The list of basic ingredients for making beer is pretty short. Beer is most often made from malt (usually barley or wheat), hops, yeast, and water. You can also add other ingredients such as fruit, unmalted grains, corn, rice, sugar, juice or syrup, and just about anything else you can imagine. (There is an oyster stout—this list can get a little weird).
The majority of beer produced in the world is made with just the basic ingredients and the craftsmanship of good brewers. They make a great variety of different beers, ranging in colour, flavour, and popularity. The magic in this craft is understanding the ingredients and manipulating them to produce great beer.
Malt is cereal grain that has been allowed to start to germinate by moistening it and keeping it warm and happy, then using hot air to cut off the process. This malting process helps to develop the enzymes needed to convert the starches in the grain to sugars so the yeast can ferment them. Read on…
Hops are the female flower of the hop plant, humulus lupulus. Used in beer for flavour, aroma, bittering, and as an antimicrobial agent (a preservative against bacteria and other spoilers). Read on…
It is said that brewers make the wort, but the yeast make the beer. Without yeast, there cannot be beer. Read on…
Water is water, is water, right? Wrong. Pure water is H2O but its pure form not what we drink and brew with. The water we use for brewing has had a long journey before it gets to our mash tun. Its found its way through streams and lakes, through cracks in rocks and into wells. Read on…
Specialty ingredients can be just about anything. There are beers where juniper bows are used as a filter bed, some beers have coffee in them or agave syrup. Read on…
Drink N Brew 