Brewmaster's Blast
December 2011
"In vino veritas, in cervesio felicitas: or "In wine truth, in beer joy" - Anonymous
We hope this holiday season finds your days with joy - as well as wine AND beer!!
In this blast, I want to explore barley malt's contribution to the making of a great craft beer. The beers we create here at Soaring Wings are brewed to really highlight this one key ingredient and explore the depth of the flavor and character it can bring.
Barley is the main flavoring component and back-bone of beer. Barley provides the starches that are broken down into sugars that become the food for the yeast. They also provide a wide range of flavors for the beer - malt, bread, sweet, caramel, dry graininess, toast, and even burnt flavors. The wide range of flavors comes to the beer not only from the process, which produces the malted barley itself, but how it is treated during the brewing process as well. Malted barley is produced by germinating (starting to grow) barley grain as seedlings. The seedlings start to breakdown the starch in their kernels into sugar for use as food - just like if they were planted in the ground. This germination is stopped by the reduction of water, essentially drying the seedlings so they stop growling. When this drying is done in a kiln, the process can produce toasty, bready flavors. If the barley is to be used in a lighter beer this is all that is done.
To allow for the creation of a range of darker beers and to allow the brewmaster to add a variety of flavors that can range from roast to caramel to burnt flavors, the malted barley can be roasted at higher and higher temperatures. The process is not unlike roasting coffee to highlight certain flavors in the beans. It is these varied toasted malts that are the foundation and the multitudes of beers from light to amber to brown and black are built on.
The brewmaster combines these toasted barleys, in a multitude of proportions, to give beers such as pilsner, pale ale, Irish red, brown ales, porters, and stouts their basic flavors. The yeast and hops are then added to create even more complexity and depth of flavor in the brew. But without this diverse palate of malted grain we would not have the wide assortment of beers that are available today.
Once the brewmaster decides what proportion of the different varieties of malt will be used in the beer, he begins the brew process by "mashing" the grain. This process is not unlike baking a big pot of barley porridge or more precisely "Malt -O-Meal". This softens the grains and causes the starches in the chage to sugars and release into the water. After the starch is converted to the brewer's desired level, the liquid (which is now called "wort") is drained off and ready for the next step in the brewing process.
Until next time, be sure to stop by Soaring Wings for a glass of happiness!
John
The beer is here!
We have 6 fantastic beers on line, so come out and try them.
Pegasus Pilsner, a real nice Helles Pils
Aviator Pale Ale, think Boddingtons
Wingman German Wheat, the way wheat beer was meant to be made
Hop Zeppelin, Double IPA - Yowza
Bombardier Brown Ale, full nutty brown
SR-71 Black Bird, Dark Stout
Also, Growlers of beer for sale - or you can bring in your favorite growler and we'll fill it!
We have received our Federal Brewery license and will start brewing beer here at the end of June. We have hired John Rollag as our Brewmaster. He will write this blast in the future. We presently have our 3-beer barrel (bbl) pilot brewing system, our 7 bbl fermenter, and a 3 bbl fermenter in pace and up and running. We are installing 4 more fermentation tanks and related equipment within a few weeks. We already have a new walk-in cooler to store the kegged beer we will be making. Hope to have the first brews available for purchase early August. We will not be able to sell anything until the state gives us their license though. Expect supplies to be spotty until we get it all figured out. Some of the beers we will be making include a Wheat beer, or Hefe Weizen, a Pale Ale, a Nut Brown Ale, a port or stout, an IPA, a light German style Helles Pilsner, and a Brewer's choice that will change every few weeks.
Cheers!
Jim
