Have you ever heard about beer revolution? If not then you
should, because it is happening right now and it will affect your tastes! So
why this is a big deal? Surely you have seen or at least heard about so many
different wines, probably even tasted some. However with beer there is a pretty
good chance that you have tried just a small drop in the ocean of its types. Only
recently we have seen a huge boom in the variety and widespread of craft beers.
With that came growing popularity and interest in the topic of beers in general.
Now let me walk you through the most important facts you should know about the beer.
Now let me walk you through the most important facts you should know about the beer.
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| Apart from taste beers also differ in colour |
Let’s start with the basics. How beer is made? Well… It is
not black magic. In fact you can prepare your own homebrew beer with ease.
You’ll just need few widely available ingredients, casual kitchen equipment,
one large tank and a bit of time. I have prepared short recipe if you’d like to
experiment on your own. Just be aware that brewing is easy to learn but hard to
master.
Ingredients: Barley or malt extract (preferred), hops,
yeast, water, sugar
Equipment: Stove, pot, bottle filter, resting tank, thermometer
Step by step:
1. Make sure you have all of your equipment clean
and ready. Use sanitizer on resting tank, as all leftover microorganism can
spoil your beer!
2.
Pour 4 liters of mineral water into a pot and
bring it to boil
3.
Turn off the heat and carefully stir the malt
preventing it from touching bottom of the pot
4.
Once the malt has dissolved turn on the stove,
add hops and boil it for 30 minutes
5.
Pour 15 litters of cold mineral water to resting
tank and mix it with created wort. Let the temperature drop to 21-24°C
6.
Now mix yeast with warm water and sugar in a
bowl (you can use honey too!)
7.
(Optional) Add other ingredients, such as pieces
of fruits or spices
8.
Pour the mixture to the resting tank, seal it and
shake for as long as you can
9.
Let it ferment for about 2-3 weeks in the room
temperature
10. Attach bottle filter and enjoy your own beer!
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| Commercial production of beer is a bit more complex, as malt extract is usually replaced with raw barley, which first needs to be processed. |
Now we’ll take a look at the most popular categories. Please
note that this is just a glimpse and huge generalization of the vast variety of
beers. However this will be more than enough to make you feel much more
confident in this topic:
Ales Family – warm
fermentation beers. Have full-bodied, aromatic tastes and are generally bitter
to balance sweetness of the malt.
Pale Ale – Has very fruity aroma and surprisingly strong
bitterness. Usually is heavy and full-bodied in taste. Currently Pale Ale is
the symbol of “craft beer revolution”, as the variety of its different subtypes
has exploded in recent years. The most famous are IPA (India Pale Ale) and APA
(American Pale Ale).
Types: Bitters, Imperial, IPA,
APA, AIPA
Porter & Stout – History of both types are intertwined and features
are very similar. Taste is very unique and description may be just a rough
approximation. However what makes them stand out is very dark and heavy texture.
You can feel intensive flavor of milk, oatmeal, chocolate, coffee or even
smoke. Undisputed king and the best example of stouts is the Guinness.
Types: RIS (Russian Imperial
Stout), Baltic, Dry, Sweet, Oatmeal
Wheat – Traditionally comes from Bavaria and is made by replacing
significant amounts of barley with wheat. When it comes to texture it is rather
light or medium-bodied. Taste may vary but you can spot some bitter orange,
banana, coriander or cloves flavors.
Types: Hefeweizen, Dunkelweizen,
Witbier
Belgian – As the name suggest it comes from Belgium, where beer is
an integral part of the culture. Long traditions and mastership of brewing
has made them create unique recipes. There are nearly 1600 different beers
produced in Belgium every year! That’s why it is so hard to generalize as the tastes
are very rich and complex. One thing that Belgian types have in common are their
peach flavors.
Types: Lambic, Saison, Quadrupel,
Trippel, Blonde
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| Ales have very hoppy aroma, which adds noticeable bitterness to balance the sweetness of the malt |
Lagers Family – cool
fermentation beers, which have their roots in Germany and Czech Republic. The
word lager originally comes from German: “lagern” and Czech: “ležák“, both meaning „to store“.
They are much ligher in body than ales, usually have delicate taste and should
be served in low temperatures.
Pale – Currently most popular beer type in the world. Typically very
light, has fresh malt backbone and noticeable hop aroma. Unfortunately, due to
huge commercialization process of breweries around the world, the most popular beer
subtype is IPL (International Pale Lager) which has poor quality and very mild,
sometimes even watery taste.
Types: Pilsner, International,
American, Märzen, Bock
Dark – Darker in taste and color than Pale. Has strong roasted
malt texture and higher alcohol concentration. Some of more full-bodied beers may
be very similar in taste to stouts.
Types: Dunkel, Doppelbock,
Schwarzbier
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| Lagers should have delicate sweet aroma coming from the malt, which is broken down by yeast into a sugar |
Questions:
- Have you ever tried brewing your own craft beer?
- Do you prefer to spend more money on craft beer or less on popular international light lager?
- What is your favorite beer type and which one would you like to try?
Sources:
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/beginner/how-to-make-beer/
Comments
I'm not a great fan of beer, so I'm rather not buying one on my own. When I drink beer it is usual something popular, but sometimes I'm with a person who wants to show me something new and it may be a craft beer, they "discovered" recently.
In case of buying beers, I rather tend to buy popular ones, I don't consider myself a beer passionate and I don't think that craft beers are that better to spend so much money on them. Of course I buy them from time to time to check the taste of particular ones, but on regular basis I stick to the popular brands.
I think my favourite type of beer is Pale or Pale Ale, I have to try some Belgian beers, because I'm not really familiar with them, but their desciption really intrigued me. ;)
The main case with craft beer revolution is not its hipster tastes, but high availability and consistency with beer style. Nevertheless, I get that most of us are not yet convinced to the idea of buying such products for more money.
I definitely prefer to buy one good beer instead of four regular ones. I never enjoyed drinking beer quantitatively, so craft beers are definitely something I prefer.
I am open to basically every type of craft beer, but my favourites are dark beers with delicate flavor of whiskey or bourbon, fruity sours, citrus IPA's and milkey/chocolatey stouts. But really, I'll try all of them.
I really enjoy going to bars where you can get a beer platter, basically you can get many different, smaller beers instead of one big. I often do that, try each one and then order a regular sized one that was my favorite.
Nice to hear that you enjoy drinking dark beers with honey, these are really good combination. Just be aware that both honey and full-bodied beers have very high calorie count.
I prefer to spend more money on craft beer, cuz it's like another world with its own process. I like only light beer, because it is not so strong and you need more to get drunk.
When there is an option to try a new kind of beer I always do it. I don't really like normal beers from markets.
My favourite type of beer is a dark one. I try to find one with a honey flavour. Unfortunately I haven't found it yet.
It's not a problem for me to spend more money for better beer. I'm not a great fan of beer but I like to drink it sometimes. I like to find new tastes.
Hmm, I have tried a dark beer and it was too intensive for me. I prefer light beers.
I drink about 1 beer a month so I prefer quality over quantity.
I love APA and Baltic Porter and about beer that I want to try... I have no idea. Maybe Lambic?
I spend less money on popular Polish, German, Czech brown beer. I think I can buy a good bottle of brown beer just for 5-6 PLN.
I love brown beer the best, maybe the second place is for light beer and I hate bitter ale. I've tried differend tastes of beer because I love it.
As to how much i spend on beer is determined by 2 factors what occasion im drinking too and what i feel like - taste wise - today. I dont mind spending more on fine beer if it tastes good for me.
I would like to try Anchorage Galaxy a white IPA, but its extreamly hard to get your hands on one or six.
Home beer or beer, which was created at a private brewery, is much nicer than beer in the store. Because the store beer seems me like urine. Radler beer with various fruits is very good. In addition, I like red beer in which the egg is added. Nevertheless, there is the beer with honey and other additives. Perhaps these kinds of things I could drink without harm to myself. I think I'd like to try a real ale. It would be an interesting experience.
2) That depends on situation. If i'm to have a chillout evening then craft beers but when i'm at a party then i'd buy a few normals.
3) There was a beer that i liked it was called Bojan black ipa.
I usually prefer to spend more money on craft beer, especially if I know that I won’t be able to find in supermarket.
My favorite type of beer is definitely Pale Ale, to be honest it’s the only type of craft beer that I order.
However when I drink more than 2 beers, I choose the more popular ones for example Żywiec, Tyskie, Ciechan etc. To be honest, I don't have my favorite kind of beer. It depends on the day. Recently I chose stronger and darker ones.