Beer is the oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most

popular
drink overall after waterand tea. Beer is brewed from cereal grains most commonly
from malted barley, though wheat, maize (corn), and rice are also used. During the brewing
process, fermentation of the starch sugars in the wort produces alcohol and carbonation in the resulting
beer.[6] Most modern beer is brewed with hops, which add bitterness and other flavours and act as a
natural preservative and stabilizing agent. Other flavouring agents such as gruit, herbs, or fruits may be
included or used instead of hops. In commercial brewing, the natural carbonationeffect is often
removed during processing, and replaced with forced carbonation.

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.

Beer is distributed in bottles and cans, and is also commonly available on draught, particularly in pubs
and bars. 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
strength of modern beer is usually around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume (abv), although it may vary
between 0.5% and 20%, with some breweries creating examples of 40% abv and above. Beer forms part
of the culture of many nations and is associated with social traditions such as beer festivals, as well as a
rich pub culture involving activities like pub crawlingand pub games such as bar billiards.

Various legal definitions of beer exist in different countries. Historically, the most famous of these was
the Reinheitsgebot, which applied to parts of the Holy Roman Empire and Germany, and required beer
to be made from only water, hops, and barley. Today in Canada, the Canadian Governments Food and
Drug Regulations state that beer must have alcohol content that ranges from 1.1% to 8.6%, though it
also includes a stipulation that it could be greater than 8.6% and labeled accordingly. Beer in South
Korea must have less than 25% ABV, which means that it has to be 25 mL of alcohol or less per 100 mL
of solution, and can only be considered lite if it has less than 30 kcal per 100ml. Additionally, beer in
South Korea must use only water, hops, and starches (wheat, rice, barley, corn, or potato) as ingredients
in the brewing process. In Singapore, beer must have at minimum 1.0% alcohol by volume concentration
at 20C. It is often brewed from a mixture of grains like malt, sugars or its equivalent, and hops or other
vegetables