Beer making

A beer is made up of water, malt, hops and yeast.

• Water represents 90 to 95% of beer. Its purity, its acidity (pH) and its mineral composition play on the taste and quality of beer. Most of the old breweries had their own wells and sometimes also sold water.


• Malt is a germinated cereal, there are several families, it will give color and flavor to beer.
  
  Generally malt is made from barley (sometimes wheat) which is soaked in lukewarm water (40 hours), then germinated (4 to 8 days). It is then dried then roasted (at 85 °). This is where the grains will take their color. Everything is done in the malt house, which may or may not belong to the brewery.


• Hops is a herbaceous plant that brings bitterness to beer but also allows enrich its taste and help its preservation, a very hoppy beer is not necessarily a very bitter beer!
  
  In the brewery, the malt grains are crushed to obtain a grind which is mixed with hot water.
  This mixture is raised in temperature to wake up the enzymes so that they begin to extract the starch from the cereals to transform it into sugars. We obtain thus a sweet must.
  
  This must is transferred to a boiling tank to cook and sterilize. At this stage the brewer adds the hops but also the spices, plants or honey according to his own recipe.


• Yeasts are microorganisms of the fungus family and are essential in the making of beer because they are what will allow the alcoholic fermentation. Beyond transforming sugar into alcohol, yeasts are sources of flavors and have a huge influence on the taste of beer.
  
  The must is cooled to the desired fermentation temperature, thus defining the beer style (low or high fermentation), then it is inoculated with brewer's yeast (for Gueuze, the natural yeasts are left to act). For a week, the yeasts will multiply thanks to to the oxygen contained in the must, and when oxygen is lacking the yeasts feed on the sugars and release alcohol and carbon dioxide.
  
  The beer goes through a cellaring period for several weeks, after which it will be filtered and then packaged in bottles or barrels.