English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Which is the correct answer to fill in the gap in "Beer is made ____ yeast, water, hops and malted barley"?
I am leaning toward '2'. "Made from" can be used to describe a manufacturing process.
I originally liked '3', but I don't like it now. I would use '3' if I mentioned secondary ingredients, as in "This beer is made with raw apple cider."
Of and out of both carry a slight implication that the beer is simply assembled from those ingredients, rather than crafted.
With, as you yourself hinted, implies that the listed ingredients are not the only - or even most important - components.
From, therefore, seems to be the logical choice. That being said, the differences are very slight, and I doubt that anyone would correct you for choosing any of the others.
to brew is the verb usually associated with beer:
To make (ale or beer) from malt and hops by infusion, boiling, and fermentation.
Dorothy Sayers' Murder Must Advertise has a lovely paragraph where an advertising executive learns that he may not legally say cider was made from apples unless it has no other components, nor out of apples unless it is mainly apple juice, but fortunately he can say it was made with apples even if most of it comes from turnips. So which is "correct" depends both on how the beer was actually made and on how you wish to imply it was made.
(Note to eager advertising executives and lawyers: though Sayers' research was impeccable, it was in Britain some eighty years ago.)
Beer is made from...
New Oxford American Dictionary provides a definition that fits the exact context:
from (preposition): 6) indicating the raw material out of which something is manufactured
Of works but has (to me) a hint of that you couldn't be bothered to find a more specific word.
From is best, and only weakly implies an exhaustive list. "Beer is made from (among other ingredients) malt and hops" is perfectly sensible with or without brackets. Especially as water is a rather obvious ingredient.
With is just too vague - it could even be taken to mean "in the same factory as", e.g. "beer is made with cider in a brewery" (UK meaning of cider).
Out of has the flaws of of but a stronger suggestion of exclusivity.
Strictly speaking beer is brewed from malted barley and water, using yeast, and only flavoured with hops, however it would seem sensible to ignore this distinction as the hops are fundamental to beer. The yeast is not an ingredient in the cooking sense - it takes an active part in the process.
I would try option E in this case:
"Beer is made using yeast, water, hops..."
Although to be honest I might be tempted to be a bit more verbose as per Josh61's answer:
"Beer is produced by brewing yeast, water, hops..."
My first gut-feeling was "from", but lest this devolve to a poll, I lean toward Josh61 and maaarghk that you need a different verb (instead of make), rather than a different preposition (in place of your blank).
I think the preferable answer to this broadened question depends on the context in which you're using the sentence. Are you writing a manual on beer brewing? Are you contrasting other fermented products (e.g., bread) or other beverages (e.g., lemonade)? Other verbs or prepositions might be more advisable, depending on context. If you're still interested, would you kindly expand on the context of the sentence? Or an accepted answer could terminate the conversation in a different direction.
Aside from that, I suggest that you also include the word "delicious" somewhere in that sentence... ;-)
What others have said already is true. All words work here but I think there is rather a strong argument for with. As you've already noted, with can make the list seem incomplete and in your example (where you're listing one ingredient of a specific beer) that works fine.
But I don't consider this a fault. If anything, because unspecified "beer" can be made with a huge number of different ingredients, to suggest an open-ended list is more accurate. Other forms might suggest that if you have more ingredients you're no longer making beer.
If, however, we're listing all the ingredients for a specific beer, I'd vote for of or from.
Both sound natural when I say them to myself.
"W made of X, Y, Z" is used for materials/ingredients (X, Y, Z) that don't change their characteristics during the process of creating W.
Chairs are made of wood.
"W made from X, Y, Z" are used for materials/ingredients (X, Y, Z) that are transformed during the process of creating of W and lose their characteristics during this.
Wine is made from grapes.
There are more details in a similar question regarding made of vs made from.
Probably (4) (out of) might substitute "made from", but (3) (with) is certainly not an option here.
