The first sip of cold, golden beer is an almost heavenly experience. However, it is a result of earthly skills and the seamless combination of four pure natural products: water, malt, yeast, and hops. Beer’s journey from fertile fields to a frosty glass is fascinating.
Barley brings beer about
The making of beer starts from a corn field. The most common variety of cereal used in beer is barley. Malting barley should be high in starch and low in protein. Its variety and cultivation methods are very specific, and quality requirements are strict.
Last year, Hartwall used over 26 million kilogrammes of high-quality domestic malting barley. To grow it all in one field, the kilometre-wide field would extend from the Senate Square in Helsinki to the Hartwall brewery in Lahti. The total area of the field would be approximately 10,000 hectares.
The malt house stirs enzymes in barley
The malting process begins with steeping the grains. Plant seeds start to germinate in water. The structure of the grain loosens and softens, and vital enzymes are formed within the grain.
After approximately one week the germination is brought to an end and grains are kilned. The sprouts come loose and are used as fodder. The kilning temperature is very significant for malt and for the quality of beer. The darker the malt, the darker the beer.
As the malted grain arrives at the gates of the brewery, it looks much like its cousin in the field, but is full of enzymes and thus suitable for use as an ingredient in beer.
Sweet wort is produced in the boiling department
Mashing
Malt continues its journey from the brewery’s malt storage silos to a roller mill, where it is ground and mixed with water. Approximately 90% of beer is water. Pure water is indeed the most important of all the ingredients used by Hartwall.
In the mash tun, the temperature of the water-malt mixture is gradually raised, which activates the enzymes of the malted grains. The enzymes break the starch in the mash into sugars and protein into water-soluble nutrients used by yeast. The end product is called “wort”.
Lautering
The purpose of lautering is to separate sweet wort from solid matter. The mash is lautered and then rinsed off with hot water to recover all the extract and sugars. The remaining mash cakes are used as cattle fodder.
Wort boiling
In the boiling kettle, wort is sterilised and boiled to achieve the desired strength.
During the boiling, wort is given its “soul”: hops are added to it. Hop addition done in the early stages of boiling is also called “bittering hop addition”. In the heat, hops gives beer its typical bitterness that can be felt at the back of mouth and tongue. Bitterness has nothing to do with acridness.
Hops also contain a great deal of aromatic oils and compounds that vaporise easily during boiling. For this reason, more hops are added in the final stages of boiling. This way, all the flavours remain in the wort, especially affecting the scent of the beer.
There are several varieties of hops, each with its unique aroma. Hartwall receives the hops pistils it uses as pellets or extract from Germany and the Czech Republic.
Wort cooling
If yeast was added to hot wort, that would cause the sudden death of this single-cell living organism. That is why wort is cooled – to approximately 10 degrees Celsius in lager production.
Adding yeast to wort
Each beer has its own strain of yeast which has a crucial impact on the beer’s aroma.
Hartwall has its own yeast cultures, producing the yeast needed in beer making. The original strains of yeast are preserved in a microbe bank at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, from where they can be ordered for cultures.
At the beginning of fermentation, yeast needs oxygen for producing new cells. To achieve this, yeast is aerated, which causes the amount of yeast to multiply. In consequence, the brewery also produces excess yeast. The discarded yeast is transported to piggeries to be used as fodder.
Fermentation marks the birth of beer
Yeast has a simple task in brewing – to convert sugars into alcohol. In addition, the fermentation process contains several other reactions. As a result of all these processes and reactions, beer gains its aroma.
Fermentation lasts two weeks. The first week is for the main fermentation and the second for post-fermentation, which matures the taste of beer. At this point, the fermented wort can officially be called beer for the first time.
Filtering guarantees clarity
After its fermentation, beer contains the necessary alcohol, aroma and carbon dioxide level. However, it is still yeasty and cloudy, even though it is already completely drinkable. The next step is filtering, for which beer is cooled to sub-zero temperatures. Beer does not freeze, as it contains alcohol, and cooling is an efficient way to clear it. Hartwall uses both pad filtering and Kieselguhr filtering.
After the filtering, beer is ready for consumption: clear, tasty and suitably bubbly. Its quality has been tested at all stages of the process in laboratory tests. Now the beer can be moved into pressurised tanks. Before that, a jury of tasters conducts the final sensory assessment.
Beer comes in various packages
From the pressurised tanks, the beer is moved to the final packagings: cans, bottles, and barrels. From the Lahti brewery packaging lines, the beer is transported in pallets to the warehouse to wait for the moment it is drawn from a tap or poured from a bottle into a glass for a beer lover to enjoy.
Time for the first sip
From the warehouse, the golden drink continues its journey on a lorry to shops and restaurants. In restaurants, skilled bartenders add the finishing touches to the delicious experienceby drawing the beer into a labeled glass and creating a foam flower to top off the beer.
Now comes the moment the customer has been waiting for: it is time for the first sip!
Text: Pertti Suvanto
Images: Pekka Holmström and Polttimo Oy