Beer is a carbonated low alcohol drink with a characteristic bitter aftertaste and hop smell. The process of its manufacture is based on natural fermentation, but modern technology and the desire to reduce the cost of the process have led to the emergence of a new method of production - this is powdered beer from dry ingredients. It is a mixture of concentrated beer wort concentrate, devoid of liquid by vacuum. It is most often sold in the form of a powder; in rare cases, it has a pasty appearance. By adding yeast and diluting with water, you can get a drink ready to drink. There is powder beer in Russia, Japan, the USA and other countries.
Live beer
The taste of the prepared hop drink is primarily affected by the quality of the barley malt used. It is he who is the main saving opportunity for brewers. It’s not just that almost all labels on cans and bottles have the phrase “contains barley malt”. But its quantity in the composition is a production secret.
Malt belongs to the category of expensive ingredients and is often replaced by analogues with lower price and quality. They can account for almost half of all content. Rice chop, wheat, etc. are used. The wort for cooking is made from malt, then hops are added to it.
Real non-powder beer has its own bitter taste and a specific pleasant aroma precisely due to its base, it increases the amount of foam and is used as an antiseptic, cleansing microflora. Many manufacturers are trying by any means to reduce the cost of production, while they do not care about the final result.
After cooking, the semi-finished product is cooled, added with yeast and left for fermentation, which will take about a week under low temperature conditions. Then, after separation of the yeast, it is infused for three months, due to which it acquires the qualities characteristic only of this variety. Modern beer production is nearing completion.
But this does not end with savings. Since it is unprofitable for entrepreneurs to wait for the final preparation of a drink for a long time, accelerated technologies have spread. Special inhibitors and carbon dioxide are added to the product to reduce the fermentation process. Artificial foaming agents allow you to get a fluffy froth.
How to make beer from powder
Such a concentrate is not profitable for large plants due to its high cost. Its use is more typical for establishments selling beer of their own bottling and small breweries. Such organizations are not profitable for the production of beer in accordance with the full technology, as this requires ingredients that have a short shelf life and expensive equipment. Therefore, they use concentrate as a way out. Subject to the intricacies of such a production process, it is possible to obtain a product of satisfactory quality, but it can not be compared with this “living” option.
What is used as a basis
The raw material is dried malt extract. It is produced in special conditions from brewing malt by the method of germination of barley grains. It is characterized by the appearance of hydrolysis under the influence of certain substances, that is, the separation of non-starch type polysaccharides, proteins and starch. As a result, quickly assimilated substances with a low molecular level are formed, including organic acids, sugars and dextrins. In the process of malting, vitamins of group B also accumulate and are activated in sprouted barley.
Then the wort is prepared, which is an extract (extract) and incorporating all the substances mentioned above. Then the wort is dried - until a powdery mass is obtained.
Determination of quality by foam
A distinctive feature of beer is foam. It refers to one of the methods for determining its quality. If it is unsightly in appearance, reddish in color with a liquid consistency and a lot of bubbles, it may be a powder beer. In this drink, the foam is completely white, differs in the absence of bubbles, uniformity and compactness. If it is poured into a large glass, then the resulting foam should be at least 4 cm high and hold for about five minutes. A lower level and faster disappearance indicates not the best quality product. You can try blowing a little foam, it should bend, but not disappear. There is also some “sticking” to the glass.
Many people use a coin as a verification method, laying it on the top layer. She will not drown if the drink is of good quality. Remains of foam remain on a glass with a finished good beer . In their absence, one can doubt the naturalness of the product.
Color
There is a light and dark kind of drink. But its own shade is present in the product of each manufacturer. For assessment, the European Convention uses special standards, which are several glass discs with different tones. The method of diluting iodine in water is also applied, until a color similar to the shade of the drink is formed, the determination is based on the specific gravity of iodine.
In this concept, not only the special tone plays a role, but also the presence of the color gamut, transparency. Light beer is heavier. It should have a certain luster, a golden, slightly transparent, clean shade, with no greenish, brown or red tones. But a product of a dark variety does not have to possess such characteristics, but at the same time, no professional can determine the powder beer by its color.
Smell
When evaluating beer, the most attention is paid to the sense of smell, not vision. During tasting, the main perception occurs with the help of the nose, while inhaling the specific aroma of the product. And this is not surprising, since a person has a much more sensitive sense of smell, but taste buds are less multifaceted. To find out which beer is not powder, you need to determine the harmony of mixing all notes of smell, after inhalation and a sip. Characteristics such as yeast, fresh, pure, hoppy and even floral are used to describe.
What you need to know
It is worth noting that the nose is not an olfactory organ, it is a passage for oxygen to enter the mucous surface, which is very small in size, due to which quite a few odors are detected. To feel the aroma as much as possible, you need to inhale through the nose and exhale with your mouth, repeat this action several times. But the smell is perceived a little differently during sips, as the aromas absorbed by the mucous surface of the mouth reach the membrane. At the end of the pharynx, perception reaches a maximum.
How to distinguish powder beer from natural beer to taste
Most of the brands of foamy drink contain all four basic tastes: salty, sour, bitter and sweet - in various combinations. And such a concept as “tasty beer” is formed from the general feeling, while being stretched for a while. During the slow taste transition, pleasant sensations should arise, as well as in the aftertaste. All harmony may disappear due to any dissonance. During the tasting, not only the tongue is involved as a receptor, but also the palate, cheeks and lips, which allow the formation of thermal and tactile characteristics. And among them - oiliness, astringency, texture and temperature, which is very important when you need to determine draft beer from a powder.
Differences
Light hop is distinguished by the hopiest subtle bitterness - extracted elements should not prevail in it. After it, the tongue should have a feeling of specific, quickly disappearing bitterness, while the aftertaste is practically absent. Real light foamy drink is characterized by such terms as “harmonious”, “pure”, “thin”.
In the dark version, hops and malt are felt differently, there is no pronounced bitterness, but the taste is more full and “density”. The feeling of malt is leading.
The aftertaste is a characteristic that deserves no less attention. At the same time, a prolonged feeling of bitterness speaks of a poor-quality product, as it arises due to violations of production techniques or poor quality of the ingredients.
Features
The classic beer technology is the use of malt, purified water, yeast and hops. Belonging to a particular variety is formed by the choice of a malt base. In Russia, imported ingredients are most often used for the production of high-quality beer, this is due to the high cost of equipment for obtaining dried barley. Hop cones are responsible for the formation of foam and specific bitterness. Many believe that Chuvashia is the country that produces the best hops. But even he has disadvantages, among which the rapid loss of smell and other characteristics that are so necessary for the manufacture of a foamy drink. Therefore, many countries store it in special vacuum packages, in granular form.
Production stages
The beer production technology consists of the following steps.
First of all, malt is prepared. To do this, cereals germinate, dry, and then sprouts are removed from them.
For the wort, malt is finely chopped and mixed with purified water, due to which a taste with a sweetish tint is formed. A mixture of crushed grain products is called a shutter, subsequently it is again rubbed with water.
Next, the shutter is filtered, by transferring it to a special container and dividing it into two components: unsweetened wort and the so-called pellet, the basis of which is represented by small particles of barley.
All ingredients are heat treated. During boiling for 2 hours, the hops completely dissolve and the elements that have a negative effect on taste and aroma characteristics are evaporated.
Clarification is carried out in whirlpool - this is a special installation in which hops and malt are not dissolved during the previous stages. Under the influence of centrifugal forces, they accumulate on the sides of the device. Wort settling takes about 30 minutes, then dense residues are separated.
At the cooling stage, a fermentation tank is used, into which the base of the drink is transferred. At this time, the wort acquires a lower temperature and is saturated with oxygen, which is the main condition for the work of yeast.
Fermentation
Special brewer's yeast is added to other ingredients. The brewing technology at the plant requires about a month for complete fermentation. In this way a rather muddy substance is formed, which tastes completely different from beer and requires additional fermentation, in the form of aging in a closed container under the influence of slight pressure. As a result, carbon dioxide is formed. In this period of exposure is determined by the variety of the future drink.
Then again insoluble residues are separated. This process is most common in industrial manufacturing. Due to some methods, it is possible to increase the shelf life due to the destruction of existing microflora.
The final step is pasteurization, during which the drink is brought to a temperature of 80 degrees. It is used far from all varieties, and similarly to filtration, extends the shelf life. But many believe that the taste characteristics decrease after such a heat treatment.