Which is the best way to dispense beer – draft or bottled? Ask two different beer lovers, and you’ll probably get two different answers. Some prefer draft brews, while others swear by the bottle.
Most serious drinkers prefer draft beer, which tastes and feels more like a “living” substance, has more complexity and layers of flavor, and also presents better in the glass, with the correct head and general appearance. In fact some beer are so distinctly different depending on whether they are draft or bottled, that they are almost two different products; Guiness is a good example of this.
The reality is, it depends primarily three different factors:
Your Personal Preference
Of course, this is the biggest consideration. If you prefer your beer one way versus the other, then by all means, stick with what you like. You’re the one doing the drinking, and you should have it the way you want it, no matter what the hype or this month’s ad campaign might have to say about it.
Condition Of The Tap Lines
Some bars are good about keeping their tap lines clean and clear. Others aren’t so great at it. A dirty tap line will demolish the flavor of even the best beer on the planet. Other than asking the direct question, the only way to find out is to order one from the tap and see what it tastes like. If you’re undecided, do a blind taste test. One bottle of your favorite brew, and one ordered from the tap. Compare and stick with that, but you should also take into account that it’s going to differ from one bar to the next, and sometimes, even from one week to the next at the same establishment.
Storage
A lot also depends on how the bottles, kegs and barrels are stored. Beer should be kept cold as much as possible, although a bit of warmth helps bring out its flavor. Still, if your local bar keeps their bottles in a stock room for days or weeks before transferring to the cooler, it’s going to dilute some of the flavor. Definitely something to keep in mind, along with the tap lines.
At the end of the day, it’s going to require a little experimentation to find out which you like better, which is good in a way, as it means the opportunity to enjoy more beer, and what’s not to like about that?
To the casual observer, it may appear that the world of beer is one of the last bastions of male dominated industry. The reality, however, is quite different. Women are not only making great strides in terms of entering the business, they’re also rising to the top. Here are a few women to keep an eye on in the world of beer.
Jill Vaughn and Rebecca Reid
This dynamic duo work for global brewing powerhouse Anheuser-Busch, and are two of their top Brewmasters. Among their creations you can count Shock Top, the Straw-Ber-Rita, and Bud Light Platinum.
Teri Fahrendorf
Teri has been brewing beer since 1989, and when she started her career, there really were very few women in the industry, making her something of a pioneer. Not only is she the head of Road Brewing, but she’s worked in Sieben’s River North Brewpub in Chicago, Golden Gate Brewing, Triple Rock Brewing Company, and others, where she learned her craft. She’s also the President of the Pink Boots Society, which is an international charitable trade organization dedicated to inspiring and empowering women to become professionals in the brewing industry. It is thanks in large part to her ongoing efforts that we have as many women Master Brewers as we do.
Mariah Calagione
As the Vice President in charge of Marketing at Dogfish Head Brewery, Mariah joined the company full time in 1997 and has since become the glue that holds the brewery together as well as the major driving force behind the brand.
Rosemarie Certo
Rosemarie is the cofounder and owner of Dock Street Brewing Company in West Philly. She began the brewery in 1985, and like Teri Fahrendorf, is a true pioneer, blazing the trail for other women to follow. One of the most fearless and innovative women in the industry today.
There are many others, but it’s plain to see from the list above that the beer industry is not as male dominated as you might have thought. If you’d like to meet, learn about, or drink the beer made by these and other female Master Brewers, you should join us at this year’s Edmonton Beer Festival. Get your tickets now, or contact us!
Hops and barley are definitely important parts of the brewing process, but yeast is quite possibly the most significant. In fact, yeast is not only used to create beer, it is used in wine, ale, and other types of alcoholic beverages. All of the other ingredients in beer provide flavor and sugar, but yeast makes the beer alcoholic, hence it is the heart of brewing. In the following paragraphs, the usefulness and science behind using yeast will be explored in depth.
While the process of turning sugar into alcohol may seem complicated, yeast is rather simple to understand. It is a single-celled organism, and one of the least complex forms of plant life on the planet. Technically, yeast is a fungus, and while that may sound a little disturbing, it is a very simple cell. Since it is self- reproducing, yeast only needs a source of fuel to divide over and over again. Scientifically speaking, yeast feeds on the simple glucose sugars that are produced by malting, and gives off ethanol and carbon dioxide as a byproduct. This is crucial to the brewing of beer, as the ethanol gives beer its buzz, while the carbon dioxide allows it to be carbonated and crisp. Although yeast is simple in and of itself, there are various strains that are used by brewers to obtain certain results. This has led to many different strains and mixtures of yeast becoming closely guarded secrets within the brewing industry.
Yeast is added during the final phase of brewing, called fermentation. Before this period of creating the beer, the wort is essentially sweetened barley water with no alcoholic content. When the fermentation process begins, the yeast is pitched into the vat and allowed to sit, allowing the chemical reactions necessary to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide take place. Fermentation is broken down into two different types: Top-Cropping and Bottom-Cropping Fermentation.
Top-Cropping fermentation takes place when the yeast forms a foam at the top of the wort, typically forming the type of alcohol that comprises ales. This type of yeast fermentation requires temperatures between fifteen and twenty four degrees Celsius.
Bottom-Cropping fermentation takes place throughout the vat, results in lager being formed, and takes place in temperatures between three and eleven degrees Celsius. As a result of these different fermentation processes, many types of yeast can be used to produce several kinds of alcohol.
The next time you think that something as amazing as beer is easy to make, remember the incredible science behind using yeast to produce the alcohol and carbon dioxide that is needed in every brew. Now go impress your friends with your new-found knowledge!
Wort sounds like the very last thing that you would like to put in your mouth without knowing about it. Simply put, wort is one of the byproducts of the mashing process that is required to make beer. This article will seek to reveal the secrets of the wort production process, and how it fits into the overall brewing process.
As a byproduct of the early phases of brewing, the very first step of wort production involves taking the malt from the dried barley or other grain, and mashing it. This turns most of the starches in the batch into sugars which will be used to flavor the beer and aid the fermentation process. The next step in wort production is referred to as lautering; which separates the particulate sugars from the liquid wort. At the end of the lautering, the beer is still relatively flavorless.
The next step to make wort involves boiling the liquid wort in order to ensure that the mixture is free of any bacteria which may alter the fermentation process. Also, the hops are added at this point in order to draw out their unique flavors and bitterness. First, the bittering hops are added to the mixture for one to two hours. Next, the flavoring hops are added to the mixture for another hour or two. Aside from their flavoring qualities, hops oils also have a naturally occurring preservative in them that allows beer to have a long shelf life.
At this point in the wort production, several “rests” are conducted to ensure that the beer is forming along the proper guidelines. The first rest involves halting the boiling action to test the acidity of the brew. If the PH is too high or too low, several of the qualities of the beer can be affected. Another rest that is necessary to wort production is called the saccharification rest, where the sugars begin to gelantinize into their optimall sugar structure for flavoring. After the boiling processes and the rest, the wort moves onto the final phase of wort production.
After the mashing and boiling phases, the wort is chilled to a temperature that yeast can thrive within. At this point, the yeast is added and for all intents and purposes the wort production phase ends. This process is called pitching the yeast; a critical phase of brewing beer. This is important for the fermentation process and the development of carbon dioxide, both of which are required to produce a crisp,delicious, alcoholic beverage. From the mashing process to pitching to the yeast, the wort production process is lengthy, complicated, and crucial to the development of a proper brew.
Learning more about the major ingredients in beer is essential to truly appreciating the work and skill that goes into your favorite brew.
As one of the key ingredients to beer, malts are an important aspect of the brewing process that must be understood in order to produce quality alcohol. In essence, malts provide the flavor and sugar that give beer its distinct taste. Here, we will examine the invaluable place that malts hold in brewing beer.
Malts are one of the four ingredients in beer, and as mentioned, are very important in their own right. They come in two varieties: liquid or dry. Malts are derived by allowing the grain, most often barely, to germinate. This happens when the grain is wet and begins its growing life cycle, while simultaneously releasing the enzymes necessary to promote its growth. Then, this process is halted by introducing hot air to the germinating seeds. The result of ending the germination is that there are some sugars and soluble starches left over, which is exactly what you need in order to brew.
There are many different varieties of malts that can be used for the brewing process. The most common malt comes from barley because it has a great amount of enzymes and diastatic power, which results in more usable sugars. However, there are other malts such as wheat or rye, which can be used to produce other forms of beers and ale.
Another option when using malts is to use liquid extracts instead of natural grains. These make brewing faster, cheaper, and somewhat easier. These extracts are made the same way as a normal malt, but the sugars are removed from the grain via a process called sparging. The result is a thick, syrupy, mixture that does not need to be subjected to the mashing process which saves time and effort. However, many microbreweries value the step by step process that creates pure mash and delicious beer.
Another consideration of the brewing process is the desired effects which can be manipulated by using base malts or specialty malts. Base malts are useful for non-wheat beers in order to determine the grainy flavor of the beer. This is important because a balance of bitterness and sweetness can be the difference between a delicious beverage and a failed product. Specialty malts can be used to add color or special flavors to the beer, such as honey or chocolate. Using all of these different varieties of malts, both natural and extracts, the brewer can make a flavorful and unique taste.
For more information you can check out the sources below.
http://www.howtobrew.com/sitemap.html
http://www.brew-monkey.com/brewschool/maltguide.php
http://www.ukmalt.com/barley-growers
Hops are one of the fundamental ingredients in beer brewing, and have been used in beer making for hundreds of years. Before the introduction of hops, many different spices were used to achieve the bitterness and flavor that they can evoke in a beer. Bittering and flavoring are two of the major functions that hops provide, but there is a great deal of important facts about hops that one should know when choosing a beer.
Continuing in our look into how beer is made and what each of the ingredients does we now take a look at hops. You may not have ever heard of them so read on to learn more!
Hops come from a perennial plant, and were first used in beer to counteract the inherent sweetness of malt sugars, but also have an interesting quality that makes them a successful sleep aid as well. Hops are grown in the temperate climates between thirty five and fifty degrees of latitude, both north and south of the equator. The length of the days in which the hops are grown is one of the determinant factors in proper growth and production. After they grow in the summer, they are harvested in the late summer and early fall, then they are transferred to a kiln facility where they heated to one hundred and forty degrees to dry them out and prepare them to be used in brewing.
There are many different types of hops that are used in brewing. They are often sorted by their shape and characteristics in beer making. There are whole leaf hops, pellets, and hops extracts. Whole leaf hops are useful for their full flavor, but are susceptible to spoilage. Pellets are inexpensive and easy to store, but create a sludge on the bottom of the vats. Hops extracts are simply the oil extracts of the whole hops, and have the benefit of being stored safely for a long time. Pellets are the most commonly used hops in the major manufacturing breweries, while smaller breweries tend to use whole hops.
When it comes to the actual brewing process, hops can be added at various times. The bittering hops, which are used to balance the sweetness of the maltose sugars, tend to be added at the beginning of the boiling process. Flavoring hops tend to be added towards the end of boiling to retain their essential oils. At the very end of the brewing process, aroma hops are added to prevent the evaporation loss of their olfactory qualities. While these are the most typical hops used, and can be found in just about any brew, there are many others that can be added to produce different tastes and textures in the beer.
For all of these reasons and more, hops are one of the most important aspects of the beer brewing process. So next time you are enjoying a cold beer don’t forget the important role that they have played!
