The table below just gives the "major" styles that you're likely to encounter:
Table of Contents
What's in beer? How is it made?
Water: Start with a bunch of hot water. The mineral content can make a difference, but that's a discussion for another FAQ.
Barley & Other Grains: First, the barley seeds are malted (moistened so they sprout, then kiln- or smoke-dried), usually by a separate company. The brewer buys the malted grain (simply called "malt"), crushes it a bit to expose the contents of the seed, and then soaks it in hot water so that enzymes in the seeds convert the starches into sugars. The resulting sugary water is called "wort". It's full of simple sugars (especially maltose), complex sugars, and proteins. Wheat beers replace much of the barley with wheat, but the idea is the same. Steeping other grains in the wort can add other characteristics. For example, heavily roasted barley makes the beer dark and toasty/chocolate flavored. Flaked oats (oatmeal) makes the beer creamier.
Hops: Hops are the female flower of the Humulus lupulus plant, which is in the Cannabaceae family. (The genus Cannabis is also in this family, though hops don't contain the psychoactive chemical THC.) Hops looks like a cross between a small, green pinecone and an artichoke. The sugary wort is boiled for an hour or two, and hops are added during the boil. The resins that leech out of the hops add strong flavors and smells to the beer (citrus, pine forest, grapefruit, etc.). Hop resin that boils for a long time adds bitterness, while hops added late in the boil give the fruity, grassy, floral characteristics. IPAs are beers that contain a lot of hops. Hop resins are also a mild antibiotic, keeping bacteria under control during fermentation and storage.
Yeast: After the boil, the wort is cooled to room temperature (or cooler) and yeast is added. It turns simple (and some complex) sugars into alcohol, but also may generate flavorful byproducts like esters and fusel (complex) alcohols that create fruity flavors. Almost all beers are classified as either lagers or ales: Lagers are beers whose yeast sink to the bottom, ferment "clean" at colder temperatures (historically in caves, now in refrigerators), and produce fewer byproducts, while ales are beers whose yeast float to the top, ferment at room temperature, and generate more of those fruity esters and fusel alcohols.
Other Stuff: "Adjunct" grains like corn and rice replace some of the barley in mass-produced
beers to provide a cheaper source of sugars and a distinct, clean flavor. Belgian brewers will
toss all sorts of flavorings into the beer, like cloves, orange peel, and coriander. American
brewers age some beers in bourbon barrels, picking up the bourbon flavors, or add coffee,
espresso, chocolate, vanilla beans, or whatever. (The German purity law "Reinheitsgebot" of 1487 mandated
that beer has none of this "other stuff"; just water, barley, hops, and yeast.)
What does "IPA" stand for?
IPA means India Pale Ale. Pale ales are fairly light-colored beers (brewed with malt that's not too toasted)
with a notable but not overwhelming hop presence. India pale ales have extra hops added, which really showcases the hop flavors and aromas.
These were first brewed in Britain during the colonial times. It's often said that IPAs were invented because the preservative
properties of the hops made the beer last the long voyage to India, but this is certainly exaggeration since many not-so-hoppy beers were
also exported to India without spoilage. What is true is that folks in India liked the beer and lots of it was shipped from Britain.
Hop flavors and aromas fade over time, especially if the beer is stored warm, so my guess is that they liked IPAs in India because
the hop flavors settled down to a nice level by the end of the beer's journey.
Does beer go bad? What is "skunky" beer? How long can it age? How do you age it?
Light & Skunkiness: If beer is exposed to UV or blue-violet visible light, sulfur-containing isohumulone molecules in the hop oils will break down into sulfur-containing compounds that are also found in skunk spray. The beer becomes "skunked" and you can definitely smell it. Brown bottles offer more protection than green or clear bottles, but both can skunk in a matter of minutes if exposed to direct sun. Keep your beer in a cold, dark place. (Footnote: I've read that Miller Genuine Draft, aka MGD, has synthetic hop oils that are "skunk-proof", allowing them to use clear bottles with no risk.)
Aging & Storage: All beer ages. Technically, it oxidizes, or gets "stale". Practically, this means it starts tasting a bit like cardboard, hop flavors subside, and the various flavors muddle together. For most beers (especially lighter or hoppier beers) this is a bad thing, and it becomes noticeable within a few months. Or, within a few hours after it's opened. But a lot of people like how age changes a high-alcohol, dark, malty beer. You can stick a bottle of stout in a cool, dark cabinet in the corner of your basement for a year or more and see how it changes. Ideal storage temperature is around 55F. Colder temperatures slow the aging; beer lasts longest in the fridge. Some really extreme beers (especially "old ales" and "barleywines") are meant to be aged and can last several decades if stored properly. On the other hand, there are many beers that I've stored for 2 years and then regretted it.
What are the basic styles of beer? How is beer categorized?
For a somewhat official (and comprehensive) answer, see the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP)
style guidelines. The graph below shows for each style the average
darkness (measured in "SRM") and bitterness (measured in IBU, or "International Bittering Units"; 1 IBU = 1ppm of
isohumulone acid) of the beer. Click for a larger version.
The table below just gives the "major" styles that you're likely to encounter:
| Style | Color | Flavor | Alc.% | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAGERS | ||||
| American Lagers | ||||
| Light American Lager | Very pale, straw-colored. Fizzy. | Light. Dry. Very little flavor. | 3%-4% | Bud Lite, Miller Light |
| Standard American Lager | Straw-colored. Fizzy. | Light. Dry. Corn and/or rice are detectable. | 4%-5% | PBR, High Life, Bud, Miller, Coors |
| "Premium" American Lager | Straw-colored to golden. Fizzy. | Light. Dry. Very little flavor. | 5%-6% | MGD, Michelob, Heineken, Stella, Beck's, Red Stripe |
| German-Style Lagers | ||||
| Pilsner (or Pilsener if Czech) | Straw to light gold. Big creamy head. | Crisp and bitter | 4%-5% | Pilsner Urquell, Victory Prima, Bitburger, Warsteiner |
| Oktoberfest | Dark gold to deep orange-red | Slightly malty & sweet, then dry | 5%-6% | Anything labeled "Marzen" or "Oktoberfest" |
| Dunkel | Deep copper to dark brown | Malty, caramel, nutty | 5% | Penn Dark, Hacker-Pschorr Alt Munich Dark |
| Dopplebock | Dark brown, big creamy head | Very rich and malty. Toasty, | 7%-10% | Ayinger Celebrator, Paulaner Salvator, Spaten Optimator |
| ALES | ||||
| Pale Ales | ||||
| Kolsch/Blonde | Like a soft Pilsner | Clean, but with a touch of fruitiness | 4%-5% | Reissdorf, Gaffel, most beers labeled "Summertime" |
| Pale Ale/ESB | Golden. Some carbonation. | Somewhat hoppy (floral, piney, citrusy). | 6% | Sierra Nevada, Great Lakes Burning River, Full Sail, Bass |
| India Pale Ale (IPA) | Dark golden. Mild carbonation. | Very hoppy. Quite sweet and bitter. | 4%-5% | Bell's Two-Hearted, AleSmith IPA, Victory Hop Devil |
| Double/Imperial IPA | Dark golden to amber | Insanely hoppy. | 7%-10% | Pliny the Elder/Younger, Avery Majaraja, Bell's HopSlam, Dogfish Head 90-Minute |
| Wheat Beers | ||||
| Wheat Beer/Hefeweizen | Pale, light body with delicate frothy head | Light, refreshing, slightly sweet | 4%-5% | Bell's Oberon, Harpoon UFO, Anchor Summer, many Hefeweizens |
| Witbier | Very pale straw, cloudy | Sweet, with orange zest, tart | 5% | Hoegaarden, Allagash White, Blanche de Chambly, Bell's Winter White |
| French/Belgian Styles | ||||
| Saison/Farmhouse | Pale orange | Fruity, spicy, tart, sour | 5%-7% | Saison Dupont, Ommegang Hennepin |
| Trappist: Dubbel | x% | Chimay Red | ||
| Trappist: Trippel | x% | Chimay White | ||
| Trappist: Quadruple | x% | Chimay Blue | ||
| Belgian Strong Dark Ale | x% | |||
| Sour Ales | ||||
| Malty Red-Brown Ales | ||||
| Scottish Ales | Amber to copper, varying | Lots of caramel, sticky | 3%-10% | Bellhaven, Traquair, Founders Dirty Bastard, Orkney Skull Splitter |
| Irish/American Red Ale | Amber, deep red | Caramel and butter/toffee | 4%-6% | Great Lakes Conway's, Smithwick's, 3 Floyds Brian Boru, Lagunitas Censored |
| Brown Ale | Brown body, tan head | Caramel, toasty, nutty, chocolate | 4%-6% | Bell's Best Brown, Newcastle Brown, Samuel Smith's Nut Brown |
| Stouts & Porters | ||||
| Porter | Dark brown to black, varies | Toasty, burnt malt | 4%-9% | Samuel Smith Taddy Porter, Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald, Anchor Porter, Sierra Nevada Porter |
| Irish Dry Stout | Almost black. "Nitro" carbonation. | Toasty and dry. Smooth | 4%-5% | Guinness |
| Oatmeal/American Stout | Dark brown to black with tan head | Deep roasted coffee, dark chocolate, oats | 4%-7% | Sierra Nevada Stout, Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout |
| Russian Imperial Stout | Viscous, jet black, tan head | Dark chocolate, roasted espresso, bitter | 7%-12% | Hoppin Frog BORIS, Bell's Expedition, Old Rasputin... |
| HYBRID STYLES | ||||
| California Common/Steam Beer | Amber/copper color | Toasty, caramel, and hoppy | 5% | Anchor Steam |
What's the difference between micro/craft beer and mass-produced beers?
In terms of technology, not much; the growth in craft brewing really appears to be driven by demand, not a change in technology. The brewing process is basically the same, whether you're brewing 5 gallons at home or A-B InBev is brewing 150 million gallons of Bud Light. The difference is in the ingredients. Bud/Miller/Coors add "adjunct" grains like corn and rice to save money and produce a drier beer.
What about those "premium" brands like Bass, Pilsner Urquell, and St. Pauli Girl?
In a lot of cases, those are pretty decent. But you should be aware that most are brewed by the big brewers. A list of popular premium brands found in the US and brewed by the big companies is given below.
| ABInBev (formerly Anheuser-Busch and InBev) |
MillerCoors (formerly Miller, Molson, and Coors) |
Heineken |
|---|---|---|
|
Bass Beck's Boddingtons Budweiser Busch Franziskaner Weissbier Goose Island (partially owned) Hoegaarden Kirin Ichiban Labatt Leffe Lowenbrau Michelob Modelo (partially owned) Natural Ice O'Doul's Old Dominion Red Hook (partially owned) Rolling Rock Shock Top Spaten St. Pauli Girl Stella Artois Tennent's (UK) Widmer Bros (partially owned) Whitbread (UK) |
Bierra Peroni (Italy) Blue Moon Carling (UK) Coors Gran Riserva Grolsch Killian's Keystone Leinenkugel Mickey's Milwaukee's Best Miller Molson Olde English Pilsner Urquell Sharp's NA Zatec |
Amstel Birra Moretti (Italy) Dos Equis Hacker-Pschorr Heineken Paulaner Tecate Sol Zywiec |
Why does Guinness have such a thick, creamy head? What does the `widget' in the can do? Do the bubbles in the head really go down?
Surprisingly, it's not the beer; it's the way it's served. You can make any beer have that creamy Guinness head.
Beer on tap is pressurized with CO2. CO2 dissolves into the beer, creating carbonation. Nitrogen (N2) does not dissolve into beer (very much). If you pressurize a keg with a mix of CO2 and N2 then you get less fizziness and a dense, creamy head. A special faucet is used that agitates the beer as it's being poured, so all that carbonation is released upon pouring, giving you all that creamy head all at once. Again: It's the technique, not the beer.
The "widget" in Guinness cans is a hollow plastic ball with a tiny hole. The can is pressurized with liquid nitrogen upon canning, forcing N2 and beer into the ball as the liquid N2 turns to gas. When the can is opened, the N2 and beer spray out of the hole, agitating the beer and releasing its carbonation quickly. Just like the specialized faucet.
"Nitro" beers like Guinness appear to have bubbles in the head that fall rather than rise immediately after
pouring. It is believed that bubbles rising in the middle of the glass create a downward flow of beer--and bubbles--along the
outside of the glass, making the outermost bubbles push down rather than float up.
At what temperature should beer be served? Should the glass be frosted? Do the English really serve it warm?
Serving Temperature The colder it is, the less you taste it. Cheap beers brewed with lots of adjuncts (like Bud/Miller/Coors) are meant to be refreshing, but don't taste great, so these should be served at refrigerator temperature. If a beer bottle says "serve extra cold", it means the brewer doesn't want you tasting their product! For beers you actually want to taste, the general rule is: the darker the beer, the warmer the serving temperature.
How warm is warm? Anything worth drinking should be served at least above 40F, which is already 4-7 degrees above refrigerator temperature. A nice Pilsner should be served around 40-45F, so take it out of the fridge, pour it, and let it sit just a minute before diving in. A hoppy IPA or a nice sweet amber is best served at 45-50F, where you can actually taste the hops or the malty sweetness. Big stouts, porters, barleywines, and other big beers are like red wines; they should be served at 50-55F. Remember, you're drinking these for the flavor; they're not meant to be thirst-quenchers!
English Beer & Cellar Temperature The English serve their beer at cellar temperature, which is 50-55F. A true old-fashioned pub will draw its beer up from kegs stored downstairs in a cool basement that naturally maintains these temperatures. To an American this tastes warm; many people complain that it's served at room temperature. It's not! It's just designed to maximize the flavor experience.
Frosted Glasses Again, cold beer numbs the tongue. A frosted glass keeps the beer way too cold.
Plus, the condensation on the glass will slightly water down your beer, and most beers get cloudy if shocked with such cold
temperatures. Save the frosted glasses for Bud/Miller/Coors.
What's the best glassware for beer?
The most important thing is this: Don't Drink From the Bottle! If you can't smell it, you can't really taste it. Glassware is all about showing off the appearance and delivering the aroma as you drink.
Pilsners and really foamy, straw-colored beers are great in a tall pilsner glass. That shows off their
clear body and big, pillowy head. Ambers and IPAs are fine in a pint glass. If you can find one, a tulip-shaped glass
(also called a Poco Grande glass) is perfect for IPAs. Belgian beers are almost always served in a chalice or goblet,
which have wide mouths so you can really smell their complex aromas as you drink. Big beers like stouts and barleywines
are great in a snifter or even a red wine glass. These help warm the beer a bit in your hand and concentrate the flaors
and aroma.
What does it take to homebrew beer?
I'm a homebrewer. It's fun and it's pretty easy. To get started, find a local homebrew shop (most cities have
at least one), buy a $100 starter kit for the equipment, a ~$50 recipe kit (go with "extract" brewing first and avoid dry yeast),
and dive in. On your first brewing day you need about 5 hours for setup, brewing, and cleanup. Then you let it ferment in a cool,
dark room for a couple of weeks, bottle it, let it sit another week or two, and enjoy. You first batch will be okay, and pretty
soon you'll be brewing stuff that's just as good as a lot of stuff you can find on the shelf. And it's kind of fun; like a mix of
cooking, biology, and chemistry. For help, I use homebrewtalk.com.
What are the health effects of beer and alcohol? How much beer is unhealthy?
The Short Answer Drinking one strong beer (or two weak beers) per day is good for your heart, won't hurt your liver, and won't make you fat. Drinking much more than that will start to damage your liver and make you gain weight, and the benefits to your heart disappear.
Heart, Liver & Mortality There are two countervailing effects: total mortality rates are actually lowest for men who drink around 30 grams of ethanol per day and women who drink around 20g/day. The primary reason is because moderate alcohol intake reduces the risk of coronary heart disease, though it's not well understood how exactly that works. It does seem that blood pressure is probably lower for moderate drinkers, compared to non-drinkers. However, the risk of liver damage and liver disease rises above that of the non-drinking population somewhere around 30-50 grams per day for both sexes. Blood pressure also goes up for heavier drinkers. The bottom line is that 20-30 grams per day is probably a good thing, but much more is probably not. (Of course, drinking your week's allotment in a single day doesn't count.)
So, how much is 30 grams per day? It's 1.25 fluid ounces of pure ethanol. If you're drinking Bud/Miller/Coors, which is around 5% ABV, then that's 25 ounces, or 2 beers. But for a nice 10% barleywine, stout, or strong ale, you should probably shoot for one per day. If 80-proof (40%) whiskey is your thing, go for 3 ounces per day.
Weight Alcohol consumption above 30 grams/day is definitely associated with weight gain and obesity, though below 30 gram/day there seems to be no effect.
Intoxication Intoxication is a trickier issue since it depends on many factors, but 30 grams of ethanol is probably somewhere near the amount needed to put the average person right around the legal blood-alcohol limit of 0.08, especially if it's consumed over an hour or two or enjoyed with food.
Hangovers From what I've read, hangovers aren't well understood. Dehydration is an obvious component, since alcohol is a diuretic (it makes you pee). Dehydration can cause headaches, fatigue, and nausea. Drinking water is the only real prevention and cure. As for toxicity, ethanol is toxic, but it is quickly converted into acetaldehyde by the alcohol dehydrogenase enzymes (found primarily in the liver), and acetaldehyde is much more toxic. The enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase eventually converts acetaldehyde to harmless acetic acid, which is urinated out. It's believed that these enzyme reactions basically divert a lot of resources and energy, causing the body and brain to be malnourished. Interestingly, in most East Asians the first set of enzymes are unusually effective while the second is unusually ineffective, so they get stuck with more toxic acetaldehyde in their system. Understandably, most Asians don't like to drink too much.
What are the best remedies for a hangover? Rehydrating and re-nourishing the body are the main goal. Vitamins B6 and B12 are believed to help, so meats, eggs, whole grains, and milk all may be good to eat. I'd recommend a nice plate of eggs, bacon, and toast with a glass of OJ and a glass of water. Or a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, if you're in a hurry.