Category Archives: Beer

Beer is one of the oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic drinks in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. Beer is brewed from cereal grains—most commonly from malted barley, though wheat, maize, and rice are also used.

Malt Beverages & Fermented Drinks

Malt Beverages & Fermented Drinks

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Malt Beverages & Fermented Drinks

Malt Beverages are fermented drinks which primarily contain grains or seeds of the barley plant which have been allowed to slightly sprout in a traditional fashion which is known as ‘malting’. Beer is the most predominant malt drink containing naturally fermented barley with hops flavoring. The two main styles of these malted beers are Ale & Lager.

Malt Beverages in United States

Malt Beverage term in United States is commonly used by groups of beer wholesalers as a brewing craft related tagline. This could be for legal or political reasons or for avoiding potential negative connotations associated with consuming beer. However, malt beverage term is also applied to several other flavored drinks from malted grains. Marketing Malt Beverage products has substantially increased in recent years in the United States.

Malt Beverages & Fermented Drinks

Malt Beverages & Fermented Drinks

Benefits of Malt Beverages

Malt Beverages contain concentrated extract from barley grain which is used for adding flavor & texture to beer. Along with barley extract come minerals, vitamins & amino acids in beer which feature several potential benefits. Malt extract is rich in B vitamins which eventually help in regulating appetite alongside promoting good vision and keeping the skin healthy.

Malt extract is also a good source of essential amino acids which the body essentially needs for making proteins. Moreover, malt extracts can additionally contain calcium, phosphorous & magnesium which are important minerals that make up the primary structure of bones.

Considering Malt Extract Beverages

Although malt extract beverages like Beer offer nutritional benefits they may not be a significant factor promoting health. However, it is okay to include such Malt Beverages in the regimen, but care should be taken to be consumed as part of an overall healthy diet so that nutritional requirements of the body get fulfilled from a variety of sources.

This is in fact essential as even malt extract beverages which are promoted as rich source of nutrients are still high in sugar but low in protein.

Full-Bodied, Sweet & Fruity Ale

Full-Bodied, Sweet & Fruity Ale

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Full-Bodied, Sweet & Fruity Ale

Ale is basically a type of beer which uses the warm fermentation process so as to give a full-bodied, sweet and fruity taste to the drink. Typically, a bittering agent is added to Ale in order to balance the sweetness of malt and which also acts as a preservative at the same time.

Original Ale was made bitter with gruit boiled in wort prior to fermentation but has subsequently replaced by hops. Ale today is typically fermented at temperatures ranging between 15 to 24 degrees centigrade.

Full-Bodied, Sweet & Fruity Ale

Full-Bodied, Sweet & Fruity Ale

Varieties of Ale

There are many varieties of Ale, some of which are enumerated below.

  • Brown Ale – Brown Ale is lightly hopped and mildly flavored with a nutty taste. Usually containing between 3 to 5 percent alcohol, Brown Ale is quite sweet and first appeared in early 1900s. Some of the most popular Brown Ales are Manns Brown Ale, Newcastle Brown Ale and Pete’s Wicked Ale which is much hoppy.
  • Pale Ale – Pale Ale beer is made from malt dried with coke. Customers often refer it as bitter beer while breweries designate it as pale Ale. However, cask beers are usually identified as bitter beer and bottled beers as Pale Ale.
  • India Pale Ale – When Bow Brewery in England exported Pale Ale to India during the nineteenth century, it benefited immensely from the duration of voyage and was highly regarded by consumers. Extra hops are added to India Pale Ale which acts as a natural preservative.
  • Golden Ale – Quite similar to Pale Ale with notable differences, Golden Ale was originally developed for younger people. Golden Ale is paler and brewed with lager or low-temperature ale malts. Alcohol strength of Golden Ale ranges between 3.5 to 5.3 percent and is served at colder temperatures.
  • Scotch Ale – Scotland produces a full range of ales which are malty, strong and amber to dark red in color. Malt used for Scotch Ale are slightly caramelized in order to impart toffee notes. Scotch Ale is sweeter, darker and less hoppy than English beers.
  • Mild Ale – Quite opposite of Old Ale, Mild Ale is not aged. While Mild Ale can be any color or strength and typically with 3 to 3.5 percent alcohol, it is most often dark brown and low in strength. The best example of light colored Mild Ale is Bank’s Mild.
  • Burton Ale – Burton Ale is dark, strong and sweet and is quite often used as stock ale for blending younger beers. Good examples of Burton Ale are Bass No. 1 and Fullers 1845 Celebration Ale which is a modern example.
  • Old Ale – Originally Old Ale was a strong beer which was traditionally kept for about a year in order to gain sharp acetic flavors. However, Old Ale now refers to medium-strong dark beers which are treated so as to resemble traditional Old Ale.
  • Belgian Ale – There are a wide variety of specialty Ales which are produced in Belgium. However, all Belgian Ales are high in alcohol content but relatively light in body. Belgian ale is more digestible due to the fact that it is substituted with sucrose which boosts up alcohol without addition of any un-fermentable material to finished product.
Lager & Hybrid Beers

Lager & Hybrid Beers

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Lager & Hybrid Beers

Lager beer is one of the most consumed beers on planet earth. Ripped apart by mass production techniques focused on reducing costs alongside jettisoning concern for taste, Lager Beer is easily dismissed as style. Nevertheless, Lager Beers are usually crisp & refreshing like the ones of Helles or Pilsner style.

Along with these, there is an exciting variety of other Lager Beers including Schwarzbiers, Marzens, Bocks, Vienna Lagers, & Dunkels which adorn bars. Lager Beers are interestingly pure, veritably clean and bear unique aromas & flavors and are not just fizzy yellow water as thought. Make your day and try some great lagers like Cumberland Breweries Irish Lager, Mittenwalder Microbrewery or German juggernaut of Augustiner.

Hybrid Beers Made with Lager Yeasts

Hybrid Beers are another interesting category of beverages which are made using lager yeasts but are fermented at ale temperatures. Some of the most popular examples of Hybrid Beers include Steam Beers, Cream Ales, Altbiers & Kolsch. Moreover, these styles are delightfully easy to drink and bear varying degrees of bitterness & maltiness, Kolsch is an interesting flavor which has a wine-like character.

Steam Beers on the other hand have a noticeably clean finish. While Anchor Steam is the world’s quintessential steam bear, great example of Kolsch is produced by Fruh & Altbier by Schlosser in Germany.

Lager & Hybrid Beers

Lager & Hybrid Beers

Origin of Lager Beer

Lager Beer originated in parts of the Austrian Empire which is now recognized as the Czech Republic. Since this region is conditioned at low temperatures, breweries normally churn out beers which are pale, golden, amber or dark. Typically, one of the most defining features of Lager Beer is maturation in cold storage which is primarily distinguished by a specific type of yeast.

However, it is also possible to use lager yeast in warm fermentation processes like they are in American Steam Beer, lack of cold temperatures preclude these beers from classified as Lager Beer.

Lager Beer in the United Kingdom

Term Lager Beer in United Kingdom specifically refers to pale lagers and most of which are derived from Pilsner style. Pale lagers throughout the world are widely consumed and commercially available. These Lager Beers are primarily known by brand names and simply labeled as beer.

Some of the well-known brand names of Lager Beer include Carlsberg, Foster’s, Carling, Heineken, Kirin Company, Tsingtao, Snow, Corona, Budweiser Budvar, Brahma, Beck’s, Stella Artois, Miller, & Pilsner Urquell.

Taste & Flavor of Beer

Taste & Flavor of Beer

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Taste & Flavor of Beer

After water and tea, beer is the most widely consumed alcoholic drink in the world. Brewed from cereal grains like malted barley, corn, wheat and rice; the fermentation process of starch sugars in Wort produce ethanol and carbonation in beer. Modern beer is now brewed with hops that add flavor and bitterness to the drink while acting as a preservative and stabilizing agent at the same time.

Other flavoring agents which are used in some types of beer include herbs or fruits in place of hops. The natural carbonation effect is quite often removed in commercial brewing and replaced with reinforced carbonation.

Beer Strength & Distribution

Distributed in bottles and cans, beer is available in pubs and bars, even on draught. Consisting of numerous multinational companies and thousands of small producers ranging from brewpubs to local breweries, the beer brewing industry is now a global business. Alcoholic strength of most modern beer ranges between 4 to 6 percent by volume and may in some types vary between 0.5 percent 20 percent.

Some breweries have also created beer examples of 40 percent alcohol strength and above. Beer is a part of social culture in many nations across the world and is associated with traditional beer festivals and rich pub culture activities like pub games, pub crawling and bar billiards.

Taste & Flavor of Beer

Taste & Flavor of Beer

One of the Oldest Prepared Beverages

Yes, dating back to the early 9500 BC, beer is one of the world’s oldest prepared beverages where farming cereals had just begun. It is also speculated that beer was instrumental in formation of civilizations. In many parts of the world workers were even paid with beer. Beer in such situations served as both, nutrition and refreshment.

Beer spread through Europe by Celtic and Germanic tribes as back as 3000 BC, and was largely brewed on domestic scale. Along with the main starch source, early European beers quite often contained honey, fruits, spices, types of plants and other narcotic substances as well. Hops however are a later addition.

Commercial Production of Beer

As of now, total global annual beer production is 1.96 billion hectoliters and where China leads with 460 million hectoliters to be followed by USA consuming over 189 million hectoliters. Some of the most common types of beers circulating the commercial market today are Ale, Lager, Stout, Pilsner, Pale Ale, Porter, Wheat Beer and Bitter Beer.

After all, tastes vary and beer types are normally rated in accordance with the taste, alcohol content, complexity and popularity.

Fruit Beer is More Than Just Beer

Fruit Beer is More Than Just Beer – 1

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Fruit Beer is a generic term which is used for flavored beer. However, some breweries actually use real veggies or fruits, while others extract processed flavor or extract in order to give the desired effect.

Fruit Beer is usually ales which are normally unbalanced and less ale character to them. Malt flavor in Fruit Beer is typically hidden with low bitterness of hops in order to allow the vegetable or fruit character to dominate.

Making of Fruit Beer

While beer itself is one of the most diverse alcoholic drinks in the world, opportunities for flavoring the beverage do not just come from yeast, malt & hops. There are plenty of other ingredients which can be added to the making of beer including items like wits, fruits & spices which go in the making of Floris Beer.

Floris Beer unlike Lambics, is brewed normally prior to being blended with fruit juices which are added along with all types of exciting flavors.

Beer photo

Multiple Stage Fermentation Process for Fruit Beer

All types of Lambic beers like Flemish Old Brown Beer, Belgian Amber & Belgian Golden Ale usually go through a multi-stage fermentation procedure. Sugar is typically added and the beer is re-fermented on wooden casks after first fermentation of the wort. Subsequently, fruit, fruit juice or fruit syrup is added to the first brew and re-fermented.

Beers made in this way are termed as Fruit Beers or Fruit Lambics depending upon the type of first brew. However, beers that add fruit lemonade or fruit syrup after the final stage of fermentation as flavoring are not Fruit Beers but are known as ‘Radlers’ or ‘Shandy’ in the United Kingdom.

Fruit Beer in Belgium

Beer made with added fruits as flavor or an adjunct is popularly known as Lambics in Belgium. Original Lambics Fruit Beer is produced in the valley of Zenne, which is around Brussels in Belgium, but is now also copied in many other parts of the world.

This popular beer is re-fermented with cherries in order to make Kriek or fermented with raspberries so as to make Framboise.