Beer is the most popular drink in the world, third only to water and tea which are first and second respectively. Beer is a very old drink which has been consumed as far back in human history as possible.
There are two main methods of brewing beer and they are the mass-production method employed by the biggest beer companies and Craft beer which is the name given to beer made by smaller independent breweries.
Although craft beer might slightly differ in taste and process from place to place, the standard for craft beer remains the same whether in Singapore or the United States or even Germany. We know there are some of you who would like to experiment and brew some craft beer from their home so we have prepared this guide to assist you.
What is a craft brewery?
We know you must have questions about what qualifies as Beer made from a craft brewery. For example, you travelled to Singapore and want to enjoy some craft beer you would want to know the characteristics of a craft brewery and how to spot one:
- The most distinguishing feature of craft breweries is that they use traditional methods of fermentation and traditional brewing ingredients when making beer.
- They are small in production quantity as they usually have a yearly production total of six million barrels and below.
- They are independent and not in any way owned or affiliated with any of the big beer brands.
These are the qualities to look out for when searching for the best craft beer in Singapore or any other place you might be visiting because like we stated earlier, these standards apply almost everywhere.
The brewing method.
To make beer there are basically four main ingredients namely; water, yeast, hops and barley (or any other grain of choice). In its simplest form, the art of making beer is extracting sugar from your grains so that yeast can convert it into alcohol and CO2 becoming what we call beer.
Malting is the first step in the brewing process and it begins with your grains. Although barley is the most common grain used, you could also use wheat, rye or any other grain of your choice. Malting essentially is the process of soaking your grains in water, allowing it to begin fermentation then drying the partially germinated grain in a kiln. Malting activates the enzymes necessary to produce fermentable sugars when yeast is added.
The next stage in the cycle is mash and latter. This step is actually divided into two processes, mashing which involves putting the grain in hot water to activate the starch enzymes in your grain and lauting which is the process of removing or separating the wort from the grapes (wort is the sweet syrup that is left after bashing occurs and water has been drained)
Next, we boil and add hops to the wort to balance out the sweetness. The hops and other spices are added to the beer at this stage to add bitterness to the beer. Hops are also known to have preservative qualities.
The final stage is fermentation into ale or lager. The two categories are classified based on the type of yeast and fermentation process used determines if a beer is an ale or lager. Ales are fermented at warmer temperatures while lagers are fermented at cooler temperatures. After these steps, bottle your beer, sit back, relax and enjoy.
Conclusion.
We all love a good beer some of us love it so much that we’re willing to learn how to make ours. We hope we have shared all you need to make a cool glass of Craft beer and some.
