How is beer made?

Brewing follows a fixed chain: malting, mashing, separating the wort, boiling with hops, cooling, fermenting, maturing and filling.

1. Malting. Barley is steeped, left to germinate and then dried. The darker the malt, the darker the beer.
2. Mashing. The ground malt goes into the mash tun with warm water. Enzymes convert the starch into sugars.
3. Separating the wort. The sweet liquid, the wort, is separated from the spent grain.
4. Boiling with hops. The wort comes to the boil and is given hops for the aroma.
5. Cooling. The boiled wort is quickly cooled to fermentation temperature.
6. Fermentation. Yeast converts the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
7. Maturing. The beer matures for a few days to a few weeks.
8. Filling. After that the beer goes into bottles, kegs or cans.

The Warenwetbesluit Gereserveerde aanduidingen permits malt, other starch- and sugar-containing raw materials, hops, brewing water and yeast.

The law sets a hard limit on the malt share: at least 60 percent of the extract content of the wort must come from barley or wheat malt before fermentation. The brewing water must meet the requirements for drinking water; the mineral composition and the acidity may be adjusted for the brewing process.

Fruit, fruit juices and flavourings are only permitted for beers that are not pils. According to the same decree, the designation bier may only be used for a drink obtained after alcoholic fermentation of wort.

At 62 to 67 degrees Celsius the enzymes from the malt break the starch down into fermentable sugars; around 65 degrees the starch gelatinises and the amylases are at their most active.

With decoction mashing the brewer starts lower, around 35 to 40 degrees, and raises the temperature in two or three steps to 65 degrees. Starch sources other than malt gelatinise between 55 and 65 degrees.

After mashing, the grain bed is rinsed with water at about 70 degrees. In a lauter tun, separating the wort takes about two and a half hours.

The wort boils for 60 to 90 minutes with hops.

During that boil the hops go into the wort and give the beer its aroma. Right after boiling, the wort is cooled quickly so the yeast can be added.

Bottom-fermenting yeast works at 8 to 11 degrees Celsius and sinks to the bottom of the fermentation vessel; top-fermenting yeast works at 18 to 23 degrees and floats on top.

Pils is a bottom-fermented beer. After the main fermentation the beer matures for a few days to a few weeks before it is ready. Traditional European lagers are held at 8 to 10 degrees throughout fermentation.

The shop at the Brink in Bathmen stocks 1,071 beers. For 616 of them the beer style is recorded, including 39 pils, 96 blond, 80 seasonal beer, 60 tripel, 53 IPA, 29 wit and 21 weizen. If you are looking for a particular style, you are welcome to drop by or call.

Dutch brewers use on average 4 litres of water per litre of beer.

That is 19 percent less than in 2005.

Bier blijft een alcoholhoudende drank. Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan klanten onder de 18 jaar: NIX18.