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S T Y L E P RO F I L E
B
arley is the core element
in brewing beer. To make
beer, you typically need four
essential ingredients: grain
(usually barley), hops, water
and yeast. While many people think of
hops when thinking of their favorite
craft beer, without barley much of the
beer we enjoy would not be made in the
first place. This is because to make beer
you have to allow yeast to ferment the
sugars released from the barley grains.
Barley has several characteristics that
make it great for producing beer. For
one thing, it is durable and holds up to
the handling involved in the process,
while its husk can act as a filter during
brewing. Barley is also high in starch
and easily produces the much needed
enzymes for breaking it down later
into sugar. To get the sugars needed
for fermentation, grain must first be
broken down in a process called malting,
which is done in a malt house. Malting
is usually a three-stage process that
allows the enzymes to grow in the grain
that will later break down its starch. The
beginning of the malting process is called
steeping. The barley is heated in water,
allowing it to reach a specific moisture
content; at times it is removed so it can
receive air. This process facilitates the
production of more enzymes. Following
this the barley is removed and allowed to
germinate for several days. Germination
allows the enzymes to break down the
grain more to reach its starches. This
cannot continue for long, however, as the
germination process needs to be stopped
by drying the malt out for several hours
at high temperatures. After malting,
the barley goes through mashing and
is heated in water again so that the
enzymes break down the starch and
turn it into sugar. After being drained,
to beer
FROM
BARLEY
MA R Y L A N D B R EW P U B
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