Page 41 - Thirst Magazine Issue 1 (Feb 2017)

Left: The difference between
ales (warm top-fermenting
between 10-24˚C) and lagers
(cool bottom-fermenting
between 7-15˚C) is the yeast
used during fermentation.
Beer was ale for a long
time until late 15th century
when lagers were brewed in
Bavarian breweries. Beers like
Carlsberg, Heineken, Tiger,
Asahi are lagers.

e all drink it, but how and bread you also had successful
many of us really farming within your community. And
appreciate it? As the you had one other thing… naturally
third most consumed occurring yeast. It is therefore possible
Wdrink on the planet that individual cultures around the
after water and tea, it’s everywhere; on planet stumbled upon their first beer
billboards, TV, neon signs in windows, quite naturally and accidentally.
beer towels, beer mats… and many Even as beer became more readily
of us will have some form of beer available through the centuries, it
advertising in our house. But do we wasn’t until relatively recently that
take it for granted? specific beer making yeasts were
cultivated allowing for consistent
A BRIEF HISTORY brews. Up until the 18th century
most beer was still brewed in small
Beer is the catch-all term for yeast- communities, often by the local
fermented, malted-cereal beverages, monastery, using wild yeast or cultures
often with added hops for flavour and that had been passed down through Above: Craft beer
bitterness. In simple terms the malted the generations. And as sanitation is imported goods
cereal (usually barley) is added to standards were perhaps not quite in Malaysia.
water along with yeast. The live yeast what we see today this often led to
eats the sugars in the malt and this inconsistent and sour tasting brews
process produces both carbon dioxide due to the brewing process not being
and alcohol, which is why your beer is 100% sterile.
fizzy and makes you fall over.
Beer has been around in one form
or another for up to nine thousand
years. Early examples found in
communities across the globe, suggest
that the creation of fermented drinks UP UNTIL THE 18TH CENTURY
naturally occurred alongside ancient
forms of cultivation as various tribes MOST BEER WAS STILL BREWED
and cultures thrived. Indeed both bread
and beer are now seen as historical IN SMALL COMMUNITIES, OFTEN
signs of a prosperous civilisation. Why
bread and beer? Well, both required BY THE LOCAL MONASTERY
cultivation of crops - if you had beer

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