American Beer Day: How Is It Made?

Posted By Ingrid Turner on Oct 27, 2013 in Adult Recipes, Alcohol Drink Recipes, American Food Recipes, Best Beer Brands and Recipe, Beverage Recipes, Ethnic Foods, Featured, Food Holidays | 0 comments

American Beer Day is upon us, and we’re celebrating the World’s most ancient beverage.

Having been brewed for over 6000 years, to our knowledge.

It has been a very popular drink in past history, and in our present age, has been beset with many layers of modern advertising & marketing. Don’t let the intense television images & other media depicting it to be a rather glamorous drink, rather than the humble result of fermenting barley.

Along the way, we have formed our own ideas & opinions of beer. We decide whether bottled is better than canned, with head or not, iced or cool, draft or on tap, or even separately bottled. All of this over a simple thirst quencher, making it more complicated than necessary.

Beer is the result of grain fermentation, most commonly barley, but sometimes wheat. In today’s mass market of beer brewing, corn or rice is often added to barley, which gives us a milder, lighter beverage.

The grains go through a number of steps on their way to completion. Soaking, toasting, re-soaking, draining, brewing, seasoning & fermentation…experiencing many subtle variations by this many breweries.

It seems all of these treatments are as important as the ingredients themselves, but most vital of the ingredients has been argued time & time again as being the best water you can possibly find to use in the beer.

Grain becomes malt by water soaking until it starts to sprout. Then, it is hot air dried, and often dried to brown, golden or amber hues. Malt is ground & hops added to obtain a lovely & distinctive flavor, stability & aroma…something like steeping tea.

The resulting liquid is filtered, cooled & yeast added to jump start fermentation. The actual brewing, storage & cooling are enough to fill a book, but there is certainly no doubt that Americans, and Canadians alike, love their beer & the choices between brewers are exceptionally numerous.