Beer 101 - Basic Beer Ingredients

I recently started adding some basic beer vocabulary and information in The Lauter Tun's Newsletters.  It had occurred to me that, though I describe new beers briefly, what makes them different as far as ingredients and brewing practices may not be common knowledge.   I know many beer geeks know this information already, but for the layman drinker, I hope this information is at least a little bit useful.  

Basics in Beer Ingredients

This week I started really hitting my staff hard regarding brewing and why certain beers look, smell, and taste the way they do. For the most part, the staff is fairly familiar with various beer styles and your basic beer knowledge. I think, however, to really know the beer you are drinking, your need to have a little basic brewing knowledge. It also aids in beer-cabulary and it will make you sound smarter when you are talking to people at your local watering hole.

As I don't want to bore the readers too quickly, I will simply touch on the basic brewing ingredients. In future blogs, I will touch on the actual procedures in brewing.

First off, what are the four main ingredients in beer? Water, Malt, Hops, and Yeast. Each ingredient is EXTREMELY important.



What is malt? Well, malt is short for malted barley, a cereal grain. Malting in short; the grain is moistened, made to start germinating, dried/kilned, and sometimes roasted. The temperature/intensity and length of this kilning and roasting will determine the color and flavor profile of that specific malt. Think of a piece of white bread that you are about to put in a toaster. The longer you toast it, the darker it becomes and the flavor changes a great deal. After being malted, the grain is cracked and mixed with hot water which extracts sugars from the grain. The sugar is important as that is what the yeast will consume and covert to alcohol. There are dozens and dozens of varieties of malt, all of which impart unique flavor characteristics to a beer. It also is the largest determining factor in the color of a beer. In general, dark malt (which is kilned and/or roasted at higher temperatures than lighter malt) provides darker color. So, pilsners use much lighter malt than a brown ale or a stout. While you shouldn't taste a beer with your eyes, color does often help one infer what the malt flavor of a beer could be.


Hops are female flower clusters actually related to cannabis. These wonderful plants provide the needed bitterness to balance the sweetness of the malt. Hops also help stabilize a beer as they have preservative qualities. Hops are generally used during and after the boiling process in which they impart, as previously mentioned, a much needed bitterness, but also flavor and aroma. There are a plethora of types of hop varieties with flavors and aromas ranging from grassy and earthy, to citrusy and spicy, piney to cheesy (if the hops are old)... Depending on the quantity of hops, duration of the boil, and variety used, the finished beer may be intensely hoppy like an IPA or mild like an English Brown Ale. I always get a kick out of people who say they "hate hops" as I guarantee every beer they have ever tried had hops in it. Intense hoppiness may not be desirable to some people, of course, but many people can't live with out it!

The water is arguably one of the most important components of beer as most beers are over 90% water. Even though the water is boiled and therefore sterilized, the flavor of water can destroy or enhance a brew. Imagine drinking a beer made from the Missouri River water or water from your home faucet. Very different chemical compounds and therefore very different flavors and aromas. Another example: Have you ever washed your hands and you couldn't seem to get the soap off? That means the water is extremely soft. On the flip side, sometimes just washing your hands dries your skin out completely. Hence, very hard water. If that happens to your hands in 15 seconds of washing, imagine what it can do in a 500+ gallon brew.

Yeast usually has the last say in what a beer will taste like. Of course, yeast eats sugar (left by the mashed grain) and converts it to CO2 and glorious alcohol. Different yeast strains will provide extremely different finished products. Imagine a Boulevard Wheat Ale. Easy drinking, crisp, lightly citrusy, refreshing and light. Now ferment that beer with a Belgian Yeast or a German Hefeweizen yeast and you will have a VERY different beer with possible flavors of banana, clove, vanilla, bubblegum, peaches or pears, white pepper, who knows!? And I'm not even touching on wild yeasts and other fungi and bacteria that can be used to ferment beer. Lastly, with regards to yeast, there are really only two (2) main types of yeast. Ale, and Lager yeast. Ale yeast is top-fermenting, generally fermented at a warmer temperature, and can promote yeasty flavors that may be described as fruity and spicy (especially in some Belgian style yeasts). Lager yeasts are bottom-fermenting, generally fermented at a cooler temperature, and due to the colder temperature, the yeast is often prohibited from providing those yeasty flavors so the finished product showcases more of the malt/water/hops characteristics. However, these DO NOT determine color. There are lagers that are black as night, and ales that are extremely pale. Generally when someone says to me "I like lagers", they really mean they like light beer. But don't be mistaken, there is no distinction between the lightness or darkness, or heaviness of a beer based on whether it is a lager or an ale.

This is just a brief description of the basic brewing ingredients, but I hope it helps a little bit. In future emails I will describe the actual brewing process more in depth.


Chad Roz

-The Lauter Tun














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