The chemistry behind craft beer
The chemistry behind craft beer
Discover the chemistry of brewing different types and colours of beer.
© American Chemical Society (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Transcript
SPEAKER 1: Are you overwhelmed by the selection in the beer aisle? Bacon flavored stouts. A quadruple IPA with absurdly high alcohol content, pistachio creme ale? Craft beers are boldly going where no beer has gone before. And all those different tastes come down to one thing. You guessed it, chemistry. So if you drink responsibly this St. Paddy's Day, you might even remember some of these facts to impress your friends.
Every beer, from the cheapest swill-- yeah-- to the wildest craft brew, is made the same way. Heat a grain and water until enzymes break down the starches into a sugar solution called a wort. Throw in some hops and then add some yeast to turn your wort into a deliciously carbonated alcoholic beverage.
Before that grain takes bath, though, it gets malted. Now this isn't your '50s style diner malt. Malting is a process of toasting the grain to create flavor compounds. You can buy all kinds of different malts, depending on what kind of beer you want to make. Also important is temperature. When you dump those malted grains into that water, the temperature you heat them to can change up the taste of your beer. Certain enzymes that break down the starches work with low heat. Others only get activated at higher temperatures. Different enzymes, different tastes.
Then hops do the rest of the heavy lifting. You IPA lovers out there can thank two types of compounds, called alpha and beta acids, for your favorite brew's flavor. The main alpha acid is called humulone. Humulone has a soft, bitter flavor that really makes a beer taste hoppy. Beta acids take longer to contribute their flavors to a beer, so they play a more prominent role in aged brews. It's not just bitter ales like IPAs that get the hops, though. Even mild mannered lagers need them too.
But bitterness is just one of the results of the chemical reaction that happens when hops meet wort. Essential oils are hop's other crucial contribution. They add more complex flavors in the acid's bitterness. There are 22 different essential oils known to give aroma, or flavor, to beer. Now, on to yeast. Yeast ferments beer by eating up the sugars and turning them to alcohol and carbon dioxide. So in a bottle or a can, that carbon dioxide is what gives beer bubbles and a little bit of bite.
Some beers, like stouts, have a creamier, thicker taste. To get the taste right out of the tap, brewers and bar owners replace most of that carbon dioxide with nitrogen gas. Nitro beer is one of the newest frontiers in craft brewing. Nitrogen gas is much less soluble in water than carbon dioxide. That means fewer overall bubbles in your beer contributing to that creamy drinkability.
So real quick, that green beer that pops up this time of year also has its roots in chemistry. Sadly, it's not leprechaun magic, but dye molecules are extracted from plants or synthesized in a lab. But don't forget, you don't have to go to a bar to try a bunch of different beers. You can brew your own at home. Grab a homebrew kit and start experimenting.
Every beer, from the cheapest swill-- yeah-- to the wildest craft brew, is made the same way. Heat a grain and water until enzymes break down the starches into a sugar solution called a wort. Throw in some hops and then add some yeast to turn your wort into a deliciously carbonated alcoholic beverage.
Before that grain takes bath, though, it gets malted. Now this isn't your '50s style diner malt. Malting is a process of toasting the grain to create flavor compounds. You can buy all kinds of different malts, depending on what kind of beer you want to make. Also important is temperature. When you dump those malted grains into that water, the temperature you heat them to can change up the taste of your beer. Certain enzymes that break down the starches work with low heat. Others only get activated at higher temperatures. Different enzymes, different tastes.
Then hops do the rest of the heavy lifting. You IPA lovers out there can thank two types of compounds, called alpha and beta acids, for your favorite brew's flavor. The main alpha acid is called humulone. Humulone has a soft, bitter flavor that really makes a beer taste hoppy. Beta acids take longer to contribute their flavors to a beer, so they play a more prominent role in aged brews. It's not just bitter ales like IPAs that get the hops, though. Even mild mannered lagers need them too.
But bitterness is just one of the results of the chemical reaction that happens when hops meet wort. Essential oils are hop's other crucial contribution. They add more complex flavors in the acid's bitterness. There are 22 different essential oils known to give aroma, or flavor, to beer. Now, on to yeast. Yeast ferments beer by eating up the sugars and turning them to alcohol and carbon dioxide. So in a bottle or a can, that carbon dioxide is what gives beer bubbles and a little bit of bite.
Some beers, like stouts, have a creamier, thicker taste. To get the taste right out of the tap, brewers and bar owners replace most of that carbon dioxide with nitrogen gas. Nitro beer is one of the newest frontiers in craft brewing. Nitrogen gas is much less soluble in water than carbon dioxide. That means fewer overall bubbles in your beer contributing to that creamy drinkability.
So real quick, that green beer that pops up this time of year also has its roots in chemistry. Sadly, it's not leprechaun magic, but dye molecules are extracted from plants or synthesized in a lab. But don't forget, you don't have to go to a bar to try a bunch of different beers. You can brew your own at home. Grab a homebrew kit and start experimenting.