Beer is considered the universal alcoholic beverage, present on all continents. However, while beer consumption is widely shared, the type of beer is less so. Indeed, beer can come from large breweries or simply be a craft beer. Craft beer is distinguished by the small size of the brewery and the use of traditional ingredients such as grains, hops, water, and yeast.
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The production of craft beer takes place in several stages and requires specific utensils.
The stages of craft beer production
· Mashing the malt
The production of craft beer begins with mashing the malt, which involves crushing the grains. This mashing can be done using a variable-setting grain mill.
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At this stage, only pale malt can be used, as it contains the enzyme necessary for converting grains into sugar. Manufacturers use dark malts in small quantities to add various flavors and aromas. After crushing the malt, it is poured into water at a temperature of 50 °C for mashing.
· Brewing the beer
This is an important phase in beer preparation that the craft beer specialist must master. The temperature of the water into which the mashed malt is poured rises to nearly 62 °C for a duration of 30 minutes. This temperature allows the conversion of starch into maltose, which will become alcohol after fermentation. Then, the water temperature is raised to nearly 68 °C so that the starch converts into dextrose, which will give the craft beer a roundness during tasting. Finally, it is necessary to filter to obtain the spent grains before increasing the temperature of the hot water to 80 °C.
· The hopping phase
The wort obtained after passing through water at various temperatures must be brought to a boil. At the beginning of the boil, bitter hops are added for a cooking time of 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours. Then, you will need to extract the bitter resins 10 minutes before the end of the boil to add the aromatic hops. Finally, the hops are filtered before the fermentation phase.
· The fermentation
The liquid resulting from the hopping is cooled to a maximum temperature of 25 °C. The yeast is incorporated into the closed container with an airlock installed for the evacuation of carbon dioxide. When the fermentation is complete, the airlock is no longer active. The craft beer must then always be subjected to maturation during storage in a cool place at a temperature of 6 to 10 °C for a few weeks.
The craft beer produced can be bottled, fermented, and subjected to maturation again.
The utensils needed for making craft beer
Unlike the large means required for producing beer brewed in industry, craft beer is made with utensils accessible to everyone. These include:
- the mash and brew kettle
- the kettle for heating water and washing the spent grains
- the one for boiling
- a powerful burner
- the grain mill
- a fermentation vessel and an airlock.