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K n o w Y o u r B e e r
When we drink beer some of us know what we like, others like what we know, but
few of us actually know what distinguishes one beer from another. We bandy
around terms like lager, stout, pilsner without the slightest idea of what
we are talking about. To get the best from your exploration of beer on
Realbeers.ie take some time to understand the differences between beer types
and what makes one beer tastier than another.
What is beer?
Let’s start with the basics. Beer is an alcoholic drink made from fermenting
a cereal, or mixture of cereals, with hops. Typically, beers are made from
water, malted barley, hops, and fermented by yeast. Enzymes in the yeast
react with sugars in the grains to produce alcohol and other chemicals.
Water is an important component of the mix and in fact many beer styles are
influenced or even determined by the characteristics of the water in the
region.
Barley malt is the most widely used owing to its high enzyme content (which
facilitates the breakdown of the starch into sugars) but other malted and
unmalted grains are commonly used, including wheat, rice, maize, oats, and
rye. Hops are a relatively recent addition to beer, having been introduced
only a few hundred years ago. They contribute a bitterness that balances the
sweetness of the malt.
Ale
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Ale is general name for beer made with a top-fermenting yeast, ie the yeast
floats on top of the brew. Prior to the 1800s this was the way all beer was
made, so strictly all beers were ales until quite recently. Ale making and
drinking goes back to pre-history. Noah is said to have taken a few barrels
onto the Ark, and the Sumerians carved recipes for beer onto stone tablets.
So you are in august and ancient company.
With such an ancient pedigree there are any number of classifications of
Ales, but some of the most common you will come across are:
India Pale Ales
When the British ruled India they sent their beer out from Britain rather
than brew it there! Brewers found that increasing the hops content improved
it capacity to travel, and the India Pale Ale was born. Pale Ale today is a
light beer, dry and with a distinctive hoppy taste. Typically golden to
copper coloured and pale only in the sense of not as dark as stout.
American Pale Ales
English Ales and American Ales are different mainly in the type of hops
used. English hops such as Goldings, Fuggles, and Progress styles give
English ales their distinct aroma and flavour. American ales have a more
fruity, citrus character. American Pale Ales are the most popular category
of beer in American brewpubs. They tend towards bitter, malty but not sweet.
Balance is the key. Names of hops to look for include Amarillo, Cascade,
Centennial, Chinook, and Willamette. Cascade is the most popular; it gives a
distinct fruity and even grapefruit flavor and aroma.
Irish Ales
Irish Ales are known for their reddish colour. They taste malty and have a
fruitiness.
Real Ale
Irish brewers are known to use corn syrup in their brew mix and a
percentage of roasted barley.
Bitter
Bitter is an English term for a derivative of Pale Ale. Its main ingredient
is malted barley, with hops only added at the end to increase its longevity
and give it a distinctive smell and taste. Bitter covers a wide variety of
taste, aroma and appearance.
Mild
Mild is a British beer developed in the mid 19th century as a cheaper
alternative to the darker beers of the time. Brewed with less malt. In the
US milds are referred to as Blonds.
Amber Ales
Amber ales are light to medium strong, easy drinking, top-fermented, amber
or copper coloured beers, with an alcohol volume between 5 and 8 %,
characterised by a soft and creamy caramelised, sweetish, bitterish and /or
fruity yeasty taste, followed by a lingering hoppy dry after-taste,
sometimes with hints of exotic spices.
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Lager
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It might be the world’s most popular type of beer but it is a relatively
recent invention. While man has been brewing beer since the Stone Age it was
only in the 15th century that German brewers discovered that storing their
beer in caves for the summer kept it from going sour. Their observations
were that the yeast sunk to the bottom of the barrels and the cooler
temperatures slowed or stopped further fermentation.
(With Ales, the traditional form of brewing, the yeasts stay at the top of
the brew and only work at temperatures above 55 degrees Fahrenheit resulting
in a sweeter brew.)
By the turn of the 19th century brewers had a better understanding of how
yeasts worked and could distinguish between yeasts that worked better at the
lower temperatures (40-55 degrees Fahrenheit), thus defining a class of
yeasts for lager brewing.
So when you next raise a glass of lager to your lips, know that is it
distinguished from the glass of ale across the table by the type of yeast
used (bottom fermenting), the temperature at which the brewing takes place,
and the time taken to brew.
The result, as you know, is a dry, crisp and clean flavoured beer.
As the lager method spread different regions adapted it creating their own
recipes and styles, but you should understand that at heart they are all
lagers.
These include:
Pilsner
First brewed in the Czech Republic city of Pilsen, Pilsners are light golden
coloured lagers with a distinctive barley malt flavour and hoppy dryness.
Alcohol volume between 4.5 and 5.5%.
Bock
Once again named for a city, Bocks take their name from the German city of
Einbeck. The true Bock is brewed in the autumn and stored, or lagered, over
the winter and then drunk in the spring. Think of Bock as a seasonal beer,
which are dark coloured, tend towards being strong in alcohol and have a
quite malty flavour.
Dortmunder
Named for the region of origin in Germany, Dortmunder beer is prized for
what is called its ‘balance’. Its hop flavour and aroma are perceptible but
low. Colour is straw to deep golden. Medium bodied. Typical alcohol content
5-6% ABV.
Dunkel
A Dunkel is a dark brown lager originally from Germany. The typical Dunkel
has a pronounced malty aroma and flavour that dominates over the clean,
crisp, moderate hop bitterness. A classic Munich dunkel should have a
chocolate-like, roast malt, bread-like or biscuit-like aroma that comes from
the use of Munich dark malt. Chocolate or roast malts can be used, but the
percentage used should be minimal. Typical alcohol content should be between
4.5-5.0% ABV.
Vienna lager
Another style grew out of a brewers work in a district of Vienna, where a
popular amber-red brew came to be known as vienna-style lager. Among the
most popular of the sweetish and malty Vienna-style lagers is Mexico's Negro
Modelo. now a fast-growing beer in the US.
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Wheat Beer (Weiss Beer)
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Wheat beer is as you would expect beer made predominantly from wheat rather
than the more commonly used barley. The beer is lighter, both in colour and
mouth-feel and has a incredible acidity. Wheat beer is usually top fermented
and hence an Ale.
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Porter and Stout
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The essential characteristic of stout and porter is the high proportion of
roasted unmalted barley used in the process. This gives the drink its bitter
taste and dry palatte.
Originally Porter was a mix of dark and pale Ale, drunk by London porters,
but eventually the name stuck to drink invented by brewers in the early 18th
century. They used roasted barley and roasted malt to create a dark rich
brew deemed just the ticket for the working man! Stout is a derivative of
Porter, invented by Guinness in Ireland, who had taken a London porter
recipe and ‘improved’ it to make it richer and ‘stouter’, hence the name.
The creamy head on stout is a modern phenomenon. The traditional head was
formed by the protein component of the drink being pushed to the surface by
the natural fizz produced by fermentation. Today stouts get their heads
courtesy of the nitrokeg system.
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Belgian Specialties
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Belgium is the home of beer and its styles deserve special mention. Belgian
beer classifications deserve an article all on their own, but the main types
you will find on Realbeers.ie include:
Trappist Beers
Trappist ales are beers brewed by or under strict control of Trappist monks,
within the walls of their Monasteries, according the rules of Strict
Observance, as laid down by St. Benedictus, dating from the Middle Ages.
There are only six Trappist Monasteries in the world, all in Belgium, that
brew beer and can use the legally protected ''Authentic Trappist product''
logo. Each Monastery has it own style of beer, varying in colour, taste and
strength, so it is difficult to compare beers from the different
Monasteries, besides the fact that they are brewed in a Trappist Monastery.
They are however all top fermented, full-bodied bottle conditioned beers,
with an alcohol volume between 6.2 and 11.5 %.
Abbey Beers
Abbey Beers are close cousins of the Trappists. Only Trappist Cistercian
monastery brewed beer can carry the Trappist name. However many other
monasteries got into the commercial brewing business in the late 19th
century under the more generic Abbey style. These are typically bottle
conditioned ales.
Lambic beers
Traditional Lambic, typical to the region around Brussels in the Zenne
valley, is a spontaneous fermented beer, made from a mixture of barley and
wheat, which is matured in oak casks. No yeast is added at any stage of the
brewing process, but instead micro-organisms cause a natural fermentation
during the cooling of the wort in the open copper baths. Lambic can either
be drunk on its own or used to create other beers like Gueuze, Faro and
Fruit beers.
Fruit beers
Fruit was traditionally added to beer to give it a softer texture and
sweeter taste. Nowadays with the variety of fruit flavoured beers, they have
become a style of their own, varying in colour, taste and alcohol strength
and more in particular the beer, which is used as base. This will determine
not only the alcohol content, but also the character and background flavour
of the fruit beer.
White Beers
White or wheat beers are light, easy-drinking, unfiltered hazy-yellow
coloured beers, made from a mixture of raw wheat and malted barley
(sometimes oats are added), seasoned with Coriander and Curacao orange
peels, with a refreshing fruity-lemony taste and pleasant lingering spicy
aftertaste. Original from the area South of Brussels near the village of
Hoegaarden, where Pierre Celis revived this style. Alcohol volume between
4.5 and 5.5%.
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