Beer has actually been with us for a long time. It's no exaggeration to say that beer made from grains, yeast, and water is more than a drink for us, a food. There's even a slight exaggeration that if you harden beer, it becomes bread, rumor has gone around! People were always with beer as a strong companion in their lives, both when they were in love and when they were working.
Oh, did you notice that McDuck is the editor who has already eaten here? A 100% selfless post written with a love for beer! Craft beer startup “THE BOOTH (THE BOOTH)†and “Kookmin Gourmet Shikishin†meet, from the history of beer to how to enjoy Korean craft beer and beer deliciously! I will introduce everything about beer. To the world of beer that you, me, we all want!
“Beer (BEER)â€
There are no accurate records of when beer was made and eaten, but we can speculate that beer was made when humans lived an agricultural lifestyle that passed from nomadic to settled life. If you look at materials such as the early Stone Age sites in the Yellow River basin in China and the “Song to Ninkashi†from 1800 BC, it is possible to infer when beer began to be drunk. Furthermore, since the process of creating sake was often done by accident using grains, it may have happened all over the world at the same time. The following passage is also written in the Hebrew scripture Cochelets (Ecclesiastes) written in the 3rd century BC.
“Dip the bread you have into the water.
If you do that, you'll get (beer) after many days.â€
Also, beer was one of the representative drinks of ancient Egypt, and there is a story that when beer was placed in a red jar and offered to a monster (Shek Met), the monster got drunk and all humans were able to live. Records have also been discovered that beer was distributed to workers who built temples in ancient Sumer (3300-3100 BC).
After that, in the Middle Ages, beer production began in monasteries. Around the 8th century, English ale (ALE) and PORTER (PORTER) were made, and the beer game changed when “HOP (HOP)†appeared around the 10th century. Hops add a variety of aromas and bitterness depending on the type, and beer with a flavor similar to the beer we currently eat began with the advent of hops.
In particular, around the 19th century, there was a great development in the distribution of beer through the industrial revolution. The steam engine built by James Watt of England made it possible to mass-produce beer, and Karl von Linde of Germany invented a freezer, making it possible to brew regardless of the season. In addition to this, beer gradually became perfect when Louis Pasteur of France invented a heat treatment sterilization method.
Things that make up beer
Beer is said to have originated from the Latin word bibere (bibere) meaning “to drink†or the Germanic word bior (bior) meaning “grain.†Simply put, it can be interpreted as drinking something made from grains. In other words, beer is generally made using barley as a liquid containing alcohol made by fermenting fermentable carbohydrates extracted from grains as the main ingredient. Today's beer is made from the following 4 main ingredients.
Sprouted barley, water, hops, yeast
In order to make beer, it is necessary to boil malt (barley sprouts), add hops (vines that produce flavor and aroma), and then add yeast to ferment. Sugar is extracted from barley and boiled with bitter-tasting hops to create an environment where yeast can ferment. A beer brewery where this process takes place can be called a factory.
The first step in brewing beer is to germinate barley (sometimes wheat, rye, etc.), which is the main ingredient of beer. When sprouting, an enzyme called amylase (not yeast) is activated and starch can be easily extracted, and this germinated state is called malt (malt). If malt is crushed into small pieces, starch can be extracted more easily.
The second step is similar to the step of making a kind of “barley teaâ€; in the first step, the crushed grains are placed in warm water. You should definitely soak it in fresh water instead of boiling water, because “enzymes†die in boiling water. At this stage, the enzyme takes out the “nutrients†from the grains to make sweet and sweet sugar water.
The third step is boiling by adding hops that add flavor and aroma to the sweet wort (wort) made in the second step. From a wide variety of hops, hops that can produce the desired flavor and aroma are selected and added to add flavor to beer. You can face a miracle where the type of beer changes depending on what kind of hops are added.
Finally, yeast is added to the “hop+ wort (sugar water)†made in the previous step, and the yeast eats sugar hard (?) , digestion (?) Alcohol and carbonic acid are generated during the brewing process. The process by which yeast digests sugar and releases “alcohol†is a type of “fermentation†process that does not take place within a short period of time, and varies depending on the type of yeast and temperature conditions. Generally, the process by which yeast converts sugar to alcohol takes about 2 weeks or more.
CRAFT BEER (CRAFT BEER)
Until beer could be mass-produced, the definition of craft beer was ambiguous because people made small pieces to suit their tastes and ate them in their own homes and villages. However, as beer made in villages was distributed around the world due to the industrial revolution, a new conclusion was made about the definition of craft beer.
1. Small (small)
Beer produced by breweries with an annual production volume of 6 million barrels or less is called craft beer. “6 million barrels = about 720,000 tonsâ€, a brewery that produces only about 2 billion bottles or less of beer when converted to beer bottles we are familiar with is called a craft beer brewery. In fact, it is said that America's Top 1 Craft Beer Brewery produced 2.91 million barrels in 2014, and Top2 Boston Beer Co (Boston Beer Company) produced 2.55 million barrels.
2. Independent (independent)
A company with huge capital cannot hold more than 25% of a craft beer company's shares. Recently, the consumption of craft beer has exploded in the US, just like in Korea. As a result, companies with large capital that previously produced lager frequently acquire craft beer companies, and if their share ratio exceeds 25%, they no longer fall into the category of craft beer companies.
3. Traditional (traditional)
It is necessary to produce beer brewed in a creative way using traditional ingredients rather than flavored beer. Among the craft beer breweries, there are many places that try something really surprising and creative. The Ninkasi Brewing Company of the United States brewed beer after exposing yeast to the weightlessness of space, and Mikkeller from Denmark also made beer that matures in oak barrels like wine, or coffee stouts using civet poop. Brewdog also brewed in the ocean, and collaborations between breweries are quite common.
I think finding a beer that suits my taste and taste is essential in life. It's not beer chosen by others, not beer meant to be mixed with soju; it's just a beer of “my choice†for myself. In a world where nothing can be done at will, a beer just for yourself is probably our greatest pleasure and comfort.
This post is written by Kookmin Gourmet App Shikigami X Funniest Craft Beer Startup The Booth.
