Dark beer is one of the most interesting types of beverage with an ancient history, popular all over the world. Due to the peculiarities of the brewing technology, dark beer has an original bright taste with a characteristic caramel aroma, rich color and density, which are not inherent in light beers.
Brewing theory
The history of brewing is more than five thousand years old, as it is believed that beer was produced in Ancient Sumer, Mesopotamia, Egypt. Of course, since then, production technologies have undergone many changes, but the very essence of beer has remained the same.
The main raw material in the manufacture of beer is the so-called malt - sprouted grains of various cereals: barley, rice, wheat and others. Germination is necessary to convert the starch in the grains into sugar. After the soaked grains sprout, they are dried, cleaned, crushed and mixed with water. To obtain wort, this mixture is filtered in special vats.
The next step is to boil the wort for one to two hours. As a rule, it is during this period that hops are added to the wort, which gives the beer its characteristic bitter taste. In addition, boiling allows some of the unpleasant aromas to evaporate. The boiled wort is filtered again, cooled and enriched with oxygen, after which a fermentation process takes place, during which sugar is converted into alcohol with the help of yeast. There are two main types of fermentation: top and bottom fermentation. In modern brewing, the grassroots method is almost always used, which, although it requires special low temperatures and longer time, makes it possible to obtain beer with a long shelf life.
The secret ingredient in dark beer
As for dark beer, the process of its production is practically no different from that described, except that the so-called dark malt is used as the main raw material for the wort. To obtain dark malt, it is pre-roasted. Depending on the degree of roasting, a distinction is made between dark, caramel, and roasted malt. During roasting, some of the sugar in the malt turns into caramel, which gives the dark beer its characteristic flavor.
The stronger the malt has been roasted, the brighter the taste of the beer will be, however, it must be borne in mind that roasted malt loses some of its enzymes, so it has to be mixed with light malt to produce wort. In fact, the use of dark malt is the only difference between dark beer and light beer, however, the result is drinks so different in taste and appearance that many people are sure that dark beer is made using a completely special technology that has nothing to do with the production of light beers. …
