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Beer is made from water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. The barley is germinated, roasted, and mashed. The yeast respires anaerobically producing alcohol as a by-product. The hops help preserve the beer and give it its bitter taste. It's the mineral content of the water that gives beers from different regions their distinctive character. Places with good water, like Burton, are meant to make the best beers. The barley must have plump round grains, and must germinate at an even rate. Barley is sieved to remove straw and dirt, then dried to remove excess water. This allows it to be stored for later use. The grains are then soaked for a couple of days, drained, and re-immersed in water. The grains are then spread on the germinating floor for five days to allow them to sprout. The grain is turned and raked regularly to ensure aeration and prevent tangling. Next the seeds are sent to the kiln and baked for two days at high temperatures - the temperature determines the type of malt produced. The highest temperature produces the darkest colour and most profound flavour. The rootlets are removed (and sold as animal feed). Different types of yeast are used for different beers. Bass uses two different strains in its brew. Real beer has the yeast floating on the top of the brew. Bottom-fermented brews are lagers - the German name for the cold storage process originally used in their production. Before the addition of hops, beer was also called ale. Ale is beer without the hops. (Nowadays, the term is used by some to describe beer that isn't lager.) Hops were introduced into the UK from Belgium and the Netherlands in the 14th century. They helped preserve beer in the summer months and gave it a bitter taste - which many people liked. There are lots of different varieties of hops, including Goldings, Bramling Cross, and Fuggles. The malted barley contains sugar, which is the food for the yeast. Sugar is extracted by grinding the malted grains. The crushed malt is known as grist (all grist to the mill) and then mixed with hot water (called liquor by brewers). This mash is left to settle in a vessel called a mash tun. The sugar is removed by infusion or decoction. Infusion separates the sugary water (wort) from the soaked cereal. The cereal is then sold as cattle feed. Decoction is used for lager, and involves drawing off some of the mash, boiling it, and returning it - then repeating the process. Whichever process is used, the liquid is next boiled with hops. The hopped wort is then filtered, cooled, and passed to fermentation vessels. Here the yeast is added. Fermentation is vigorous and produces "green beer", which is run into conditioning tanks, where it is left to settle and mature. Cask-conditioned beers continue to mature until they are drunk - creating complex fruity flavours. The medieval monks used to mark the strength of the brew by putting Xs on the cask. The more Xs, the stronger the brew. My favourite beers:
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