About the Brewing Process

What do barley, hops, yeast and water all have in common? They all play an important role in the brewing process of beer. Understanding how beer is made may help you to understand why some companies' beer are rated more than others. Provided is detailed information on the brewing process.

1. Malting - In the malting process, barley is prepared for the steps to come. Barley is soaked in water for 40 hours and then germinated. In germination, barley grain is laid out on the floor in a germination room for three to five days. The barley is transformed into green malt when the germination softens it.


2. Kilning - Green malt is dried on metal racks in a kiln house at 50 degrees celsius. For a light malt the temperature is changed to 85 degrees celsius and even higher for a dark malt. The malt shoots are removed and given to cattle for feed and the dried malt is stored in silos.


3. Milling - In milling, the grain absorbs water that will soon be mixed so that the water can extract sugars from the malt.


4. Mashing - The finely ground malt is made into a sweetened liquid. The starches that were released during the malting stage are converted into sugars and can be fermented. The grain is dropped into water that is heated to about 75 degrees celsius. The grain and water mix to create maltose. The ground malt is now called wort.


5. Brewing - Grains are filtered out and the wort is boiled. Depending on the desired flavor, color and smell of the beer, certain types of hops are added. The wort is boiled for about one to two hours in order to extract the essence from the hops.


6. Cooling - The wort is transferred to a filter to take out the hops and is then cooled. 


7. Fermentation - Wort is put into a fermentation tank and a certain yeast is added to the tank. The yeasts takes the sugar in the wort and changes it into alcohol and carbon dioxide. 


8. Maturation - The beer is taken to a tank for it to be aged. 


9. Finishing - The beer is filtered and carbonated and moved into a tank where it waits to be bottled, canned or poured into kegs.