Beer, as Benjamin Franklin supposedly proclaimed, “is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

Of course, there is a difference between beer and good beer, and it sometimes takes a true aficionado to appreciate a big mug of room-temperature, cask-aged English stout. And it practically takes a scientist to get that from grain and water.

“How they figured it out way back when, I have no idea,” says Scott Carlson, co-owner of Court Avenue Restaurant and Brewing Co.

In fact, many in the brewing business argue that beer making is far more difficult than winemaking. The fermentation process is far more temperamental and if anything goes wrong, that batch goes down the drain. Wine, on the other hand, “is the one beverage you can throw dirt into and still have it taste good,” says Eric Sorensen, the brewmaster at Rock Bottom Brewery who also has experience in winemaking.

Carlson, who also has worked in the wine industry, says wine is nothing more than grape juice in a bottle. Of course, he admits, beer is simply a carbonated malt beverage.

“Beer should not be put on a pedestal and wine should not be put on a pedestal,” he says. “The base of these two things is nothing extraordinary. They’re meant to be drunk, they’re meant to be enjoyed, they’re meant to be celebrated with.”

Greater Des Moines’ brewmasters are building off a centuries-old tradition when it comes to brewing, but all are adding their own touches – a few different malts here, some hops there – that they hope will teach Iowans what beer should really taste like.

Dave Coy, who began home brewing in the mid-1980s in his college dorm room, has been Raccoon River Brewing Co.’s brewmaster since it opened in 1997. He experiments with new ales and lagers every chance he gets, providing customers with a variety of selections to best suit their palates.

“And for me, I love it when I come up with another brew that makes me feel like a mad scientist,” he says.

The science of brewing, Coy notes, is well established and has been around for centuries. However, today’s microbreweries require a significant capital investment in equipment that allows brewing to be a one-man operation. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Grain is placed in shallow trays in long, cavernous rooms. Water is added, allowing the grain to germinate. The grain is then dry-roasted to become malted barley, or malt. Few microbreweries create their own malts; instead, they purchase it from a supplier. And the varieties are as endless as the beers. Mike Gauthier, brewmaster at Court Avenue Restaurant and Brewing Co., munches on a malt like it’s granola to get an idea of its flavor profiles, such as caramel or chocolate. Malts provide the beer with sweetness, body, or “mouthfeel,” and color.

The malts are cracked through a mill to expose the starches, stored in a grist hopper and then sprayed with water and added to a mash tun. Hot water is added to this oatmeal-like mixture and the starches are converted to sugars.

The liquid, called “wort,” is extracted and pumped into the brew kettle, where it is brought to a boil, and the brewer adds hops, which Carlson describes as the beer’s spices. The first addition of hops provides bitterness – a good bitter, not like aspirin – and serves as a preservative, the second addition gives a “florally bright flavor,” Carlson says, and the final addition, near the end of the boil, is for aroma.

The sugary wort goes through a heat exchanger that rapidly takes it from the boiling point to room temperature so it won’t fry the yeast. Once cooled, the wort goes into the fermentation tanks where yeast is added. Like malts and hops, different yeasts give beers different profiles. The yeast converts the sugars into alcohol over a period of about a week. Iowa brewmasters have to monitor the fermentation process fairly closely so the beer won’t exceed a 5 percent alcohol content – the state’s limit. “That severely limits the number of beer styles I can make,” says Rock Bottom’s Sorensen.

The beer is conditioned (some beers require a fourth addition of hops at this time), allowing the flavors to come together, and is then transferred into serving tanks.

Brewers typically spend a whole working day brewing beer – from the grist mill to the mash tun, brew kettle and fermentation tanks. After that, it’s all up to the yeast.

“I’m like a yeast farmer,” Sorensen says. In the meantime, he and other brewers are monitoring the fermentation, moving beers from one tank to another and cleaning…and cleaning some more…and cleaning again.

“You’re a glorified janitor,” says Court Avenue’s Gauthier. “You spend more time cleaning than making beer.”

In addition to in-depth knowledge of cleaning solutions and techniques, Sorensen says brewers apply principles from a variety of fields, including biology, chemistry and engineering. And a keen palate is essential. Brewers can pick up the slightest imperfection in a beer that only another brewer could taste. Of course, that makes them skeptical of the quality of beer turned out by large commercial breweries that often substitute rice or corn for malt and have lessened the amount of hops in their beers.

“There’s more to beer than being yellow and fizzy,” Coy says. “It’s like enjoying fine food. It’s an opportunity to enjoy something with a little more to offer.”

But these beer aficionados aren’t beer snobs and hardly turn away from a cold, refreshing beer.

“I’m going to drink what’s in front of me,” says Sorensen, who admits he enjoys an Old Style from time to time. But he also holds true a famous saying in the brewing business: “If you’re going to drink less, drink better.”