Beer 101: Ingredients

Fundamental to understanding basically any style of beer, is understanding the four main ingredients of beer. Before I started working at a brewery, I’m not sure if I could name any ingredient in beer aside from hops (arguably the least important). And quite frankly, same goes for many of even the most vocal haze bros out there.

But learn this, and all beer will make a whole lot more sense. And it’s really not the complicated, I promise.

Ok, hopping right in. The four main ingredients in beer are: malt, hops, yeast, and water. Every beer has these ingredients. The other main category of ingredient to know is broadly referred to as adjuncts. But for now, focus on the first four.

1. Malt

Ok kind of confusing, but bear with me for a minute. So “malt” actually refers to the process of malting, which is a way of processing grain. When we use the word “malt” in brewing, we are almost always referring to malted barley. As in barley (the grain) that has been malted. 

Malting as a process is what turns raw barley into a form that usable in beer. The final step of malting (kilning) is also what lends malt its color and variety of flavors. You can think of malt varieties like bread: some very lightly kilned varieties taste like dough, and very heavily kilned varieties like burnt toast. 

Malt for the most part is what gives beer its color.

• Porters and stouts are dark because they have dark malts in the grist. “Grist” is just a fancy way of describing the blend of grain that forms the base of beer.

• IPAs and Lagers are light, because they brewed with light malts.

2. yeast

Yeast is the true hero of beer. It’s what turns starchy sugar water into delicious alcoholic beverages. 

The basic equation:  yeast + glucose (sugar) = ethanol (booze) and carbon dioxide (bubbles).

Or, in other words, we add hungry yeast to the sugary water that we’ve made with all the malt. The yeast munches all the sugar it can (before the sugar runs out, or the yeast gets tired), and poops out alcohol and carbon dioxide. More initial sugar = more alcohol.

There’s three main types of yeast used in beer: 

• Ale Yeast - Loves to ferment at warmer temps, and produces esters - fruity flavor compounds.

• Lager Yeast - Ferments at cooler temps, and leaves little fermentation-derived flavor.

• Wild yeasts (and bacteria) - like Brettanomyces (Brett), Lactobacillus, Acetobacter. These guys produce a range of sour and funky flavors. Fun fact, you can also find these wild yeasts in wine!

SO, the difference between Ales and Lagers is the yeast which brewers use in fermentation.

3. hops

Hops come from a very vine-y plant, and were originally used in beer for their antimicrobial effects as well as bitterness. 

There are hundreds of varieties of hops, which can be thought of like types of apples. All  the same thing, with a whole bunch of nuanced flavor differences. They are also aggressively bred at a ton of research institutions (like apples!), trying to discover the next great crossbreed.  

Depending on when they are added to the brew, hops can have different effects. Adding hops during brewing produces bitterness, while adding hops later in the process adds flavors and aromas. More on that in my next post!

If you’re an American craft beer drinker, you’ve heard of hops. In fact, it’s hard to find a label out there that doesn’t name the hops, or mention how many times the beer was hopped. That being said, it’s important to acknowledge that while hops are in almost every style of beer, they are not a super important ingredient in all styles. Important in some. Not all.

4. water

Whenever I list this as an ingredient in beer, my first thought is duh. But it is important to acknowledge the importance of water in beer for a couple reasons. Firstly, yes, water makes up the majority of beer. And as such, it provides the medium where all the fun processes that make beer beer take place.

But secondly, the chemical makeup of water is super important in making the perfect beer. In particular, concentrations of chlorine, carbonate, and calcium in water effect the final product immensely. For this reason modern breweries treat or filter their water in house to get the chemical balance precisely right. And brewers manipulate levels of calcium and carbonate for brewing of different styles - for IPAs you’d want water that has calcium sulfate, which helps produce that clean, crisp bitterness you love in your hoppy ales.

The other ingredient(s): Adjuncts

Another category that’s tough to tackle briefly is adjuncts. In brief, these adjuncts are basically this is anything added to beer that’s not listed above. 

Though technically an adjunct is defined as “any source of fermentable extract (i.e. sugar) other than malt,” but often is used more broadly. 

Some common adjuncts you might see: 

• Grains: oats, unmalted wheat, corn, rice

• Sweet things: candi sugar (in Belgians), lactose, honey, refined

• Fruit

More broadly, this category also includes things like spices, herbs, cacao, tea, and coffee. But because these ingredients don’t actually add any sugar, they wouldn’t be considered an adjunct by the definition above. Though in my experience, they are generally still referred to as such by the brewing community! So choose your adventure with that one.