Water, Hops, Malt, and Yeast

In its most basic form, beer is made up of 4 ingredients - water, hops, malt, and yeast. You may be thinking, how can only 4 things create such a range of flavours, aromas, colours, and goodness? 

Let's hop into it. 

Water

• Beer is 90% water 
• Water is not just water - depending on the minerals involved, soft vs. hard water, and how it's sourced can make a big difference in taste. 
• These minerals affect how the yeast can do its job in growing and breaking down the malt, and the final pH 
• Soft water is better for more nuanced or softer flavours like in lagers 
• Hard water can give a chalky, bigger mouthfeel (think of the perfect pint of Guinness in Ireland, made from the hard water in the River Liffey)

Hops

• Hops contribute to the bitterness, aromatics, and flavour profile of a beer 
• They act as a natural preservative 
• Many different varieties 
• Most beers will be brewed with several varieties, but you can get 'single hopped' beer, which has a flatter taste profile (since it's only one variety of hop contributing to the flavour)
• American hops have been designed/grown to be more citrusy, robust, and bitter, whereas European hops are more subtle, with earthy and fruity notes. 

Malt

• Barley that has been malted 
• Wheat or rye can also be malted to create styles of beers 
• Contributes to the colour of the beer - the more roasted the malt, the darker the colour of beer, and less roasted makes for a lighter colour beer 
• Malt is what the yeast feeds on, the byproducts of which are carbonation (CO2) and alcohol (yay!). 
• Creates that "malty" taste - from bready and biscuity (slightly roasted malts) to chocolatey, coffee-y, and nutty (heavily roasted malts)
• Sweet beer has a higher malt content

Image Source: Max Pixel

Yeast 

• Not the same as baker's yeast! 
• Yeast strains include Saccharomyces cerivsiae (ales) and Saccharomyces pastorianus  (lagers) 
• Some special styles of beers use wild yeast strains or benign/inert yeasts, however a majority use different strains of the above 
• Lager yeast consumes more sugar, which makes for a cleaner, crisper beer after fermtation is over. 
• Ale yeasts tend to have stronger aromas and flavours because the yeast leaves residuals sugars in the beer 
• Yeast aromatics are referred to as esters - remember creating banana and rum esters in Grade 10 Science? We sure do. 
• Example of esters in beer: Hefeweizens' notable banana and cloves aromas 

As you can see, with just 4 main ingredients, you can have hundreds of styles of beer. That's a lot of flavours, aromas, and taste explore! 

The next time you're out enjoying pints with friends, we encourage you to try something you haven't before. Expand your horizons. Explore beer.