She Drinks Beer

Credit: Pop Chart Labs In Volume 1 we briefly talked about the three beer families, linked by that most modest of all the beer ingredients, yeast! Today we'll delve a little deeper, talk about some styles that have branched out from the three families. Hopefully by the end of this lesson you will be able to distinguish a Pilsner from a Pale Ale , a Stout from a Saison  and a Bock  from a Brown Ale...  So, let's recap. Yeast is the magic ingredient in beer that converts the sugars from the malted barley into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Without it we would all be drinking flat, non-alcoholic hop-porridge run off and nobody wants that. There are 3 main types of Yeast and this will dictate what kind of beer you end up with:   Lager Yeast , known as Saccharomyces Pastorianus  (its ok, we can't really pronounce it either), ferments at cooler temperatures and drops to the bottom of the fermenting vessel. Fermentation is generally slower than ales and can take betw

Welcome back to the  She Drinks Beer  introduction to all things beer with Kat, your friendly travelling Beer Sommelier! You might have noticed the recent boom in craft and micro- brewed beers and been wondering what the heck it's all about. For the guy or gal who has been knocking back light beer for the best part of their pub years all these craft brew bars, with their hundreds of beers and their resident beer snobs, it can all be a little intimidating. I believe that beer is for everyone, and good beer can be appreciated by anyone, so this is why I'm putting together this crash course in beer, giving you a small titbit of knowledge to bring you up to speed so you can hold your head up high while ordering your  Hefeweizen ! Last time, I touched on the basics of beer, some history and the main ingredients, so this edition I'll dive into the magical process that brings together water, grain, yeast and hops to produce one of the world's favourite drinks. 

Beer is experiencing an unprecedented boom in popularity over the last decade, and craft beer, or micro-brewed in particular is experiencing something of a renaissance. Gone are the days when a trip to the pub meant a choice between five different lagers and a pint of Guinness, and I for one couldn't be happier at the amount of choice the consumer now has. However, I understand it can all be a little intimidating if you have spent your formative years trying to figure out whether you prefer Budweiser or Carlsberg, Heineken or Stella, with the big, bold flavours of hops or sweet, caramelised malty goodness never crossing the threshold of your taste buds. Fear not! Your trusty Beer Sommelier is here to help you take the first few steps on your journey into the wonderful world of beer, and I want to make it as easy and understandable as possible so each week we will be presenting some information in bitesize chunks, for you to digest over a cold one. This week I'll do a qu