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Jacobsen 2 Carlsberggroup

The Art of Making Beer

J.C. Jacobsen's Golden Words

(…) it shall be a constant purpose (…) to develop the art of making beer to the highest possible degree of perfection (…) and (…) assist in keeping the brewing of beer in this country on a high and honourable level.

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Ingredients

Barley

Hordeum vulgare. That’s the Latin name for barley, but there’s nothing vulgar about it. In fact, it is a rather special malting barley we use. We have our own “Barley Breeding Group,” which works in close contact with our brewmasters. The group selects the barley with the best traits and grows it in our research fields, using only traditional breeding methods, 100% free of genetic modifications.  So considering that Carlsberg is made from 100% pure malt—i.e. no adjuncts it could take some years before we breed the necessary amount of barley. Probably worth the effort.

Hops

Hops are our secret ingredient. Of course it is no secret that we use hops in our beer, but the types we use are prepared according to a secret recipe that’s exclusive to us. It’s called the Carlsberg Aroma Hop Extract and nobody but us at Carlsberg can use it. After all, there can only be one best beer in the world.

Yeast

Yeast is at the heart of our history and at the forefront on our quest for quality. In 1879, Carlsberg was the first brewery to produce a purified brewer’s yeast, the Saccharomyces Carlsbergensis. Since then we’ve been constantly working to improve our yeast’s taste and the stability of our beer. We do it by using a classic breeding method, which means it can take up to 20 trials and several years to obtain a new yeast strain that’s good enough for brewing. More importantly, it means we’re keeping our promise to deliver a delicious, 100% GM-free beer.

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The Brewing Process

Malting

The first step in the brewing process is to transform the barley into malt, a process that is controlled and regulated by our strict quality standards.

Brewing

The Malt is milled, mashed, filtered and boiled. During the brewhouse process, starch is converted into sugar and hops are added during boiling. At the end, the final product is known as wort.

Fermenting

The wort is cooled and aerated before the specific Carlsberg Yeast is added. Carlsberg is a bottom fermented beer, which means fermentation happens at the low temperature of 14°C. The beer is gently fermented for seven days. 

Tasting

The beer is tasted by our master brewers when the fermentation process is complete. This happens before the next step (filtration) and  ensures that the flavour profile is met. It is tasted again after both filtration and packaging before being released. All Carlsberg breweries send samples of their beer to Copenhagen where a tasting panel of nominated experts taste and judge the beer’s qualities. 

Packaging

Of course, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. That being said, with millions of bottles and cans being distributed and sold all over the world we need to think about our global impact and how we can be more sustainable. Carlsberg Circular Community, an innovative partnership with key packaging suppliers, aims at rethinking the design and production of packaging material so as to minimize waste and optimize reuse and recycling. For example, in three years time, you might be drinking beer from our new #GreenFiberBottle, made from sustainably-sourced wood fibre. The new bottle will be 100% biodegradable, meaning zero waste. 

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Probably the Best Beer

In the World