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What Goes Into Your Beer

29th March, 2011 - Posted by health news - No Comments

Ever wondered what makes your favourite bottle of lager taste so good? The primary ingredients found in lager are water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. There are other ingredients such as flavoring, sugar, and other ingredients that are generally utilized. Starches are used also as they convert in the mashing process to simply fermentable sugars that will provide help to increase the alcohol content of lager while adding body and flavor.

Water
Because water is beer’s most important ingredient, the source of water and its traits have an exceedingly important effect on the character of the lager. Lots of lager styles were influenced by the features of water in the area. Although the effect of minerals in brewing water is complex, hard water is better fitted to dark styles, while soft ware is more suitable to light styles.

Malt
Among malts, barley is the most generally used due to its high amylase content, and a digestive enzyme that helps the breakdown of starch into sugars. Dependent on what can be cultivated domestically, other malts and unmalted grains may be employed, for example wheat, rice, oats, and rye.

Malt is got by soaking grain in water, permitting it to sprout, then drying the sprouted grain in a kiln. By malting the grain, enzymes will eventually convert the starches in the grain into fermentable sugars.

Hops
Since the 17 th century, hops have been commonly used as a bittering agent in lager. Hops help to contribute a sourness that may balance the sweetness of the malts. They also contribute scents which go from citrus to herbal.

Hops also supply an antibiotic effect that favors the activity of brewer’s yeast over the less desirable microorganisms. The sourness in lager is routinely measured on the International Bitterness Units scale.

Yeast
Yeast is a microorganism that is accountable for fermentation. Particular strains of yeast are chosen dependent on the type of lager produced, as the two main strains are ale yeast and lager yeast, with other diversifications available too.

Yeast helps to metabolise the sugars that are extracted from the grains, and produces alcohol and CO2 as a consequence. Before the functions of yeast were accepted, all fermentations were done using wild or airborne yeasts.

Clarifying agent
A large amount of brewers wish to add one or more clarifying agents to lager that are not required to be published as ingredients. Examples include Isinglas finings, which are obtained from swim bladders of fish and Irish moss, which is a sort of red alga.

Since these ingredients can be acquired from animals, people who are concerned with either the use or consumption of animal products should get detailed info from the brewer.

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