Beer Brewing Styles

Front 1

What are the two broad types of beer?

Back 1

Ales and Lagers

Front 2

What is an Ale?

Back 2

Ales are complex, flavorful beers. They are brewed at 60-70 deg. Ale yeasts flocculate at the top of the fermentation tank. Ales are aged just a few weeks and served closer to room temperature and contain rich aroma and flavor.

Front 3

What is a Lager?

Back 3

Lagers are clean, refreshing beers with typically light aroma and flavor. Lager yeasts floculate at the bottom of the tank. They are brewed at 45-55 deg. Their yeasts ferment more aggressively, leaving behind less residual sweetness and flavor than ales. They are also aged for a period of a few months, in a process called lagering, to give the lager its clean and clear taste.

Front 4

What are the eight popular types of ale?

Back 4

* Barley Wine
* Bitter
* Brown Ale
* India Pale Ale
* Pale Ale
* Porter
* Stout
* Wheat Beer

Front 5

What are the four popular types of Lager?

Back 5

* Bock
* Dunkel
* Oktoberfest/Maerzen
* Pilsner

Front 6

What makes a Pale Ale... a pale ale?

Back 6

Like many beer styles, pale ale resulted from an innovation in brewing technology. The brewers in Burton-on-Trent in England were looking for a way to produce a more consistent and paler beer. The kilns of the day used wood which was difficult to control and often resulted in dark roasted or even scorched barley. They found that coke, a processed form of coal that burns hot and steady, gave them the desired effect - a clear, amber or copper colored ale. It was far paler than any British ales brewed to date. Pale malt is naturally the key ingredient.

Front 7

What is the difference between malt and hops?

Back 7

It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal grains—the most common of which is malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), and rice are widely used. Most beer is flavoured with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural preservative, though other flavourings such as herbs or fruit may occasionally be included.

Front 8

What exactly is a malt and how is it created?

Back 8

Malt is germinated grain. Malting is the process of convert grain into malt by soaking it in water and allowing it to germinate.

Front 9

What makes an India Pale Ale.. an india pale ale?

Back 9

In the early 1700s Britain had a problem. Troops and British citizens living in India as part of the colonial rule did not have access to good British ale and any attempts to ship the malt British ales to them resulted in spoilage. India Pale Ale, or IPA, was the solution. The generous amount of hops in this brew protected it from the heat and motion of the British sailing ships of the day. A shipwreck off the coast of London resulted in the sale of this beer in England, solidifying its place in history.

Front 10

What makes a Barley Wine (ale)... a barley wine?

Back 10

The term barley wine was first used to describe Bass No. 1 in 1903. These brews were prized and reserved for special occasions and special people. Today barley wine production makes use of modern brewing techniques to give us a wide variety of big, complex ales that can be aged like fine red wine.

Front 11

What makes a Porter (ale)... a porter?

Back 11

Porter was once the most popular beer in England and America. It's position was supplanted by pale ale which was in turn undone by Pilsner. It was developed as a recipe for one beer that mimicked the result of the popular practice of combining beers, usually brown and mild ales. Thus it's original moniker was "entire." How it came to be called "porter" is a story lost to history. The brew is very dark, almost opaque, though it should be clear when light does find its way through.

Front 12

What makes a Stout (ale)... a stout?

Back 12

There is a traditional belief, strongly held by many, that stout is the offspring of porter. But there are some pretty good reasons to question it. How it came to be called stout is less clear but it is known that many porters brewed with higher gravities were called "stout porters." If the porter as progenitor theory is false, it is apparent that stout was originally used as an adjective to describe the great black beer. The primary difference between stout and porter has traditionally been gravity.

Front 13

What makes a Wheat Beer (ale)... a wheat beer?

Back 13

Various kinds of wheat beer contain almost anything. The traditional Bavarian style contains at least 50% malted wheat - though often much more, malted barley, Noble hops, water, and yeast. It can be said that wheat beer is the oldest style still in existence today. More correctly, with it's mixture of barley and wheat grains, low to nonexistent hops presence, cloudy appearance, and often promient yeast flavor, it is the brew most like the first beers brewed. However you look at it wheat beer is certainly one of the oldest beers. The original wheat beer, hefeweizen, comes from Bavaria where its popularity survived when many other German ales were replaced with the lagers.

Front 14

What makes Brown Ale...a brown ale?

Back 14

Brown ale is simply a darker form of ale, made from brown malt. Brown malt is a darker form of pale malt, and is used typically in brown ale as well as in porter and stout. Like amber malt, it can be prepared from pale malt at home by baking a thin layer of pale malt in an oven until the desired color is achieved. 50-70 °L, no enzymes.

Front 15

What makes a bock (lager)... a bock?

Back 15

Bock is the original "liquid bread." Paulaners' famous Salvator Doppelbock is the beer of the oft told tale about monks brewing big beers to sustain themselves through long fasts. The malt bill generally contains some percentage of Munich malt which contributes to the malty depth and color of the style. Noble German hops should also be used even though the hop character of bocks are generally downplayed. Finally, a lager yeast with lower flocculating tendencies should be used so it can survive in the high gravity wort.

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What makes a dunkel (lager)... a dunkel.

Back 16

Dunkel (or Dunkles) is a dark German beer. Dunkel is the German word meaning dark, and dunkel beers typically range in colour from amber to dark reddish brown. They are characterized by their smooth malty flavour. Dunkels were the original style of the Bavarian villages and countryside. Lighter-coloured lagers were not common until the later part of the 19th century when technological advances made them easier to produce. Dunkels have a distinctive malty flavour that comes from a special brewing technique called triple decoction.

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What makes a Maerzen (lager)... a maerzen.

Back 17

The original Märzen was described as "dark brown, full-bodied and bitter". As intended, the beer was often kept in the cellar until late in the summer, and remaining bottles were served at the Oktoberfest.In order to last so long, either the original gravity and alcohol were increased or the hopping was strengthened.Over the summer months, beer had to be stored in a Lager (storage), in caves or stone cellars, sometimes built into the sides of mountains or hills. Frequently these locations were chosen because there was a pond nearby. During the winter, when the pond had frozen, blocks of ice would be cut and put into the cave or cellar. This was usually possible until the month of March, when the beer was brewed to be stored there for months to come. The entrance to the cellar or cave would also be shielded from sunlight by planting Horse-chestnut or Conker trees in front of it, which have large leaves.

Front 18

What makes a pilsner (lager)... a pilsner.

Back 18

Pilsner is one of the youngest beer styles in the world. It was originally brewed in Plzen, Czech in 1842 and was an immediate hit. Many breweries have recreated the beer and used the name Pilsner, which is the name of the brewery where it was originally brewed, to describe the style. Read the full history of this style. As with some many good things in this world, simplicity is the key to Pilsner's success. Lightly kilned malted barley, spicy Noble hops, lager yeast, and soft water are all that's needed for the skilled brewer to produce a fine pilsner. These ingredients combine for a clean, simple beer.