Beer, Sake, and Spirits Flashcards
What is the oldest fermented beverage in history? What is the second-oldest?
Mead
Beer is the second-oldest
At the heart of beer fermentation what conversion must take place in a grain before fermentation?
conversion of starching fermentable sugars
What is the name of the sugar-rich liquid that is fermented into beer?
wort
What are the four basic ingredients that are utilized in the production of beer?
water
yeast
a starch source
hops
What do the hops provide to a beer?
adds flavor and bitterness, and has both preservative and antiseptic qualities that prohibit bacterial growth.
When was the Bavarian Purity Law passed into legislation? What is its German name? What did it codify?
1516 Reinheitsgebot
codified the three ingredients for beer production as barley, hops, and water
What is the cereal grain of choice for most beer production? What other grains are used?
barley is the most used for beer production
wheat is also used
What is “green malt” and how is it created?What enzyme is created during the process of creation and what does it do?What are the two sugars created?
green malt is the product of barley that has germinated creating the enzyme amylase which converts the starches of the grain into fermentable sugars maltose and dextrin.
How is the green malt processed prior to the mashing process?
The green malt is roasted with hot air in a kiln to halt further growth.
What does the mashing process consist of? What is sparging? What’s the product of this process?
The mashing process involves combining the grist with hot water for the purpose of converting and extracting fermentable sugars from the malt.
Sparging is an additional rinse of the rinsed grist for additional sugar extraction.
The product of this entire process is the derivation of the wort, the sugar-rich liquid that will serve as the source of fermentable sugars for alcoholic fermentation.
How does roasting the green malt affect the style of the beer? Two type of malts?
The heavier the roast and degree of roasting will create black malts that are used for porter-style beers
Lighter roasting creates pale malt and it will be used for the production of pale ales
What is the grist?
The product of grinding or cracking the roasted malt
Following derivation of the wort, the wort is boiled. Why?
To stabilize and sterilize the brew, darken the color, and cause excess water to evaporate.
How do the hops influence the flavor and aromatics of the wort? When are they added? What happens to this affect on taste and aromas of the hops during the boiling process? How is this adjusted?
Hops contribute bitterness to the flavor and add aromatics
They are added when the wort is boiled
The longer they’re present in the boiling wort the more bitterness they contribute and the more the contributed aromatics fade
Aromas are retained by passing the boiling wort through a hopback chamber prior to chilling, contributing fresh aromas.
What happens to the wort after it has been boiled properly? Describe how this process differs for ale and lager production and list which strain of yeast is use for each.
The wort is strained leaving spent hops behind and then chilled to an appropriate temperature for fermentation.
Wort destined to become lager is cooled to a lower temperature than wort for ale production and bottom-fermenting Saccharomyces pastorianus (formerly Saccharomyces carlsbergensis) is added
Wort destined to become ale is cooled to a higher temperature than that for Lager and the top-fermenting Saccaromyces cerevisiae is added.
How does an ale differ form lager in taste?
Ale is more richly flavored and fruity
Lagers are more delicate and cleaner in flavor.
Yeast for ale fermentation is ____-fermenting. yeast for a lager is ____-fermenting? (top/bottom)
Ale is top-fermenting
Lager is bottom-fermenting
What happens to the beer following fermentation?
Following the fermentation, the beer is transferred to conditioning tanks or casks and often pasteurized prior to bottling unless it’s a cask ale sold as a draught in which it will be unpasteurized.
What does “bottle-conditioned” indicate?
Beers are unfiltered and undergo partial fermentation in the bottle.
What is a lambic? How is it fermented? Describe it stylistically.
A unique specialty of Belgium that is the product of a spontaneous fermentation in open-top containers with native (NOT AMBIENT) yeasts, such as Brettanomyces bruxellensis and Brettanomyces lambicus.
What are the two most common strains of yeast used for a lambic fermentation?
Brettanomyces bruxellensis
Brettanomyces lambicus
What is Geuze and how is it produced? How does the fermentation initiate
A style of beer produced by mixing one-year-old lambics with beers that have aged for two to three years old.The blend is then refermented with aged hops in the bottle, giving the beer its sparkle
Because the young one-year old beers have not fully fermented there is still some sugar to be fermented.
How are fruit lambics produced? What are two common styles and what is the name of the style for each?
Lambics that have been refermented using the addition of fruits as sugar source.
Kriek (sour morello cherries)
Framboise (raspberries)
What are two major producers of fruit lambics?
Lindemans
Cantillon