When beer is made the starch in barley is?

The starch in barley is converted into sugar during the beer making process. Here's a breakdown:

1. Malting: Barley grains are soaked, germinated, and then dried. During germination, enzymes in the barley break down the starch into simpler sugars, primarily maltose.

2. Mashing: The malted barley is crushed and mixed with hot water. This process extracts the sugars from the barley, creating a sugary liquid called "wort."

3. Fermentation: Yeast is added to the wort. The yeast consumes the sugar and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide as byproducts.

So, the starch is not directly used by the yeast. It's first converted into sugar, which the yeast then ferments to produce alcohol.