Beer

Beer

I

INTRODUCTION

Beer, alcoholic beverage made from cereal grains, usually barley, but also corn, rice, wheat, and oats. Beer is made using a process called fermentation, in which microscopic fungi called yeast consume sugars in the grain, converting them to alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. This chemical process typically produces beer with an alcohol content of 2 to 6 percent. Over 70 styles of beer are available today. Each style derives its unique characteristics from its ingredients and subtle differences in its brewing process.

Throughout history, wherever cereal grains were grown, humans made a beerlike beverage from them: they used wheat in Mesopotamia, barley in Egypt, millet and sorghum in other parts of Africa, rice in Asia, and corn in the Americas. Today, beer making is a major industry worldwide. In 2002 in the United States, 1,800 brewers produced almost 175 million barrels of beer, and on average, each American consumed nearly 83 liters (22 gallons) of beer.

II

TYPES OF BEER

Porter and stout are dark ales that are nearly black in color and have a hearty flavor and dense body. A London brewer created porter in 1722 as a more nourishing drink for porters and other heavy laborers. Arthur Guinness, an Irish brewer, developed a darker version of porter in the late 1700s, calling it extra stout porter. This designation was later shortened to stout. The barley used to produce these beers is roasted to a dark, rich color. Both beers range in taste from sweet to dry (lacking any sweetness). Porter is lighter in body and higher in alcohol than stout, but stout tends to be more bitter.

Mild ale, originally produced in England, has a gentle, sweet taste that is meant to quench the thirst. It is usually tawny to dark in color. Bitter ale is a popular style of British ale that ranges in color from light to dark. It tastes dry and bitter because the hops are added early in the cooking process, enabling the bitter oils to impart a strong flavor. Pale ale is a clear beer with a dry, malty, nutty flavor. It has a less pronounced hop flavor than bitter ale. Brown ale, in contrast, is deep amber or darker in color and may have a strong, dry, nutty taste or be somewhat sweet and fruity, depending on how it is brewed.

Pilsner, the most popular of all the lagers, originated in the Bohemian town of Plzeň in 1842. It is a clear, golden lager with a dry but soft malty taste and flowery hop aroma. Dark lager, also known as Munich dunkel, was first produced in Munich, Germany. It is a dark brown brew with a spicy, malty taste with flavors of chocolate and licorice. Vienna-style Märzen, or Oktoberfest, is a lager that ranges in color from amber-red to bronze or copper and has a soft malty taste and smell.

Bock beer is a full-bodied, smooth lager with a somewhat sweet taste. It is usually dark in color and may have an alcohol content as high as 8 percent. Doppel bock is a variation of bock beer that is very dark and strong. Bock and doppel bock beer are usually brewed in the winter and consumed in the spring.

Light beer and ice beer are typically lagers. Light beer contains fewer calories and usually less alcohol—about 2 percent—than regular beer. It is produced by using a lower grain-to-water ratio during the brewing process. Ice beer, which has a higher alcohol content, is made by cooling a beer to below freezing and then filtering out the ice crystals that form. California common beer, marketed under the brand name Steam Beer, is produced in very shallow fermentation vessels using lager yeast but fermented at warmer, ale, temperatures.

Wheat beer is brewed by mixing wheat with barley—usually in equal parts. The result is a light-colored and somewhat cloudy beer with a refreshing, tart flavor. Wheat beer typically contains less alcohol than other types of beer. German-style hefeweizen is an unfiltered wheat beer. Additional yeast is added to the bottle before it is capped to enhance its flavor and cloudy appearance. Lambic beer, brewed primarily in Belgium, is a type of wheat beer fermented using only wild airborne yeast.

Rye beer, as its name suggests, is made with rye, but it may also be combined with oats. Estonia and Finland make a traditional rye beer called sahti that is seasoned with juniper as well as hops. Rye beer is native to Eastern, Central, and Baltic Europe but more recently has been produced by breweries in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

Sake, a Japanese beer made from fermented rice, is clear in color and tastes and looks more like wine than beer. It contains approximately 15 percent alcohol. Sake is typically served warm to enhance its flavors.

Some beers are brewed with additional ingredients to enhance their flavors. Fruit beer, for example, is flavored with raspberries and cherries or other fruit. Herbs and spices, such as chili peppers, are added to some beers. Smoked beer is made using malt dried on mesh screens over an open fire. Black beer is a very dark lager containing flavors of tangy, dry, toffee combined with bitter chocolate.

III

HISTORY

Beer is believed to be over 10,000 years old. Although no one knows its exact origins, some agricultural historians believe that the first beer may have been produced accidentally when a stash of grain was soaked by rain and then warmed by the sun. If this mixture were spontaneously fermented by wild, airborne yeast—which thrives in just these warm, moist conditions—beer would have been produced.