Beer is the most widely consumed alcohol beverage, the 3rd most consumed beverage (after water and tea of course) and the most common cause of divorces and children. Okay, so maybe the last two weren't 100% true. A lot of people drink a lot of beer and it has adopted it's own pop culture. Folks go to beer gardens and beer festivals and private breweries to try out different types of ales and they can be very different. There are beers with different fruits or different spices or that have had a special brewing process. No matter how you look at it, beer has been around for a while. Consider this - beer has been around longer than clean water! Many civilizations drank beer and wine simply because it was much safer to drink than the water. Beer is thought to be the oldest fermented beverage. The Babylonian code of law that dates back to ancient Mesopotamia in 1754BC - also known as the Code of Hammurabi - talks about the production and distribution of beer. It was such a big thing that they even had a Goddess of Beer in which they sung hymns to called - "The Hymn to Ninkas" - in which yeah, it was a prayer thing, but more importantly it was a recipe about how to brew beer. Most folks were illiterate and songs, hymns, prayers to get information to pass down and learn from. Early beer would probably be unrecognizable and contain quite a bit of different spices and fruit that was probably common to the local area. It would not have hops in it since that addition didn't happen until around late 822. In 1516, William IV (Duke of Bavaria) adopted the "Reinheitsgrebot" or what was known as the purity law. It was the first of food quality standards and it called for beer to only contain water, hops and barley-malt. By the 7th century AD, the good ol' monasteries were making their fair share of ale and selling. It makes me wonder how many food and drink items were produced, sold and marketed by monasteries (idea!). Busy dudes! The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century ushered in mass production. The domestic brews weren't really all to significant anymore. Today, the mass market of beer is a global business bringing in about $294.5 billion dollars for about 35 billion gallons in 2006. China's beer consumption is skyrocketing at a rate of twice of the U.S. Beer is definitely big business.
Beer is a fermented drink meaning that a starch is broken down into sugars and those sugars are then fermented. Starches come from the usual suspects that I know you've heard before in commercials - malted barley and malted wheat. Hops provides the bitterness and acts as a natural preservative. The usual alcohol content is between 4% and 6%, but you can rise on up to 20% with different varieties. Beer has many varieties. Pale Ales are one of the most common beer styles an uses a pale malt. Stout is a dark beer that using roasted malt or roast barley. Mild beer is a bit dark and malty with an alcohol content of about 3.5%. Wheat beer contains a large portion of wheat. A lager is the most commonly consumed beer in the world especially the pale lager.
Many folks make a hobby of making beer and enjoy experimenting with different flavors and styles. A particular style is seasonal ales. Although the mass beer industry is doing just fine, smaller breweries seem to be making a comeback. Many small and local brewhouses are starting to see a following and fans and enjoying great popularity. It's refreshing to get back to an older place in time when a craft really meant something.
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