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Beer, generally, is an alcoholic beverage produced through the fermentation of sugars suspended in an aqueous medium, and which is not distilled after fermentation. The unfermented sugar solution, called wort, is obtained from steeping, or "mashing," malted grains, usually barley. Alcoholic beverages made from the fermentation of sugars derived from non-grain sources — fruit juices or honey, for example — are generally not called "beer," despite being produced by the same yeast-based biochemical reaction.

The process of beer production is called brewing. Because the ingredients used to make beer differ from place to place, beer characteristics such as taste and color vary widely, and consequently its style or classification.

Beer in antiquity

Beer is one of the oldest beverages humans have produced, dating back to at least the 5th millennium BC and recorded in the written history of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

As almost any substance containing certain sugars can undergo spontaneous fermentation due to wild yeasts in the air, it is probable that beer-like beverages were independently invented among various cultures throughout the world. Chemical tests of ancient pottery jars reveal that beer was (like wine) produced about 7,000 years ago in what is today Iran, and was one of the first-known biological engineering tasks where the biological process of fermentation is used in a process.

In Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is believed to be a 6,000-year-old Sumerian tablet depicting people drinking a beverage through reed straws from a communal vessel (bowl). Beer is also mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and a 3900-year-old Sumerian poem honoring the patron goddess of brewing, Ninkasi, contains the oldest surviving beer recipe, describing the production of beer from barley via bread. Beer became vital to all the grain-growing civilizations of classical Western antiquity, especially Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Beer was important to early Romans, but during Republican times wine displaced beer as the preferred alcoholic beverage. Beer became a beverage considered fit only for barbarians; Tacitus wrote disparagingly of the beer brewed by the Germanic peoples of his day.

Thracians were also known to consume beer made from rye, even since the 5th century BC, as Hellanicos of Lesbos says in operas. Their name for beer was brutos, or brytos.

Beer in the Middle Ages

The addition of hops to beer for bittering, preservation, and aroma is a relatively recent innovation: in the Middle Ages many other mixtures of herbs were often employed in beer prior to hops. These mixtures are often referred to as gruit. Hops were cultivated in France as early as the 800s; the oldest surviving written record of the use of hops in beer is in 1067 by well-known writer Abbess Hildegard of Bingen: "If one intends to make beer from oats, it is prepared with hops."

Beer in early European history

In Europe, beer largely remained a homemaker's activity, made in the home in medieval times. By the 14th and 15th centuries, beermaking was gradually changing from a family-oriented activity to an artisan one, with pubs and monasteries brewing their own beer for mass consumption.

In 15th century England, an unhopped beer would have been known as an ale, while the use of hops would make it a beer. Hopped beer was imported to England from the Netherlands as early as 1400 in Winchester, and hops were being planted on the island by 1428. The popularity of hops was at first mixed — the Brewers Company of London went so far as to state "no hops, herbs, or other like thing be put into any ale or liquore wherof ale shall be made — but only liquor (water), malt, and yeast." However, by the 16th century, "ale" had come to refer to any strong beer, and all ales and beers were hopped.

In 1516, William IV, Duke of Bavaria, adopted the Reinheitsgebot (purity law), perhaps the oldest food regulation still in use today. The Gebot ordered that the ingredients of beer be restricted to water, barley, and hops, with yeast added after Louis Pasteur's discovery in 1857. The Bavarian law was applied throughout Germany as part of the 1871 German unification as the German Empire under Otto von Bismarck, and has since been updated to reflect modern trends in beer brewing. To this day, the Gebot is considered a mark of purity in beers, although this is controversial.

Most beers until relatively recent times were what are now called ales. Lagers were discovered by accident in the 16th century after beer was stored in cool caverns for long periods; they have since largely outpaced ales in terms of volume.

Beer during the Industrial Revolution

With the invention of the steam engine in 1765, industrialization of beer became a reality. Further innovations in the brewing process came about with the introduction of the thermometer and hydrometer in the 19th century, which allowed brewmasters to increase efficiency and attenuation. Prior to the late 18th century, malt was primarily dried over fires made from wood, charcoal, or straw, and after 1600, from coke. In general, none of these early malts would have been well shielded from the smoke involved in the kilning process, and consequently, early beers would have had a smoky component to their flavors; evidence indicates that maltsters and brewers constantly tried to minimize the smokiness of the finished beer. The invention of the drum roaster in 1817 by Daniel Wheeler allowed for the creation of very dark, roasted malts, contributing to the flavour of porters and stouts. The discovery of yeast's role in fermentation in 1857 by Louis Pasteur gave brewmasters methods to prevent the souring of beer by undesirable microorganisms.

History of modern beer

In 1953, New Zealander Morton W Coutts developed the technique of continuous fermentation. Morton patented his process which revolutionised the industry through reducing a typical four-month long brewing process to less than 24 hours. His process is still used by many of the world's major breweries today, including Guinness.

Today, the brewing industry is a huge global business, consisting mostly of conglomerates formed out of a multitude of smaller producers. While beer is generally an alcoholic beverage, some varieties exist, originating in the Western world, which undergo a process to remove most of the alcohol, producing what is called non-alcoholic beer.

Etymology

Of the two terms, beer and ale, the latter is the older in English. It is believed to come directly from the proto-Indo European root *alu-, through Germanic *aluth- (). The same word is the stem for Finnish olut, Estonian õlu, Danish øl and Latvian/Lithuanian alus. Beer, on the other hand, is considered to come from the Latin verb bibere (to drink, ). Old English sources distinguish between "ale" and "beer," but do not define what was meant by "beer" during that period, although there is some speculation that it refers to what would now be called cider, the alcoholic form. The Old English form of "beer" disappeared shortly after the Norman Conquest, and the word re-entered English centuries later, in exclusive reference to hopped malt beverages. The beverage is termed "cerveza", or a derivative, in the various dialects of Spanish and Portuguese, from Latin cerevisia. Most other Western European (and even some Eastern European) languages use a form similar to the English "beer." The Common Slavic *pivo, literally "beverage", is the word for beer in most Slavic languages, with minor phonetic variations.

Mythology

The Finnish epic Kalevala, collected in written form in the 19th century but based on oral traditions many centuries old, devotes more lines to the origin of beer and brewing than it does to the origin of mankind.

The British Drinking song "Beer, Beer Beer" () attributes the invention of beer to the presumably fictional Charlie Mopps:

A long time ago, way back in history

When all there was to drink was nothin' but cups of tea,

Along came a man by the name of Charlie Mopps

And he invented the wonderful drink, and he made it out of hops.

...

The mythical Flemish king Gambrinus (from Jan Primus (John I)), is sometimes credited with the invention of beer. According to Czech legend, deity Radegast, god of mutuality, invented beer.

Ingredients

See also Brewing

The main ingredients of beer are water, malted barley, hops and yeast. Other ingredients, such as flavouring or sources of sugar, are called adjuncts and are commonly used; common adjuncts are corn and rice. These starches convert in the mashing process to easily fermentable sugars that serve to increase the alcohol content of beer while adding little body or flavor. Major American breweries use relatively high percentages of adjuncts in order to produce very light-bodied beer at 4-5% alcohol by volume.

Water

Because beer is composed mainly of water, the source of the water and its characteristics have an important effect on the character of the beer. Many beer styles were influenced or even determined by the characteristics of the water in the region. Although the effect of, and interactions between, various dissolved minerals in brewing water is complex, as a general rule, hard water is more suited to dark styles such as stouts or porters, while very soft water is more suited for brewing light-colored beers, such as pilsners.

Malt

Among malts, barley malt is the most widely used owing to its high amylase content, a digestive enzyme which facilitates the breakdown of the starch into sugars. However, depending on what can be cultivated locally, other malted and unmalted grains are also commonly used, including wheat, rice, oats, and rye, and less frequently, maize and sorghum.

Malt is formed from grain by soaking it in water, allowing it to start to germinate, and then drying the germinated grain in a kiln. Malting the grain produces the enzymes that will eventually convert the starches in the grain into fermentable sugars.

Different roasting times and temperatures are used to produce different colors of malt from the same grain. Darker malts will produce darker beers. In most cases, two or more types of malt are combined when making modern beers.

Hops

Hops have been used as a bittering agent in beer since the seventeenth century. Hops contain several characteristics very favorable to beer: (a) hops contribute a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt, (b) hops also contribute aromas which range from flowery to citrus to herbal, (c) hops have an antibiotic effect that favours the activity of brewer's yeast over less desirable microorganisms and (d) the use of hops aids in "head retention", the length of time that foamy head created by the beer's carbonation agent will last. The bitterness of commercially-brewed beers is measured on the International Bitterness Units scale. While hops plants are grown by farmers all around the world in many different varieties, there is no major commercial use for hops other than in beer.

Yeast

Yeast is a microorganism that is responsible for fermentation. A specific strain of yeast is chosen depending on which type of beer is being produced, the two main strains being ale yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and lager yeast (Saccharomyces uvarum), with many other variations available depending on the style of beer being brewed. Yeast will metabolise the sugars extracted from the grains, and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide as a result. Before yeast's functions were understood, all fermentations were conducted using wild yeast; although a few styles such as lambics still rely on this ancient method, most modern fermentations are conducted using pure yeast cultures. On average, beer's alcohol content is between 4% and 6% alcohol by volume, although it can be as low as 2% and as high as 14% under ordinary circumstances and several brewers claim to make beers that are upwards of 20%.

Clarifying agent

Some brewers add one or more clarifying agents to beer that are not required to be published as ingredients. Common examples of these include Isinglass finings, obtained from swimbladders of fish; kappa carrageenan, derived from seaweed; Irish moss, a type of red alga; and gelatin. Since these ingredients may be derived from animals, those concerned with the use or consumption of animal products should obtain specific details of the filtration process from the brewer.

The brewing process

For a full explanation see Brewing

Though the process of brewing beer is complex and varies considerably, the basic stages that are consistent are outlined below. There may be additional filtration steps between stages.

1. Mashing: The first phase of brewing, in which the malted grains are crushed and soaked in warm water in order to create a malt extract. The mash is held at constant temperature long enough for enzymes to convert starches into fermentable sugars.
2. Sparging: Water is filtered through the mash to dissolve the sugars. The darker, sugar-heavy liquid is called the wort.
3. Boiling: The wort is boiled along with any remaining ingredients (excluding yeast), to remove excess water and kill any bacteria. The hops (whole or pelleted) are added, or a hop extract is used.
4. Fermentation: The yeast is added (or "pitched") and the beer is left to ferment. After primary fermentation, the beer may be allowed a second fermentation, which allows further settling of yeast and other particulate matter "trub" which may have been introduced earlier in the process. Some brewers may skip the secondary fermentation and simply filter off the yeast.
5. Packaging: At this point, the beer contains alcohol, but not much carbon dioxide. The brewer has a few options to increase carbon dioxide levels. The most common approach by large-scale brewers is force carbonation, via the direct addition of CO₂ gas to the keg or bottle. Smaller-scale or more classicly-minded brewers will add extra ("priming") sugar or a small amount of newly fermenting wort ("kräusen") to the final vessel, resulting in a short refermentation known as "cask-" or "bottle conditioning".
6. Drinking: 'Uncapping' or 'opening' of the bottle and enjoyment of the fresh beverage.

Packaging and presentation

After brewing, the beer is usually a finished product. At this point the beer is kegged, casked, bottled, or canned.

Unpasteurized beers containing live yeasts may be stored much like wine for further conditioning in aging barrels to allow further fermentation and development of secondary flavors. A long conditioning period is common for Belgian ales and cask-conditioned real ales. It is not uncommon for strong beers to be aged a year or more.

The conditions of serving have an enormous impact on a drinker's experience. The most important factor is temperature: colder temperatures inhibit the chemical senses of the tongue and throat, which prevent the drinker from fully experiencing the beer. Conversely, beer served too warm may have the opposite problem: strong beers in particular may taste overly alcoholic and harsh, while lighter beers may seem flat and unappealing. Every style has an ideal serving temperature.

Besides temperature, choosing an appropriate container is also important. While casual drinkers of beer often drink straight from the bottle or can, serious beer drinkers always pour their beer into a glass before imbibing. Drinking out of a bottle severely inhibits aromas picked up by the nose, which are as important as the flavours picked up by the mouth. So whether on tap or from a bottle, the beer is first poured into a glass, mug, or stein. As with wine, there are specialized styles of glassware for each style of beer, and some brands of beer even produce glassware intended for their own beers. While any glass is preferable to a bottle, aficionados claim that the shape of the glass influences the perception of the aroma and the way in which the beer settles, similar to claims by drinkers of brandy or cognac. It is important to keep beer glasses clean. While glass is completely non-porous, its surface can retain oil from the skin, aerosolized oil from nearby cooking, and traces of fat from food. When these oils come in contact with beer there is a significant reduction in the amount of head (foam) that is found on the beer, and the bubbles will tend to stick to the side of the glass rather than rising to the surface as normal. This is the same reaction as would happen if you found yourself with too much foam and used the oil from your brow to dissolve it.

Lastly, the pouring process is important to a beer's presentation. The rate of flow from the tap or other serving vessel, tilt of the glass, and position of the pour (in the center or down the side) into the glass all influence the end result, such as the size and longevity of the head, lacing (the pattern left by the head as it moves down the glass as the beer is drunk), and turbulence of the beer and its release of carbonation. Heavily carbonated beers such as German pilsners or weissbiers may need settling time before serving.

Some stouts and British ales, most famously Guinness, are served from a "nitrogen tap". This tap uses a nitrogen/carbon dioxide mixture, rather than standard carbon dioxide, in order to obtain a creamier mouthfeel. These beers will be poured in two stages, with a pause to allow settling. In an attempt to simulate this process at home, Guinness introduced the widget can in 1991; recently, Guinness has expanded the concept with the "draft in a bottle" system.

Real ales have their own packaging requirements: These beers specifically are unfiltered and unpasteurized, and are typically served with a beer engine. A beer engine is simply a tall handpump that is used to transfer beer from keg to tap. Because shelf life is shorter, publicans may be required to perform additional duties regarding managing inventory and beer quality.

For most bottle-conditioned beer styles, it is recommended that you pour slowly at a low angle, without glugging, leaving behind the undesirable yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle. There are certain styles (notably hefeweizen) where it is usual to add the yeast back in, for the considerable flavor and mouthfeel it imparts. Typically the person serving the beer will pour 90% of the contents, and swirl the remaining part in the bottle to dissolve the sediment before pouring it into the glass.

Varieties of beer

Main article: Beer style

There are many different types of beer, each of which is said to belong to a particular style. A beer's style is a label that describes the overall flavour and often the origin of a beer, according to a system that has evolved by trial and error over many centuries.

A major component of determining the type of beer is the yeast used in the fermentation process. Most beer styles fall into one of two large families: ale, using top-fermenting yeast, or lager, using bottom-fermenting yeast. Beers that blend the characteristics of ales and lagers are referred to as hybrids. Alcoholic beverages made from the fermentation of sugars derived from non-grain sources are generally not called "beer," despite being produced by the same yeast-based biochemical reaction. Fermented honey is called mead, fermented apple juice is called cider, fermented pear juice is called perry, and fermented grape juice is called wine

Ale

Main article: Ale

An ale is any beer that is brewed using only top-fermenting yeasts, and is typically fermented at higher temperatures than lager beer (15–23°C, 60–75°F). Ale yeasts at these temperatures produce significant amounts of esters and other secondary flavor and aroma products, and the result is a flavourful beer with a slightly "flowery" or "fruity" aroma resembling but not limited to apple, pear, pineapple, grass, hay, banana, plum or prune. Stylistic differences among ales are more varied than those found among lagers, and many ale styles are difficult to categorize.

Lager

Main article: Lager

Lagers are the most commonly-consumed category of beer in the world. They are of Central European origin, taking their name from the German lagern ("to store"). Lager yeast is a bottom-fermenting yeast, and typically undergoes primary fermentation at 7-12°C (45-55°F) (the "fermentation phase"), and then is given a long secondary fermentation at 0-4°C (30-40°F) (the "lagering phase"). During the secondary stage, the lager clears and mellows. The cooler conditions also inhibit the natural production of esters and other byproducts, resulting in a "crisper" tasting beer.

Modern methods of producing lager were pioneered by Gabriel Sedlmayr the Younger, who perfected dark brown lagers at the Spaten Brewery in Bavaria, and Anton Dreher, who began brewing a lager, probably of amber-red color, in Vienna in 1840–1841. With modern improved fermentation control, most lager breweries use only short periods of cold storage, typically 1–3 weeks.

In terms of volume, most of today's lager is based on the Pilsner style, pioneered in 1842 in the town of Plzeň, in the Czech Republic. The modern Pilsner lager is light in colour and high in carbonation, with a strong hop flavour and an alcohol content of 3–6% by volume. The Pilsner Urquell or Heineken brands of beer are typical examples of pilsner beer.

Spontaneous fermentation

Main article: Lambic

These are beers which use wild yeasts, rather than cultivated ones. All beer before the cultivation of yeast in the 19th century were closer to this style, characterised by their sour flavours.

Hybrid beers

Hybrid or mixed style beers use modern techniques and materials instead of, or in addition to, traditional aspects of brewing. Although there is some variation among sources, mixed beers generally fall into the following categories:

• Fruit beers and vegetable beers are mixed with some kind of fermentable fruit or vegetable adjunct during the fermentation process, providing obvious yet harmonious qualities.
• Herb and spiced beers add herbs or spices derived from roots, seeds, fruits, vegetables or flowers instead of, or in addition to hops.
• Wood-aged beers are any traditional or experimental beer that has been aged in a wooden barrel or have been in contact with wood (in the form of chips, cubes or "beans") for a period of time (Oak is the most common). Oftentimes, the barrel or wood will be treated first with some variety of spirit or other alcoholic beverage--usage of bourbon, scotch and sherry are common.
• Smoked beers are any beer whose malt has been smoked. A smoky aroma and flavour is usually present. The most traditional examples of this style are the Rauchbiers of Bamberg, Germany. However, many brewers outside of Germany--most notably American craft brewers--have been adding smoked malt to porters, Scotch ale and a variety of other styles.
• Specialty beers are a catch-all category used to describe any beers brewed using unusual fermentable sugars, grains and starches.

Beer in a social context

Beer is considered to be social lubricant in some contexts. Consumption in moderation is often associated with social occasions. Consumption in excess may be associated with people "drowning their sorrows".

Beer around the world

Main article Beer and nationality

Africa

• African beer
• South African beer

Americas

• American beer
• Brazilian beer
• Canadian beer
• Costa Rican beer
• Mexican beer
• Nicaraguan beer
• Venezuelan beer

Asia

• Chinese beer
• Israeli beer
• Indian beer
• Japanese beer
• Korean beer
• Pakistani beer
• Syrian beer
• Singaporean Beer
• Taiwanese beer
• Thai beer
• Tibetan beer

Australasia

• Australian beer
• New Zealand beer
• Samoan beer

Europe

• Albanian beer
• Austrian beer
• Belgian beer
• Bulgarian beer
• Czech beer
• Danish beer
• Dutch beer
• French beer
• German beer
• Hungarian beer
• Irish beer
• Italian beer
• Lithuanian beer
• Macedonian beer
• Norwegian beer
• Polish beer
• Romanian beer
• Serbian beer
• Spanish beer
• Swiss beer
• Turkish beer
• Beer in the United Kingdom
  • English beer
  • Scottish beer
  • Welsh beer

Related beverages

• Africa: Hundreds of local drinks made from millet, sorghum, and other available starch crops.
• Andes, South America: Chicha, an Andean beverage made from germinated maize.
• Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet and Sikkim: Chhaang, a popular semi-fermented rice/millet drink in the eastern Himalaya.
• China: Jiǔ, primarily grain-based fermented drinks.
• Finland: Sahti, a traditional Finnish beer.
• Japan: Sake, a primarily rice-based fermented drink, similar in many respects to Chinese jiǔ.
• Korea: Soju
• Mexico: Pulque, an indigenous beer made from the fermented sap of the agave plant.
• Russia/Ukraine: Kvass, a fermented non-alcoholic or mildly alcoholic beverage.
• Various regions: Rye beer, mead (made from water and honey), cider (made from apple juice)

See also

• Beer riots in Bavaria
• Brewery
• Brewing
• Microbrew
• Craft beer
• Homebrewing
• Lager Beer Riot
• List of breweries and Category:Brewers and breweries
• List of commercial brands of beer and Category:Brands of beer.
• Vores Øl - open source beer
• Iran Aragh sagi
• History of alcohol

External links

• BeerAdvocate
• RateBeer.com
• Beer Wiki at Wikicities

References

• The Complete Guide to World Beer, Roger Protz. ISBN 1844428656.
• Morton Coutts's Continuous Fermentation System, from The National Science-Technology Roadshow Trust website

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• Alcoholic beverages
• Beer
• World cuisine