BEER KNOWLEGE

ESB Extra Special (or Strong) Bitter

A historically British style of Ale, the Bitter style came from brewers who wanted to differentiate these ales from other mild brews, with pale malts and more hops. Extra Special Bitters are essentially more aggressive and more balanced Bitters, both in alcohol and hop character, but nothing overpowering. The malts tend to be more pronounced, often leading to toasty and fruity flavors, Common examples of ESBs: Fullers ESB, Youngs Special London Ale

Chili beers

A more recent creation with a spiciness ranging from subtle to intense. There are many ways to make chili beer, but all include adding peppers to the mash or fermenter.

Pumpkin beer

A popular fall seasonal in which pumpkin is added to the mash. This is one of the oldest American-style ales originating when colonists, lacking a reliable source of malt, used whatever fermentables were available for brewing. Some pumpkin flavor is present in most pumpkin ales, but most of the flavor comes from pumpkin pie spices added late in the boil.

Hyper beers

Ales that feature experimental yeasts that can survive in high alcohol environments. These super yeasts produce extremely strong beers that can exceed 20% alcohol by volume. These beers share many characteristics with sherry or port.

The brewing process

All beers are brewed using a process based on a simple formula. Key to the process is malted grain— mainly barley, though other cereals, such as wheat or rice, may be added. Malt is made by allowing a grain to germinate, after which it is then dried in a kiln and sometimes roasted. The germination process creates a number of enzymes, notably α-amylase and β-amylase, which convert the starch in the grain into sugar. Depending on the amount of roasting, the malt will take on a dark color and strongly influence the color and flavor of the beer. The malt is crushed to break apart the grain kernels, expose the cotyledon which contains the majority of the carbohydrates and sugars, increase their surface area, and separate the smaller pieces from the husks. There are several steps in the brewing process, which include malting, milling, mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting, conditioning, filtering, and packaging. Malting is the process where the barley grain is made ready for brewing. Malting is broken down into three steps, which help to release the starches in the barley. First, during steeping, the grain is added to a vat with water and allowed to soak for approximately 40 hours. During germination, the grain is spread out on the floor of the germination room for around 5 days. The goal of germination is to allow the starches to in the barley grain to breakdown into shorter lengths. When this step is complete, the grain is referred to as green malt. The final part of malting is kilning. Here, the green malt goes through a high temperature drying in a kiln. The temperature change is gradual so as not to disturb or damage the enzymes in the grain. When kilning is complete, there is a finished malt as a product. The next step in the brewing process is milling. This is when the grains that are going to be used in a batch of beer are cracked. Milling the grains makes it easier for them to absorb the water that they are mixed with and which extracts sugars from the malt. Milling can also influence the general characteristics of a beer. Mashing is the next step in the process. This process converts the starches released during the malting stage, into sugars that can be fermented. The milled grain is dropped into hot water in a large vessel known as a mash tun. In this vessel, the grain and water are mixed together to create a cereal mash. The leftover sugar rich water is then strained through the bottom of the mash in a process known as lautering. Prior to lautering, the mash temperature may be raised to about 75 °C (165-170 °F) (known as a mashout) to deactivate enzymes. Additional water may be sprinkled on the grains to extract additional sugars (a process known as sparging). At this point the liquid is known as wort. The wort is moved into a large tank known as a "copper" or kettle where it is boiled with hops and sometimes other ingredients such as herbs or sugars. This stage is where many chemical and technical reactions take place, and where important decisions about the flavor, color, and aroma of the beer are made. The boiling process serves to terminate enzymatic processes, precipitate proteins, isomerize hop resins, concentrate and sterilize the wort. Hops add flavor, aroma and bitterness to the beer. At the end of the boil, the hopped wort settles to clarify it in a vessel called a "whirl-pool", where the more solid particles in the wort are separated out. After the whirlpool, the wort then begins the process of cooling. This is when the wort is transferred rapidly from the whirlpool or brew kettle to a heat exchanger to be cooled. The heat exchanger consists of tubing inside a tub of cold water. It is very important to quickly cool the wort to a level where yeast can be added safely. Yeast is unable to grow in high temperatures. After the wort goes through the heat exchanger, the cooled wort goes into a fermentation tank. A type of yeast is selected and added, or "pitched", to the fermentation tank. When the yeast is added to the wort, the fermenting process begins, where the sugars turn into alcohol, carbon dioxide and other components. The second to last stage in the brewing process is called racking. This is when the brewer racks the beer into a new tank, called a conditioning tank. Conditioning of the beer is the process in which the beer ages, the flavor becomes smoother, and flavors that are unwanted dissipate. After one to three weeks, the fresh (or "green") beer is run off into conditioning tanks. After conditioning for a week to several months, the beer enters the finishing stage. Here, beers that require filtration are filtered, and given their natural polish and color. Filtration also helps to stabilize the flavor of the beer. After the beer is filtered, it undergoes carbonation, and is then moved to a holding tank until bottling.

Honey beers

Also known as a Mead, these beers have honey added to the wort, which surprisingly, creates a dry, crisp beer with honey aromas.

ALES

An ale yeast is called top fermenting because of its tendency to flocculate (gather) at the surface of the brew during the first few days before settling to the bottom. To brew an ale, fermentation must take place in warmer temperatures for the yeast to multiply and do its magic. Ales are usually higher in alcohol and will be noticeably fuller and more complex.

STOUTS

An extra-dark, almost black, top-fermenting brew, made with highly roasted malts. Sweet stout, an English style, usually contains milk sugars (lactose) resulting in a sweet & creamy brew. Dry stout, the Irish style, is typified by Guinness, contains roasted unmalted barley and only a small amount of hops, which leads to a coffee-like roasted and slightly bitter dry brew. Imperial Stout, originally brewed as a winter warmer, for sale in the Tsarist Russian Empire, is medium dry and distinguished by its great strength: anything from 7% to more than 10% ABV. Oatmeal Stouts are yet another variation, where the oats not only add a lot of smoothness to the mouth feel but give a touch of sweetness that is unlike any other type of stout. Average alcohol by volume (abv) range: 4.0-7.0% Common examples of Stouts: Guinness (Dry Stout), Mackesons XXX (Milk Stout), Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout (Imperial Stout), Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout (Oatmeal Stout)

TYPES OF BEER

Basically, beer is categorized into one of three different categories: lagers, ales, and the rest fall into a category called specialty beers. The difference between a lager and an ale is the type of yeast used in fermentation

BEER WATER

Beer is composed mostly of water. Regions have water with different mineral components; as a result, different regions were originally better suited to making certain types of beer, thus giving them a regional character. For example, Dublin has hard water well suited to making stout, such as Guinness; while Pilsen has soft water well suited to making pale lager, such as Pilsner Urquell The waters of Burton in England contain gypsum, which benefits making pale ale to such a degree that brewers of pale ales will add gypsum to the local water in a process known as Burtonisation.

Specialty Beers

Beyond the classic beer styles exists a wide range of other creations. Some are based on old obscure brews, but most are examples of American ingenuity. These beers go beyond the range of familiar flavors and aromas venturing into unexplored territory.

YEAST

Brewer's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Saccharomyces uvarum Yeast is the microorganism that is responsible for fermentation in beer. Yeast metabolises the sugars extracted from grains, which produces alcohol and carbon dioxide, and thereby turns wort into beer. In addition to fermenting the beer, yeast influences the character and flavour. The dominant types of yeast used to make beer are ale yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and lager yeast (Saccharomyces uvarum); their use distinguishes ale and lager. Brettanomyces ferments lambics, and Torulaspora delbrueckii ferments Bavarian weissbier. Before the role of yeast in fermentation was understood, fermentation involved wild or airborne yeasts. A few styles such as lambics rely on this method today, but most modern fermentation adds pure yeast cultures.

BARLEY WINE

Despite its name, a Barleywine is very much a beer, albeit a very strong and often intense beer! In fact, it's one of the strongest of the beer styles. Lively and fruity, sometimes sweet, sometimes bittersweet, but always alcoholic. A brew of this strength and complexity can be a challenge to the palate. Expect anything from an amber to dark brown colored beer, with aromas ranging from intense fruits to intense hops. Most Barleywines can be cellared for years and typically age like wine, becoming both more mellow (in terms of alcohol content) and more complex (in terms of flavor). Average alcohol by volume (abv) range: 7.0-12.0% Common examples of this style: J.W. Lees Vintage Harvest Ale, Insanity (Weyerbacher Brewing Co.)

Hops

Flavoring beer is the sole major commercial use of hops. The flower of the hop bine is used as a flavoring and preservative agent in nearly all beer made today. The flowers themselves are often called "hops". Hops were used by monastery breweries, such as Corvey in Westphalia, Germany, from 822 AD, though the date normally given for widespread cultivation of hops for use in beer is the thirteenth century. Before the thirteenth century, and until the sixteenth century, during which hops took over as the dominant flavoring, beer was flavored with other plants; for instance, Glechoma hederacea. Combinations of various aromatic herbs, berries, and even ingredients like wormwood would be combined into a mixture known as gruit and used as hops are now used. Some beers today, such asFraoch' by the Scottish Heather Ales company and Cervoise Lancelot by the French Brasserie-Lancelot company, use plants other than hops for flavoring. Hops contain several characteristics that brewers desire in beer. Hops contribute a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt; the bitterness of beers is measured on the International Bitterness Units scale. Hops contribute floral, citrus, and herbal aromas and flavors to beer. Hops have an antibiotic effect that favors the activity of brewer's yeast over less desirable microorganisms, and hops aids in "head retention", the length of time that a foamy head created by carbonation will last. The acidity of hops is a preservative.

Herb/Spiced beers

Include a whole cupboard of possibilities. Perhaps the most popular are the spiced holiday beers, often loosely based on traditional English wassail. They are typically strong and dark with complex spice cake notes.

Lager

Lager is a catch-all term that is used on labels of various styles of beer, all of which use bottom fermenting yeast and are brewed at cooler temperatures. Budweiser and Coors Original are both examples of American Adjunct Lagers, meaning lagers that use grains other than barley (mainly corn and rice). These tend to have a very mild flavor, and are pale in color. To differentiate themselves from Adjunct Lagers brewed by major breweries, the lagers brewed by craft breweries are often referred to as All-Malt Lagers, meaning no added grains are used. The true malt character and taste comes through in these examples. Sam Adams Boston Lager and Dos Equis are both Vienna Style Lagers. These tend to be reddish in color, and have a richer flavor and more prevalent hops. Many other traditional German styles such as Oktoberfest, Dunkel, Bock and Helles fall into the Lager category. A wide variety of colors, aromas and flavors are all possible within this broad style. Common examples of Lagers: Brooklyn Lager (All-Malt Lager), Negro Modelo (Vienna Lager), Hacker- Pschorr Oktoberfest, Dinkel Acker Dark (Dunkel), Paulaner Original (Helles)

Porters

Porter is said to have been popular with transportation workers of Central London, hence the name. Most traditional British brewing documentation from the 1700s state that Porter was a blend of three different styles: an old ale (stale or soured), a new ale (brown or pale ale) and a weak one (mild ale), with various combinations of blending and staleness, leading to a pleasing taste of neither new nor old. It was the first truly engineered beer, catering to the publics taste. Modern-day Porters are typically just a single brew rather than a blend, but are similar in flavor to their ancestors. Hop bitterness is moderate on the whole and color ranges from brown to black. Overall they remain very complex and interesting beers. Common examples of Porters: Otter Creek Porter, Sierra Nevada Porter, Samuel Smiths Taddy Porter

Clarifying agent

Some brewers add one or more clarifying agents to beer, which typically precipitate (collect as a solid) out of the beer along with protein solids and are found only in trace amounts in the finished product. This process makes the beer appear bright and clean, rather than the cloudy appearance of ethnic and older styles of beer such as wheat beers. Examples of clarifying agents include isinglass, obtained from swimbladders of fish; Irish moss, a seaweed; kappa carrageenan, from the seaweed Kappaphycus cottonii; Polyclar (artificial); and gelatin. If a beer is marked "suitable for Vegans", it was clarified either with seaweed or with artificial agents.

Seasonal Beers

Some of the gems of the brewing world. While some are brewed annually, others are produced as one- time releases. These beers are often unique and showcase a brewer's creativity and passion. Seasonal beers utilize seasonal ingredients and highlight flavors in harmony with seasonal fare.

Specialty Beers

Specialty beers are either ales, lagers, or a hybrid of the two that will contain other ingredients that cause it to not fit into a true ale or lager style.

Pale Ale

The English Pale Ale can be traced back to the city of Burton-upon-Trent, a city with an abundance of rich hard water. This hard water helps with the clarity as well as enhancing the hop bitterness. This ale can be from golden to reddish amber in color with generally a good head retention. A mix of fruity, hoppy, earthy, buttery and malty aromas and flavors can be found. American versions tend to be heavier on the hops. Common examples of Pale Ales: Bass Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Brooklyn Ale (a.k.a. Pennant Ale)

Abbey Ales, Dubbels, Trippels, Quads

The Trappist Abbeys of Belgium are notorious for their wonderful distinctive beer. They are only six such breweries which are allowed to say Trappist on their label: Westmalle, Westvleteren, Chimay, Rochefort, Orval and Achel. These are still all brewed in the tradition of, and with the supervision of, the brothers of their respective monasteries. The popularity of these beers has lead many brewers to copy their unique styles. These are generically referred to as Abbey-Style Ales, of which there are four distinct types: Dubbels, Tripels and Quads.

WHATS IN BEER?

The basic ingredients of beer are water; a starch source, such as malted barley, able to be fermented (converted into alcohol); a brewer's yeast to produce the fermentation; and a flavoring such as hops. A mixture of starch sources may be used, with a secondary starch source, such as maize (corn), rice or sugar, often being termed an adjunct, especially when used as a lower-cost substitute for malted barley. Less widely used starch sources include millet, sorghum and cassava root in Africa, potato in Brazil, and agave in Mexico, among others. The amount of each starch source in a beer recipe is collectively called the grain bill.

Pilsner

The birth of Pilsner beer can be traced back to its namesake, the ancient city of Plzen (or Pilsen) which is situated in the western half of the Czech Republic. They have a light straw to golden color and appear crystal clear. Hops are very prevalent usually with a spicy bitterness and or a spicy floral flavor and aroma. Smooth and crisp with a clean malty palate, many are grassy. While many American Lagers (e.g. Budweiser) may refer to themselves as Pilsners, these examples often lack the distinctive hop flavor and are brewed with grains other than barley (such as corn and rice) making them far sweeter and more mellow than more authentic versions.

LAGERS

The lager yeast simply flocculates (not at the surface) and sinks to the bottom. Therefore, it is known as bottom fermenting. Lager yeasts need cool temperatures during fermentation to perform their magic. Lagers tend to be lighter in color and usually taste drier than ales. They are generally less alcoholic and complex. This is the most common beer type sold in the U.S.

Brewing

The production of beer through steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains) in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt. Descriptions of various beer recipes can be found in Sumerian writings, some of the oldest known writing of any sort. Brewing takes place in a brewery by a brewer, and the brewing industry is part of most western economies. The basic ingredients of beer are water; a starch source, such as malted barley, which is able to be fermented (converted into alcohol); a brewer's yeast to produce the fermentation; and a flavoring such as hops. A secondary starch source (an adjunct) may be used, such as maize (corn), rice or sugar. Less widely used starch sources include millet, sorghum and cassava root in Africa, potato in Brazil, and agave in Mexico, among others. The amount of each starch source in a beer recipe is collectively called the grain bill. There are several steps in the brewing process, which include malting, milling, mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting, conditioning, filtering, and packaging. There are three main fermentation methods, warm, cool and wild or spontaneous. Fermentation may take place in open or closed vessels. There may be a secondary fermentation which can take place in the brewery, in the cask or in the bottle. Brewing specifically refers to the process of steeping, such as with making tea, sake and soy sauce. Wine and cider technically aren't brewed, rather vinted, as the entire fruit is pressed, and then the liquid extracted. Mead isn't technically brewed, as the honey is used entirely, as opposed to being steeped in water.

BEER Starch Source

The starch source in a beer provides the fermentable material and is a key determinant of the strength and flavour of the beer. The most common starch source used in beer is malted grain. Grain is malted by soaking it in water, allowing it to begin germination, and then drying the partially germinated grain in a kiln. Malting grain produces enzymes that convert starches in the grain into fermentable sugars. Different roasting times and temperatures are used to produce different colours of malt from the same grain. Darker malts will produce darker beers. Nearly all beer includes barley malt as the majority of the starch. This is because of its fibrous husk, which is not only important in the sparging stage of brewing (in which water is washed over the mashed barley grains to form the wort), but also as a rich source of amylase, a digestive enzyme which facilitates conversion of starch into sugars. Other malted and unmalted grains (including wheat, rice, oats, and rye, and less frequently, corn and sorghum) may be used. In recent years, a few brewers have produced gluten-free beer made with sorghum with no barley malt for people who cannot digest gluten-containing grains like wheat, barley, and rye.

Smoked beers

These beers continue an age-old tradition originating in the Franconia region of Northern Bavaria. Most beer in the past had some smokiness, but with advances in kilning technology, this passed by the wayside. Some American craft brewers have embraced the tradition by using peat-smoked malt in porters and Scotch ales.

Fruit beers

This is a style that can vary widely depending on the whim of the brewer. Raspberries, cherries, apricots and blueberries are the most commonly-used fruits, and many variations are possible.

IPA INDIA PALE ALE

This typically very hoppy ale originated in England when brewers were trying to find a method for their ales to travel well over the long sea voyage to the British colony of India. Hops are a natural preservative, and adding more hops helped the beer to survive the long trip. First brewed in England and exported for the British troops in India during the late 1700s. Common examples of IPAs: Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, Magic Hat Blind Faith

Barrel-aged beers

Typically barleywines or strong stouts aged for a few months or longer in oak barrels or used bourbon barrels. While aging, the beers pick up delicious vanilla and toasted coconut aromas.