What's beer made of?
Magic, of course! Really, all it takes to make beer is a bit of faerie magic and poof! We have beer! It's that easy.
... You don't believe me, do you? Oh well, it was worth a try.
The main ingredients in beer are as follows:
- Water
Being that beer is mostly made of water, the kind of water that is used is very important to the quality of the beer. Where the water is from and what's already in it will affect the final product. Generally, hard water works better for dark styles, soft water is best for light styles. Of course it all gets more complicated than that, but this is the general idea. - Malt
Barely is the most commonly used malt. Rice, oats, wheat, and rye can also be used. To get good malt, the grain is soaked in water until it germinates. It is then dried in a kiln. The starches in the grain will eventually turn into fermentable sugars by magic!
... Alright, fine, blame enzymes if you want to. I still say it's magic. - Hops
You need something to balance out the sweetness of the malt, and this is it. Hops is the bittering agent that helps give beer its distinct taste. It also adds to the beery smell and helps the yeast grow. - Yeast
This tiny little magic organism is what causes the beer to ferment! The yeast takes the sugar in the grains and makes yummy alcohol out of it. There are many different kinds of yeast to use depending on the type of alcohol one wants to make. Before people figured out how to capture the magical yeast, fermentation depended on wild or airborne yeast to do the job. - Clarifying Agent
Lots of brewers add a clarifying agent or two into the mix. Examples include Irish moss, which is a type of red alga, and Isinglass finings, which come from swim bladders of fish. If a person is concerned about use of animal products, they should hunt down detailed information from the brewer, just to be on the safe side.
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