A Beginner’s Guide to Beer
Let’s get your beer knowledge brewing!
Ahh, beer. The four letter word we hear all the time. Some people love it, others hate it. Regardless, there is so much to learn about it! With so many different brews and styles out there, the world of beer can be quite intimidating! Luckily, we’ve put together a quick guide for you. Now you’re just a jump, skip, and a hop away from becoming a beer expert!
The Basics
Every beer produced either falls under the category of being a lager or an ale. So what's the difference? It has to do with the way they are fermented.
Ales use yeast which brews from the top quicker at higher temperatures. This leads to more flavorful and complex beers with darker colors.
Lagers use yeast which ferments from the bottom slowly at lower temperatures. This leads to clean and crisp beer.
The Ingredients
Most beers out there are made up of just 4 ingredients. Let’s learn about them:
Barley: Barley is processed into malt and then brewed
Hops: Hops are added during brewing to balance the sweet malt with bitterness
Yeast: Yeast converts sugars into alcohol and CO2 for carbonation
Water: Good ol’ H2O
The Styles:
The number of distinct styles of beers out there goes on and on, so we’ll keep it simple.
Wheat Ale: A large amount of wheat is used along with malted barley which adds fruity and spicy aromatics and flavors.
IPA (India Pale Ale): These are the hoppiest of beers and are pale in color.
Stouts/Porters: The roasting of the malt turns the color darker and starts to burn the sugars leading to caramel flavor.
Pilsner: A lager, which comes in crisp, with a slight hoppy, biscuit flavor.
The Recommendations:
So where do you go from here? Get to drinking! Here are some beers we highly recommend beginners to try out to help them determine what they like.
Allagash White
Style: Wheat
Bell's Lager of the Lakes
Style: Pilsner
Deschutes Fresh Squeezed
Style: IPA
Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale
Style: Brown Ale
Left Hand Brewing’s Milk Nitro Stout
Style: Stout
