Community Word is published monthly by Community Word LLC. Independently owned by local investors. Brian Ludwig, Managing Editor, 400 NE Jefferson St. Suite 400, Peoria, IL 61603-3756, communityword@yahoo.com, www.thecommunityword.com Statements and opinions expressed in the contents of articles and editorials are those of the author and not necessarily those of the publisher, Community Word LLC. Publication of any advertisement is not to be construed as an endorsement of any product or service.

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Learning our history to change our future Read special supplement Download | View slideshow

The free meals at the South Side Mission feed poor souls every day. But what’s been cooking in the kitchen nourishes the hearts and minds of a ministry of culinary artists. Chef Chris Franzoni has been devoted to teaching aspiring…

Novelist Arthur C. Clarke wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” and at a time when we marvel at images from the James Webb space telescope, much less cryptocurrency, it’s understandable to take for granted how beer is brewed.

Brewing, like voting, seeks change. But instead of choosing a path or a representative to take action to legalize or criminalize something, brewing transforms water into beer. Of course, any summary of the process does a disservice to brewers, and breweries aren’t all alike. But very generally, this Inspired Alchemy blends water, grain and elements like hops, malts and yeast into the Beverage of Choice for millions. Very basically:

• It starts with GRAIN, barley or another, depending on the brewer’s goal.

• MIXING is next, as grain steeps in hot water, releasing sugars in a thick gruel dubbed mash (which looks a little like something that fell from the undercarriage of a BNSF boxcar), and a fluid called wort. That’s drained from the vat, transferred to a kettle and boiled for 60 to 90 minutes, when hops (having no bearing on basketball) are added according to the flavor and scent desired. Rather than hops, some brewers use “gruit,” a mix of dried herbs such as elderflower or horehound to balance malt’s sweetness.

• Then COOLING occurs, through a “coolship” or heat exchanger, after which it’s dumped into a fermentation vessel where yeast is added, and the brew crew waits from a week to months, again, depending on the type of yeast and the strength of the beer the brewer aims for.

• PACKAGING wraps it up, literally, in bottles, cans and kegs (but not yet in shipping-container sizes at Costco or Sam’s Club).

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