The brewing principle is the same or very similar all over the world, and it has been so for centuries. As early as in 1516, the Duke of Bavaria William IV issued a Beer Purity Law, which is one of the oldest food quality regulation laws and is still in force nowadays. It prescribes that a drink can only be considered beer if it contains grain, hops and water. However, despite the classical composition of the main raw materials, there are hundreds of different varieties, types and flavours of beer present all over the world. Different beer varieties and brands are made with each brewer developing his or her own recipes, and, in order to obtain a special taste, various cultivated plants are sometimes added to the beer, including barley, wheat, buckwheat, rice…
Beer is brewed by using barley malt, which is obtained by soaking, sprouting and drying beer barley grain. It is a special and time consuming process, which is usually not carried out by brewers themselves. Barley malt is properly prepared grain, which is purchased by beer producers from malt-houses and used in the further beer production process.
Malt grain is ground or crushed in order to separate the grain from the hard grain shells.
Water is added to the crushed malt. In this manner the leaven is being prepared, which is heated until beer wort or malt extract is acquired. The beer wort is a non-alcoholic and sweet liquid, which is often used to strengthen one’s immunity.
The acquired leaven is then filtered, thus separating the wort from the malt grain.
Hops are added during the wort boiling process. In industrial beer production, hop granules, which are acquired by pressing the hops, are used. At this stage the beer obtains bitter taste nuances; the adding of hops also determines the quality of the foam of a finished beer.
The wort is clarified in order to separate the protein. It appears during the boiling stage, as all of the raw materials interact with one another.
The final cooling temperature limit depends on each variety of beer and their recipes.
During the fermentation process of the wort the sugar that is inside of it forms alcohol and carbon dioxide. This is a very important beer brewing process, during which the aroma and flavour of the beer is acquired. After fermentation the beer is matured – the length of this stage depends on the beer recipe. It may last from a few weeks up to several months and even years.
After the maturing process the beer is filtered, thus acquiring a clear, pronounced beer taste and aroma. During filtering the beer is purified from the protein and yeast particles that can be found within it. The name ‘unfiltered beer’ indicates that the respective beer has not been filtered – it contains the yeast particles that can form sediments.
The beer is ready and it is filled into various beer containers. They may be: glass bottles, cans, plastic bottles, and metal kegs for cafés.