Bartender's Diary -1

Beers and Whisky

 BEER

It is a potable alcoholic Beverage fermented from cereals and malt, flavored with hops and containing 3% to 8% alcohol by volume.

Ingredients:

·    Barley is processed to form malt.

·   Wheat now a day wheat beers are in demand, they cloudy and heavy than barley beer

·    Hops-plants from nettle family, best hops are bohemian hops from Czechoslovakia.

·    Yeast-Saccharomyces species helps to form Alcohol+CO2

·    Sugar-helps in pale coloring, less filling and less bitter.

·    Water 90% of Beer is water.

 Beer:

1.     Lager: Bottom fermentation, lagered for several months.

2.     Ales: Top fermentation, lager for few days, higher alcoholic % age than lager.

3.     Porter: Top fermentation

4.     Stout: Top fermentation similar to porter but stronger hop flavored and heavier than porter, very bitter in taste.

5.     Pilsner: It is a lager beer i.e. Bottom fermentation from Germany.

Production of beer:

·         Steeping of Barley - Barley soaked in large water cisterns for 2-3 days

·         Drying of Barley - Green malt-germinated from Step 1, is baked in kiln for 2 days at 80-110 degrees C.

·         Milling into grist - Baked malt is milled into grist

·         Formation of Mask - Grist+ Hot water forms Mask

·         Mash Tun - Vessel to which gristed malt is feeded to convert starch into ferment-able sugar

·         Wort obtained - In Lauter Tun, where mash is separated and clarified mash is called Wort

·         Brewing - In brewing kettle or “coppers”, wort heated to boiling point. Hops added in palette from or whole or oil

·         Cooling - Remove the spent hops; and hopped wort is cooled

·         Fermentation - To cooled wort add yeast & it takes place in fermentation vessel

                            Yeast for top fermented beer- Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

Bottom fermented Beer- Saccharomyces Pastorianus

·         Conditioning - done in holding tanks, also called maturing aging, ripening where primary fermentation is followed by secondary fermentation

·         Pasteurization - Filtered matured beer is pasteurized bottling

·         Bottling

# wheat beers contains at least 51% of wheat and rest can be any cereals.

WHISKY

Obtained from distillation of fermented mash of malted grain and is aged in aok wood cask. Usquebaugh (Water of life), a Scottish Gaelic word finally became whisky.

Process of Making:

·   Cleaning: Barley is washed to separate husk, then dried

·   Malting: Barley soaked in water and spread on concrete floor to germinate for 8-12 days.

·   Drying &Grinding: Dried on peat (it gives special flavour to it) then coarsely ground.

·   Mashing: Crushed with hot water and converts starch to maltose. Then strained into husk and wort. Wort is used for further process and husk for cattle feed.

·   Fermentation: Wort is cooled, yeast is added, it is converted into Alc+ CO₂ is allowed to escape and the remaining is called wash.

·   Distillation: Wash is distilled twice in pot still.

·   Maturation: New whisky poured in oak wood casks where it is matured for a period of 3-21 years. Finer whisky is matured in actual sherry casks.

·   Blending: Malt whisky and grain whisky is matured; they are Blended and “Married” to achieve consistent quality Bouquet.

·   Filtering & Bottling: Finally it is filtered and bottled.

TYPES OF WHISKY:

1.     Scotch whisky: Produced in three forms: grain, malt and blend of malt and grain

A)   Single grain whisky – we use only  un-malted grain to produce the whisky.

B)   Single malt – can be blended but it should be from one distillery only

2.  Bourbon whiskey: Distilled from maize or rye and aged in new charred oak barrels for at least 3 years. Bourbon Whiskey contain 51% maize (at least)

3.  Irish whisky: Old Bush mills made of grains wheat and Rye mostly with perhaps 20% of Oats. Long maturation of at least 7 years by law in Sherry casks.

4.  Canadian whiskey: Made of maize, Wheat, Barley, Malt proportion is trade secret. It is a product to Blended whiskies done before ageing or during ageing periods. Matured in charred, white oak barrels around 6 years or more.

Proof System:

British-100%=50% Alc

U.S.A- 200 ⁰ =100% Alc

This is the easiest way to define Whisky & Beers for any my next part of Bartender's dairy please follow me on Google and like my Facebook Page
also read Bartender's Diary -2, Diary-3 and Diary-4