I chose to brew beer for my plant materials project. A number of reasons determined my decision to do so. I was introduced to beer while in college. At first, I did not appreciate the taste of beer but enjoyed its effects. Natural Light was the gold standard of beers as an undergraduate. Cheap, light and cheap were the three most important qualities sought in a beer. Over the years, I’ve developed a taste for light beer and come to enjoy its refreshment as a beverage. It wasn’t until I was in graduate school that I began experimenting with microbrews such as Anchor Steam and Blue Moon. Again, it took some getting used to, but now I appreciate the diversity in tastes, colors and aromas. It is this growing appreciation for beer that led me to want to learn the process behind the product.
Beer is perhaps one of the oldest alcoholic beverages. Scientists have dated beer back as far as 7000 BCE from ancient pottery found in what is now Iran (Perozzi, 39). Records and artifacts indicate that ancient peoples such as the Sumerians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Incas and Chinese all practiced the fine art of beer making (Levetin, 433). The Sumerians were some of the earliest brewers and a clay tablet containing a hymn to the goddess Ninkasi, their goddess of alcohol, also includes an ancient beer making recipe. The ancient recipe uses bappir, a type of barley bread as the start, and honey and dates for sweetening (Levetin, 433). Recently, Anchor Steam Brewing of San Francisco followed this recipe and recreated this ancient beer.
The art of brewing basically involves four main ingredients: water, grains, hops and yeast, and the process involves four basic steps: malting, mashing, preparation of the wort and fermentation. Today’s industrial brewers and home brewers use these same basic four ingredients and steps. The general purpose of brewing is to successfully achieve fermentation. Whereas the wine maker begins with grapes, which already contain fermentable sugars, the beer maker begins with grains that contain starch (not fermentable). Hence, the beer brewing process requires several additional steps. A general outline of the process is as follows.
Beer can be made from any starchy carbohydrate source, such as rice, corn, potatoes and wheat. Although, barley is the most common grain utilized for beer making. The first step is the preparation of the malt (Levetin, 433). Barley grains are moistened with water, spread out on a malting floor and allowed to germinate for a brief period of time. The reason for this is because as the barley grains germinate they begin producing enzymes that are capable of breaking down starch into sugars. In this way, beer makers take advantage of the natural growth processes of the plant to initiate the beer making process. The grains are then dried (roasted) to halt the germination process. This will also determine the color and to some degree the taste of the beer. Pale or standard malts are dried at low temperatures, while specialty malts are roasted at higher temperatures for a longer time period (Levetin, 433). This latter roasting process caramelizes the malt sugars and thus will give the beer a darker color.
The products of the malting stage are the enzymes capable of breaking down starches. In addition, the process of malting develops a small amount of fermentable sugar and converts hard, insoluble starch into soluble starch. About 80% of malted barley is soluble starch (Papazian 244). This is all necessary for the next stage known as mashing. Malted grains (containing soluble starch and enzymes) are added to water with another starch source such as barley. During this stage, the enzymes break down the starch into sugars. The mixture is heated over a period of time and then strained.
The liquid that results is known as wort. This is essentially flavored sugar water. The wort is then boiled with hops, which add the characteristic bitter taste to beer, as well as, acting as a natural preservative. The mixture is then quickly cooled and the yeast are finally added. It is important the wort mixture is adequately cooled prior to adding the yeast, otherwise goodbye yeast.
Yeasts are the workhorses that have made beer possible around the globe from ancient Summeria to today. The yeasts utilize the sugars as a source of energy and the by-products are carbon dioxide and alcohol. This is known as fermentation. The type of yeast used will determine whether it is a lager beer or ale (Levetin, 435). In lager beers, the sugars are fermented by yeast that settle to the bottom of the fermentation vessel and fermentation takes place at a cool temperature, whereas, ales are produced at higher temperatures by top-fermenting yeasts. After approximately a week of fermentation, the wort is now a beer. Some beers are aged and the flavor is developed by adding beechwood chips (Levetin, 435). Others are ready for carbonation, bottling and consuming.
There are several variations of this general process available to the home brewer: extract and all-grain brewing. All-grain brewing is similar to the process described above, except most all-grain home brewers begin with malted grains. In other words, the first step in the brewing process (malting) has already been done for them. Malted grains may be purchased at any homebrew store. All-grain is considered the most advanced form of home brewing because of the mash stage, which requires specific timing and temperature conditions for the enzymatic conversion of starches to sugars. Additional equipment is also required for all-grain brewing.
Most beginner brewers start with what is called extract brewing. In this variation, both the malting and mashing steps have already been completed. In other words, the home brewer does not need to convert starches to fermentable sugars; he or she is starting with the sugars. Extracts bought from a homebrew store are essentially the product of the mash stage (liquid wort) that has been dehydrated. The home brewer reconstitutes this with water and reproduces the liquid wort. Malt extracts come in hundreds of varieties but they can be broken down into two main categories: dry and liquid extracts.
Liquid extracts generally have had the hops added to them and all that is left for the home brewer is to pour the contents of the can in a pot, reconstitute with water and boil. The importance of the boil, in addition to reconstitution, is to provide sterilization. Dry extracts are somewhat more involved and are considered by some to be intermediate brewing. A dry malt extract is reconstituted with water and hops and malted grains are steeped to add characteristic flavor and aroma. This allows for a bit more creativity and individuality than liquid extract brewing. In both dry and liquid extract brewing, once the extract has been reconstituted (now considered wort), boiled and cooled it is ready for fermentation.
Now that the general processes of making beer have been outlined, I will describe my own beer making experience. Heeding the advice of professor Kelly, I contacted David Maxwell. David has twenty years of brewing experience and actually got his younger brother interested in brewing. The latter now has his own commercial brewery. David provided me with a list of beers that we could brew at his house. The list was composed of ales such as Indian Pale Ale and Brown Ale. We could not brew lagers; David did not have the equipment required for lager brewing. As noted above, lagers require cooler fermentation temperatures. So, I perused the list of beers and decided on an English Brown Ale style.
Brown ales tend to be lightly hopped and fairly mildly flavoured, often with a nutty taste. In the south of England they are dark brown, around 3-3.5% alcohol and quite sweet; in the north they are red-brown, 4.5-5% and drier (Wikipedia). English Brown Ales first appeared in the early 1900s, with popular examples such as Newcastle Brown Ale and Manns Brown Ale. The style became popular with homebrewers in North America in the 1980’s (Wikipedia).
Once I had my desired beer style chosen, David sent me a list of ingredients to purchase. We had decided to use the dry extract brewing method, as this would be most appropriate for a beginner brewer such as myself. The recipe called for the following:
*1 ounce of Kent Goldings hop pellets 4.5%AA
1/2 ounce Galena hop pellets 11% AA
London Ale Liquid Yeast Smack Pack
.25 lb Chocolate Malt, crushed
*.50 lb Caramel Malt, crushed
6 lb Pale Malt Extract
*Used ½ ounce
*May have used .25 lb by mistake (cashier/store error)
The total cost for the ingredients was approximately forty dollars. I met with David the following night to begin the brewing process. We set up on his back porch with the temperature at approximately 32 degrees Fahrenheit. A propane tank attached to a turkey roaster provided the necessary heat for the brewing process. A 5-gallon pot was filled three-quarters with water from an outdoor hose. The water was allowed to come to a boil, which took approximately 45 minutes. The six pounds of dry malt extract was slowly stirred in. This provided the base for the beer (main sugar source). Next, the bittering hop (Galena) pellets, chocolate and crystal malts were added. The chocolate and crystal malts were enclosed within mesh bags and steeped much like a tea bag. They were chosen to give the beer a caramel color and additional flavor. The hops are added to counteract the sweetness of the wort, which is essentially sugar water. If hops were not added, the beer would be cloyingly sweet. This is why they are such an essential component of all beers, in addition to their natural preservative properties.
The mixture was allowed to boil for approximately one hour (stirring occasionally). Again, this was to ensure proper reconstitution and sterilization. In addition, since we were performing dry extract brewing, we were also adding hops and malted grains for additional flavoring. While the mixture of water, malted grains, extract and hops were boiling David and I sanitized the fermenter (6-gallon glass carboy) and siphon (plastic tubing) using an iodine solution. Sanitation is the most important element of home brewing as the early stages of the wort provide an ideal growth medium (sugar water) for bacterial growth. As the fermentation process takes place, sugars are converted to alcohols (wort converted to beer) and the environment becomes less suitable for bacteria. However, sanitation is important throughout the process, from the mashing or wort stage up until the bottles have been capped.
Once the mixture had boiled for an hour and our 6-gallon carboy and siphon were sanitized, we shut off the fuel, removed the bags of malted grains and added the aroma hop pellets. We added the hops at the end because we want the hops to add an aroma to the beer via their essential oils and resins. If we had added them earlier, the oils would have evaporated off due to their low boiling points.
The wort was then allowed to cool. This would have taken hours on its own, so to speed up the process, we used a copper immersion wort chiller. We actually added this to the wort while it was still boiling and let it sit there for approximately 5 minutes prior to turning off the fuel. This sterilized the apparatus. One end of the wort chiller was connected to the hose and cool water was allowed to pass through and exit through a tube on the opposite end that led to the yard. Basically, cool water was passing through the copper tubing, which rapidly cooled the wort to approximately 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The specific gravity was measured using a hydrometer and determined to be 1.060. This was our original gravity and later our final gravity will be subtracted and the difference will be multiplied by a standard factor to yield our percent alcohol.
The wort was then siphoned to the 6-gallon glass carboy. This was done by having the wort in the pot on the top of the steps and the carboy at the bottom. In this way, gravity was utilized to transfer the wort to the carboy. The yeast was then added to the wort and capped with an airlock that was also sanitized. This will allow carbon dioxide to be released while preventing oxygen from entering into the carboy (maintaining anaerobic conditions for the yeast). The yeast will do all the work of converting the wort to beer (sugar to alcohol).
The carboy containing our wart and yeast was stored in the basement. A cardboard box was placed over the carboy to reduce light from spoiling our beer. Some brewers monitor and maintain a certain temperature during the fermentation process, however, we did not think this was necessary and allowed it to be a variable in the process.
About 3-4 days later I returned to David’s house to transfer the wort/beer/yeast solution to a 5-gallon carboy. This was done because as the yeast convert the wort to beer, yeast die and settle to the bottom. Additionally, hops and other remnants of ingredients that we used to prepare the wort settled to the bottom over time. We essentially siphoned off the liquid and left the bottom sediments in the 6-gallon carboy. Again, we sanitized the 5-gallon carboy and siphon prior to siphoning. The carboy was again capped with a sanitized airlock and covered with a cardboard box. The fermentation process was allowed to proceed for about a week.
In my absence, David transferred the newly crafted beer to a sanitized keg and refrigerated it until I was able to make it back to his house for bottling. Upon my later arrival, we took the final gravity of the beer: 1.016, subtracted this from our original gravity and multiplied by a factor 131.25, which determined our alcohol content to be 5.775%.
David’s kegging and carbonation system made bottling a bit easier. The alternative/traditional method to carbonation and bottling is mixing certain amounts of corn sugar (dextrose) with water and adding this mixture to the beer prior to bottling. This provides some sugar for the remaining yeast to convert to carbon dioxide inside the capped bottle. To carbonate the beer, we forced compressed carbon dioxide into the keg containing the beer and shook the keg continually for 10 minutes or so until we achieved the desired carbonation. Refrigerating the beer prior to the carbonation was beneficial as the cooler temperature of the beer increased carbon dioxide solubility. Shaking also increased solubility.
After carbonation, it was time to bottle. The caps, carbon dioxide line and kegging line were sanitized and the empty bottles were run through the dishwasher. We then proceeded to fill each bottle and cap immediately using a bottle capper. Approximately 35 sixteen-ounce bottles were filled.
Now that the process of beer making has been explicated, its time to focus on the parts of plants which make beer possible: grains and hops. The latter are considered the “spice of beer”, and as mentioned earlier, balance the sweetness provided by the malted grains (Lewis, 22). They contain alpha acids, which are isomerized and made more soluble during the boiling process, which give beer its pleasant bitterness. Hops also contain a multitude of aromatic oils that impart “floral, citrus, piney, and perfume-like aromas to beer” (Lewis, 22). There are dozens of cultivated varieties of hops, each with its own unique characteristics that, in turn, provide the unique qualities of various beers (Papazian, 55). What exactly are hops? Hops are the cones (flowers) of the female hop plant. They may be dried and compressed, in which case they are called whole hops. If ground into a powder and pressed into pellets they are considered pelletized (Miller, 10).
The flower, which grows on vines, is shaped like a pinecone and composed of leaves. Each leaf has a gland, which is known as a lupin gland. These lupin glands contain oils, resins and waxes, all of which add to the flavor of beer (DeVito, 232). The resins are extremely important. Hops high in alpha acids are better for adding bitterness to beer, while beta acids are more renowned for contributing to the aroma of beer (DeVito, 232). The oils in hops also help to provide the different flavors of beer. In addition to flavor and aroma, they inhibit the growth of certain beer-spoiling bacteria and aid in flavor stability and head retention (Papazian, 54). As can be gathered thus far, hops are essential to modern-day brewing. What is the importance of hops for the plant itself?
As hops are flowers, they are absolutely essential to the life cycle of the plant. Male and female flowers of the hop plant develop on separate plants (dioecious) (Wikipedia). They contain the male and female reproductive parts of the plant, known as the androecium and gynoecium respectively (Levetin, 70). Female flowers are the site of both pollination and fertilization (Levetin, 79). They will eventually develop into fruits. Within the fruits are the seeds, which contain the young plant embryos of the next generation. The importance of the flower for the wild hops plant is reproduction and survival of the species. The importance of the flower for the hops grower and beer brewer is those qualities the flower provides to the beer. The viable seeds are undesirable for brewing beer; hence, only female plants are grown in hop fields, which prevents pollination (Wikipedia). Consequently, the female plants are commercially propagated through root cuttings (Papazian, 353).
Grains, such as barley, are dry, single-seeded indehiscent fruits of the grass family (Levetin, 184). The seeds contain the young plant embryos of the future generation. The process of seed germination is itself taken advantage of during the malting stage. Water is added to the grains to initiate germination and enzymes are produced which convert stored starches into usable sugars for the growing seedling. The process is halted via the addition of heat, and these same enzymes are later utilized during the mashing stage to convert those same starches to fermentable sugars.
Having the opportunity to brew my own beer increased both my appreciation and understanding of the process behind the product. It is both an art and a science that requires a passion for discovery, creativity and knowledge of chemical and biological processes, such as, enzymatic reactions and fermentation, which influence the final product. Having a working knowledge and understanding of these processes allows the brewer to manipulate variables to improve his or her beer or create a new beer yet to be discovered. This whole process speaks to the human beings desire to discover, create and understand the world around us.
Working with David to brew my beer, I came to appreciate the fact that at every step in the process and with every ingredient there is variation. There are different varieties of hops, yeasts and grains that create vastly different beers with vastly different tastes, heads and bodies. Even such things as temperature and the pH of the water affect the efficiency of the process and the quality of the final product. This is all part of the beauty of beer making and the challenge.
While science has become an important part of the beer making process, I am reminded of those ancient Sumerians who did not have modern science at their disposal. And yet, they still brewed beer. Perhaps it was not as good according to today’s standards, perhaps it was. The important point is that one can get lost in the science, numbers and standards of today and forget to relax and enjoy this time honored tradition. In other words, one can become too focused on the product and forgot to appreciate the value of taking part in the process itself. I think if anything has been gained since the Sumerians it is most certainly the science of brewing. We now understand how the product is influenced by variables and can manipulate these variables to produce traditional and original beers alike, albeit with some degree of variability. If anything has been lost, I’d have to say a certain degree of spirituality in the process. Whereas the Sumerians’ beer was endowed with gods and goddesses, ours is endowed with pH’s and hydrometers. I’m not quite sure which beer would taste better.
I felt a strong personal connection to the entire process, as well as, a connection to history. I was partaking in something that human beings have been doing for thousands of years. It is not often today we are able to work on something from start to finish. And, while I did not grow my own grain or blow my own glass carboy, I did feel something more than simply going to the store and grabbing a six-pack out of the refrigerator. The beer I made is the product not only of temperatures and pH’s, but also of my own hands and the decisions that determined them. I am connected to the beer because of the time, energy and thought that went into it. In a certain respect, a part of who I am has been bottled.
While I certainly have come to appreciate brewing beer on my own, I have also come to appreciate the convenience of store bought beers. The process is time consuming and labor intensive. Brewing the beer took about four hours, carbonation, bottling and capping another hour or two. This does not include the week or so of fermentation, cleaning the beer bottles and sanitizing equipment. Nor does it include the two or so hours of figuring out why the carbonation system was not working. In short, a lot of time and materials are required which can be a substantial investment. Perhaps most important, is the knowledge that is required and the time needed to obtain that knowledge. If I did not have David by my side as a resource, I would have had a far different experience. In addition, quality and consistency are more variable when home brewing. This can be both part of the beauty and part of the disappointment when a beer turns out better than expected or spoils due to bacteria.
And lastly, from an environmental/sustainability perspective, I initially thought home brewing would be far more sustainable. Now, I’m not so sure, mostly because of all the equipment that is necessary to brew. If everyone had to buy brewing equipment to brew beer that would be a substantial amount of materials and resources. In addition, materials such as malted barley would still need to be purchased and/or shipped. Instead, people can go to the store and just buy the product without having to purchase all the additional equipment to make it. Having equipment and production centralized at breweries is probably more energy and materials efficient. However, brewing one’s own beer allows for more control over the process, such as using organic cleaners and ingredients. The home brewer can reuse glass bottles as well. Perhaps on a smaller scale, for those who have the time and passion to home brew, it can be more sustainable.
As for my own beer, it turned out great. It has a wonderful flavor that is well hopped, but not overpowering, and a gorgeous color when held to the light. I would definitely use this recipe again, although I might alter a couple of the ingredients to give it a more robust flavor. I plan on brewing again with David, although next time we will be going all-grain!
References
DeVito, Carlo. (1998). The Everything Beer Book, Holbrook: Adams Media Corporation.
Levetin, E. and McMahon, K. (2012). Plants and Society, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Lewis, A. (2007). The Home Brewer’s Answer Book, North Adams: Storey Publishing.
Miller, D. (1992). Brewing the World’s Great Beers, Pownal: Storey Publishing.
Papazian, C. (2003). The Complete Joy of Home Brewing, New York: HarperCollins.
Perozzi, C. (2009). The Naked Pint, New York: Perigree.
Guest blog by Chris R. for Plants, Humans and the Environment, a class at Raritan Valley Community College.
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