I was privileged enough to be invited by Chris Graham to a beer-tasting event last April 2016 hosted at Mr. Graham’s Sandwich Shop. It was facilitated by a fairly new microbrewery called Nipa Brew, who educated us on the end-to-end process of beer-making. 2 hours later, I walked away more knowledgeable about brewing with a stomach filled with sandwiches and beer.

Main Ingredients of Beer

Beer typically has–and is not limited to these–4 components.

1. Yeast

Similar to wine, beer needs yeast to ferment the base ingredients to produce alcohol content. There are 2 main families of yeast affecting the rate of fermentation. Those that survive in warmer climates (18-24 degrees Celsius) typically take 4-5 days to completely ferment beer, while those than survive in lower temperature (8-14 degrees Celsius) can take 2-3 weeks.

2. Malt

Like any living organism, yeast needs to eat, and its food is malt. Yeast metabolizes malt to produce the…