or canned or bottled.

Read about the Samuel Adams brewing process on their website. If you are interested in a more in-depth resource on brewing, check out this book titled "The Brewer's Handbook". Or take a brewery tour, Wachusett Brewing Company offers tours Wednesday-Saturday. This is a great way to experience the scale of a production brewing operation. The next time you are making a homebrew, you are really just following many of these steps on a smaller scale!

Do you have better understanding of how the brewing process works? Have you ever done a brewery tour? We would love to hear from you!    

The Little Hop That Could

Hops are a "bine", using their strong stems and stiff hairs to climb.

While some may think of hops as an ingredient that has always been around in the brewing process of beer, but the truth couldn't be more different. Hops are a fairly new addition to the process. Before hops were around, a mixture of herbs and spices called gruit was used. This mixture consisted of such spices like bog myrtle, St. John's wort, coriander, rosemary, yarrow, alecost, along with many others. This mixture of herbs and spices was not only chosen for flavor profile but also for medicinal purposes also. These mixtures were often kept secret (their exact ingredients and measurement) by the Catholic Church. Because of this secrecy, the Protestant movement helped drive the popularity of hops in the brewing process. Using the hops in their process allowed these brewers to get free of the fees and taxes that came with using the gruit. While hops are now quite a popular ingredient in beer, this was not always the case.

Old-World Brewing Illustration

 

When the use of hops first came around, it did not have a lot of appeal with the populous. In fact, Henry VIII once condemned hops as an adulteration and that a law that forbid their use in brewing should be created. Hops did not start out with quite a good reputation. However, they did bring some benefits to the industry that changed the minds of people around the world.

Brewers figured out that their "hopped beer" could stay in storage longer. This became influential in one of the most popular brews in the craft industry, the I.P.A. Standing for Indian Pale Ale, this brew was crafted with a whole lot of hops. This made it last the trip on the trading route from Eastern Europe to India, allowing sailors to have something to drink that would not spoil on the trip. Before this was found, it was generally thought that the stronger  (higher alcohol) the beer was the longer that it took before it spoiled. Now, sailors could have a drink that wouldn't get them drunk so quickly or spoil on the ride. The beer could be a lower alcohol content and keep the whole trip. The chemical make-up of the hop really allowed for a whole new thinking in the brewing industry.

Hops, while adding the preservative properties to beer, also added flavors and aromas to beer that made it much more different from gruit. These two additions come from the resins (called lupulin) that are produced on the leaves of the hops. There are two types of resins: alpha and beta. The alpha and beta resins give the beer it's flavor and aroma. These impart the "hop character" that beers have. 

As well as adding flavor and shelf longevity, hops also made it so that beer held a proper "head retention." The head of a beer is really where one gets the aroma that the beer gives off. This is the first impression of a beer that someone will have. The head also has eye appeal, often times lending itself to being a quality beer if it has and holds a proper head.

The head of the beer captures the aromas.

Going from being the hated new kid to one of the most prominent ingredients in a beverage that is a global commodity, hops are now an essential to any beer. Depending when they are added to the brew, they can add flavor, aroma, or both. Different hop varieties bring their own characteristics to the table, allowing today's brewers to experiment with an age-long formula. It is all in part to hops that we are now able to enjoy such a tasty beverage. Whether you are a hop-head and love the really hoppy brews, or not, you cannot like beer and not like hops. After all, where would beer be today without hops?

Have a hoppy beer that you enjoy? We would love to hear what it is!

Why you should drink green beer!

Two of the fastest growing niche markets within the craft beer segment are ciders and organic beers. This article will help you to understand the fundamentals of organic beer. It will also inform you as to why you should care about this important section of the beer market. To start things off, everyone is excited by profits and growth!

In 2009, the craft beer industry grew 7.2%, and another 11% in 2010. In addition, the number of breweries in the United States exploded to 1,759, a number which has not been seen since the late 1800s (98% are craft brewers). With so much variety in the craft beer market, the consumer is doing more research on their favorite beverage and becoming more aware of what they are purchasing. Between 2003 and 2009, organic beer sales boomed from $9 million to $41 million, according to Sustainable Business Oregon. This leap indicates a growing population of people who want to contribute to the green movement for one reason or another.

Craft Beers

Organic farmlands are better for the earth than conventional farms, requiring 50% less energy to maintain. Organic farmlands also absorb and store carbon dioxide, thereby reducing greenhouse gasses. Before the 19th century all beer was organic, we CAN turn back the clock and get chemical fertilizers, pesticides and toxins out of our food supply. With the increased demand for organic foods and beverages, more conventional  farms will convert to organic farms. If every beer drinker raises a glass of organic beer, we could really make a difference!

The EPA attributes 70% of the pollution in rivers and streams to the methods of conventional farming.

Not all beers labeled with the word "organic" are equal. There are three specific levels of organic certification. Beer that is labeled as "100% Organic" must contain only organically produced ingredients and processed with only organic processing aids. When beer is labeled "Organic" it must contain 95%-100% organically produced ingredients. Finally, when a beer is labeled "Made with Organic Ingredients" it must contain at least 70% organically produced ingredients. Armed with this knowledge, you can decide if you want to help take the organic beer movement to the next level.

Homebrewers can purchase their own organic ingredients for beer making. Brewing with Breiss (www.brewingwithbreiss.com/Products/Organics.html) offers a selection of organic malts, in 1990 the company was recognized as the "first malting company in the United States to become certified organic." This is a great opportunity for homebrewers to branch into an expanding segment of the craft beer segment and experiment with organic brews. You could use Peak Organic or Wolaver's as examples.

Wolaver's and Peak Organic logos - look for these brands at the store!

The North American Organic Brewers Festival (www.naobf.org)  goes beyond in promoting the earth-friendly variety of beer. For their event in June of 2011, their mission was to have less than 100 pounds of trash at the end of their beer festival. This festival featured dozens of different organic beers and live music. Other highlights of the festival included reusable cornstarch cups, compostable flatware and plates, reusable event signage, and electricity from bio-diesel and solar generators.

With organic beers typically costing the same or a similar amount of money as craft beers, the incentive of doing something good for the environment and the body compels people to try these beverages. Beer drinkers are a diverse group of people, and there will continue to be trends in the beer market that follow our evolving societal and world views.

What organic beers have you tried? How do you feel about the organic beer segment? Let us know below!

Stay Safe this Holiday

At this time, we would like to wish you and your family a joyous Holiday Season. We would also like to remind you to drink responsibly. If you do drink, make sure to have a safe way of getting home, not driving drunk. If you choose to drive drunk, aside from it being against the law, you could severely hurt or even kill someone, let alone yourself. So please, don't take the risk. Be safe and responsible this Holiday Season. Have a designated driver or call a cab. Miller Lite offers a great FREE application available on the iPhone App Store and Blackberry App World. Take them time to get it today. Thank you.

The Taxifinder is a free app available for download now.

Hosting a Beer-Tasting 101, Part 2

Once you are set on what you want to do for your party in the way of beer, get prepared for the party by setting up a folder for each person with a couple sheets of paper in them. These sheets of paper should include but not be limited to: rating sheets with space for comments for each beer, menu for each beer that could be describing the beer in a language that even someone new to the beer scene would understand, pairing notes if someone wants to take these sheets home a prepare food, and lastly extra paper in case your guests decide to jot down any notes for themselves while tasting the beer.

Give your guests proper time to observe every aspect of the beer.

Some more prep that you will want to make sure is set the day of the party is that you have proper glassware that is “beer clean.” This means that there are no oils or soapy residue that can ruin the beer. If that happens, your guests will not enjoy the night or even the beer that you have taken so much time to pick out for their enjoyment. As far as specific glasses go, you can use a regular pint glasses or even wine glasses. Do not use plastic cups. These will not allow proper viewing of the beer and really, it just looks a bit on the trashy side. So take the extra time and put the beer in some real glassware. Wine glasses can be bought in 4 packs at a cheap price. There is no reason to go all out on the glasses.

Glassware can affect how the beer is perceived by the palette.

When you are set with this step, make sure that you have a pitcher of water as well as what is called a “swill-bucket.” The water can be poured into the glass and used to cleanse the palette after each beer as well as to rinse the glasses after each sample. Once the glasses have been rinsed, that water must be poured into the bucket as to ensure there is no contamination of beer. Your guests want to taste one beer at a time and enjoy them, make sure that they do that.

Along with the water, have some palette cleansing foods available. These could simply be bread, crackers, or even popcorn. Some parties have gone as far as to having chicken wings at their parties. You could also serve fruits, cruidités, mild cheeses, and lastly patés. If you wanted the party to last a bit longer, you could decide to do a full course menu and actually make a beer dinner out of the event.

Proper temp is crucial!

Once all the preparation is set and your guests are invited, make sure to take your beer out of the refrigerator to allow it to come to proper temperature. Americans are often thought to drink beer at too cold of a temperature, which does not allow all the full flavors of particular beer styles to make themselves known. Typically, the higher the alcohol content, the higher the temperature. For those beers, you will want the beer at 55-60°F. For reference, these styles would be your barley wines, dark ales, imperial stouts, imperial IPA’s. For beers like your standard ales, IPA’s, dobbel bocks, abbey ales, lambics, and stouts, you will want them at a temperature range of 50-55°F. Lastly, your lagers, pilsners, and wheat beers will ideally be served at 45-50°F.

When pouring the beer, make sure to remember that you and your guests are sampling the beer. You don’t need to pour them a full glass. Typically, a good sized sample is about a third of a glass. You could go a bit smaller but not too much. Make sure that there is enough there so people are able to taste the beer and enjoy it. If a guest wants more of a particular beer, there will be extra. If you want to get an idea of how much to pour into the glasses, practice before the party with some water.

Make sure to allot enough time so that people will be able to digest and get the alcohol through their systems. It is not a good idea to send guests out on the roads drunk or buzzed. Be responsible. You are the host. You could invite some non-drinkers to the party or arrange a way for your guests to get home. Again, you could also make it so there is enough time for your guests to get sober. The choice is up to you.

So if you are thinking of throwing a beer-tasting party, make sure to take these simple steps. It will make for a night of great fun with friends and great beer. Get your guests vocal about how they felt about each brew. Maybe incorporate a game between each beer. Have fun with it; don’t just throw the beer styles at your guests to have them sample the beer. And as always, be responsible. Don’t drive drunk or let your friends drive drunk. Enjoy!

How do you enjoy your favorite beer? At room temp, colder, warmer? We would love to know! Please make sure to comment below!

Hosting a Beer-Tasting 101, Part 1

Looking for a way to get all your friends together this winter and have a great time? Why not host a beer-tasting? A beer-tasting is a great way to bring everyone together and is a great time had by all.  They’re easy to prepare for and little clean-up is required afterwards. So here is some quick information to assist you in being the host of the next great party.

The first thing you are going to want to start off with is how many people you want to invite. A safe range of people is 4 to 10 guests. This will make it manageable and will not end up taking up the entire day or night. Once you have the amount of guests you plan to host, the next step you want to move on to is the most important, the beer!

Exactly what styles of beer you would like to sample at the party is completely up to you. Head down to the local package or liquor store to see what is available. While you have this option available, you could also ask the people you invited to the party to bring their favorite brews to share with everyone at the party and call it a “Favorites Mash-up or Mix.” You could also go that same route but assign a specific region to each of your guests and ask them to bring two different beers from that specific region. This could be a “Tastes of the World.” If you wanted to pick the beer up yourself, you could just as well use these same options.

Choose carefully. Don't make boring choices.

Another way of sampling beer is to have one set brewery (examples: Samuel Adams, Wachusett Brewing Company, Boulevard Brewing Company, Innis & Gunn, Shipyard, Sea Dog, Harpoon) and have several different styles that they offer. In doing so, you may create fans of your favorite brewery and increase their fan-base. You might even decide to try a brewer that you have yet to try. Be careful though, as there is risk of picking a brewer that neither you nor your party likes.

You could also to do a particular style of beer. These would be if you were to sample different lagers, stouts, ales, IPA’s, or any style really from several different breweries. Then, you and your party can decide based on your reviews which you feel offer the best interpretation of a set style. This can often be fun as many of the breweries come up with very different and strange names for their take on famous brews.

When you have come to a complete decision on what exactly you are going to do for your beer party, go to your local package or liquor store and pick up the beer. However, you do not want to pick these up too far in advance, as to ensure the best tasting and freshest beer is offered to your guests. You wouldn’t want anyone tasting sour or stale beer, would you? No, you wouldn’t. Make sure that you store the beer in your refrigerator and at an upright stance. This insures that the metal cap does not impart any bad taste into the beer. Also, make sure that you have enough, so if people want more of a particular beer that they liked, there is more available. One idea could be to put together a custom 6 pack for each guest. Give this to them as they head out the door as a party favor maybe. Or, if done earlier, maybe a couple people will trade with each other on a particular style they liked.

Set the beer up in an interesting way. This is an example of light to dark.

If you were holding a beer-tasting, which styles of beer or which brewery would you bring to the table? We would love to hear from you!

Make sure to check back next week as we continue this post on Hosting a Beer-Tasting 101. As always, remember to drink responsibly.

Do you know what beer is? Samuel Adams Infinium is an entirely new style of beer.

Samuel Adams Infinium is a limited-edition champagne-like beer with fine bubbles and a fruity, spicy aroma. This brand new specialty beer upholds the Reinheitsgebot, a centuries old German Beer Purity Law. This beer was designed and brewed in collaboration with the legendary Weihenstephan brewery atop Bavaria’s Nahrberg Hill, where some of the world’s best beer continues to be produced.

The Reinheits... – what?
The Reinheitsgebot is the German Beer Purity Law (which I prefer to call it). The German Beer Purity Law dates back to 1560. This law allows the use of only four ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast. Using only these four main ingredients to create an entirely new beer style was going to require expertise, curiousity and creativity. Only collaboration between world-famous brewery Weihenstephan and Samuel Adams could give birth to such a beer. Their result is a beer unlike anything else Samuel Adams has ever brewed.

Jim Koch pouring Infinium

“We’ve spent years perfecting the recipe for Infinium. Combining revered German brewing traditions with American innovation, we rewrote the beer world’s rules…” – Jim Koch


Samuel Adams Infinium is pale golden in color with a fine champagne-like carbonation. A delicate floral and citrusy hop aroma comes from the fresh hopping process, and an intense citrus hop character comes from Bavarian Noble hops. The finish is delightfully light and dry with a sparkling character that cleanses the palate.


The Weihenstephan and Samuel Adams collaboration results in a partnership that represents the best of the old world and the best of the new world. Enjoy a bottle this New Year! Packaged in a 750-ml wine-like bottle with a foil-covered cork top, Infinium retails at about $20 per bottle and will make the beer snob in your family drool. It contains 10.3 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) so get comfortable before popping the top on this one.

Samuel Adams Infinium

Learn more:
Watch videos and read the full story of Infinium at www.samueladams.com/collaboration/
The world-famous Weihenstephan brewery http://www.weihenstephaner.de/
Infinium beer cocktail recipes (halfway down the page)
http://www.brewbound.com/news/infinium-uncorked-for-holiday-season


How do you feel about this new style of beer?
What else is exciting you about the craft beer industry?
We would like to hear from you, please comment below!