All about beer. Fun facts about beer

Beer is sufficient. You can attach anything to it: the most suitable container or glasses, perfectly matched food, the atmosphere of a classic Russian or German pub or even a British colonial-style pub. But you can also take away anything you like from it - and still it will remain itself.

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The world's premier beer is pale lager, which is mostly bottled and spilled in bars. Lager is opposed by ale - the second main world type of beer. The difference is in the yeast. Lager - a light, light and dry beer in the German-Czech style - was invented in Bohemia in 1842. No one knows when ale was invented. This is the oldest way to produce beer - hops, malt, water, wild yeast.

Beer is known to ferment. "Bottom-fermenting" is a lager in the German-Czech vein, typical of Europe and generally accepted throughout the rest of the world. Its production is a high-tech process: the beer ferments for a long time, with cooling, temperature control. Top-fermenting is a process in which a head of yeast simply floats on the surface of a beer fermented at room temperature. This is a more archaic way - this is how ales are fermented.

Many people are surprised that pubs serve beer at room temperature. This is not a whim: warmly fermented beer will reveal all the beauties of its taste and aroma in an unchilled form. Lagers are always drunk chilled. In most Moscow pubs, however, English beer is also served cold. Even in winter - which we once had the opportunity to verify as part of a special raid on the eve of St. Patrick's Day. Leaving the Irish pub "Belfast" on a 25-degree frost, the tasting participants felt a sore throat.

Camps are countless. About five years ago, American lagers were fashionable, of which there are three or four varieties, including Miller brewed in Kaluga. But now this fashion has passed. Everyone returned to pilsners - that is, lagers with an emphasis on hops. Czechs rightly believe that a real pilsner can only be produced in the Czech city of Pilsen, which, in their opinion, grows the best hops in the world. However, envious brewers from other regions already thought differently in the 19th century, and a German pilsner (the most popular today is Beck’s) and even an American one appeared. Now Czech pilsner is brewed even in Kaluga and sold in Moscow restaurants.

German lagers are diverse, listing them is meaningless. At Oktoberfest, Germans brew seasonal beer - Munich and Bavarian dark varieties, including smoked Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier. But these are all particulars. The world's main lagers are Foster's, Carlsberg, Beck's, Corona, Stella Artois, Kronenbourg, Heineken, which are produced in different parts of the world without reference to one country.

Dark and light

Dark and light beer have nothing to do with the struggle between good and evil, it's all about their main component - malt. The color of the beer is determined by the degree of roasting of the malt and the amount of dark malt used in the brew. The most common types: caramel, chocolate, burnt - all of them can be found on the label of Baltika No. 6. Dark can be both ale and lager. Roughly the same story with the once popular discussion about "filtered" and "unfiltered" beer - absolutely anyone can be one or the other. What's more, wheat beers can be both dark and filtered, such as Maisel's Weisse, a well-known Bavarian beer that can be bought in most supermarkets.

Wheat lagers

Beer that is made with hops and malt usually comes with an emphasis on either hops or malt. But sometimes it happens that malt is replaced by some other grain - wheat, rye or even rice, which is put into beer in China, as well as in large breweries to reduce the cost of the process. Wheat is actively brewed in Bavaria, probably from excess grain. Schneider Weisse from upper Bavaria, popular in supermarkets, is the best example of this.

The Belgian "Hugarden" with the addition of orange zest made wheat lagers popular all over the world - including at the Klin brewery. By the way, Belgian beer is the strangest in the world. They put cherries, raspberries, other vegetables and fruits in it. Such are the raspberry Lindemans Framboise or Bellevue. These varieties are closer, rather, not to lagers, but to ales. And in Moscow, it is worth going for Belgian beer to Beer Cell or Beermarket. Belgian beer is so unusual that before you buy it, you need to try it. Suddenly you don't like it?

The best of what happens in the ocean of foamy drink.

All British and Irish beers are ales. The difference between dark and light beer, which is familiar to us, is very blurred among the British and the gradation of beer by color is very conditional.

Let's start with the light types. Bitter is a popular golden colored pale ale. Served in 80% of the pubs in England. Pale Ale is an amber or copper beer brewed from light dried malt. Pale and strong ale quenches thirst in the heat. Very similar to bitter.

Then they go not quite light, but rather red-brown in color and semi-dark according to the global classification. Brown Ale - brown-red color, flavored with toasted and caramel malts. Cask Ale is a cask filtered ale aged in oak barrels. Quite on the verge of dark is Irish Red Ale - almost red in color, rich, sweet and oily.

This is followed by borderline dark ales. Often labeled as old ale in the provinces, English Strong Ale is brown in color and has a bittersweet taste. May also appear as dark ale. Scotch Ale is dark in color, malty with a buttery nutty flavor and often has a slight peaty aroma, similar to single malts. The association with whiskey is not accidental. Everyone knows that they are made from malt, but few think about the fact that before distilling malt into alcohol, it needs to be fermented into some kind of beer - well, Scotch ale is most similar to the malt brew from which whiskey is made.

And finally, very dark varieties. Frankly dark ales are often referred to as stouts. The main dark ale - porter - was first brewed in London in 1730 by a brewer named Harwood for porters and the industrial proletariat, and the real stout was invented by Arthur Guinness only in 1759. Traditionally, stouts are dry in Ireland and sweet in England. The most popular Guinness stout can be found in any bar.

Finally, even among the original British beers, there are varieties and formats that fall outside the generally accepted range: like Barley Wine, a hybrid of wine and barley beer, or Oatmeal Stout - it is brewed with oatmeal. Barley wine, like ordinary wine, can be aged in oak, which gives it a tannic taste and rich aroma that is not typical for beer. The famous "Thomas Hardy ale", aged for six months in barrels and having the aroma of meat broth, is almost barley wine.

The main players in the classic ale market are happy to work for export: Young's, Greene King Brewing and Retailing Limited, St. Peter's Brewery, Wychwood Brewery - and recently their products have become more than available in Moscow, not only in specialized stores for fans like Kruger Hall on Tulskaya or Piligrim on Savelovskaya (8 499 978 2507, Novoslobodskaya, 62, building . 17), but also in retail chains, up to the Daily mini-markets.

Russian beer

Typical Russian brewing has not existed for two hundred years. And in general, Russian beer, as it were, does not exist - almost the entire pre-revolutionary brewing industry was built by the Germans and Czechs. Before the revolution, there were about 20 factories in different cities, the names of which included the word "Bavaria", and about 15 - with the word "Bohemia". So there is nothing surprising in the fact that several transnational corporations now control the market.

Beer today in Russia is a plastic container and a limited number of brands. Approximately the same thing, it seems, was happening in the States, and throughout the world. But there, the enlargement could not continue indefinitely - and the answer to globalization was the microbreweries that appeared in the early 80s, including those combined with restaurants and bars.

In Moscow, microbreweries brewing beer for restaurants are still faintly reminiscent of the emerging alternative to mega-companies - more like a toy for successful restaurateurs. "Tinkoff", "16 tons", "Fifth Ocean" - all of them do not make the weather in the logic and style of beer sales, but they produce quite high-quality beer for lovers. All of them have loyal fans who love them for their more or less varied beer menu in German, like Tinkoff, or British, like Tons, style. In the case of other restaurants, there are three abstract home varieties: light, dark and red. All varieties are brewed at approximately the same breweries near Moscow and delivered to restaurants in returnable kegs.

Until the early 2000s, there were domestic breweries that stood out against the general background - "Afanasy", famous for its dark variety, which, by the way, recently returned to the counter, and Kazan's "Krasny Vostok" with its assortment of twenty positions, but by the current moment their influence on the market and on the minds of citizens is practically zero.

Fans and gourmets

Beer subculture and beer culture are two different things. Beer culture is when, what time of the year, and with what food. Beer culture is people like the American beer guru Michael Jackson (not to be confused with the pop star) who died in late August - the main beer journalist, author of numerous books and guides. We planned to interview him, but did not have time - he died of Parkinson's disease.

The beer subculture is a strange company of football fans, Celtomaniacs and neo-fascists, for whom beer is more than just an ordinary male ritual. By the way, is it male? According to Tinkoff's internal research, the majority of beer drinkers prefer to drink German-style dark beer - and mainly in summer. Not many people choose beer not because of taste, but because of some ideological motives. Ultimately, with a limited assortment, it all comes down not even to subcultures, but to beers. Guinness and similar stouts are a cult item for fans of the Celtic theme. The few classic skinheads and football fans who support British clubs drink Spitfire and Newcastle Brown Ale. And fans of Italian clubs can run a couple of blocks for Birra Moretti. And Russian neo-fascists, even those who are oriented towards the national idea, drink German beer.

“Give me, my dear, a mug of bitter, and madam, as usual, a lambic.” You can hardly hear such a phrase in a drinking establishment. Most often we order light or dark, filtered, unfiltered. However, the brewers who have been cultivating famous beers for centuries would not have given us a pat on the head. Out of respect for their work, and just for enlightenment, we understand the confusing classification.

To begin with, there are two large groups - lagers and ales, each of which is also divided into types. Let's deal with them first.

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A distinctive feature of lagers is that they roam at fairly low temperatures - 4-9 degrees. And due to the fact that the yeast in the production of such beer is concentrated at the bottom of the tank, these varieties are called bottom-fermented beer. German monks started making lagers in the Middle Ages. And in the end, the whole of Europe and the world got hooked on them. There are dark and light lagers, such as the Žatecký Gus brand.

Pilsner

If you order a light beer at a bar, it's most likely a lager. And it's even more likely that it's a pilsner. This variety is the most common in the world. However, the most classic pilsner is made from pale malt, soft water and, of course, from the famous Saaz hops.

smoked beer

Now this variety with a noticeable smoky flavor is produced only as an exotic. However, in ancient times it was he who was in use. The point is in the way the malt is prepared: when the brewers did not have time to dry it naturally, they did it on the fire. Smoked beer - for an amateur. As they say in the regions where it is common, only from the third mug the taste becomes right. The center of smoky brewing is the Bavarian city of Bamberg and its environs.

Munich

Separately stands in this category beer produced according to the Munich type. His recipe appeared in the X century and is still actively exploited. Munich beer is both light and dark.

bock beer

Another German "classic", characterized by density and strength. Typically, bok contains 6.3–7.2% alcohol. Also found in light and dark forms.

Eli

If lagers originated in Germany and the Czech Republic, then the British Isles are traditionally famous for ales.

Unlike lager, ale ferments at higher temperatures - from 15 to 24 degrees. Yeast during its production is pushed to the top, so this method is called top fermentation.

It was through top fermentation that the ancient Sumerians produced their first beer in the fourth millennium BC. The British, in general, are adherents of traditions here.

Porter

This variety appeared at the beginning of the 18th century in London. It was brewed as an alternative to classic ale. Porter was more nutritious than its predecessor, and was loved by workers and porters, due to the fact that he replenished their strength, like no drink before.

stout

A particularly respected variety in Ireland and Britain. Stout is always dark. Produced from roasted malt. A couple of centuries ago, it was considered a type of porter, but then it was separated into a separate species, and literally a stout cult was born. Various healing properties were attributed to him, doctors prescribed him to their patients.

Bitter

Not to be confused with the group of strong alcoholic beverages, which includes bitters, vermouths and liqueurs. Bitter, that is, bitter, this variety began to be called, since beer manufacturers began to add hops to it, which gave bitterness. Bitter colors can range from yellow to copper.

pale ale

Pale ale is another iconic English drink. It also appeared at the beginning of the 18th century, in the town of Burton. Light malt and local water, which was rich in minerals, gave the variety a special taste, which was appreciated not only by the inhabitants of the city. Pale ale comes in pale honey and golden colors

And here are other interesting varieties that differ in the way they are made and are known in Spain.

Wheat beer

It's also white. Produced from wheat malt. Has a fruity spicy taste. The scheme for the production of wheat beer resembles the production of ale. However, it “reaches” already in the bottle. Traditionally, wheat beer is unfiltered. However, there are also transparent varieties. It is believed that you need to drink such beer not very cold so that its taste can open up.

lambic

Belgian pride and know-how. This type of fermentation is called spontaneous or spontaneous, because it ferments in wine barrels, without the addition of traditional brewer's yeast. For lambic to ripen, those microorganisms that “passed down” to it from the wine that was previously there are enough. The researchers found 86 different microorganisms in the drink.

Lambic can be aged from one to ten years. Cherries, raspberries and other fruits are added to some of its varieties.

The Russian Quality System has published the results of a study of 40 major brands of light filtered beer. But none of them was awarded the highest rating of experts. True, “chemistry” was not found in the samples. Can this drink harm the body at all, how much should it be drunk and does it contain useful substances? AiF.ru and Roskachestvo were asked to tell about this nutritionist, doctor of medical sciences Mariyat Mukhina.

- There is undoubtedly a benefit in high-quality beer, produced according to all the rules. True, it is preserved only under the condition of moderate consumption. Doctors insist that an adult can drink no more than 300 grams of beer, a maximum of two or three times a week. Then we can say that beer speeds up metabolic processes in the body, and this, in turn, helps in the process of rejuvenating blood vessel cells.

By the way, few people know that high-quality beer inhibits the growth and reproduction of many pathogenic bacteria, has an analgesic and calming effect on the body. It has a great effect on hair growth, and when used both internally and as a rinse.

Are there any health benefits in beer?

— Yes, according to our Japanese colleagues. Medical scientists from the Japanese National Institute of Radiology have found xanthohumol in hops: a flavonoid that suppresses the action of carcinogens. From this, the Japanese concluded that beer to some extent protects a person from cancer. The same xanthohumol protects the brain from age-related degenerative changes.

No other drink can so quickly remove aluminum compounds from the body. We can say that the use of beer is indicated for poisoning with this substance. Moreover, American experts believe that beer helps with kidney stones.

It will seem surprising to many, but beer contains a high content of vitamins B1 and B2, and in an easy-to-digest form. For example, to provide 50% of the daily value of these vitamins, you need to drink a liter of beer. The same volume will replenish the supply of vitamin C by 70%.

But still, you need to remember about the norm of 300 grams and not drink beer "for the sake of vitamins." True, the norm allows you to replenish the daily supply of only nicotinic and folic acids. If you drink more than this amount, then the drink will wash out a huge amount of trace elements from the body, creating their deficiency. In addition, in the manufacture of beer, a small amount of a substance identical to ptomaine is produced. When it accumulates in brain cells, the risk of getting senile dementia increases much earlier than the onset of retirement age.

Fusel oils, aldehydes, esters and methanol in beer are many times higher than their content in other alcoholic beverages. It is because of the impact on the brain of these substances that the legs become "cottoned", and the consciousness is confused. With the regular intake of such a bouquet of substances into the brain, anxiety, the level of aggression, irascibility, laziness, deceit increase, mental processes slow down. Cobalt in the composition of beer leads to a violation of cardiac activity, and at any age.

Do you get fat from beer?

Again, it all depends on how much you drink. Within the normal range, light beer perfectly activates the digestive system. It becomes a breeding ground for beneficial intestinal bacteria and stimulates the secretion of gastric juice. This, in turn, aids in the digestion of food and better absorption of nutrients.

But the calories in beer are lower than in skim milk or any carbonated drink. Beer leads to fullness only because of salty snacks: dried fish, crackers, chips, and so on. In addition, carbon dioxide and yeast expand the stomach, and alcohol irritates the receptors of the digestive tract, blocking the saturation centers.

Is beer addictive?

Yes, alcoholism can be beer. It is a mistake to think that people get drunk only on vodka, wine or strong drinks. Dependence appears when the body requires regularity and an increase in the dose. Pathologists know best about the dangers of beer alcoholism. They note greatly enlarged and modified kidneys, heart and liver. With beer alcoholism, doctors note the main disorders in the work of the heart and blood vessels: a noticeable increase in the heart muscle and vessel walls, increased blood pressure, arrhythmia, shortness of breath, coronary disease, tachycardia, heart attacks and strokes. In addition, brain activity decreases: the gradual death of brain cells, deterioration of attention and memory, impaired coordination of movements, decreased intelligence, dementia.

Complement the negative effects of problems with internal organs: heartburn, gastritis, stomach ulcers, flatulence, hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver. Even a banal increase in pressure is often the result of an addiction to beer. This is how the kidneys report congestion. The main sign of the onset of beer alcoholism, doctors call the inability to relax or get together with friends without beer. And a clear indicator of the stage when you can’t do without the help of a narcologist is the daily use of beer in any doses, even in very small ones.

When trying to cut down or stop drinking, a beer alcoholic notices the characteristic signs of a hangover syndrome: trembling hands, dry mouth, headache, weakness, and sweating. If a couple of sips of beer relieves the condition, then it's time to rush to the doctors.

Non-alcoholic - harmless?

The inscription "0% alcohol" is not entirely true. There is still a small percentage of alcohol in non-alcoholic beer, it can reach up to 1.5%. Accordingly, the regular use of this drink leads to the same consequences as addiction to alcoholic beer.

Who shouldn't drink beer?

It is also contraindicated for pregnant women. Beer negatively affects the formation of the fetus and its gestation. Even if outwardly the child was born healthy, mom's addiction to beer during pregnancy will affect the baby's intelligence and behavior.

It is worth completely abandoning alcohol for those couples who are planning to conceive in the near future. Even one bottle of beer can subsequently affect the child's physical or mental development. The same can be said about feeding the baby with “beer milk”. The myth that you need to take a sip of beer to increase lactation leads to disorders in the children's body. This will definitely affect its further development.

Craft beer has captured almost all the bars of St. Petersburg and Moscow, but still few people can clearly explain how it differs from the usual one. In order to fix this, The Village, together with the founders of the Malt and Hops beer school - the main propagandist of craft in St. Petersburg Alexei Burov and its major distributor Ivan Shishkin - is launching a series of materials dedicated to craft brewing. In the first issue, the owner of the bars "", "" and "" talks about how craft brewing was born and what are its features.

Ivan Shishkin

General Director of the company-distributor of beer "Fest Federation"

Alexey Burov

co-owner of the bars "Pivnaya Karta", "Minning and barrel" and "Trappist"

The craft beer phenomenon

We, the founders of the school, for ourselves introduced the expression "craft beer" as a definition of an interesting author's product about five years ago. Today we find ourselves thinking that the phrase is beginning to acquire a completely vague meaning, often appearing only on the menu. Everyone talks about craft beer, but few can explain what it is. The same thing happened five years ago with author's beer, ten years ago with live beer.

The difference is that the last two expressions are a purely Russian invention, while craft beer is an international, quite professional term, which in a number of countries has a legislatively fixed wording.

Interpretations of anarchy tritely interferes with work and building the right dialogue with partners, beer lovers and industry participants. This, by the way, was one of the reasons for the founding of the school. We want Russia to speak the same language with the global beer audience. It is necessary to distinguish not craft beer from non-craft, but good from bad. And while the inscription "kraft" in our country does not guarantee quality at all, unfortunately.

Definition

So what is craft beer? Among all the formulations, the simplest is the legally approved Craft Brewers Association of the United States, the founders of the movement. They believe that a craft brewery should be independent (that is, managed not by a board of directors, but by people directly involved in the business), have a small capacity and brew beer according to a traditional recipe, where the ingredients are used only for taste, and not to reduce the cost. The approach is generally correct, but its digitization clearly indicates the conditionality of the boundaries. It is obvious that today the American multi-billion dollar craft market has long become a platform for making big money with a very beautiful wrapper, but cynical content, in the spirit of Hollywood.

Thus, we accept the classical American formulation conceptually, but we cannot agree with its absolute meanings (especially since they are periodically shifted by the Association to suit the changed capacities, ownership shares in certain breweries, and so on). This approach seems to us not the most logical. After six million liters a year, a craft brewery does not automatically cease to be a craft brewery. Is not it?

In our view, craft is quality beer with character and meaning, brewed not by the board of directors, but by the brewer

The liberal beer community of Europe agrees with this. Therefore, it is customary for them to consider craft any beer that is brewed by independent brewers and has special taste characteristics. The European definition does not have a legal basis and therefore each manufacturer and seller interprets craft in his own way. This approach, unlike the American one, on the contrary, seems too free to us. This non-binding definition in the Russian expanse allows you to start a “Russian business” with the manipulation of the term and sticking a fashionable label on any mediocre product without a twinge of conscience and even an approximate understanding of the issue.

Criteria and history

We have brought out the recipe for craft beer, which we think is absolutely appropriate in order to become official for use in Russia. In our view, craft is a quality beer with character and meaning, brewed not by a board of directors, but by a brewer.

One of the first criteria for crafting is quality. This is the ability of beer to meet the declared characteristics (physico-chemical, biological, organoleptic) during the entire shelf life, and not a subjective assessment of "like - dislike". In this regard, for example, we strongly dislike it when only bitter (sour/strong/other) beers are called craft beer. Let's go back to the roots. Craft beer originated in the United States as a form of revival of the roaring 70s, a new post-war generation whose parents were raised on the American Dream with the same clothes, shops, music, food and drink. Imagine what was happening at that time with the beer culture in the country, which was founded by representatives of the strongest beer powers in the world: the Dutch, the British, the Irish, the Germans, the Czechs (and where more than 4 thousand breweries operated at the end of the 19th century)? It's very simple, in the 60s and 70s, thanks to lobbying and aggressive development, two huge manufacturers of dull beer remained de facto in the country: Bud and Miller. The grin of beer globalism has reached its limit. Meanwhile, hereditary brewers have memories of how different and multifaceted varieties were before Prohibition. The desire to revive the traditional recipes of their nation has become the main engine of progress. In a simple way, everyone is tired of drinking bottom-fermented pale American beer. People just wanted another beer, and demand creates supply. And in 1978, the ban on home brewing was lifted throughout the country. This spurred the development of hop-growing in the southwestern states, whose terroir, in terms of wine terminology, brought absolutely fantastic aromas to the final product (compared to classic Old World varieties) and the fashion for IPA, which has become (wrongly!) almost synonymous with us. crafting. So, all first-wave craft beer was nothing more than a classic interpretation of old-world beer styles, adjusted for the American climate and nature. Some started with lagers (having got Viennese-style, California-common style lagers), others started with ales (brewing the first wheat ale in the Bavarian Weissbiers style) or analogues of British bitters.

There was no talk of any radicalism (such as 100% IBU (International Bittering Units or, literally, the number of units of bitterness) or 10% alcohol with oak aging) in the era of the birth of craft. By itself, table ale or unfiltered lager has become a revolutionary drink for a country steeped in a light, tasteless swill of rice, maltose syrup and maize, proudly called light american lager.

This is the problem with modern craft. Behind bright hopping, aging in barrels, playing with various ingredients and other products and technologies that very much hide the shortcomings of base beer, a very simple, but balanced and ideological beer for every day is lost - craftologists consider it not crafty enough. For example, the iconic brewery Fuller's, Smith & Turner is classified as "regular", despite the highest quality great ales.

desire to revive traditional recipes of their nation became the main engine of progress

Behind this lies absolute ignorance of the issue and the desire of amateurs (from production, trade, marketing and gastronomy) to speculate on the fashion trend. We observed a similar picture with pasta, pizza, sushi, steaks, wine bars. We see a similar thing now: people who six months ago could not tell a lager from a lambic, today, with the status of experts, are seriously discussing the differences in units of bitterness of one crazy “ipa” ( Indian Pale Ale. - Approx. ed.) from another.

What are we calling for? We believe that it is necessary to understand the issue from the basics. That is why we teach people how beer appeared, why it became the way we used to see it and how we got used to its other tastes, what beer tastes and why they appear, and also how to distinguish good beer from bad beer by color, aroma, taste and smell.

At the end of the day, craft beer is just a label for the author's approach and honest philosophy, according to which a number of breweries have been perfecting their brewing technology for decades (and some even centuries), long before America offered the international community a fashionable definition of their product and production principles. .

Photo: Dima Tsyrenshchikov

A few years ago, the assortment of beer presented in stores, was understandable and very limited. Everyone had their own bottle favorites that saved them on a hot day or after a hard day at work.

Today we are witnessing a real beer revolution. The brewing process is a whole science and a process verified to perfection.Beer bars and boutiques are opening not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also in smaller cities. It can be quite difficult for a non-professional to understand the world of craft beer.

KitchenMag learned a lot of interesting information about beer from real professionals in their field: to how to choose how to serve to the table, what snacks and b people choosing to different beer. Approach the question wisely!

A bit of history

Recently, mankind is tired of drinking monotonous beer and It was decided to diversify the taste of this drink. Beer began to be brewed at home. Citizens appreciated such homemade creativity, and the demand for non-standard beer grew.

In 1978, American President Jimmy Carter issued legalization of home brewing. Beer brewed at home could be safely sold to your friends, and not only to neighbors, but also to neighboring states. This beer is called craft, that is, handmade beer.

Since then, craft beer production has only grown. There are now over 4,000 craft breweries in America. In Russia, there are also enough of them - about 760. Traditionally beer is brewed from water, malt and hops. Beer is divided into two types of fermentation - lager and ale(bottom and top fermentation).

Today there are several hundred different types of beer, such as milk stouts, dark lagers, fruit ales and many others. The variety can make your eyes wander in different directions, but now every beer lover can find a drink to his taste.

Modern trends in brewing

At present, the main trend is craft beer, that is, beer brewed by hand, according to its own unique recipes, with the addition of various natural ingredients. New types of beer, new production technologies, new inventions from brewers to add various berries, fruits and vegetables to the drink, as well as unusual ingredients are constantly appearing.

In Russia, at the moment we are witnessing the so-called craft revolution. Craft bars, draft and bottled beer shops, and a bottle shop open daily. Today, even classic English and Irish pubs are stocking craft beers. Since there is such a big demand for beer, craft breweries are popping up like mushrooms. clearing after the rain. Their numbers are growing exponentially. Beer giants are also not far behind: they produce pseudo-craft beer, which is referred to in the world as crafti.

How to choose craft beer

First you need to understand which of the many styles of beer you like best. To do this, you should buy 5-10 varieties of beer, such as:

IPA- Indian pale ale (with a fair amount of hop bitterness);

APA- American Indian pale ale (differs from IPA in a more bitter taste and more hops);

BIPA- black Indian pale ale (it's simple: it's a dark IPA);

DIPA- double Indian pale ale (from the name it is clear that the beer is twice as strong, bitter and denser than its predecessor IPA);

Porter- dark beer with a characteristic taste (brewed specifically for English port loaders, from which it got its name);

Stout- simply put, it is a stronger porter;

RIS- Russian imperial stout (usually very dark and strong beer from 8% alcohol and above, often aged in oak barrels from a wide variety of alcoholic beverages).

There are a lot of styles and varieties of craft beer. Start small. A little later you will get involved and begin to study beer culture more closely, gradually forgetting and excluding from their lives the mass beer brewed by the beer giants.

About Craft Brewing Standards

Craft brewing appeared in Russia relatively recently, about 10 years ago, and is now experiencing its boom. In Russia, there is no clear definition for this term, so it is customary to focus on the experience of Western colleagues.

In America there are clear requirements for craft brewing. First, the brewery must be small (annual volume of no more than 703.8 million liters of beer per year). Secondly, the brewery must be independent (this gives a certain freedom to the brewer, he does not have to adapt to the opinion and vision of investors). And the last, third point, the brewery must follow the traditions. This means that such beer should contain at least 50% malt, and other additives should serve to create an unusual and interesting taste, but in no case to reduce the cost.

We have something similar going on in Russia: people are passionate about the idea of ​​creating something new and original. Hundreds of enthusiasts get down to business, looking for old recipes, creating new ones, experimenting, playing with taste. Someone opens their own small factories, someone rents tanks from large breweries, someone even brews beer in their kitchen.

What snacks to choose for beer: Helsinkibar tips

The culture of drinking is now at a fairly high level. This applies to both strong alcohol, cocktails, wine, and beer. Drink first to enjoy the process and enjoy the taste of the drink, so the combination of alcohol with food can be very different.

For example, strong beers go well with solid food - steaks, rich soups. Sweet stouts go great with spicy foods like pizza. Bitters - with fresh fruit. Lagers - with fish and chicken dishes. Pal Eli goes well with spicy dishes, cheeses. Porters - with chocolate desserts and even ice cream. These are common combinations, but yours may be completely different. Do not be afraid to experiment, because this is the only way to find the best gastronomic pairs that are right for you.