Beer For Dummies

Part I

Getting a Taste of Beer

In this part . . .

They say you have to learn to walk before you can run, so before you run to your local beer retailer, it may be a good idea if you walked through this part. This part is where the mysteries of beer are unraveled: what beer is made of and how it’s made. These chapters lay out the basics you need to be comfortable as you pursue your new hobby — that is, beer drinking.

Chapter 1

Drink Up! Beginning with Beer Basics

In This Chapter

arrow Building beer from the ground up

arrow Checking out a variety of beer styles

arrow Buying and enjoying beer in different ways

arrow Taking a worldwide tour of beer

arrow Making your own brews

To most people, beer is a simple, one-dimensional product that serves two primary purposes: as an antidote for thirst and as an inexpensive, easy-to-obtain intoxicant. (One’s viewpoint is often determined by one’s age.) In American culture, beer has generally been considered a blue-collar beverage, undeserving of respect or a rightful place on your dinner table.

From a more worldly perspective, particularly in those countries known for their brewing expertise, beer is an unpretentious — but respected — socially accepted libation meant to be enjoyed on any occasion or at any time of day. It’s also produced in various flavors and regional styles that make it more conducive to comparative tasting and even (gasp!) enlightened discussion.

Historically speaking, beer was for the longest time a staple in the human diet, as well as the respected handicraft of the local brewer. Beer was not only a means of refreshment but also an important source of vitamins and nutrients in a form that was happily ingested and easily digested. Looking far beyond written history, beer has also been theoretically linked with the civilization and socialization of mankind. Impressive, no?

In this chapter, I give you an introductory tour of the wonderful world of beer: its ingredients, its styles, its uses, and much more. Enjoy!

tip.eps One of the side benefits of the current beer craze is the profusion of websites you can visit in search of good information about beer. Notice that I said good information; plenty of bad information is out there, too. To make sure you get lots of the good and none of the bad, here are just a few sites you can rely on for trustworthy and timely beer info:

check.png www.beerinfo.com

check.png www.beerme.com

check.png www.brewersassociation.org

check.png www.craftbeer.com

check.png www.realbeer.com

Introducing Beer’s Building Blocks

So what is beer exactly? By excruciatingly simple definition, beer is any fermented beverage made with a cereal grain. Specifically, beer is made from these four primary ingredients:

check.png Grain (mostly malted barley but also other grains)

check.png Hops (grown in many different varieties)

check.png Yeast (responsible for fermentation; based on style-specific strains)

check.png Water (accounts for up to 95 percent of beer’s content)

Grain provides five things to beer:

check.png Color: The color of the grains used to make a beer directly affects the color of the beer itself.

check.png Flavor: The flavor of the beer is primarily that of malted barley, although hops and yeast characteristics play a secondary role.

check.png Maltose: Maltose is the term for the fermentable sugars derived from malted grain. Yeast converts these sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

check.png Proteins: Proteins in the grain help form and hold the head (foam) on the beer.

check.png Dextrins: Dextrins are the grain components that help create mouthfeel (the feeling of fullness or viscosity) in the beer.

beernut_beer.eps Archaeologists and anthropologists have helped shed some light on the development of beer around the world. Evidence of beer making throughout the millennia has been found on six of the seven continents on earth (no harvest in Antarctica). Wherever grains grew wildly, the indigenous people made a beer-like beverage with them. Here are some examples:

check.png Asians used rice.

check.png Mesopotamians used barley.

check.png Northern Europeans used wheat.

check.png Americans used corn.

check.png Africans used millet and sorghum.

Over time, beer makers discovered that barley lent itself best to beer making, with the other grains playing a lesser role.

Hops provide beer with four attributes:

check.png Bitterness: Bitterness is essential to the flavor balance of the beer; it offsets the sweetness of the malt.

check.png Flavor: Hops have flavor that’s distinctly different from bitterness, and it adds to the overall complexity of the beer.

check.png Aroma: The piquant aroma of hops, which mirrors their flavor, is derived from essential oils in the hops.

check.png Stability: Hops help provide the beer with stability and shelf life; their beta acids stave off bacterial contamination.

Brewers choose yeast strains based on which style of beer is being made (see the next section for an introduction to beer styles). The two main classifications of beer yeast are

check.png Ale yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae): Top-fermenting

check.png Lager yeast (Saccharomyces uvarum): Bottom-fermenting

The quality of brewing water is extremely important because beer is about 90 to 95 percent water. The mineral content of water can be manipulated and adjusted according to the requirements of the beer style being brewed.

For additional information on beer ingredients, check out Chapter 2. See Chapter 3 to find out how these ingredients are magically turned into beer during the brewing process.

Surveying Different Styles of Beer

As a generic word, beer includes every style of fermented malt beverage, including ales and lagers and all the individual and hybrid styles that fall under this heading. I provide a quick introduction to major beer styles in the following sections; for greater detail, check out Chapter 4 and Appendix A.

tip.eps Within the realm of major beer categories, you find some truly special brews, such as real ale, barrel-aged and wood-aged beer, extreme beer, organic beer, gluten-free beer, and kosher beer. These kinds of beers don’t represent new or different beer styles, per se. Rather, they represent different ways of making and presenting beer. Chapters 5 through 8 provide insight into these beers.

Ales versus lagers

remember.eps The two major classifications of beer types are ale and lager. Every beer enthusiast should know some basic facts about these classifications:

check.png Ales are the ancient types of beer that date back into antiquity; lager beers are relatively new (only several hundred years old).

check.png Ales are fermented at relatively warm temperatures for short periods of time, while lagers are cold fermented for longer periods of time.

check.png Ales are fermented with top-fermenting yeasts (the yeasts float on top of the beer during fermentation), while lagers are fermented with bottom-fermenting yeasts (the yeasts sink to the bottom of the beer during fermentation).

Painless so far, right? Now to delve a little deeper: Within the ale and lager classifications, major beer style categories include Pale Ales and Brown Ales (in the ale family) and Pilsners and Dark Lagers (in the lager family). And the majority of major beer style categories include several different beer substyles. Here are just two examples of how this beer hierarchy plays out; many others are similar to these.

Hybrid and specialty beers

In addition to the two major beer classifications (ales and lagers), a third beer classification that’s an amalgam (more or less) of the first two is hybrid beers. Hybrid beers cross over ale and lager style guidelines. A beer fermented at cold temperatures, using an ale yeast, is an example of a hybrid, likewise for a beer that’s warm fermented, using lager yeast.

Specialty beers, on the other hand, are practically limitless. This unofficial style of beer covers a very wide range of brews that are hard to define, much less regulate. Typically, specialty beers are brewed to a classic style (such as Porter or Weizenbier) but with some new flavor added; some are made from unusual foods that are fermented. Guidelines are useless, and brewing anarchy rules the brewhouse. The rules-be-damned attitude is what makes specialty beers so fun to brew and drink.

Shopping for and Savoring Beer

With the ever-increasing number of flavorful beers being made at craft breweries, along with the growing bounty of beers imported from elsewhere, today’s beer consumers face monumental decisions every time they have to make a beer choice. The following sections provide pointers for buying, serving, tasting, dining with, and cooking with beer.

Buying beer

Beer is food. And like most foods, especially bread, beer is perishable and becomes stale over time, so the fresher the beer, the better it is. Therefore, beer consumers on the way to enlightenment want to consume beer that’s freshly made and has been handled properly to maintain freshness — particularly if it has no preservatives, as is the case with most good beers.

remember.eps Beer freshness has three enemies: time, heat, and light. Anything you can do to avoid buying beer that’s been mistreated (and to avoid mistreating it yourself) is done in the name of fresh, tasty beer. Check out Chapter 9 for the full scoop on buying beer wisely.

As with all beverages that contain alcohol, governments maintain strict control over the labeling of those beverages. Unfortunately, when it comes to beer, the labels don’t always help consumers understand what they’re really buying. Similarly, breweries take liberties when they market their beers; these marketing liberties also lead to confusion on the part of the consumer. Chapter 10 walks you through this minefield of label laws and liberties to help you make good beer-buying choices.

Serving and tasting beer

Serving and tasting beer don’t seem to be activities that require diligence, but, as a matter of fact, they do. Failing to properly serve a beer can have a measurable effect on your beer drinking pleasure.

tip.eps Here are some pointers for proper beer enjoyment:

check.png Make sure the beer is properly chilled or warmed, depending on the beer style. Most beers should be served around 42 degrees Fahrenheit. (Make sure the beer isn’t so cold that it numbs your tongue.) But some beers should be served lightly chilled or at room temperature.

check.png Always pour your beer into a drinking vessel. In other words, never drink straight from the can or bottle. Pouring your beer into a glass releases carbonation, which creates a head (and reduces its gassy bite) and brings out more of the beer’s aroma.

check.png Always make sure your beer glasses are properly cleaned and stored. Dirty, smelly glasses can ruin your beer and be a bad reflection on you.

For more tips on serving and tasting beer, have a look at Chapters 11 and 12.

Dining with beer

Where wine was once the preeminent beverage on dinner tables, it’s now being boldly challenged by the formerly blue-collar beverage called beer. People everywhere are discovering just how versatile and interesting beer is when you pair it with appropriate food choices.

tip.eps Here are a couple of simple rules to get you started:

check.png Think of the lager beer category as the white wine equivalent. When compared to ales, lagers have the following characteristics:

• Generally lighter in body and color

• Narrower flavor profile and a high degree of drinkability (that is, tend to appeal to a wider audience)

check.png Think of the ale category as the red wine equivalent. When compared to lagers, ales have these qualities:

• Typically darker

• Rounder, more robust, and more expressive

• Wider flavor profile and thus a lower drinkability (that is, tend to appeal to those with a more experienced beer palate)

remember.eps Just to keep you on your toes, keep in mind that these guidelines are really general — full-bodied Dark Lagers exist just as surely as do light Mild Ales.

Still curious about dining with beer? Turn to Chapter 13 to learn more about successful beer and food pairings.

Cooking with beer

Sure, cooking with beer has been a kitchen standard for eons — if you consider dumping a can of Olde Foamy into a pot of chili cooking with beer. With all the new and interesting beers in the market these days, chefs and gourmands have a newfound interest in beer, and they’re flexing their fun muscles in the kitchen.

tip.eps Intimidated by the thought of cooking with beer? Consider the following factors when choosing a beer for cooking purposes:

check.png Color: Beers brewed with a lot of dark grain, such as Stout and Porter, are likely to transpose their color to your meal — not an appetizing hue for fettuccine Alfredo or scrambled eggs.

check.png Level of sweetness (maltiness) versus level of bitterness (hoppiness): Malt is by far the predominant beer flavor in a recipe, but beer’s bitterness increases with reduction (that is, the decrease in volume caused by boiling). In general, go with a mild beer rather than a bold one and avoid highly hopped beers, such as some Pale Ales. Reserve the sweeter, heavier beers (such as Belgian Tripels or Scotch Ales) for dessert mixes and glazes. Note: As water and alcohol boil off, both the sweet and bitter flavors of the beer intensify.

check.png Other flavors: Beers are available in a wide variety of styles, many with flavors that aren’t traditionally associated with beer. You may encounter Fruit Beers, Chocolate Beers, Sour Beers, and Smoked Beers, among others. These flavored beers present many culinary possibilities in their own right, but they’re just not meant for use in the average recipe.

Undaunted? Chapter 14 has good info on this topic (and some great recipes!).

Taking a Tour of Beers around the Globe

Craft and artisanal beer has gotten so popular in the past several years that people are even organizing vacations and launching spontaneous jaunts in search of good beer. In the following sections, I introduce you to the beer scenes in North America, Europe, and other spots around the world. Make your way to Chapters 15, 16, and 17 for more about beer travel.

North America

Despite beer’s decidedly European roots, North American beer explorers don’t have to travel very far to find good beer. People can find lots to celebrate and explore in North American breweries, beer festivals, and brewery museums. With more than 2,000 craft brewers or brewpubs now plying their trade in the United States and Canada (more than 1,700 in the U.S. alone), you can find good beer just about everywhere. The majority of these craft brewers are brewpubs where you can sample the local brew while enjoying a good meal. The same can be said for the growing number of beer bars and gastropubs that continue to spring up in urban areas.

Europe, Asia, and beyond

Although beer wasn’t born in Europe, it grew up there and became the world’s most popular beverage because of European brewers. Commercial brewing has been serious business in Europe since the 12th century. Since then, it’s been a major European export to the rest of the world. Not just the beverage itself, but also European technology and expertise to make good beer have helped build the brewing industries in Asia and elsewhere.

tip.eps You can drink well in almost all European countries, but the crown jewels of beerdom are Germany (especially Munich and Bavaria as a whole), the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, and the Czech Republic. The pub culture in most of the major brewing nations is mostly intact, and a visit to practically any local bar is likely to yield a good beer discovery. In Germany, you can become overwhelmed by the sheer number of breweries that exist (Bavaria alone has more than 600), while beer trekkers in Belgium may get thoroughly bewildered by the variety of unusual beer styles served at any given bar.

Australia gets an honorable mention as a beer-drinking country, especially because it’s not in Europe. Despite the deep Anglo influence on the Australian brewing industry and an occasional well-made ale, it’s primarily a lager beer country-continent.

Japan, China, and Thailand owe their brewing successes to the Germans, who greatly influenced beer production and consumption in these Asian countries. In more recent years, however, the American craft-brewing industry has begun to attract interest in these Asiatic countries — especially Japan.

Brewing Your Own Beer

The world’s first beer producers (around 8,000 BC) made beer at home for personal (or communal) consumption; hence, homebrewing has been around since the beginning. This practice continued well into the Middle Ages, when beer making became more of a business, although homebrewing never stopped completely. In fact, brewing beer at home is what got thousands of Americans through 13 years of prohibition, when production of alcoholic beverages was against the law.

Homebrewing is also credited with sowing the seeds of the current craft beer renaissance. Many of today’s artisan brewers started brewing beer in their own homes before going pro. (It’s no coincidence that homebrewing became legal in 1979, and the craft beer movement began in the early 1980s.)

Ever dream about making your own beer at home? Well you may be surprised by how easy the process is — and how great the reward. All you need is access to a good equipment and ingredient supplier, good instruction (see Chapter 18), and some patience.

Chapter 2

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: Beer Ingredients

In This Chapter

arrow Getting to know beer’s building blocks

arrow Becoming hip to hops

arrow Adding other grains, sugars, and who knows what

Beer is made almost entirely of water. Expensive water. Water that’s been steeped, boiled, cooled, flavored, aged, pumped into a bunch of places, sealed inside a container, and finally shipped to you. But although water is the dominant ingredient, there’s a whole lot more to beer than just water. The taste and style of beer are profoundly affected by the individual ingredients used in the beer-making process, even though only four ingredients are absolutely necessary to make good beer. The fab four are:

check.png Barley

check.png Hops

check.png Yeast

check.png Water

These four ingredients form the basic foundation of beer (most fine beers are made only from these ingredients). This chapter explores the four main ingredients of beer and their contributions to that delicious brew. However, beer making isn’t without experimentation, and new and unique ingredients are now being used in brewing to explore different flavor possibilities. I also introduce you to some of those nontraditional ingredients that are used for better or worse by some brewmasters.

Barley: Cereal for Beer, Not for Breakfast

What comes to mind when you think of cereal grains? Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes, Wheat Chex, Quaker Oatmeal? You may be surprised to know that cereal grains (not the flakes, the grains) and many other grains can be used to make different kinds of beer. But the cereal grain that lends itself best to beer making is barley (shown in Figure 2-1).

Figure 2-1: Barley, a cereal grain, has natural starches that brewers convert into sugars that feed the yeast during the fermentation of beer.

Before barley grain can be used to make beer, it must undergo a process known as malting, in which moisture stimulates the natural germination process inside the grain (see Chapter 3 for more about beer processes).

Malted barley gives beer its color, malty sweet flavor, dextrins to give the beer body, protein to form a good head, and perhaps most important, the natural sugars needed for fermentation. Barley’s role in beer making is equivalent to grapes’ role in winemaking: fundamental. Malted barley comes in a variety of colors, flavors, and degrees of roastiness that profoundly affect the color and taste of the beer.

Although barley is the most commonly used grain in beer making, many brewers use additional grains, such as wheat, oats, or rye, to imbue their beer with different flavors. These specialty grains all serve the purpose of creating different flavors and levels of complexity in the beer (and perplexity in the beer critic). The principal difference between these grains and cheaper, adjunct grains, like rice or corn (see the later section Wing of Bat, Eye of Newt: Adjuncts You May Love or Hate) is that specialty grains enhance the barley, not replace it.

Hops: Flowers for Flavor and Aroma

Hops are the pinecone-like flowers of a female climbing plant in the cannabis family of plants (see Figure 2-2). They’re grown on enormous trellises as tall as 18 feet (5.5 meters). Traditionally, hops were hand-picked because they’re so delicate, but that’s a rarity these days.

Figure 2-2: Hops are vining plants with cone-like flowers that give beer its bitterness and unique aroma and flavor.

Hops contain pinhead-sized glands of lupulin, a sticky substance that’s secreted when boiled. Lupulin contains the essential oils, bitter acids, and resins that do the following four big jobs in beer making — a lot of work for a tiny flower:

check.png Contribute bitterness that counterbalances the sweetness of the barley

check.png Add flavor

check.png Provide aroma

check.png Help preserve the beer

Hops’ unmistakably pungent aromatics (sometimes described as spicy, herbal, floral, piney, and citrusy) are unique; however, prior to the common use of hops in the Middle Ages, bitter herbs and spices, like juniper berries (which are now used to make gin), were used. Beers with strong hop aroma and flavor are said to be hoppy, and beer fans who crave this kind of beer are said to be hopheads. To them, hoppy = happy!

Hops’ fourth benefit to beer — natural preservation — was realized several centuries after the advent of regular hop usage. While the alpha acids in the hops are responsible for bittering the beer, the beta acids have been found to counteract and delay the inevitable effects of bacterial spoilage, thereby giving beer a longer shelf life.

Hops history

In ninth-century central Europe, hops were cultivated for the first time instead of being picked in the wild. Records show that hop growing flourished in Bohemia in 859. Prior to hop usage in beer making, brewers bittered their beer with flowers, leaves, berries, spices, and a host of odd and unpalatable ingredients, many of which failed miserably. By the 16th century, hops had become the most widely accepted spice for beer.

In the following sections, I talk about hop varieties and their bittering potential, aromatic properties, and flavor qualities. I also touch on what types of hops brewers use during different stages of the brewing process.

remember.eps Nothing that occurs naturally in the beer-making process is pathogenic, or virally harmful to your health. (Note the use of the word naturally. . . .)

Getting to know top hops

Scores of hop varieties are grown in five major hop-growing regions throughout the world. You’ll often see these varietal names on labels and beer menus. Many of the various hop varieties have been dubbed with names that hint at their origins in these regions; here’s just a small sampling:

check.png East Kent Goldings (England)

check.png Saaz (Bohemia, Czech Republic)

check.png Hallertau (Germany)

check.png Pride of Ringwood (Tasmania)

check.png Cascades (U.S. Pacific Northwest)

beernut_beer.eps Most of the North American hops are grown in the Pacific Northwest. North American hops are pretty assertive, meaning that they leave no doubt about their presence in the beer. Centennial, primarily a bittering hop, and Cascade, an aroma hop, are among the best known (see the section Hopping for bitterness, aroma, and more for more on bittering and aroma hops).

The vast majority of the hop varieties (or cultivars) are hybrids of original varieties, cross-bred to capitalize on specific genetic qualities, such as high yields and resistance to disease. An amazing amount of effort has gone into cultivating hops, considering that they’re used so sparingly in the beer- making process, almost like herbs in cooking.

Hopping for bitterness, aroma, and more

Each kind of hop is distinctive in its bittering, aroma, and flavor profile. The differences between them are sometimes so subtle that even experienced beer judges are hard put to recognize the use of different hops in a given brew.

Each hop variety is more or less bitter, just like rejected lovers. Only instead of being measured in the number of forlorn letters and pleading phone calls, hop bitterness is measured scientifically and expressed in terms of alpha acid content, from a low of about 2.5 percent to a high of about 15 percent.

beernut_beer.eps Brewers learn these bitterness numbers so they can determine what they call the bittering potential of each hop variety, which allows them to substitute different types of hops (because of availability or price) and to determine the exact quantity of hops needed for a particular brew recipe. They also learn each variety’s unique aromatic and flavor properties, which helps them decide how the hops should be used. And, in case you’re wondering, the brewers generally aren’t bitter with their lovers (or so I’m told), though they may love their British Bitters.

The distinctive aroma of each type of hop comes from the essential oils that dissipate during the boiling part of brewing, so some hops are added after that stage in order to get their aroma into the beer, in a step known as late kettle hopping. If the brewer wants even more hop aroma in the beer, he’ll add hops directly to the beer in the fermenter or aging tanks in a process known as dry hopping.

Brewers take into account all these variables — bitterness, flavor, and aroma — when designing a beer recipe. That’s why you see hops mentioned on some beer menus. People actually know and appreciate this stuff!

Yeast: A Fungus Is Among Us

Yeast works hard but really enjoys itself (like me, most of the time). This little, single-cell organism, one of the simplest forms of plant life, is responsible for carrying out the fermentation process in beer making, thereby providing one of life’s simplest forms of pleasure (and its production of carbon dioxide is what causes bread dough to rise).

Many brewers consider their yeast to be their most secret ingredient and often guard its identity jealously, calling it a proprietary ingredient.

technicalstuff.eps Yeast is in the fungus family and, because of its cell-splitting capabilities, is self-reproducing. Yeast has a voracious appetite for sweet liquids and produces abundant quantities of alcohol (ethanol) and carbon dioxide in exchange for a good meal (which means that yeast is also responsible for producing brain-splitting headaches if you drink too much).

The vast majority of beer contains between 4 and 6 percent alcohol, but occasionally, brewers make beer with higher alcohol contents. In these beers, after reaching a level of 8 or 10 percent alcohol by volume, the beer yeast falls into a stupor, and fermentation is effectively over. When the brewmaster wants higher alcohol levels, he uses hardy champagne yeast to do the job.

beernut_beer.eps Ale yeast has a lineage that reaches into antiquity — wild, airborne strains did the trick. Yeast wasn’t even considered an ingredient in beer until its role in fermentation was discovered and understood. (This discovery began with the invention of the microscope in the early 1700s and was furthered by Louis Pasteur nearly a century later when Pasteur proved that a rapid heating process would kill bacteria and other microorganisms. Pasteur was more interested in beer than milk, by the way, as am I.) The genetically engineered lager yeast variety was perfected only in the mid-1800s. This factoid isn’t all that important, except that before this discovery, brewers couldn’t make what’s now called a lager by plan. They had to brew ale, ferment and store it at cold temperatures, and hope for the best.

In the early days, knowing only that the frothy, sludgy substance that accumulated on the top of a vat of fermenting beer was somehow responsible for turning raw, sweet stuff into finished beer, English-speaking brewers spoke from the heart when they christened it Godisgood, and when warm-weather fermentations went sour, they blamed it on beer witches.

Nowadays, brewers can order yeast strains from a catalog, by number: Internetcommerceisgood. (If it doesn’t arrive, blame it on e-mail witches.)

Since the late 1800s, numerous pure yeast strains — more than 500 different types — have been isolated, identified, and cultured. Commercial yeast banks inventory these strains in the form of sterile slants (test tubes), and some individual breweries keep their own sterile cultures on hand for future brews.

Yeast can also take credit for the classification of the beer style. Brewmasters pick a yeast according to the recipe or the style of beer they want to make. As I mention in Chapter 1, yeast is identified as either an ale yeast (top-fermenting) or a lager yeast (bottom-fermenting) strain (whether it’s top or bottom depends on where it feeds in the unfermented beer).

check.png Ale yeast, which is a top-fermenting strain, works best in warm temperatures (60 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, 15 to 24 degrees Celsius).

check.png Lager yeast, which is a bottom-fermenting strain, performs best in cooler temperatures (38 to 52 degrees Fahrenheit, 3 to 11 degrees Celsius).

remember.eps Because of the temperature differential, each yeast strain produces the vastly different flavor and aroma characteristics that, in turn, create the different beer styles you know and love (and drink). Yeast, in combination with different fermentation processes, can also contribute fruitiness and other flavor characteristics to the beer. Brewmasters try to keep these flavors in check, depending on which beer style they’re