New Science, Old Drink

A study came out last week on a subject one rarely considers scientific: Brewing. The study examines the use of rice in the process, specifically the amount of sugar yielded by various types of rice during the process of mashing (an essential step in the brewing of beer). This study could have big impacts on brewers large and small, most especially in light of recent agricultural legislation.

It’s a unique attribute of the modern world that we rarely know how what we consume was made. This is as true in the case of beer as it is anywhere. Most people don’t know anything about how beer is made, except that it’s fermented. Fermenting, however, is only one step in the complex process of making alcohol, whether the drink is brewed beer or distilled liquor.

In the case of beer, the drink we’re now considering, the process begins with a long soak in a cool bath. Barley grain is steeped in large vats of water, triggering the growth of the barley plant from the seeds. After soaking, the Barley is moved to a large, humid room, where the continued growth of the plant will activate enzymes inside the barley. Those enzymes are meant to convert the Endosperm, a starch inside the grain, into sugar, which would normally be used to grow the plant. Here, however, those sugars will be used for another purpose.

Once the enzymes are activated, the grain is dried in kilns, killing the plant embryo but preserving the enzymes, their activity frozen in time. Then it’s put back into water, reactivating the enzymes, which will then convert the starches into sugars, sugars which remain in the fluid produced by this process, the wort. The wort is then taken and boiled with hops, adding flavor. Then it is combined with yeast, which consumes the sugar and produces ethanol and Co2, the process of fermentation. Finally the yeast is filtered out, and you have beer!

Rice has a special place in this process. During the malting stage (the creation of the wort), many of your future beer’s flavors come to be. Not all beer, however, is supposed to have a heavy flavor. American and Japanese Lagers, especially, go more for a crisp, light feel. To get that refreshing flavor, you need rice. This is because rice is 80-90% starch, and thus it’s almost entirely converted into sugar by the enzymes, leaving little that can influence flavor and feel. This results, as mentioned, in a lighter flavor than when beer is made only from Barley.

The recent study by Christian Schubert and Scott Lafontaine examines which rice varieties can be best used in beer. It focused on which types of rice have the best yields of sugar in the malting process. The importance of this knowledge is primarily economic. If taken to heart by brewers who use rice, big or small, it will focus their purchases around the most useful varieties. This will incentivize farmers to focus production on those strains, reducing prices by properly meeting demand. That, finally, will improve the brewers’ products and save them money, allowing them to live better lives and to invest more in their work, further improving the product.

Now, many are certainly asking themselves why we just spent so much time talking about beer. CatholicTech is in Italy, after all, and not Germany, and further, is focused on higher goods than this, on the human condition broadly, on science, knowledge, and Faith. What we often forget, however, is that even the lower goods are still gifts from God.

A steak may be better than a popsicle, but a popsicle still has its place. Faith is more important than knowledge, but we don’t give up on science. And food and drink, celebration and joyful meals, are an important part of a good Catholic life. Balance is essential.

Food and drink are far from the most important things there are, but still are not to be ignored. The pleasure of a good meal soothes tempers and brings families together. Cooking is an act of creation, a tiny imitation of God. And a couple of beers can grease the metaphorical wheels of conversation like nothing else, facilitating fellowship and discussion. So don’t ignore these things, dear reader, because in doing so you ignore a gift from our Lord.

God bless, my friends, and raise your next glass to CatholicTech.

Dominic Andres | PR + Marketing