I mentioned in the last post that there are 2 and 6 row grains that are suitable for brewing. Within the world of grains, barley is king. Of course, other grains, such as wheat, are used. One common assumption is that the darker the beer, the stronger it is. This is not necessarily true. Some dark beers are 3 or 4% alcohol, while many blonde Belgians are 8 to 9%. The darkness or lightness of a beer is related to the choice of grains that one makes. Grains are roasted to varying degrees to impart darkness and flavor.
Perhaps going through the life of a grain used for beer will be helpful. A grain is harvested for beer. The first thing that must happen to a grain is for it to sprout. Grains are wetted or immersed in water in order to get them to sprout. Once a grain sprouts, it stores starch to promote the sprout to grow (it thinks it is becoming a new plant). Having sprouted, the grain is then kilned (malted/cooked slowly). The more the grain is cooked, the more the starch is used up. Cooking the grain allows the starches to be stored for a prolonged period of time. Now the grain needs to be used to make beer. In order to use the starches in the grain, they have to be placed in water and heated to certain specifications. Really what is occurring is that the starches are being converted into sugars, which are eaten by yeast and creates the waste product of ethanol (i.e., alcohol). So it makes sense that more starches=more sugars=more potential alcohol conversion. Like I said, darker does not mean stronger. Higher alcohol dark beers have to use lighter grains or many more dark grains to gain more ethanol.
Some companies use corns, additional sugars, or other products to increase alcohol production. This is not inherently bad if they wish to impart the flavors that a corn would give, etc. In fact, many early beers had corn or other grains as their primary grist. A modern example of a rice beer is Saki.
Here is the point of this two part discussion on grains; there are many types, styles, and varieties of beer that are largely determined by the grains used in them. Of course there are numerous other factors, but a beer really begins to take shape based on grains.
Fascinating, Dr. Beer.
I remember when I first started getting into specialty beers…I assumed that, like you said, the darker, the harder hitting the brew was, and thus most often was my beer of choice.
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[...] of porter. Essentially, porters had more roasted barley or black patent malts (and other dark grains) added to them and began to be called stout porters. Eventually, “porter” dropped off [...]