A Beer Primer, Part I & II

[Oregone]

My favorite theory on the origin of beer and brewing was created by anthropologist Solomon Katz, who suggested that the desire to brew beer was the very root of agriculture and civilization. According to Katz, the desire to have a steady source of barley from which to make beer was the reason people in Mesopotamia decided to settle in one place. He also theorizes that the malting of barley, which is crucial to fermentation, rendered the result more nutritious than gruels made from unmalted barley, so the low-alcohol beer the early farmers consumed was more healthful than the alternatives.

Modern beer is still brewed from malted barley, but it’s unlikely any of us would recognize too many similarities to Sumerian and Egyptian beer – although Anchor Brewing produced a “Sumerian” beer, extolling the goddess Ninkasi a number of years ago. The greatest difference, of course, is that virtually all modern beers combine malt and hops, which not only provide a distinctive flavor and a bitterness to balance the sweetness of malt, but were originally introduced for their preservative effect.

Beer, for those who have never had any, is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermentation of malted grain – mostly, it’s brewed with malted barley, because barley comes ready-made with all the necessary enzymes and carbohydrates needed. “Malting” is basically a recreation of the natural process of turning a seed into a plant – the starches locked up in the seed are broken down into simple sugars, the process is halted by drying, and the process is completed later, during the brewing cycle.

Through history, brewers tossed a lot of different plants into their beer in an attempt to keep it from spoiling. Eventually, they found hops to be the most useful, and the flavor, aroma and bitterness of hops appealed to their customers. The balance between the malt and hops varies tremendously from beer style to beer style and often defines the style—like a very malty doppelbock or a very hoppy IPA.

Process

Brewing beer is really the process of feeding yeast and gathering the result. The basics haven’t changed since Sumeria, although the technology has improved.

In essence, crushed malt is added to hot water and steeped, so that the process begun in the malthouse can continue and the starches are finally broken down into sugars. The hot liquid drawn off the masht+un is known as sweet wort (wert). The wort is boiled in conjunction with hops for roughly 90 minutes, then drawn off again and cooled from boiling temperature, the wort gets a needed shot of oxygen, and then the yeast is “pitched”.

Over the next couple of days, the yeast turns the sugars into alcohol and CO2. After the primary fermentation is complete, the beer is usually transferred to another vessel for secondary fermentation, which may take a week or two, the beer is conditioned (often with cold temperatures), possibly filtered, and then packaged.

There are a lot of variations on the process, which result in a wide range of beers. It’s very common, for example, for the mashing process to include “adjuncts”, which are grains other than malted barley. In this country, the most common adjunct is corn, which is cheap, plentiful and helps the brewer produce a pale, crisp beer. Corn (and most other unmalted grains) needs to be cooked separately, and then added to the mash, and it requires the enzymes in the barley to break down the starches in the corn.

The British and Belgians still brew fantastic beers using various sugars in the kettle. Germans, for the most part, are still using a nearly 600-year-old purity law that confines brewing to malt, hops and water.

There are two broad types of yeast, and two broad fermentations. The oldest yeasts, essentially the same as bread yeast, are known as “top fermenting” because they literally congregate near the surface during fermentation. They’re suited to the ancient technology of open fermenters, and the fermentation itself is warm and fairly quick. True ales are produced by top fermentation.

“Bottom fermenters” developed in cold temperatures and are the type of yeast used to produce “lager”, which comes from the German word “to store”, because they are “lagered” at near-freezing temperatures for weeks after fermentation. Lagers, traditionally, are smoother and brighter than ales.

Beer Styles

The type of fermentation is a handy way to split beer into two broad categories, much like red and white wines. Modern brewing techniques are often a bastardization of the two, and devices like open fermenters are getting scarce, but it’s still a helpful line to draw.

I’ll warn you up front: when it comes to beer styles, I’m a lumper rather than a splitter. Some beer judges will argue the relative distinctions to death but in my view, most categories are really a spectrum of broadly-related beers. One brewer’s pale ale is another brewer’s IPA and another brewer’s ESB. My examples will also betray a Pacific Northwest market skew, because the freshest examples I get to taste are local.

Top-fermented “ales” are the traditional beers of Britain and Belgium, and the majority of craft-brewed beers in the US are some variation on ale. If nothing else, ales are cheaper and easier to produce than true lagers, require less equipment and can be brewed and sold more quickly. Ales frequently have a fruitier character than lagers, derived from the warmer fermentation process.

Pale Ale

Ales are “pale” when they’re not as dark as dark ales. A relatively modern beer, they couldn’t be produced until maltsters could produce “pale” malt. The color can actually range from golden through copper and bronze-hued, and tend to emphasize hop character. They can, in fact, be very bitter, although a well-balanced malt/hop character can be wonderful. Brewers market them as bitter, pale ale, India Pale Ale (IPA), Extra Special Bitter (ES and now even Imperial India Pale Ale. In the most general terms, IPAs tend to be very heavy on hops and bitterness compared to other pale ales.

Virtually every US craft brewer produces at least one version of a pale ale and often a range that includes an IPA and an ESB. Some of the earliest still rank among the best: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Anchor Liberty Ale (California). Victory HopDevil (PA). Hop Pocket (VA). Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale (MI).

British versions are best consumed in England from the cask, but in good condition, good examples would include: Fuller’s ESB, Young’s Special London Ale, Bishop’s Finger.

Brown Ale

Brown ales tend to be maltier than pale ales, and good examples are tough to find. Often, brewers overdo the caramel malts and “brown ales” can be too sweet. Craft brewers experiment with brown ales, but they haven’t caught the fancy of the American beer drinker.

The classic example is Newcastle (UK), along with Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale (UK). Oregon’s Rogue Brewery produces a HazelNut Brown Ale that actually uses an extract of hazelnuts.

Porter/Stout

The earliest stout was actually a “stout porter” brewed by Guinness and the difference between porter and stout is a difference with no distinction. Porters were once enormously popular in England and Ireland, but eventually faded away, while stout remained very popular in Ireland. Vestiges of porter survived in the Baltic region where they tend to be bottom-fermented and relatively strong and robust. The oldest surviving brewery in the US, Yuengling, still produces their bottom-fermented version. Traditionally, the very dark color and roasty-ness of stouts is derived from the use of roasted malt or roasted unmalted barley.

Irish stouts, or dry stouts, include Guinness, Beamish and Murphy’s. Contrary to a lot of expectations, dry stouts tend to be “session” beers, which means they’re relatively low in alcohol. For many years, Guinness produced an “export stout” which was much stronger. Unfortunately, very little of the Guinness sold in the US is still Irish-brewed, and the Canadian-brewed version is, well, it’s terrible.

American craft breweries virtually all produce a porter or a stout or both. They tend to be bigger and stronger than Irish stouts. Some good examples include Bell’s huge line of stouts, Black Butte Porter, Samuel Smith Taddy Porter, Anchor Porter, Alaskan Smoked Porter.

Wheat Beers

Not all the malt in a beer needs to be malted barley. The Bavarians have long brewed wheat beers, using a combination of malted barley and malted wheat. Weissbier (white beer) is top-fermented with a distinctive yeast, which gives them a clove-vanilla-spice “twang” that is very distinctive. They’re actually stronger than a standard German lager, and are served in a distinctive tall vase-shaped glass to accommodate the huge head. The bottles contain yeast (hefe) which Bavarians usually included in the pour, so the beer is fairly hazy. Some variations include a dunkelweiss (dark white?), a wiezenbock (yow!) and even an eisbock version in which the alcohol content is raised through freezing the beer. Most of the German weissbiers are excellent, if they’re fresh. Look for Aventinus for weizenbock.

US brewers have been producing a lot of “hefe-weizen”, which is a very different beer. Although they use about 30% wheat, these beers are rarely brewed with the distinctive yeast and tend to taste like crisp, dry, very unhappy pale ales. Although the first US version was probably Anchor’s, the “classic” is Portland’s Widmer Hefeweizen, which got a lot of marketing out of the murky beer served with a slice of lemon.

Belgians brew witbier (white beer, again) with spices and unmalted wheat. Although it’s closer in flavor to weissbier than to the American version, it is definitely a unique beer. Hoegaarden is the classic.

Barleywines/Old Ale

With some effort, it’s possible to brew very strong ales – beers of wine strength. These big, rich, dark beers are known as barleywines—although in the US, they must be called “barleywine style ales” because American consumers are too stupid, apparently, to realize these beers aren’t really “wine.” In any event, these are the perfect beers for chilly, rainy nights in front of a roaring fire: the high alcohol makes them warming, and the immense quantity of malt needed makes them rich and deep. Most have a distinctly fruity character as a result of yeast crunching through all that malt, and the very best are balanced by a profound bitterness.

Although barleywines originated in the UK, the revival of the style really occurred with US craft brewers, starting with Anchor Brewery’s Old Foghorn, which remains a personal favorite, although it tends to be much hoppier than most. A lot of craft brewers produce excellent barleywines, and beer geeks all have favorites. Full Sail’s Old Boardhead is, in my opinion, one of the best, mostly because it is tank-aged for a year before bottling. Other great examples, though, include Bridgeport’s Old Knucklehead and Victory’s Old Horizontal. British barleywines tend to be much lower in alcohol, although Thomas Hardys Ale (which is either an Old Ale or a barleywine, depending on who’s talking) is spectacular after aging for at least three and preferably five years. Young’s Old Nick is more typical of a British barleywine, and a good one.

Scottish Ale

A few years ago, there were a flurry of craft-brewed Scottish ales, few of them done very well. The very best of the real thing are fairly malty, with a distinctive character from a very long boil that carmelizes sugars in the kettle. My favorite, Gordon’s, is brewed in Scotland at a higher strength than most and then shipped to Belgium, where “Scotch” ales form an interesting niche. The Belgians themselves brew Scotch Silly, which is also superb. Traquair House Ale, from a tiny brewery outside Edinburgh, is another excellent example.

“Wee Heavy” was a Scottish term for a strong version, and a number of American craft brewers produce beers under that name. There was a rash of beers called “kiltlifter” at one point, and the version from the Pike brewery was excellent, but seems to have fallen on hard times.

German Ale

Although the Germans are best known for bottom-fermented beers, in addition to weissbier they brew some highly distinctive and delicious “ales”, although they don’t use the term. Beers from Koln (Cologne) are known as kolschbier, a crisp, dry pale beer, quite subtle but delicious. Very little is exported to the US, although fresh Reissdorf is very good. This is another beerstyle cranked out by craft brewers during the summer, but some of them are getting very good at it. Goose Island Summertime (IL) is perhaps the best of the lot, but I’ve had some very tasty versions at various brewpubs around the US.

In Dusseldorf, altbier (old beer) is still brewed as a top-fermented beer and the very very best are served only a the brewery restaurants—except now, Zum Uerige, arguably the best, is shipping bottled beer to the US. Rich, very bitter and flat delicious. Portland’s Widmer brewery started their business with a clone of this beer, and Ur-Alt is occasionally available at their brewpub, but no longer packaged as their spring seasonal. Boo, I say. A number of craft brewed beers have the term “alt” in their label, but very few come close to the style in execution.





Belgian ales deserve their own section. More to come.