Beer is one of the world’s most popular adult beverages, brewed and consumed on every continent and in hundreds of nations. It is universal in appeal, being served in the world’s finest restaurants, at sporting events, and in neighborhood taverns. Beer is made in dozens of unique styles, ranging from dark to light, strong to mild, simple to complex, and sublime to absurd. This is a brief Beer 101 to
Yes, I did intentionally say “absurd,” and now I will likely get into hot water with many modern beer devotees. When I look at the entire adult beverage world, I see trends and fads occurring and evolving year to year and decade to decade. In sum, the evolution of wine and spirits is positive, save for a few annoying developments. I wish that I could say the same for beer. I would love to turn the clock backward on beer to the 1990s, hovering there with slow, gradual tweaking and a few true innovations.
Years ago, I wrote an article on shifting beer styles. In 1995, IPA was defined as having an alcohol strength between 5 and 7.5% alcohol-by-volume (ABV) and an international bitterness unit (IBU) value of 40 to 60. By 2014, the American-style IPA was defined as a whopping 50 to 70 IBU, and ABV levels had risen to 6.3 to 7.6%. So, what was a moderately hopped and potent IPA in 1995 is now a minimum for the style. Furthermore, the variety of hops — some quite subtle, others tasting like chewing on a pinecone — changed from classic, moderate British hops to potent American West Coast varieties. I love garlic, but if every dish at a restaurant is loaded with garlic, I will likely never return.
The classic beers have been buried and forgotten without even a proper send-off. Despite the exploding popularity of American Whiskey, I can still walk into any self-described Whiskey bar and ask for a Speyside Single Malt, only to be presented with a list of options. Despite the explosion of New World Sauvignon Blanc, I can walk into most wine bars and ask for a Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc and be presented with an option. But if I walk into a dedicated beer bar with triple-digit options and ask for a British ESB, they will look at me as if I have three heads.
It’s a matter of taste, and tastes have surely changed. The “American palate” has been sweeter than the European palate for some time. Eurocentric wine professionals used to deride the American palate as being raised on Coca-Cola. In some respects, they were right, but it was an exaggeration.
So, what do we say about a generation raised on Starbucks drinks? Coffee was always an adult drink, seen as too bitter for a child’s palate. So, they shifted the coffee/caffeine delivery system to sweet, dessert-style drinks. How about an Iced White Chocolate Mocha, a Pumpkin Spice Latte, or a Lemon Bar Creme Frappuccino to wake you up? (Yes, these are all real drinks. I wish I were making it up.) The target audience for these drinks was the same crowd turning up at their local taproom to sample the new IPA. This IPA had better not resemble the IPAs of the twentieth century or earlier; it better have Frappuccino appeal. In my view, that’s how we got here, and I’m pretty sure that there is no going back — heavy sigh.
All beverage categories have been impacted by the Starbucks phenomenon, but beer has taken the biggest hit. While spirits categories expand to include chocolate Vodka and peanut butter Whiskey, the core of the classic styles and brands remains intact and strong. Wine has seen growth in sweet categories, but the siren song of classic, dry styles often wins out over time among sweet wine drinkers. Of course, there are flavored seltzers that have no allegiance to style and no history to guide them. It’s purely an alcohol delivery system.
Beer has been infiltrated on all fronts. First, all styles became heavily hopped. An American-style Kolsch became a pale ale without the classic yeast character, with a heavy dose of hops, rather than the subtle anointment of hop aromas and flavors.
Beer – Just Four Basic Ingredients
Beer, in its many different styles and strengths, is based on a very simple recipe: water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. With just these four ingredients, you can produce an amazing array of world-class Beer styles. See our Beer Styles section to see the BevX take on Beer styles.
Water
While this ingredient may seem rather simple and perhaps universal, water is a vital factor in Beer’s flavor. While that may initially seem like a “geeky” concern and evoke a “water is water” response, many of us can make sense of it by looking at the bottled water craze of the past decade plus. The fancy bottled water that fills our grocery shelves and restaurant menus often lists its respective mineral content and other stats, including pH. The mineral content of brewing water greatly affects the subsequent beer, often providing defining characteristics. The mineral composition of water affects Beer primarily in two ways. One, hard water and soft water simply taste different and have a distinct texture in the mouth. Two, yeasts that produce beer eat more than just the sugars that are converted to alcohol. Yeasts feed on trace minerals in the brewing water, which can affect their health and vigor. Healthy, long-lived yeast eats more sugars, producing more alcohol and minimizing any trace sugars and sweetness in the beer. Water is not just water.
Malt
Malt is the vital ingredient in Beer. It provides the essential sugars that are converted to alcohol, and it provides the majority of flavor. Malt is the grape equivalent when comparing Beer to Wine. Malt is made from grain, primarily barley, with wheat as a secondary ingredient. Unlike grapes, which are ready to go straight off the vine, grains must be coaxed, albeit naturally, in order for their fermentable sugars to become accessible. A grain or seed has all it needs to produce a plant. We all remember grade school experiments with raw seeds placed on damp cloths in Petri dishes. We watched the seed swell, then sprout, giving life to a plant. This infant plant was fed from sugars present in the grain as complex starches until warm, damp conditions triggered a conversion known as germination. Malting is a simple process in which grains are steeped in warm, damp conditions until germination begins, then quickly but carefully dried, locking the sugars inside. At this point, you have the most basic type of malt, often called pale malt, which is the base of almost every malt Beer. (Most commercial beers are made with cheaper and inferior materials known as adjuncts.) At this point ,the malt producer can choose to kiln the malt to deeper, darker colors ranging from light copper to black. These darker malts have varying colors, flavors, and aromas. By doing thi,s malt producers create a wide range of malts that in turn allow the brewer to create a wide range of Beer styles.
Hops
Hops are believed to have first been used in the production of Beer in the 11th century. However, hops are very versatile and have been cultivated in Germany since the mid-700s. Hops shoots when young are a tasty culinary treat, hop oils are commonly used in soaps and shampoos, and the blossoms have medicinal properties. For the brewer, hops contribute aroma, bitterness, and preservative properties to Beer. In proper measure, hops contribute a mildly bitter edge to the sweet malt flavors found in many Beers while also offering distinct aromas ranging from floral and citrus to earthy (common to native English varieties). Like grapes, there are many unique hop varieties. Hops are typically classified by their bittering and aromatic properties. Hop bitterness is expressed as a measure of the hop’s alpha acids. (Alpha acids of 10 and higher are quite bitter, while those of 3 to 5 are mild.)
Yeast
The influence of yeast on both Wine and Beer was not fully understood by the first producers of these beverages. Wild yeasts present on grape skins and naturally airborne yeasts performed their magic without the interference of man. In some cases, such as Lambic in Belgium, Beer is still produced by allowing the sweet malt water to be affected by the yeasts floating in the surrounding air. In most cases, brewers are very careful to keep their “wort” (the sweet malt water created by steeping malt in hot water) away from outside air and to inoculate it with a yeast strain of their choosing. Like malt and hops, there are wide different varieties of yeast that fall into one of two basic families, Ale or Lager. Today, a brewer can order specific yeast from a laboratory that specializes in keeping and propagating yeast for use in the brewing and winemaking industry. Many large brewers maintain on-site labs to keep their yeast strains healthy and ready for action.
Do you want to better understand beer? May we suggest Be A Beverage Expert (BABE), a guide to understanding wine, beer, spirits, and cocktails.