How is craft beer made?
1. Mashing
Any beer’s main ingredients are water, malted grains, yeast and hops. The malted grains are first ground and prepared for mashing; these can be any grains such as barley, wheat, rye, rice, corn and many others. Once it’s ground, the malt is steeped in hot water which extracts all the good stuff from the grains and producing the wort.
2. Boil
Once the mashing is done the wort is transferred from our mash tun to the boil kettle where it gets boiled for multiple reasons, including sterilization. You then can add hops at different times for different purposes: bitterness, aroma, flavour. Hops are very aromatic and strong, being the most obvious discriminatory ingredient which makes some craft beers better than others.
3. Fermentation
The boiled wort is then transferred in the fermenter while being cooled down to about 20 degrees Celsius. This is when yeast will be added. YEast will eat up the residual sugars in the wort, producing alcohol while still leaving behind some sugars for consistency and taste.
4. Packaging
After some rest, the beer is bottled and ready to drink. The full process takes about 14-21 days for a regular Ale.
5. Serving beer
Keep the beer refrigerated and when you drink it make sure your glass is clean and is one you enjoy. There are many a different opinions on which glass is better suited for which beer, however it being clean and enjoyable is probably more important. If this details is, nevertheless, an important part of your enjoyment check these links out for some guidance.https://pourmybeer.com/best-glasses-for-beer/ https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/101/glassware/
The right temperature to serve is a little different according to style, but a good rule of thumb is leaving the beer out at room temperature for a couple of minutes before trying it. Cold numbs out your taste so you won’t be able to enjoy it fully if it’s too cold. Cheers!