Skip to content
Skip to main content

About this free course

Download this course

Share this free course

The science of alcohol
The science of alcohol

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

Week 2: An introduction to brewing

Introduction

This week you will learn how beer is made. You will first look at the basic components of a beer and see what each of them brings to the development of a beverage. You’ve already met yeast briefly in the first week of this course. This week you will look at the other components – water, hops, barley and malt – and see why they are important.

You will be introduced to the basic brewing process and the terminology used, and you’ll explore how different types of beer are made, and the methods used to achieve these.

This is a photograph of three pints of beer.

By the end of this week, you will be able to:

  • describe the importance of the constituents of beer
  • explain the mechanisms of the brewing process
  • discuss the difference between different types of beer.