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 quick introduction to what beer is, how it's made and the different types of beer.
So what is beer? How does it differ from wine or cider and other alcoholic drinks?
Beer is one of the oldest drinks known to mankind. There is evidence that man (or more often- woman!) has been brewing beer for millennia. Most likely it was discovered by mistake during a time when we began to farm grains, and a mix of grain and water began to ferment due to wild yeast present in the environment. It has played a very important part in culture, religion and even politics all over the world for thousands of years!
The main ingredients of beer are water, grain (normally malted barley), yeast and hops, a relatively new addition appearing in beer from around 500 years ago. Unlike whiskey and other spirits, it is not distilled, but instead it develops more alcohol through the fermentation process. This is where the yeast "eats" the sugars that are present in the grains (which have been milled and mixed with water, think of a porridge-like substance) and "burps" out carbon dioxide, where beer gets its fizz, and alcohol.
In a world where people seem to go crazy over their hops and malts, it is the humble yeast that actually decides what kind of beer you will be making!
The Three Beer Families
Lagers, the style most people around the world are most familiar with, has a yeast that ferments at the bottom of the tank. Despite their domination of the mass beer market, lager is actually kind of the new kid on the block in terms of beer styles, as it was only developed in the last couple of hundred years.
Ales, which can be anything from a cloudy white German beer to a red ale such as Smithwicks, to a stout such as Guinness, ferment with the help of a yeast that likes the top of the tank. The most varied of all the families, ales can range in colour from light gold to dark brown or black. They range in flavour from malty and sweet to hoppy and bitter, and everywhere in between.
Finally, we have Lambic beers. We all know that one person, who's wild and unpredictable, yet a lot of fun, but maybe a little bit of an acquired taste? This is the Lambic beer. The yeast in Lambic beers are "wild" and some of the best Belgian Lambic breweries simply leave their tanks open to allow the natural yeast in the environment to settle into the beer and start working their magic.
Where does beer get its flavour from?
If we are talking "pure beer" with only the main four ingredients, then each and every ingredient in the beer will have an effect on the finished flavour.
Water- Brewers are very precious about their water. The salts and minerals that are naturally present in water can enhance or destroy a beer, depending on what minerals are present and what kind of beer the brewer is trying to make. Most brewers will filter their water to create a good starting point to make a great beer.
Grain- normally brewers use malted barley. Malted just means that the grain has already sprouted, similar to how you might buy sprouted seeds in health food stores. However, some beers use wheat, particularly the German style "Weiss" and Belgian "Wit" (both meaning white, due to the light, hazy colour of the beer). The grain is roasted to different degrees to achieve a different aroma and flavour. Think of coffee, you have different roast profiles, light, medium, dark, with which you get different flavours and levels of sweetness or bitterness in your coffee.
Yeast- You know by now the type of yeast will depend on the type of beer you want to make, as per the beer families above, but there are thousands of strains of yeast, and they can impart particular flavours upon the finished product. There are believed to be around 1000 different flavour substances that yeast can excrete.
Hops- the fashionable ingredient of our time, hops are really having a moment. So much so that in recent years there have even been shortages of certain varieties of hops as IPAs and Double IPAs became fashionable and brewers began using a lot more hops in their beers. Hop plants are grown on very tall vines, and the part that's used is the hop flower, which looks like a soft, green acorn. They are very perfumed and impart such flavours and aromas as floral, citrusy, fruity or pine. Sometimes you might have a "single hop" beer where only one variety has been used, or else the brewer might use a few different hops to achieve the flavour he or she is looking for.
All of these ingredients must be in perfect balance to create an awesome beer!
Of course, there are often other ingredients used in beer production, such as fruit, herbs and spices, and how the beer has been conditioned and stored also plays a part in the final flavour, but that's for another week.
In the meantime, if you would like to add some practice to your theory lesson you've just had here, keep an eye on Facebook or Instagram!
Slainte!
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