Classification of Beer

What's more refreshing on a hot summer day than a nice cold beer? Or how about drinking a nice cold one with some buddies after work at a local bar, sound nice doesn't it? Beer has been around for many years and will probably be around for many more. A beer is any variety of alcoholic beverages produced by the fermentation of starchy material derived from grains or other plant sources. The production of beer and some other alcoholic beverages is often called brewing. Most every culture has there own tradition and the own take on beer, thus producing many different styles and variations.

Simply put, a beer style is a label given to a beer that describes its overall character and often times its origin. It's a name badge that has been achieved over many centuries of brewing, trial and error, marketing, and consumer acceptance. There are many different types of beer, each of which is said to belong to a particular style. A beer's style is a label that describes the overall flavour and often the origin of a beer, according to a system that has evolved by trial and error over many centuries. According to the type of yeast that is used in the beer's fermentation process, most beer styles fall into one of two large families: ale or lager. Beers that blend the characteristics of ales and lagers are referred to as hybrids.

An ale is any beer that is brewed using only top-fermenting yeasts, and typically at higher temperatures than lager yeast. Because ale yeasts cannot fully ferment some sugars, they produce esters in addition to alcohol, and the result is a more flavourful beer with a slightly "flowery" or "fruity" aroma resembling but not limited to apple, pear, pineapple, grass, hay, plum or prune. Stylistic differences among ales are more varied than those found among lagers, and many ale styles are difficult to categorize. Top-fermented beers, particularly popular in the British Isles, include barley wine, bitter, pale ale, porter, and stout. Stylistic differences among top-fermented beers are decidedly more varied than those found among bottom-fermented beers and many beer styles are difficult to categorize. California Common beer, for example, is produced using a lager yeast at ale temperatures. Wheat beers are often produced using an ale yeast and then lagered, sometimes with a lager yeast. Lambics employ wild yeasts and bacteria, naturally-occurring in the Payottenland region of Belgium. Other examples of ale include stock ale and old ale. Real ale is a term for beers produced using traditional methods, and without pasteurization.

There are five main sub-catagories of ale beer which are: barley wine, bitter, pale ale, porter and stout. Despite its name, barley wine is indeed an ale. It has a hearty, sweet malt flavor which is offset by a strong and bitter flavoring from the hops for balance. Bitter ale has heavier hopping, dryer hop finish, light in alcohol content and if they are higher alcohol they are know as ESB (extra special bitter). Pale ales share a pronounced hop flavor and aroma with low to medium maltiness, and there is also a good deal of fruity esters. The Porter's name comes from the Porters at London's Victoria Station. They would frequently mix several styles of beer into one glass and drink large quantities of the mixture. A style was eventually created to approximate this blend and came to be known as a porter. The porter is a good beer for those who want a full flavored, dark beer without the bitterness from the roasted barley that a stout now possesses. Finally, there is the stout, a dark copper to very black in color ale. It has a rich and complex maltiness with noticeable hop bitterness. The two main ingredients are the dark roasted barley and black malts.

Lagers are the most commonly-consumed category of beer in the world. They are of Central European origin, taking their name from the German word lagern, which means "to store". Lager yeast is a bottom-fermenting yeast, and typically undergoes primary fermentation at 7-12Ð'oC (45-55Ð'oF) (the "fermentation phase"), and then is given a long secondary fermentation at 0-4Ð'oC (30-40Ð'oF) (the "lagering phase"). During the secondary stage, the lager clears and mellows. The cooler conditions also inhibit the natural production of esters and other byproducts, resulting in a "crisper" tasting beer. Modern methods of producing lager were pioneered by Gabriel Sedlmayr the Younger, who perfected dark brown lagers at the Spaten Brewery in Bavaria, and Anton Dreher, who began brewing a lager, probably of amber-red color, in Vienna in 1840Ð'-1841. With modern improved fermentation control,