If you're a coeliac or have a gluten intolerance, then you have to avoid cereals like wheat and barley. But what happens if you're a beer lover? Daniel Cooper reports.
For many of us beer is only beer if it is made from four ingredients, the finest malt barley, choicest hops, pure spring water and specially selected yeast. However, for beer-loving suffers of coeliac disease it is the use of barley malt that makes the consumption of beer problematic.
Many of us ha...
By Daniel Cooper
from Issue 18 published on 19/06/2008
Daniel Cooper looks at the controversial subject of pasteuration in beer
It was Ernie, the fastest milkman in the west, who said “do you want it pasteurised? Because pasteurised is best.” It would seem that Ernie was fairly convinced about the value of the technique for milk. However, in the brewing world opinion is decidedly split as to whether pasteurisation is a good ...
By Daniel Cooper
from Issue 17 published on 30/04/2008
Just what do they get up to all day? We sent Glynn Davis to find out.
The popular perception of brewing is of a rather leisurely pursuit interspersed with regular visits to the tasting room, but the job of a brewer is in reality a tough one that differs widely between breweries.
There is also no such thing as a typical day in the life of a typical brewer as it will b...
By Glynn Davis
from Issue 16 published on 25/01/2008
It has been suggested that there was room in BOTW for a little more technical stuff. So pay attention, here comes the science bit: Daniel Cooper reports on the use of sugar in brewing.
Yeast ferments sugar to produce alcohol – that is the basic biochemical process that our ancestors harnessed to produce our favourite alcoholic beverage. But there’s much more to it than that...
The sugar that the yeast requires to produce alcohol in beer is typically derived from a cereal source, ...
By Derek Cooper
from Issue 16 published on 25/01/2008
We've all thought about it...Nigel Huddleston shows us the way
Hundreds of beer-mad individuals in Britain and the States have jacked it all in to pursue the dream of owning their own brewery. But how exactly did they get where they are today and what’s the best way to go about it if you want to follow in their footsteps? We offer some basic pointers on the pat...
By Nigel Huddleston
from Issue 10 published on 26/01/2007
Yeast is a vital and complex part of beer production. Roger Protz looks at the history of this ingredient and how brewers keep it happy
What are the essential ingredients used in the production of beer?
Barley malt, of course, and other grains and special sugars that combine to make a sweet extract known as wort.
Then hops, the salt and pepper of the process, add piny, resiny, spicy and fruit aromas and flavours. And there is wate...
By Roger Protz
from Issue 9 published on 22/11/2006
This issue, Nigel Huddleston looks at the history of the humble can
It all started for the can, as you might expect, in America.
Brewer Gottfried Kreuger, of Newark, New Jersey, made a major breakthrough in packaging two beers in metal cans on January 24, 1935. The American Can Company supplied the packs but had actually started working on trying to package beer in...
By Nigel Huddleston
from Issue 8 published on 27/09/2006
In the latest in our series Nigel Huddleston considers grains other than barley that can be used in beer
Lest we should start mired in confusion, what we’re talking about here is the raw ingredients that provide the nuances of some of the world’s great beers (and some of the less-acclaimed ones) rather than cornflakes or Weetabix.
Malted barley is the predominant cereal type used in making beer and ha...
By Nigel Huddleston
from Issue 7 published on 28/07/2006
In the latest in our series Nigel Huddleston looks at the role of the cask in production
Speak to fans of British beer and they’ll tell you that cask conditioning produces beers with finer aromas, fuller flavours and deeper character than those that aren’t, but what nobody ever bothers to explain very often is why.
Conditioning is the process a beer goes through after fermentation to m...
By Nigel Huddleston
from Issue 6 published on 18/05/2006
In the latest in our series Nigel Huddleston looks at the role fruit can play in the production of quality beers from around the world
Why do brewers use fruit?
Normally we’d kick-off with ‘what are hops?’ (or whatever it is you need to know everything about this month), but if we do that with fruit it’s going to end up like one of those soul-sapping pub conversations along the lines of “but is the tomato a fruit?” and we could pr...
By Nigel Huddleston
from Issue 5 published on 24/03/2006
In the latest in our series Michael Jackson investigates the role of water and how important a quality sourse is to the overall taste of beer
Water has a significant influence on the flavour and body of beer, though not as great as the contribution made by malted barley and other grains; by hops; and by the brewer himself.
If barley took up more water from the soil, it would contain juice, as grapes do. That would make it – like the grap...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 4 published on 27/01/2006
In the latest in his series on the ingredients of beer Nigel Huddleston looks at the role of malted barley
What is malt?
Malt is shorthand for barley that has undergone a process called malting. Malted barley is the main cereal used in brewing beer and the only one that falls within the German purity laws – the Rheinsheitgebot – under which most of the famous beer producing country’s beer is made, and t...
By Nigel Huddleston
from Issue 3 published on 12/01/2006
In the latest in our series Nigel Huddleston looks at the role yeast plays
What is yeast?
While the tangible nature of barley and hops makes their contribution to beer easier to comprehend, the role of yeast is more mysterious.
Yeast is a single-celled fungal organism which can be cultivated in laboratories but which also occurs naturally. Aside from brewing it’s a key e...
By Nigel Huddleston
from Issue 2 published on 16/11/2005
In the first of a series on the brewing of beer Nigel Huddleston looks at the role of the hop
What is a hop?
The hop is a wild, sprawling plant – humulus lupulus in Latin, meaning wolf plant, so-named because the Romans said it grew wild among willow trees like a wolf among sheep – tamed by hop farmers by training it round poles to give it the best access to the light. The hop flower, or co...
By Nigel Huddleston
from Issue 1 published on 26/08/2005
