Hop Talk

Back in Packs a Punch, I withheld from my friend that my Guinness was less potent in alcohol than his Bud Light. If I didn’t, he would then have asked me how can that be? … No, actually he wouldn’t care, or wouldn’t believe me. But why is it that the darker, thicker, sweeter, stronger tasting beer has less alcohol?

To understand how alcohol is made in beer, you have to understand a little bit about yeast. I ask you… how much do you currently know about yeast? Try this yeast trivia questionnaire by A.B. first and see how you do…

Well, you don’t have to know all of the details about how yeast works, as yeast is a very complicated critter. Basically, yeast eats sugars, divides (and thus multiplies), and produces in turn carbon dioxide and ethanol (alcohol).

So, the amount of alcohol content in beer is dependent on the amount of fermentable sugars available in the wort. Those sugars are present from the mash process of the malted barely during brewing. But wait, there’s more! There are other factors, too, which make it more complicated than just that. For example, the more roasted a malt is, the less fermentable sugars it will produce during the mash. Plus, the environment needed for fermentation to take place has to be just right. For instance, there are enzymes needed as a catalyst for the process. Temperature, oxygen, and other things contribute to how efficient the yeast works.

Fermentable sugars are key. Remember back in Part 3 that specialty grains do not contain all, or as much, of the enzymes needed for fermentation. Also, specialty grains do not contain as much potentially fermentable sugars, but they certainly bring a lot of flavor and color to the party. (ok, I admit, I’ve been watching too much Good Eats)

Bud Light uses rice (genetically engineered) to create more fermentable sugars without adding any taste, but still provide alcohol. Guinness uses lots of roasted malts for taste and color, much of which does not ferment and, thus, produces less alcohol while still packing a punch of flavor.

More from How Stuff Works…
How Beer works
Fermentaion

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The color of beer is beautiful. I love the golden yellows, the orange ambers, the deep dark reds and even the blackest black. I love all the colors, each with little bubbles riding up the side of the glass to add to the foamy froth on top. It makes me thirsty just thinking about it.

In Packs a Punch, I talked about how color has less to do with taste, and nothing to do with alcohol. (at least for the most part, more on that later) Basically, the color of beer is derived from the malted barley, the amount used, and the varying degrees in which it is roasted. Most of the malted barley used is unroasted, referred to as the base grains. In addition to that, roasted malts are used called specialty grains. Together, the malts called for in a beer recipe is called the grain bill.

Additional ingredients or adjuncts can also impart color in beer, e.g. blueberries. To please the technical readers, there are other factors like water PH, mash time, boil time, hops, fermentation and filtering that can affect color, but these are all secondary to the malt.

A side note… Malting barley is the process of germinating a barley gain by moistening it in a warm environment and then quickly drying it which stops the germination process. This allows enzymes to develop that will help the starches convert to sugars in the mash. Often, we shorten malted barley to just “malt”, but we mean the barley, and use the terms interchangeably.

Although most of the malt used in making beer is unroasted, most of the color comes from the specialty grains as the base malt only provides a white to light yellow hue. Malts can be roasted to varying degrees, from lightly toasted to practically burnt. During the mash, the specialty grains dye the water to one of those beautiful hues. It is like the difference between making green tea and black tea in how the water is tinted.

The grain bill is also a primary factor in how the beer tastes (and to how much alcohol will be present; but I will get to that point in a future article). Although that may be an obvious conclusion, the point is that the multitudes of combinations of malts make for an unlimited number of beer varieties.

Stouts are roasty, using lots of dark roasted malts, but there are many variations. Try sampling Murphy’s Irish stout, next to Brooklyn’s Black Chocolate stout, and again next to Old Rasputin Russian Imperial stout; all are very different tasting. These all “pack a punch” of flavor, but only one “packs a punch” of alcohol.

Lastly, adjuncts like corn and rice, which are used by many megabewers, contribute very little to color because of their nature and because they are not roasted. Needless to say, they also contribute little to taste.

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