The ingredients in beer
From Beeripedia the Beer Wiki
Basic good quality beer is made from barley, the preferred grain of brewers.
This is turned into malt by the process of malting. This grain contains starches that will be converted by natural enzymes into fermentable sugar during the mashing period in the brewery when it is mixed with water.
The resulting wort the sweet, sugary extract produced by mashing malt and water is mixed with hops and yeast which starts the fermentation.
Some brewers Burtonise/Burtonisation the water by the addition of such salts as gypsum and magnesium to replicate the hard brewing waters found in Burton-on-Trent
In some cases adjuncts, like cereals and sugars are added to the beer, often as a cheap substitute for barley, but sometimes used by specialist brewers for special flavours.
For example producers of mass-market lagers may dilute the barley mash with corn (maize) or rice.
On the other hands, Belgian brewers use candy sugar for body, and British brewers sometimes use caramel and invert sugar.
Adjuncts are not allowed in Germany where the Reinheitsgebot law only allows malted grain.
