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The Beer Portal

Introduction

P:Beer

Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the grain to sugars, which dissolve in water to form wort. Fermentation of the wort by yeast produces ethanol and carbonation in the beer. Beer is one of the oldest alcoholic drinks in the world, the most widely consumed, and the third most popular drink after water and tea. Most modern beer is brewed with hops, which add bitterness and other flavours and act as a natural preservative and stabilising agent. Other flavouring agents, such as gruit, herbs, or fruits, may be included or used instead of hops. In commercial brewing, natural carbonation is often replaced with forced carbonation.

Beer is distributed in bottles and cans, and is commonly available on draught 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).

Some of the earliest writings mention the production and distribution of beer: the Code of Hammurabi included laws regulating it, while "The Hymn to Ninkasi", a prayer to the Mesopotamian goddess of beer, contains a recipe for it. Beer forms part of the culture of many nations and is associated with social traditions such as beer festivals, as well as activities like pub crawling, pub quizzes, and pub games. (Full article...)

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Image 1

Colonies of yeast Brettanomyces bruxellensis on agar plates containing phloxine B

Brettanomyces is a non-spore forming genus of yeast in the family Saccharomycetaceae, and is often colloquially referred to as "Brett". The genus name Dekkera is used interchangeably with Brettanomyces, as it describes the teleomorph or spore forming form of the yeast, but is considered deprecated under the one fungus, one name change. The cellular morphology of the yeast can vary from ovoid to long "sausage" shaped cells. The yeast is acidogenic, and when grown on glucose rich media under aerobic conditions, produces large amounts of acetic acid. Brettanomyces is important to both the brewing and wine industries due to the sensory compounds it produces.

In the wild, Brettanomyces lives on the skins of fruit. (Full article...)
Image 2

Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH₃CH₂OH. It is an alcohol, with its formula also written as C₂H₅OH, C₂H₆O or EtOH, where Et stands for ethyl. Ethanol is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid with a characteristic wine-like odor and pungent taste. In nature, grape-sugar breaks up by the action of fermentation into alcohol or carbonic acid, without anything being added. As a psychoactive depressant, it is the active ingredient in alcoholic beverages, and the second most consumed drug globally behind caffeine.

Ethanol is naturally produced by the fermentation process of sugars by yeasts or via petrochemical processes such as ethylene hydration. Historically it was used as a general anesthetic, and has modern medical applications as an antiseptic, disinfectant, solvent for some medications, and antidote for methanol poisoning and ethylene glycol poisoning. It is used as a chemical solvent and in the synthesis of organic compounds, and as a fuel source for lamps, stoves, and internal combustion engines. Ethanol also can be dehydrated to make ethylene, an important chemical feedstock. As of 2023, world production of ethanol fuel was 29,590,000,000 US gallons (112.0 gigalitres), coming mostly from the U.S. (51%) and Brazil (26%). (Full article...)
Image 3
Two common Mexican beers: Modelo and Victoria

History of beer in Mexico dates from the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. While Mesoamerican cultures knew of fermented alcoholic beverages, including a corn beer, long before the 16th century, European style beer brewed with barley was introduced with the Spanish invasion soon after Hernán Cortés's arrival. Production of this beer here was limited during the colonial period due to the lack of materials and severe restrictions and taxes placed on the product by Spanish authorities. After the Mexican War of Independence, these restrictions disappeared, and the industry was permitted to develop. Furthermore, the arrival of German immigrants during the ephemeral Second Mexican Empire of elected Maximilian I of Mexico, born an Austrian archduke, in the 19th century provided the impetus for the opening of many breweries in various parts of the country.

By 1918, there were 36 brewing companies, but over the 20th century, the industry consolidated until today, only two corporations, Grupo Modelo (now owned by AB InBev) and Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma formerly known as FEMSA Cerveza (now owned by Heineken N.V.) control 90% of the Mexican beer market. This industry is one of the most prevalent in the country, with over 63% of the population buying one brand or another. Beer is also a major export for the country, with most going to the United States, but is available in over 150 countries worldwide. In 2022, Mexico was the largest beer exporter in the world. (Full article...)
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"99 Bottles of Beer" or "100 Bottles of Pop on the Wall" is a traditional reverse counting song from the United States and Canada. It is popular to sing on road trips, as it has a very repetitive format which is easy to memorize and can take a long time when sung in full. In particular, the song is often sung by children on long school bus trips, such as class field trips, or on Scout or Girl Guide outings. 99 Bottles of Beer's lyrics can be printed in normal programming languages or esoteric programming languages. (Full article...)
Image 5
The seven of diamonds

In trick-taking card games such as bridge, the beer card is a name informally given to the seven of diamonds (7♦). Players may agree that if a player wins the last trick of a hand with the 7♦, their partner must buy them a beer. This is not considered as part of the rules of these games, but is an optional and informal side-bet between players. This practice likely originates from Danish Tarok or Skat in the middle of the 20th century. In most decks, the 7♦ is the only diamond number card that lacks rotational symmetry. (Full article...)
Image 6
Beers with Authentic Trappist Product label from Trappist breweries in 2015: Achel, Chimay, Engelszell, La Trappe, Orval, Spencer, Rochefort, Tre Fontane, Westmalle, Westvleteren, and Zundert (not pictured: Mount St Bernard Abbey)

Trappist beer is brewed by Trappist monks. Thirteen Trappist monasteries—six in Belgium, two in the Netherlands, and one each in Austria, Italy, England, France, and Spain— produce beer, but the Authentic Trappist Product label is assigned by the International Trappist Association (ITA) to just ten breweries that meet their strict criteria. As of 2021^[update], Achel is no longer recognized as a Trappist brewery because it does not have any monks. (Full article...)
Image 7
A dark amber American-brewed pale ale

Pale ale is a golden to amber coloured beer style brewed with pale malt. The term first appeared in England around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with high-carbon coke, which resulted in a lighter colour than other beers popular at that time. Different brewing practices and hop quantities have resulted in a range of tastes and strengths within the pale ale family. Pale ale is in the family of Ales. (Full article...)
Image 8

Craft beer at the Taedonggang Microbrewery No. 3 in Pyongyang

North Korea has at least ten major breweries and many microbreweries that supply a wide range of beer products. The top brand is the light lager Taedonggang by the state-owned Taedonggang Brewing Company.

The country's problems with goods distribution and power output have forced North Korean brewers to innovate. To minimize distribution, many restaurants and hotels maintain their own microbreweries. Because unreliable power supply makes it difficult to refrigerate beer, North Koreans have developed their own steam beer, an originally American beer style brewed in higher than normal temperatures, that is widely available. (Full article...)
Image 9
Beer glassware (from left to right): Pilstulpe, tasting glass, snifter, Willibecher

Beer glassware comprise vessels, today usually made of glass, designed or commonly used for serving and drinking beer. Styles of beer glasses vary in accord with national or regional traditions; legal or customary requirements regarding serving measures and fill lines; such practicalities as breakage avoidance in washing, stacking or storage; commercial promotion by breweries; artistic or cultural expression in folk art or as novelty items or usage in drinking games; or to complement, to enhance, or to otherwise affect a particular type of beer's temperature, appearance and aroma, as in the case of its head.
Drinking vessels intended for beer are made from a variety of materials other than glass, including pottery, pewter, and wood.

In many countries, beer glasses are served placed on a paperboard beer mat, usually printed with brand advertising, in commercial settings. (Full article...)
Image 10

A modern Belgian tafelbier

Small beer (also known as small ale or table beer) is a lager or ale that contains a lower amount of alcohol by volume than most others, usually between 0.5% and 2.8%. Sometimes unfiltered and porridge-like, it was a favoured drink in Medieval Europe and colonial North America compared with more expensive beer containing higher levels of alcohol. Small beer was also produced in households for consumption by children and by servants. (Full article...)
Image 11
A seasonal beer is a beer that is typically brewed during or for a particular season, holiday or festival period. Many breweries produce seasonal beers. Seasonal beers may be produced when fresh ingredients are available during various seasons, per climatic conditions during the time of the year, and also as a tradition. Furthermore, seasonal beer is produced based upon seasons, holidays, festivals and events. (Full article...)
Image 12
Horse Shoe Brewery, London, c. 1800

The London Beer Flood was an accident at Meux & Co's Horse Shoe Brewery, London, on 17 October 1814. It took place when one of the 22-foot-tall (6.7 m) wooden vats of fermenting porter burst. The escaping liquid dislodged the valve of another vessel and destroyed several large barrels: between 128,000 and 323,000 imperial gallons (580,000–1,470,000 L; 154,000–388,000 US gal) of beer were released in total.

The resulting wave of porter destroyed the back wall of the brewery and swept into an area of slum dwellings known as the St Giles rookery. Eight people were killed, five of them mourners at the wake being held by an Irish family for a two-year-old boy. The coroner's inquest returned a verdict that the eight had lost their lives "casually, accidentally and by misfortune". The brewery was nearly bankrupted by the event; it avoided collapse after a rebate from HM Excise on the lost beer. The brewing industry gradually stopped using large wooden vats after the accident. The brewery moved in 1921, and the Dominion Theatre is now where the brewery used to stand. Meux & Co went into liquidation in 1961. (Full article...)
Image 13
Draught beer fonts at the Delirium Café in Brussels

Draught beer, also spelt draft, is beer served from a cask or keg rather than from a bottle or can. Draught beer served from a pressurised keg is also known as keg beer. (Full article...)
Image 14
A hydrometer floating in a test jar of wort, where the specific gravity reading is approximately 1.050

The principle factors that characterize beer are bitterness, the variety of flavours present in the beverage and their intensity, alcohol content, and colour. Standards for those characteristics allow a more objective and uniform determination to be made on the overall qualities of any beer. (Full article...)
Image 15
Philistine pottery beer jug

Beer is one of the oldest human-produced drinks. The written history of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia records the use of beer, and the drink has spread throughout the world; a 3,900-year-old Sumerian poem honouring Ninkasi, the patron goddess of brewing, contains the oldest surviving beer-recipe, describing the production of beer from barley bread, and in China, residue on pottery dating from around 5,000 years ago shows that beer was brewed using barley and other grains.

Some say the invention of bread and beer led to the development of technology and static civilization. (Full article...)

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Stones Bitter is a beer manufactured and distributed in the United Kingdom by the North American brewer Molson Coors. It is a bitter with a straw-golden hue. Stones Bitter was first brewed in 1948 by William Stones Ltd at the Cannon Brewery in Sheffield. It was designed for the local steelworkers and became successful in its local area, becoming one of Sheffield's best known products.

Bass Charrington acquired William Stones in 1968, and began to heavily promote the keg variant of Stones Bitter, which eventually became the highest selling bitter in the country. In the 1990s the ABV of Stones was gradually reduced, and, as ale sales declined, Stones reverted from a national into a regional brand. Following the closure of the Cannon Brewery, Stones has been brewed at a number of different breweries. When Bass exited its brewing business, Stones became a Coors brand (later Molson Coors). (Full article...)

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Josef Groll (German: Joseph Groll; 21 August 1813 – 22 November 1887) was a German brewer, best known for being the first brewer of Pilsner beer. He is sometimes called "the Father of the Pilsner". The world's first-ever pale lager, Pilsner Urquell was highly successful, and served as the inspiration for more than two-thirds of the beer produced in the world today. (Full article...)

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... that at the 1965 World Pentathlon Championships, Herbert Polzhuber was said to have drunk ten beers and a bottle of cognac before firing his pistol at the ground and passing out?
... that Fred G. Sullivan's film The Beer-Drinker's Guide to Fitness and Filmmaking depicts Sullivan being humiliated with mud and whips for the failings of his previous film?
... that a beer named after the barley variety Golden Promise was not brewed using the variety?
... that the patu clubs on the New Zealand threepence were compared to bottles of ginger beer?
... that Pope Pius IX gave the monks of Saint Vincent Archabbey permission to brew Saint Vincent Beer?
... that Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority general manager Phillip Eng brews his own beer?

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General images

The following are images from various beer- and brewing-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Caledonian Brewery, founded in 1869, Edinburgh, Scotland (from History of beer)
Image 2Zoigl beers from the communal brewhouses of Oberpfalz in Germany (from Craft beer)
Image 3A yard of ale at Jolly Brewery, Taiwan (from Craft beer)
Image 4Steamworks Brewing, Vancouver (from Craft beer)
Image 5Põhjala Brewery, Estonia (from Craft beer)
Image 6Philistine pottery beer jug (from History of beer)
Image 7Mexican craft beer from Tequixquiac in Zumpango Region (from Craft beer)
Image 8Craft brewing at Allagash in Portland, Maine (from Craft beer)
Image 9D. G. Yuengling & Son is the oldest operating brewing company in the US, established in 1829. It is also the largest craft brewer, and the 6th largest brewing company overall. (from Craft beer)
Image 10Bergenhus microbrewery, Bergen, Norway (from Craft beer)
Image 11Pasteur Street Brewing, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (from Craft beer)
Image 12Spontaneous fermentation at Timmermans in Belgium (from Brewing)
Image 13Diatomaceous earth, used to create a filtration bed (from Brewing)
Image 14A replica of ancient Egyptian beer, brewed from emmer wheat by the Courage brewery in 1996 (from History of beer)
Image 15A 16th-century brewery (from Brewing)
Image 16Great Leap Brewing operates a chain of brewpubs in China (from Craft beer)
Image 17Conditioning tanks at Anchor Brewing Company (from Brewing)
Image 18Spent grain, a brewing by-product (from Brewing)
Image 19A can of Juicy Ass IPA from Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery in Barrie, Ontario, Canada (from Craft beer)
Image 20Robohop, a session IPA from Cervisiam in Oslo, Norway (from Craft beer)
Image 21Casks of real ale from British microbreweries at a beer festival (from Craft beer)
Image 22Irish Craft Beer Festival, 2015 (from Craft beer)
Image 23Cask ales with gravity dispense at a beer festival (from Brewing)
Image 24Bill Urquhart at Litchborough Brewery (from Craft beer)
Image 25Alulu beer receipt recording a purchase of "best" beer from a brewer, c. 2050 BCE, from the Sumerian city of Umma in ancient Iraq. (from History of beer)
Image 26A mash tun at the Bass Museum in Burton-upon-Trent (from Brewing)
Image 27Modern closed fermentation vessels (from Brewing)
Image 28Dogo Beer from Minakuchi-shuzō microbrewery in Matsuyama, Japan (from Craft beer)
Image 29Bottling beer in a modern facility, 1945, Australia (from History of beer)
Image 30World beer consumption per capita (from History of beer)
Image 31Hop cone grown in a hop field, Hallertau, Germany (from Brewing)
Image 32Yeast ring used by Swedish homebrewers in the 19th century to preserve the yeast between brewing sessions. (from History of beer)
Image 33Malted barley before kilning or roasting (from Brewing)
Image 34A hydrometer measures beer's specific gravity (from History of beer)
Image 35Traditional fermenting building (center) and modern fermenting building (left) in Pilsner Urquell Brewery (Czech Republic) (from History of beer)
Image 36Rock mortars in Raqefet Cave, used to make beer during the Stone Age. (from History of beer)
Image 37Gambrinus – king of beer (from History of beer)
Image 38A selection of French craft beers (from Craft beer)
Image 39Lauter tun (from Brewing)
Image 40A 16th-century brewery (from History of beer)
Image 41Castaña, a smoked beer with chestnuts from Cerex in Extremadura, Spain (from Craft beer)
Image 42A growler of beer from Flounder Brewing, a nanobrewery in New Jersey, US (from Craft beer)
Image 43Brew kettles at Brasserie La Choulette in France (from Brewing)
Image 44Microbreweries, regional breweries, and brew pubs per capita (from Craft beer)
Image 45A funerary model of a bakery and brewery, from the Eleventh dynasty of Egypt, c. 2009–1998 BCE (from History of beer)
Image 46The Alulu beer receipt records a purchase of "best" beer from a brewer, c. 2050 BC, from the Sumerian city of Umma in Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq). (from Brewing)
Image 47Smoked beer from the Schlenkerla brewpub in Bamberg, Germany (from Craft beer)
Image 48A beer sommelier tapping a barrel for a taste at Nebraska Brewing Company (from Craft beer)
Image 49Open vessels showing fermentation taking place (from Brewing)