Beer is a fermented alcoholic drink. It is enjoyed by many around the globe. It is usually made by fermentation of grains, most commonly, the grain being used is barley.
Wheat fermented beers are also gaining popularity. Types of beers vary in their alcohol content and at times, the grain being used.
The process of making the grain ferment to finally getting the final beer is a tedious one. The grains are first compressed in big rollers where they are pressed to increase the surface area of the grain.
The grains used for this compression are usually malted barley and are often called malts. The malt then is added to water and put on heat to break down the starch of the grain into simpler substances, commonly known as sugars. The final addition of yeast for the fermentation of sugars to form alcohol.
This further goes through specific, simpler processes to provide a cold, brewing mug of beer. The various types of beer can have alcohol percent ranging between 2 to 15% by volume.
Types of Beer
The varieties of beer consumed most often are:
1) Lagers
Lagers are beers which have been through the process of aging for long. This aging is usually done at almost freezing temperatures. The color of a lager ranges from shades of pale colors to black. The carbonation content is much higher in lagers in comparison to ales. The lagers are usually the end bit or the bottom-fermented beer, especially prevalent in regions with Czech and Dutch people.
2) Ales
In comparison to lager, ales are brewed at room temperatures using high-quality yeast. These are often more robust in their taste. Their aroma is generally a mix of fruity and bold malt like flavors giving it a rather sophisticated fragrance. These are apparent darker than lagers and are usually rich gold and can range up to the shades of red amber.
3) Wild and sour ale
These beers are usually low in their alcohol content and have a tart and bitter flavor, which develops due to the presence of safe bacteria during fermentation.
4) Stouts
These beers have a unique creamy head with features often adapted from barley, like the color and flavor. A certain quantity of unmalted barley is used in its brewing to get the dark, pungent, almost coffee-like characteristics.
5) Malts
Those beers which are usually sweet to taste in comparison to others as they might have slight flavors of chocolate, caramel, and nuts. These can be light or at times, even be bold.
6) Porters
These dark beers are often almost black. They have a fruity malt to them. To add to their astringency, roasted barley malts are added during its brewing process, which helps in adding a bold flavor and color to the drink.
7) Amber
A bold beer to drink with subtle caramel hints to it.
8) German Bock
German Bock has low alcohol content and has a much lighter, nuttier, and sweet taste.
9) Blonde
These crispy and clear beers have a mediocre bitterness with still some sweetness to them.
10) English Bitter Ale
The English Bitter Ale is a popular, less carbonated beer, which seems flat to the regular lager consumers. It is bitter but not as much as the name stresses upon.
11) Brown
This is another amber ale but is darker and has hints of citric chocolate, caramel, and nutty flavor to it.
12) Cream
The cream beer is usually the golden color ale, which is sweeter than its bitter and hence is a mild drink to have.
13) Dark
Majorly consumed in the British areas, the dark beers have a bold malty flavor with a slightly fruity smell.
14) Bock
Bock beers are those who have a slight sweetness to their otherwise strong taste, which is very unlike the rest of the lagers.
15) Japanese Beer
This beer is more common in the autumn and winter season and is made by Japanese people who learned it from German natives who were posted in Hiroshima.
16) Fruit
Much lower in their bitter taste, these beers are categorized as ales but have no similarity to ales as such. Their fruity flavor takes over the malty flavor.
17) Kolsch
A native of Cologne in Germany, this beer is brewed under strict predecided conditions. Though it is categorized as a lager but has barely any similarities to it. This beer is pale in color and is bright and sweet in flavor.
18) Golden
The golden ales are generally creamy with vanilla-like taste. Sometimes the golden beers have a tinge of spice in their taste.
19) Honey
This is a bold beer with a nice copper-like color. It has a creamy texture, and as the name suggests, some sugary sweetness is also attached to its taste.
20) Malt Liquor
Malt liquor is a type of lager which is not even wholly alcoholic.
21) Marzen
This beer has high alcohol content and is often copper in color. This beer used to be made with some secret ingredient so that it could be fine during the old-time forbidden period or beer brewing.
22) Indian Pale Ale
Well beer in which extra hops are added to make them last longer as these beers were majorly used for troops of British origin who were stationed in India.
23) Belgian Style Ale
Belgian ales are given an entirely separate category as they come in a variety of flavors and alcohol content so much so that they have been assigned a completely different category that you are reading about.
24) Lambic
The Lambic beers are not reasonably known unless by the experts who thoroughly enjoy the natural methods of fermentation used in the brewing of these beers. They have a taste that is similar to the cider; that is, they have a strong punch of flavor in them.
25) Light
As the name explains it all, light in color, light in its alcohol content, and light in its bitterness. This is the light beer for you all.
26) Lime
The light beer with subtle to overpowering lime taste is called lime beer.
27) Pale
Pale beers are usually really robust and astringent and make a good serving if served with some spicy snacks.
28) Pilsner
These somehow crispy yet golden-colored beer have a more hop taste than other lagers.
29) Red
These ales range from red to light brown. Their flavor can also vary from mild or moderately mild to profoundly robust ones. It sometimes reflects slight hints of caramel to it as well.
30) Strong
These beers are any of the beers whose alcohol content by volume is equal to or more than 7%.
31) Wheat
The wheat beers are light and have very little or no after taste at all. Wheat grains soften the barley malt flavor and make the beer cloudy and adds subtle hints of spice to it.
32) Weissbier
These beers have a Bavarian-style brewing process, which adds a subtle sweetness to the beer. This white beer is thus, sweet. It uses wheat malt and not barley, which can also result in a bold and robust beer at times.
33) Wild Ales
These beers have off lately got their long-awaited popularity. They are fermented using yeasts available in the wild and their taste; thus depends on the appetite that the yeast had for that particular time, it could be banana, pepper, apple, or any wildly available fruit.
Conclusion
These are just a few popular versions of beer that you should know about. Other beers like the Witbier, Stout, Saison, Oud Bruin, Helles, Dunkel Robust Porter, Speciality beer, and the list is endless are also available for consumption across various cities and countries. As beer is an alcoholic drink; thus, its regular consumption can be harmful and could also lead to addiction. Therefore, be careful while you consume it.
But, there is no harm in enjoying it once in a blue moon.