Beer is the oldest recorded recipe in the world. The ancient Egyptians first documented the brewing process on papyrus scrolls around 5,000 B.C. These first beers were brewed with things like dates, pomegranates, and other indigenous herbs, and were probably quite harsh by today's standards.
Beer is made from four basic ingredients: Barley, water, hops and yeast. The basic idea is to extract the sugars from grains (usually barley) so that the yeast can turn it into alcohol and CO2, creating beer. The brewing process starts with grains, usually barley (although sometimes wheat, rye or other such things.
Water: Beer is composed mostly of water. Regions have water with different mineral components; as a result, different regions were originally better suited to making certain types of beer, thus giving them a regional character. For example, Dublin has hard water well suited to making Stout, while Pilzen has soft water well suited to making Pale Lager and Pilsners. The waters of Burton in England contain gypsum, which benefits making pale ale to such a degree that brewers of pale ales will add gypsum to the local water in a process known as Burtonisation.
Yeast: Yast responsible for fruity, spicy, funky, and even more neutral flavors during fermentation. Yeast is a living organism which converts sugar to alcohol. Yeast strains can be used for many generations, this means that one strain or family of yeast can be used many times within the brewery when brewing different batches of beer. Many beers contain ‘neutral yeasts’, which do not influence or enhance the flavour of the beer.
Hops: Hops are the flowers that closely related to weed that is soaked in beer to produce citrus, tropical, herbal, piney, dank, earthy, and floral flavors. Adding hops before fermentation creates bitterness. Flavouring beer is the sole major commercial use of hops. The flower of the hop vine is used as a flavouring and preservative agent in nearly all beer made today. The flowers themselves are often called “hops”. Hops contribute a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt; the bitterness of beers is measured on the International Bitterness Units scale (IBU). Hops contribute floral, citrus, and herbal aromas and flavours to beer. Hops have an antibiotic effect that favours the activity of brewer’s yeast over less desirable microorganisms, and hops aids in “head retention”, the length of time that a foamy head created by carbonation will last. The acidity of hops is a preservative.
Malt: The starch source in a beer provides the fermentable material and is a key determinant of the strength and flavour of the beer. The most common starch source used in beer is malted grain. Grain is malted by soaking it in water, allowing it to begin germination, and then drying the partially germinated grain in a kiln. Malting grain produces enzymes that convert starches in the grain into fermentable sugars. Different roasting times and temperatures are used to produce different colours of malt from the same grain. Darker malts will produce darker beers. Nearly all beer includes barleymalt as the majority of the starch. To keep it simple, malt is the sugar source in the brewing process, and influences the presentation and flavour of beer.
ABV – Alcohol by volume. Usually listed as a percentage so you know how strong a beer is.
Imperial – This is used in the name of beers with an ABV >7.5%. Basically beers that are strong as heck and will knock you off your barstool!
IBUs – International Bittering Units. Measure of bitterness, generally from 0/no bitterness to 100/intensely bitter. There is technically no upper limit but you probably have your own personal threshold.
Pale Ales: Typically blonde to orange in color. Pale Ales prominently feature hops in aroma and flavor, with noticeable bitterness in balance against any sweetness from the malts or fruitiness from the yeast. In order of increasing bitterness, alcohol by volume and typically hop aroma intensity, the most common beers in this category are Pale Ale, IPA (India Pale Ale), and Imperial IPA (IPA >7.5% abv)
Amber Ales:Amber in color, these beers will incorporate flavors such as caramel, toffee, toast, sugar cookies, nuts, figs and/or dark fruit. Like their Pale Ale counterparts, English styles tend to focus more on sweet barley flavors as compared to American renditions of the style that center around hops and have more pronounced bitterness. There are also german style Amber Ales like Altbier that mimics English Amber Ales, though with German ingredients.
Browns/Porters: Brown Ales are much like Amber Ales, but also include barley that is roasted like coffee or cacao nibs, yielding chocolate and coffee-like flavors in addition to caramel malt flavors like the Amber Ales above. Browns are typically lower in alcohol, bitterness, and flavor intensity as compared to porters.
Stouts: Take a porter and make it a bit more… stout! This is literally why this style, which used to be included in the Porter family, exists on its own. Think about the balance in a Brown Ale or Porter and increase the roasty flavors. Stouts cover a broad range in terms of ABV, bitterness, and flavor profile, from Dry Irish stouts that are super crushable and bitter (despite their intensely dark and creamy appearance), to Sweet/Milk Stouts that are often moderately sweet and more akin to a chocolate milkshake than a beer (we strongly urge you to float scoops of ice cream in this beer as a guilty pleasure) to Russian Imperial Stouts that are big in every descriptor and are more easily sipped than chugged.
Wheat Beer: This category of beer is often misunderstood. Many people associate wheat with the intense banana and clove flavors found in Hefeweizens (German wheat beer) or the bold notes of citrus zest and clove that epitomize a good Belgian Witbier (Belgian wheat beer). In both cases the flavors result from yeast rather than wheat. While European wheat beers will typically focus on fruity and spicy fermentation flavors, American wheat beers tend to be like Pale Ales with a bit of extra body and fresh-bread aromas provided by this wonderful grain.
Lagers: Lagers are often assumed to be the lightest beer option. But we all know what happens when you assume. The unifying flavor profile of lagers are the extremely clean fermentation profile, lacking the often fruit forward flavor qualities found in ale yeast fermentations, and a more balanced and nuanced flavor profile. Therefore, the delicate flavors of this family are typically derived from the malt selection and the often floral types of hops used to “spice” the beer. Lagers can range from American Adjunct Lagers (Bud, Coors etc.) to more flavorful blonde Helles Lagers and Pilsners that boast highly aromatic Noble hop aromas (nuanced floral and spicy tones). Amber Lagers such as Vienna Lager and Oktoberfest/Marzen (which are seasonally topical) that are supported by rich malt backbones emphasize flavors of toasted and fresh baked bread. Still, there are many darker and stronger options like Doppelbocks that share similarities in flavor and aroma to their cousins in the Ale family such as browns, porters, and stouts.
Belgian Abby Ales: Popularized in Belgian Abbeys, this family of beer ranges in color and alcohol from <4% abv blonde table beers to moderate strength Belgian Pale Ales and Dubbels, to >9% abv Belgian Dark Strong Ales/Quadruples, just to name a few. Flavors may include clove-like spice, orchard fruits (apples and pears), orange zest, and honey. For the stronger examples in this family, brewers or Monks add simple sugars (like granulated table sugar) to increase alcohol while thinning the body of the beer, to keep the final product light bodied/”digestible”… which make many of these styles extremely sneaky and a good bang for your buck! While most authentic Belgian beers have spice flavors that originate from yeast selection, some American versions will add spices to accentuate these flavors.
Sours: Mmmm, our personal favorite category, gushing with complex and unique flavors only available from fermentations with “non-traditional yeasts” and bacteria. These styles cover the entire spectrum of color, ABV, and flavor profile. Some of the most common examples are light, tart, and highly approachable such as Berliner Weisse and Gose, that often have fruit or spice additions which can be very pleasant to a beginner (or advanced) beer geek.