Beer is the world's oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic beverage and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal grains—the most common of which is malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), and rice are widely used. Most beer is flavored with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural preservative, though other flavorings such as herbs or fruit may occasionally be included. Alcoholic beverages distilled after fermentation, fermented from non-starch sources such as grape juice (wine) or honey (mead), or fermented from un-malted starches (rice wine) are not classified as beer. Some of humanity's earliest known writings refer to the production and distribution of beer: the Code of Hammurabi included laws regulating beer and beer parlours, and "The Hymn to Ninkasi," a prayer to the Mesopotamian goddess of beer, served as both a prayer and as a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people. Today, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. The basics of brewing beer are shared across national and cultural boundaries and are commonly categorized into two main types — the globally popular pale lagers, and the regionally distinct ales, which are further categorised into other varieties such as pale ale, stout and brown ale. The strength of beer is usually around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume (abv.) though may range from less than 1% abv., to over 20% abv. in rare cases. Beer forms part of the culture of various beer-drinking nations and has acquired various social traditions and associations, such as beer festivals and a rich pub culture involving activities such as pub crawling or pub games such as bar billiards.
edit The Beer WikiProject
WikiProject Beer is an association of Wikipedians with an interest in beer and beer-related subjects. They have come together to coordinate the development of beer and brewery articles here on Wikipedia. Additionally, other groups have formed other projects that entertain subjects that are directly related to beer, bartending and pubs. Additionally, the mixed drinks project covers topics that include beer cocktails. If any of these subjects pique your interest, please feel free to visit their projects. These groups would love you to have you participate!
| Gruit (or sometimes grut) is an old fashioned herb mixture used for bittering and flavouring beer, before the extensive use of hops. Gruit or gruit ale may also refer to the beverage produced using gruit. Gruit was a combination of herbs, some of the most common being mildly to moderately narcotic: sweet gale (Myrica gale), mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), heather (Calluna vulgaris) and Marsh Labrador Tea (Rhododendron tomentosum, formerly known as Ledum palustre). Gruit varied somewhat, each gruit producer adding additional herbs to produce unique tastes, flavours, and effects. Other adjunct herbs were juniper berries, ginger, caraway seed, aniseed, nutmeg, and cinnamon or even hops in variable proportions; many of these ingredients may have psychotropic properties too. Some gruit ingredients are known now to have preservative qualities. Some traditional types of unhopped beers such as sahti in Finland, which is spiced with juniper berries,and twigs, have survived the advent of hops, although gruit itself hasn't. The 1990s microbreweries movement in the USA and Europe has seen a renewed interest for unhopped beers and quite a few have tried their hand at reviving ales brewed with gruits, or plants that once were used in it. Notorious current commercial example would be, to name but a few, Fraoch (using heather flowers, sweet gale and ginger) and Alba (using pine twigs and spruce buds) from Williams Brothers in Scotland, Myrica (using sweet gale) from O'Hanlons in England, Gageleer (also using sweet gale) from Proefbrouwerij in Belgium, and the Cervoise from Lancelot in Brittanny (using a gruit containing heather flowers, spices and some hops). |
Arthur Guinness
b. 24 September 1725 – d. 23 January 1803
Arthur Guinness was an Irish brewer and the founder of the Guinness Brewery business and family. The Guinness family, though Protestants, claimed descent from the Magennis Gaelic Catholic clan of County Down in the 1600s, but recent DNA evidence instead suggests descent from the McCartans, another County Down clan. His father was land steward for the Archbishop of Cashel, Dr. Arthur Price, and may have brewed beer for the other workers on the estate. In his will, Dr. Price left £100 each to the Guinnesses.Arthur leased a brewery in Leixlip in 1755, brewing ale. Five years later he left his younger brother in charge of that enterprise and moved on to another in St. James' Gate, Dublin, at the end of 1759. By 1767 he was the master of the Dublin Corporation of Brewers. His first actual sales of porter were listed on tax (excise) data from 1778, and it seems that other Dublin brewers had experimented in brewing porter beer from the 1760s. His major achievement was in expanding his brewery in 1797–99. Thereafter he brewed only porter and employed members of the Purser family who had brewed porter in London from the 1770s. The Pursers became partners in the brewery for most of the 1800s. By his death in 1803 the annual brewery output was over 20,000 barrels. |
Pete's Brewing Company was founded by homebrewer Pete Slosberg in 1986. Its major product line is Pete's Wicked Ale, an American Brown Ale that is 5.3% alcohol by volume. The company was acquired by the Gambrinus Company in 1998, a corporation that primarily imports beers such as Corona from Mexico and Moosehead from Canada. In 2004, Pete's Brewing Company was number 42 in America for sales by volume.
Slosberg was one of the pioneers of the craft beer movement in America, along with others such as Jim Koch of Samuel Adams and Larry Bell of the Kalamazoo Brewing Company, now Bell's Brewery Inc. These upstart brewers committed to using all-malt recipes, and to highlighting the hoppy flavors in their beers. Their approach stands in contrast to the larger U.S. breweries, which commonly use adjuncts such as corn and rice and downplay the role of hop flavor and bitterness in their products. The signature product has been largely responsible for establishing the American Brown Ale as a commercially viable beer style and category for beer competitions.
Newcastle Brown Ale
Produced by Scottish and Newcastle
Newcastle Brown Ale is a brand of dark brown ale. It has been brewed in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, since 1927 by Newcastle Breweries, now a part of Scottish and Newcastle. Newcastle Brown Ale has been granted Protected Geographical Indication status by the EU.In August 2005, Scottish and Newcastle closed the Tyne Brewery, the last consignment of Brown Ale having been brewed in April of that year.[1] Production was moved across the river to the former Federation Brewery in Gateshead. Newcastle Brown Ale had originally been granted Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status by the EU. Since Scottish and Newcastle moved production outside of the city its PGI has been removed. In Newcastle, the beer is often called 'Dog' (or simply 'Broon'). The 'Dog' name comes from the euphemism "I'm going to walk the dog" - meaning "I'm going to the pub" - and was further popularised by a 1980s advertising campaign. It is often referred to as Newcy Brown Newcastle Brown Ale is traditionally sold in England by the pint (20 fl oz, 568 ml) and more recently in 500 ml (17.6 fl oz, 0.88 pint) bottles. Typically the ale is consumed from a 12 fl oz 'Wellington' glass. This allows the drinker to regularly top-up the beer and thereby maintain a frothy 'head'. In the United States, it is sold in standard 12 fl oz (355 ml) bottles. It is also available in 550ml bottles. |
| “ | Water is drank by the four legged beast; man prefers it with hops, malts, and yeast. | ” | |
German Trinkspruch |
| Credit: Jérôme Sautret (Zubro) |
Budweiser Budvar beer (Czechoslovakia).
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