Morrell - Bartending Basics: A Complete Beginners Guide

by

Thomas Morrel

Copyright Notice

Copyright Pratzen Publishing 2011. All rights reserved. None of the materials in this publication may be used, reproduced or transmitted, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or the use of any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN 978-0-9796243-4-6

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Legal Disclaimer

This publication provides information about the storage auction industry and includes references to certain legal and accounting principles. Although the author and the publisher believe that the included information is accurate and useful, nothing contained in this publication can be considered professional advice on any legal or accounting matter. You must consult a licensed attorney or accountant if you want professional advice that is appropriate to your particular situation.

Chapter 1

Beer

When beer was discovered by humans is a fact that will probably never be known. We do know that beer was a staple food of the Ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians and made up a large percentage of their diet. The point is that beer has been around for thousands of years and humans love it and beer consumption in the world continues to rise each year as countries like China (the worlds largest beer consumer) continue to develop a taste for the beverage.

Beer is one of the many things you will be pouring into glasses as a bartender so you will need to be familiar with it. It used to be the case that a bar would only carry several mass produced pilsner style beers. This has changed. American beer drinkers have developed many wide and varying tastes for different beer styles from across the globe. Exotic imported English brown ales share tapboards with German lagers, Irish stouts and Mexican or Chinese pilsners. I know bars that proudly offer over one hundred beers on draft alone with even more in the bottle.

Most of the readers of this book will be familiar with beer through having consumed it. However, you should know more than that as a bartender. You will need to understand the basic process of making beer. You will also need to know the difference between and be able to differentiate various beers. You need to know how to pour a beer for maximum enjoyment. You will need to know how to taste beer. Lastly, you need to be able to talk beer and communicate ideas such as flavors to your guests. We will discuss all of these ideas and techniques in this chapter of the book.

The Process Of Making Beer

Making beer is a fairly simple process that can take years to master. In a nutshell, you cook water, a type of grain (this is usually a malted barley and maybe wheat) and hops to make a sugary liquid call wort. This liquid is then placed in a vessel known as a fermenter where it is cooled and a small amount of bacteria called yeast is introduced to the mix and the batch is allowed sit.

Yeast is a remarkable type of bacteria that is extremely valuable to humans. This primitive single celled type of bacteria survives by eating sugar. The sugar undergoes a chemical process whereby the sugar molecule is converted to alcohol, carbon dioxide and energy for the yeast cell. This energy is by the yeast to reproduce and make other yeast cells to eat more sugar, make more alcohol, sugar and energy and to reproduce again. This process is repeated millions and millions of times in a fermenter until all of the sugar has been eaten. Yeast is actually responsible for every type of alcoholic beverage and naturally occurs on many types of fruits.