"Lager" brand beer, which has 0.0% ABV.

Low-alcohol beer (also called non-alcoholic or NA beer, small beer, small ale, or near-beer) is beer with very low or no alcohol content. Most low-alcohol beers are lagers, but there are some low-alcohol ales.

In the United States, beverages containing less than 0.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) were legally called non-alcoholic, according to the now-defunct Volstead Act. Because of its very low alcohol content, non-alcoholic beer may be legally sold to minors in many American states.

In the United Kingdom, the following definitions apply by law (correct as of May 2007):^[1]

• No alcohol or alcohol-free: not more than 0.05% ABV
• Dealcoholised: over 0.05% but less than 0.5% ABV
• Low-alcohol: not more than 1.2% ABV

In some parts of the European Union, beer must contain no more than 0.5% ABV if it is labelled "alcohol-free".

Kirin Free, produced by Kirin Brewery Company of Japan, contains 0.00% ABV. This beer is produced without fermentation.^[2] Non-alcoholic beer is a safe substitute to traditional full bodied alcoholic beers. These brews are good for situations where a person would enjoy the taste of beer without the inebriating effects of standard alcoholic brews.

History[link]

The conceptualization of non-alcohol brews took place during prohibition according to John Naleszkiewicz. President Wilson had proposed limiting the alcohol content in malt beverages to 2.75% in 1917 in an effort to appease avid prohibitionists. In 1919 congress approved the Volstead act which limited the alcohol content of any beverage to less than .5%. These beverages became known as tonics and many breweries began brewing these extremely low alcohol content beverages in order to keep from going out of business during prohibition. Due to the fact that removing the alcohol from the beer requires the addition of one simple step many breweries saw this as an easy transition. In 1933 when prohibition was repealed, removing this single step again was easily done by many breweries.^[3]

Pros and Cons[link]

There are both up sides and down falls to converting traditional brews to non-alcoholic brews. Some positive aspects of converting standard brews to non-alcoholic brews include the ability to drive after consuming several drinks, the reduction of kidney/liver damage, and less intense hangover symptoms .^[4] While these are all great benefits there are also aesthetic downfalls to the beverages. Some common complaints of non-alcoholic brews include a loss of flavor, addition of one step in the brewing process, very sugary taste, and a shorter shelf life. Along with aesthetic shortcomings of non-alcoholic brews, they also raise serious legal implications. Local governments in some states like Pennsylvania prohibit the sale of these non-alcoholic brews to persons under the age of 21. A study conducted by the department of Psychology at Indiana University claimed “Because non-alcoholic beer provides sensory cues that simulate alcoholic beer, this beverage may be more effective than other placebos in contributing to a credible manipulation of expectancies to receive alcohol”.^[5] In short, making people feel "drunk" when they physically are not.

Light beer[link]

Light beer is beer that is reduced in alcohol content or in calories, compared to regular beer. The spelling "lite beer" is also commonly used.

Light beers may be chosen by beer drinkers who wish to manage their alcohol consumption or their calorie intake. However, these beers are sometimes criticized^[6] for being less flavorful than full-strength beers, being "watered down" (whether in perception or in fact), and thus advertising campaigns for light beers generally advertise their retention of flavor.

Reduced-alcohol beer[link]

Tourtel, a near-beer which has 0.4% ABV.

"Light beer" can refer to beer that has significantly less alcohol than regular beer.

In Australia, regular beers have approximately 5% ABV; reduced-alcohol beers have 2.2%–3.2%.

In Canada, a reduced-alcohol beer contains 2.6%–4.0% ABV, and an “extra-light” beer contains less than 2.5% ABV.^[7]

In the United States, most reduced-alcohol beers, including Bud Light, Coors Light, and Miller Lite have 4.2% ABV.^[6] This is a 16% reduction in alcohol compared to beer that has 5% ABV. Also, some establishments are permitted to sell only reduced-alcohol beer. For example, in Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Utah, beer that is sold in supermarkets and convenience stores must have no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight (4% ABV). This low-alcohol beer is called "low-point beer" or "three-two beer". Minnesota has a full-service alcohol license that is available to retailers. It permits the sale of regular beer, but licenses permitting the sale of 3.2% beers are easier to obtain.

Reduced-calorie beer[link]

"Light beer" can also refer to beer that has a reduced Calorie content, compared to regular beer. Reducing the calorie content of beer is done by a large reduction of its carbohydrate content and a small reduction of its alcohol content.^[6] Beer of this kind is not significantly less intoxicating than regular beer.

Budweiser Select beer is labelled as having less than 3.2% alcohol by weight, possibly to permit its sale in localities that have 3.2% beer laws. Beer Advocate suggests that it actually contains 2.5% ABV, about one-half of the alcohol in a typical American-style non-light beer.

The calorie content of reduced-Calorie beers varies over a wide range:^[8]

• Bud Light contains 110 Calories per 12-ounce serving.
• Coors Light contains 102 Calories.
• Miller Lite contains 96 Calories.
• Miller Genuine Draft 64 contains 64 Calories.
• Budweiser Select contains 99 Calories.
• Budweiser Select 55 contains 55 Calories.

Low-point beer (3.2%)[link]

Low-point beer, which is often known in America as "three-two beer" or "3 point 2 brew", is beer that contains 3.2% alcohol by weight (equivalent to 4% ABV).

The term "low-point beer" is unique to the United States, where some states limit the sale of beer, but beers of this type are also available in countries (such as Sweden and Finland) that tax or otherwise regulate beer according to its alcohol content. In Sweden, beer containing up to 3.5% ABV (called Folköl or "Peoples Beer") may be legally sold in any convenience store to people over 18 years of age, whereas stronger beer may only be sold in state-run liquor stores to people older than 20. In addition, businesses selling food for on-premises consumption do not need an alcohol license to serve 3.5% beer. Virtually all major Swedish brewers, and several international ones, in addition to their full-strength beer, make 3.5% folköl versions as well.

The states of Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Utah permit general establishments such as supermarket chains and convenience stores to sell only low-point beer.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} In these states, all alcoholic beverages containing more than 3.2% alcohol by weight (ABW) must be sold from state-licensed liquor stores. Oklahoma additionally requires that any beverage containing more than 3.2% ABW must be sold at normal room temperature.^[14]

Missouri also has a legal classification for low-point beer, which it calls "nonintoxicating beer".^[15] Unlike Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Utah, however, Missouri does not limit supermarket chains and convenience stores to selling only low-point beer. Instead, Missouri's alcohol laws permit grocery stores, drug stores, gas stations, and even "general merchandise stores" (a term that Missouri law does not define) to sell any alcoholic beverage;^[16] consequently, 3.2% beer is rarely sold in Missouri.

Near beer[link]

Originally, "near beer" was a term for malt beverages containing little or no alcohol (less than 0.5% ABV), which were mass-marketed during Prohibition in the United States. Near beer could not legally be labeled as "beer" and was officially classified as a "cereal beverage".^[17] The public, however, almost universally called it "near beer".

Today, the term "near beer" has been revived to refer to modern non-alcoholic beer.^{[citation needed]}

The most popular "near beer" was Bevo, brewed by the Anheuser-Busch company. The Pabst company brewed "Pablo", Miller brewed "Vivo", and Schlitz brewed "Famo". Many local and regional breweries stayed in business by marketing their own near-beers. By 1921 production of near beer had reached over 300 million US gallons (1 billion L) a year (36 L/s).

A popular illegal practice was to add alcohol to near beer. The resulting beverage was known as spiked beer or needle beer,^[18] so called because a needle was used to inject alcohol through the cork of the bottle or keg.

Food critic and writer Waverley Root described the common American near beer as "such a wishy-washy, thin, ill-tasting, discouraging sort of slop that it might have been dreamed up by a Puritan Machiavelli with the intent of disgusting drinkers with genuine beer forever."^[19]

Small beer[link]

Look up small beer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Small beer^[20] (also small ale) is a beer that contains very little alcohol. Sometimes unfiltered and porridge-like, it was a favoured drink in medieval Europe and colonial North America, where George Washington had a recipe for it involving bran and molasses.^[21] It was sometimes had with breakfast, as attested in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. In those times of lower public sanitation, water-transmitted diseases were a significant cause of death. Because alcohol is toxic to most water-borne pathogens, and because the process of brewing any beer from malt involves boiling the water, which also kills germs, drinking small beer instead of water was one way to escape infection. Small beer was also produced in households for consumption by children and servants.

Some workers (including sailors) who engaged in heavy physical labour drank more than ten pints (five litres) of small beer during a work day to maintain their hydration level. This was usually provided free as part of their working conditions, it being recognised that maintaining hydration was essential for optimal performance.

It was a British naval tradition until the 1960s to provide a pint of rum diluted with water (down to the ~5% ABV level) in several rations over the course of a day. Harold Nicolson famously remarked (misattributed to Winston Churchill) that, "Naval tradition is nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash".^[22]

The amount of rum given to sailors was steadily decreased until it was phased out entirely.

Small beer, or small ale, can also refer to a beer made from the "second runnings" of a very strong beer mash (e.g., scotch ale). These beers can be as strong as a mild ale, depending on the strength of the original mash. This was done as an economy measure in household brewing in England up to the 18th century and is still done by some homebrewers and microbrewers, such as the Anchor Brewing Company [compare second wine].

Metaphorically, small beer means a trifle, a thing of little importance. The term is also used derisively for commercially produced beer which is considered to be too weak.

Small beer today[link]

Few commercial breweries bother to make small beer today. The Anchor Brewing Company of San Francisco, California, produces a small beer made from the "second runnings" of the brewer's Old Foghorn Barleywine Style Ale.

Legal drinking age[link]

Legal restrictions around the world may be found here.

Beers that are labeled "non-alcoholic" still contain a very small amount of alcohol. Thus, some US states require the purchaser to be of a legal drinking age. Exceptions include:

• According to Michigan law, persons must be 18 or older to purchase non-alcoholic beer.
• In Texas, the law does not prohibit minors from consuming or buying non-alcoholic beer.^[23]
• In Wisconsin, the law does not regulate non-alcoholic beer (less than 0.5% ABV), and it can be purchased without any age restriction.
• In New Jersey, the law governs only beverages of at least 0.5% ABV.
• In Illinois, beverages with under 0.5% ABV are not governed by the Illinois Liquor Control Act and can be purchased and consumed by minors.^[24]

• Because low-alcohol beer is not considered to be an alcoholic beverage, there is no legal drinking age for it in New Zealand, England, and Wales.

Small beer in literature[link]

Besides Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, small beer turns up in the writings of:

• William Shakespeare
• William Thackeray's Vanity Fair
• Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped
• Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series
• Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series
• Neil Gaiman's Marvel 1602.
• C.S. Forester's Hornblower and the Hotspur and Commodore Hornblower
• Kathleen Kent's novel, The Heretic's Daughter
• Robin McKinley's novel, Beauty

Adam Smith, in a discussion of how trade works, refers to small beer in The Wealth of Nations as an example of a commonly consumed commodity.

Thomas Thetcher's tombstone at Winchester Cathedral features a poem that blames his death on drinking small beer while hot.

Graham Greene used the phrase “small beer” in a metaphorical sense in The Honorary Consul.

Ken Follett, in his novel The Pillars of the Earth, makes numerous references to small beer.

In Truman Capote's narrative In Cold Blood, Mrs Hartman of the local cafe serves 3.2 beer.

Non-alcoholic beer in Islamic countries[link]

Islam prohibits the consumption of alcoholic beverages. However, there is disagreement among scholars of Islam about the consumption of non-alcoholic beer.^{[25][not in citation given]}

Possibly because of this disagreement, alcohol-free (0% ABV) beers, (e.g. Holsten, Barbican and Moussy) are often available in stores and restaurants that cater to an Islamic customer base. They are also popular in countries that enforce alcohol prohibition, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran. They are often available with added flavors (apple, strawberry, and peach).

Brewing process[link]

According to the Birmingham Beverage Company, the basic brewing process of traditional brews consists of eight basic steps, nine for brewing non-alcoholic brews.^[26]

1. Malting- Malting is the first step, during this step barley is prepared by soaking it in water and allowing the grain to germinate “sprout”. This allows the tough starch molecules to be softened and begin to convert them to sugars. Next the sprouts are dried in a kiln; the temperature at which the sprouts are dried will affect the flavor of the finished brew.
2. Milling- Next the malted grain is ground to a corn meal like consistency, which allows the sugars and remaining starches to be more easily released when mixed with water.
3. Mashing-Mashing is when the finely ground malted grain is mixed with water and pulverized. By pulverizing the slurry most of the remaining starches are converted to sugars due to enzymes present in the malt and the sugars then dissolve into the water. The mix is gradually heated to 75℃(162℉) in what is called a mash tun. The slurry is then filtered to remove the majority of particulates. This filtered sugary liquid is called Wort.
4. Brewing- During the actual brewing the wort is brought to a boil for roughly 1–2 hours. During this time, other grains that will contribute flavor, color, and aroma to the brew are added. Boiling allows for several chemical reactions to occur and reduces the water content in the wort, condensing it.
5. Cooling- The wort is filtered to remove the majority of the grains and hops and then immediately cooled to allow the yeast to survive and grow in the next step.
6. Fermenting- During the fermentation step the cooled wort is saturated with air and yeast is added within the fermentation tank. Different strains of yeast will create different styles of beer. This step takes around ten days.
7. Maturation — The freshly fermented un-carbonated beer is then placed into a conditioning tank and, in a similar process to wine making, is allowed to age. If this step is rushed the beer will have an off flavor (acetaldehyde) that beer experts sometimes refer to as "green beer" because of its resemblance to green apples.^[27][28] During this process of aging, the majority of the residual particulates will settle to the bottom of the tank.
   1. Between the seventh and eighth step, the brew can be converted to non-alcoholic beer.
8. Finishing — Finally, the brewer is ready to finish the beer. The beer is filtered one last time; it is then carbonated and moved into a storage tank for either bottling or kegging.

How low-alcohol beer is made[link]

Low-alcohol beer starts out as regular alcoholic beer, which is then cooked in order to evaporate the alcohol. This is possible because alcohol has a lower boiling point than water, making it easier to boil off. As opposed to water, which boils at 100 °C (212 °F), alcohol will boil at 78.6 °C (173.5 °F). Most modern breweries also utilize vacuum evaporation to preserve flavor and speed up the boiling process. In essence, the beer is placed under a light vacuum to facilitate the alcohol molecules going into gaseous phase. If a sufficient vacuum is applied, it may not even be necessary to cook the beer.

An alternative process called reverse osmosis does not require heating. The beer is passed through a filter with pores small enough that only alcohol and water (and a few volatile acids) can pass through. The alcohol is distilled out of the alcohol-water mix using conventional distillation methods. After adding the water and remaining acids back into the syrupy mixture of sugars and flavor compounds left on the other side of the filter, the process is then complete.^[29]

How non-alcoholic beer is made[link]

The conversion from a traditional alcoholic beer to a non-alcoholic beer takes place after the seventh step and preceding the finishing step. The un-carbonated beer is brought up to the boiling point of alcohol. Alcohol boils around 173.3 °F;^[3] this will vary slightly with altitude “barometric pressure”; higher temperature at lower altitude and lower temperature at higher altitude. Another method of removing the alcohol is to decrease the pressure so the alcohol boils at room temperature. This is the preferred method because the addition of heat this late in the brewing process can greatly affect the flavor of the brew. If brewers decide to convert their brew to a non-alcoholic brew they must consider the volume of liquid they have lost from the removal of the alcohol. Typically the volume is reduced by roughly 4%, to compensate simply add water. Because water is a key ingredient in beer it will not alter the flavor. Another tip would be avoiding using corn sugars; corn sugars simply increase the alcohol content without adding to the flavor or body of the beer.^[3] Once the alcohol is removed proceed with the normal finishing process where the beer is carbonated and bottled.

See also[link]

Beer portal

• Alcohol by volume
• Beer
• Kvass
• Malzbier
• Podpiwek Polish "little beer"

References[link]

Schlenkerla Rauchbier straight from the cask

Beer is the world's most widely consumed^[1] alcoholic beverage; it is the third-most popular drink overall, after water and tea.^[2] It is thought by some to be the oldest fermented beverage.^[3][4][5][6] Beer is produced by the saccharification of starch and fermentation of the resulting sugar. The starch and saccharification enzymes are often derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat.^[7] Unmalted maize (US: corn) and rice are widely used adjuncts to lighten the flavor and because of their lower cost. The preparation of beer is called brewing. 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. Some of humanity's earliest known writings refer to the production and distribution of beer: the Code of Hammurabi included laws regulating beer and beer parlours,^[8] and "The Hymn to Ninkasi", a prayer to the Mesopotamian goddess of beer, served as both a prayer and as a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people.^[9][10] Today, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries.

The strength of beer is usually around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume (abv) although it may sometimes vary between 0.5% (de-alcoholized) and 15% (malt liquors).

Beer forms part of the culture of beer-drinking nations and is associated with social traditions such as beer festivals, as well as a rich pub culture involving activities like pub crawling and pub games such as bar billiards.

History[link]

Egyptian wooden model of beer making in ancient Egypt, Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, California

Beer is one of the world's oldest prepared beverages, possibly dating back to the early Neolithic or 9500 BC, when cereal was first farmed,^[11] and is recorded in the written history of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.^[12] Archaeologists speculate that beer was instrumental in the formation of civilisations.^[13]

The earliest known chemical evidence of barley beer dates to circa 3500–3100 BC from the site of Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran.^[14][15] Some of the earliest Sumerian writings found in the region contain references to a type of beer; one such example, a prayer to the goddess Ninkasi, known as "The Hymn to Ninkasi", served as both a prayer as well as a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people.^[9][10] The Ebla tablets, discovered in 1974 in Ebla, Syria and date back to 2500 BC, reveal that the city produced a range of beers, including one that appears to be named "Ebla" after the city.^[16] A fermented beverage using rice and fruit was made in China around 7000 BC. Unlike sake, mold was not used to saccharify the rice (amylolytic fermentation); the rice was probably prepared for fermentation by mastication or malting,^[17][18]

Almost any substance containing sugar can naturally undergo alcoholic fermentation. It is likely that many cultures, on observing that a sweet liquid could be obtained from a source of starch, independently invented beer. Bread and beer increased prosperity to a level that allowed time for development of other technology and contributed to the building of civilizations.^{[19][20][21][22]}

Beer was spread through Europe by Germanic and Celtic tribes as far back as 3000 BC,^[23] and it was mainly brewed on a domestic scale.^[24] The product that the early Europeans drank might not be recognised as beer by most people today. Alongside the basic starch source, the early European beers might contain fruits, honey, numerous types of plants, spices and other substances such as narcotic herbs.^[25] What they did not contain was hops, as that was a later addition, first mentioned in Europe around 822 by a Carolingian Abbot^[26] and again in 1067 by Abbess Hildegard of Bingen.^[27]

In 1516, William IV, Duke of Bavaria, adopted the Reinheitsgebot (purity law), perhaps the oldest food-quality regulation still in use in the 21st century, according to which the only allowed ingredients of beer are water, hops and barley-malt.^[28] Beer produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a domestic scale, although by the 7th century AD, beer was also being produced and sold by European monasteries. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, and domestic manufacture ceased to be significant by the end of the 19th century.^[29] The development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process and greater knowledge of the results.

Today, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries.^[30] As of 2006, more than 133 billion liters (35 billion gallons), the equivalent of a cube 510 metres on a side, of beer are sold per year, producing total global revenues of $294.5 billion (£147.7 billion).^[31]

In 2010, China's beer consumption hit 450 million hectoliters (45 billion liters) or nearly twice that of the United States but only 5 percent sold were Premium draught beers, compared with 50 percent in France and Germany.^[32]

Brewing[link]

A 16th-century brewery

The process of making beer is known as brewing. A dedicated building for the making of beer is called a brewery, though beer can be made in the home and has been for much of its history. A company that makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company. Beer made on a domestic scale for non-commercial reasons is classified as homebrewing regardless of where it is made, though most homebrewed beer is made in the home. Brewing beer is subject to legislation and taxation in developed countries, which from the late 19th century largely restricted brewing to a commercial operation only. However, the UK government relaxed legislation in 1963, followed by Australia in 1972 and the USA in 1979, allowing homebrewing to become a popular hobby.^[33]

The purpose of brewing is to convert the starch source into a sugary liquid called wort and to convert the wort into the alcoholic beverage known as beer in a fermentation process effected by yeast.

Diagram illustrating the process of brewing beer

Hot Water Tank

Mash Tun

Malt

Hops

Copper

Hopback

Add Yeast to
Fermenter

Heat
exchanger

Bottling

Cask or Keg

The first step, where the wort is prepared by mixing the starch source (normally malted barley) with hot water, is known as "mashing". Hot water (known as "liquor" in brewing terms) is mixed with crushed malt or malts (known as "grist") in a mash tun.^[34] The mashing process takes around 1 to 2 hours,^[35] during which the starches are converted to sugars, and then the sweet wort is drained off the grains. The grains are now washed in a process known as "sparging". This washing allows the brewer to gather as much of the fermentable liquid from the grains as possible. The process of filtering the spent grain from the wort and sparge water is called wort separation. The traditional process for wort separation is lautering, in which the grain bed itself serves as the filter medium. Some modern breweries prefer the use of filter frames which allow a more finely ground grist.^[36] Most modern breweries use a continuous sparge, collecting the original wort and the sparge water together. However, it is possible to collect a second or even third wash with the not quite spent grains as separate batches. Each run would produce a weaker wort and thus a weaker beer. This process is known as second (and third) runnings. Brewing with several runnings is called parti gyle brewing.^[37]

The sweet wort collected from sparging is put into a kettle, or "copper", (so called because these vessels were traditionally made from copper)^[38] and boiled, usually for about one hour. During boiling, water in the wort evaporates, but the sugars and other components of the wort remain; this allows more efficient use of the starch sources in the beer. Boiling also destroys any remaining enzymes left over from the mashing stage. Hops are added during boiling as a source of bitterness, flavour and aroma. Hops may be added at more than one point during the boil. The longer the hops are boiled, the more bitterness they contribute, but the less hop flavour and aroma remains in the beer.^[39]

After boiling, the hopped wort is now cooled, ready for the yeast. In some breweries, the hopped wort may pass through a hopback, which is a small vat filled with hops, to add aromatic hop flavouring and to act as a filter; but usually the hopped wort is simply cooled for the fermenter, where the yeast is added. During fermentation, the wort becomes beer in a process which requires a week to months depending on the type of yeast and strength of the beer. In addition to producing alcohol, fine particulate matter suspended in the wort settles during fermentation. Once fermentation is complete, the yeast also settles, leaving the beer clear.^[40]

Fermentation is sometimes carried out in two stages, primary and secondary. Once most of the alcohol has been produced during primary fermentation, the beer is transferred to a new vessel and allowed a period of secondary fermentation. Secondary fermentation is used when the beer requires long storage before packaging or greater clarity.^[41] When the beer has fermented, it is packaged either into casks for cask ale or kegs, aluminium cans, or bottles for other sorts of beer.^[42]

Ingredients[link]

Malted barley before roasting

The basic ingredients of beer are water; a starch source, such as malted barley, able to be saccharified (converted to sugars) then fermented (converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide); a brewer's yeast to produce the fermentation; and a flavouring such as hops.^[43] A mixture of starch sources may be used, with a secondary starch source, such as maize (corn), rice or sugar, often being termed an adjunct, especially when used as a lower-cost substitute for malted barley.^[44] Less widely used starch sources include millet, sorghum and cassava root in Africa, and potato in Brazil, and agave in Mexico, among others.^[45] The amount of each starch source in a beer recipe is collectively called the grain bill.

Water

Beer is composed mostly of water. Regions have water with different mineral components; as a result, different regions were originally better suited to making certain types of beer, thus giving them a regional character.^[46] For example, Dublin has hard water well-suited to making stout, such as Guinness; while Pilzen has soft water well-suited to making pale lager, such as Pilsner Urquell.^[46] The waters of Burton in England contain gypsum, which benefits making pale ale to such a degree that brewers of pale ales will add gypsum to the local water in a process known as Burtonisation.^[47]

Starch source

The starch source in a beer provides the fermentable material and is a key determinant of the strength and flavour of the beer. The most common starch source used in beer is malted grain. Grain is malted by soaking it in water, allowing it to begin germination, and then drying the partially germinated grain in a kiln. Malting grain produces enzymes that convert starches in the grain into fermentable sugars.^[48] Different roasting times and temperatures are used to produce different colours of malt from the same grain. Darker malts will produce darker beers.^[49]

Nearly all beer includes barley malt as the majority of the starch. This is because its fibrous hull remains attached to the grain during threshing. After malting, barley is milled, which finally removes the hull, breaking it into large pieces. These pieces remain with the grain during the mash, and act as a filter bed during lautering, when sweet wort is separated from insoluble grain material. Other malted and unmalted grains (including wheat, rice, oats, and rye, and less frequently, corn and sorghum) may be used. In recent years, a few brewers have produced gluten-free beer, made with sorghum with no barley malt, for those who cannot consume gluten-containing grains like wheat, barley, and rye.^[50]

Hops

Hop cone in a Hallertau, Germany, hop yard

Flavouring beer is the sole major commercial use of hops.^[51] The flower of the hop vine is used as a flavouring and preservative agent in nearly all beer made today. The flowers themselves are often called "hops".

The first historical mention of the use of hops in beer was from 822 AD in monastery rules written by Adalhard the Elder, also known as Adalard of Corbie,^[29][52] though the date normally given for widespread cultivation of hops for use in beer is the thirteenth century.^[29][52] Before the thirteenth century, and until the sixteenth century, during which hops took over as the dominant flavouring, beer was flavoured with other plants; for instance, Glechoma hederacea. Combinations of various aromatic herbs, berries, and even ingredients like wormwood would be combined into a mixture known as gruit and used as hops are now used.^[53] Some beers today, such as Fraoch' by the Scottish Heather Ales company^[54] and Cervoise Lancelot by the French Brasserie-Lancelot company,^[55] use plants other than hops for flavouring.

Hops contain several characteristics that brewers desire in beer. Hops contribute a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt; the bitterness of beers is measured on the International Bitterness Units scale. Hops contribute floral, citrus, and herbal aromas and flavours to beer. Hops have an antibiotic effect that favours the activity of brewer's yeast over less desirable microorganisms and aids in "head retention",^[56][57] the length of time that a foamy head created by carbonation will last. The acidity of hops is a preservative.^[58][59]

Yeast

Yeast is the microorganism that is responsible for fermentation in beer. Yeast metabolises the sugars extracted from grains, which produces alcohol and carbon dioxide, and thereby turns wort into beer. In addition to fermenting the beer, yeast influences the character and flavour.^[60] The dominant types of yeast used to make beer are the top-fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae and bottom-fermenting Saccharomyces uvarum.^[61] Brettanomyces ferments lambics,^[62] and Torulaspora delbrueckii ferments Bavarian weissbier.^[63] Before the role of yeast in fermentation was understood, fermentation involved wild or airborne yeasts. A few styles such as lambics rely on this method today, but most modern fermentation adds pure yeast cultures.^[64]

Clarifying agent

Some brewers add one or more clarifying agents to beer, which typically precipitate (collect as a solid) out of the beer along with protein solids and are found only in trace amounts in the finished product. This process makes the beer appear bright and clean, rather than the cloudy appearance of ethnic and older styles of beer such as wheat beers.^[65]

Examples of clarifying agents include isinglass, obtained from swimbladders of fish; Irish moss, a seaweed; kappa carrageenan, from the seaweed Kappaphycus cottonii; Polyclar (artificial); and gelatin.^[66] If a beer is marked "suitable for Vegans", it was clarified either with seaweed or with artificial agents.^[67]

Production & Trade[link]

Beer Imports by Nation. From MIT/Harvard Atlas of Economic Complexity

Beer Exports by Nation. From MIT/Harvard Atlas of Economic Complexity

The Benedictine Weihenstephan Brewery in Bavaria, Germany, can trace its roots to the year 768, as a document from that year refers to a hop garden in the area paying a tithe to the monastery. The brewery was licensed by the City of Freising in 1040, and therefore is the oldest working brewery in the world.^[68]

Today, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries.^[30] More than 133 billion liters (35 billion gallons) are sold per year—producing total global revenues of $294.5 billion (£147.7 billion) in 2006.^[31]

A microbrewery, or craft brewery, is a modern brewery which produces a limited amount of beer.^[69] The maximum amount of beer a brewery can produce and still be classed as a microbrewery varies by region and by authority, though is usually around 15,000 barrels (18,000 hectolitres/ 475,000 US gallons) a year.^[70] A brewpub is a type of microbrewery that incorporates a pub or other eating establishment.

SABMiller became the largest brewing company in the world when it acquired Royal Grolsch, brewer of Dutch premium beer brand Grolsch.^[71] InBev was the second-largest beer-producing company in the world,[68] and Anheuser-Busch held the third spot, but after the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by InBev, the new Anheuser-Busch InBev company is the largest brewer in the world."^[72]

Brewing at home is subject to regulation and prohibition in many countries. Restrictions on homebrewing were lifted in the UK in 1963,^[73] Australia followed suit in 1972,^[74] and the USA in 1978, though individual states were allowed to pass their own laws limiting production.^[75]

Varieties[link]

Cropton, a typical UK microbrewery

25 litres of homebrew

Kriek, a variety of beer brewed with cherries

A glass of pale ale

While there are many types of beer brewed, the basics of brewing beer are shared across national and cultural boundaries.^[76] The traditional European brewing regions—Germany, Belgium, England and the Czech Republic—have local varieties of beer.^[77]

Michael Jackson, in his 1977 book The World Guide To Beer, categorised beers from around the world in local style groups suggested by local customs and names.^[78] Fred Eckhardt furthered Jackson's work in The Essentials of Beer Style in 1989.

Cask ale hand pumps with pump clips detailing the beers and their breweries

Top-fermented beers are most commonly produced with Saccharomyces cerevisiae which clumps and rises to the surface,^[79] typically between 15 and 24 °C (60 and 75 °F). At these temperatures, yeast produces significant amounts of esters and other secondary flavour and aroma products, and the result is often a beer with slightly "fruity" compounds resembling apple, pear, pineapple, banana, plum, or prune, among others.^[80]

Before the introduction of hops into England from the Netherlands in the 15th century, the name "ale" was exclusively applied to unhopped fermented beverages, the term beer being gradually introduced to describe a brew with an infusion of hops.^[81] The word ale may come from the Old English ealu, in turn from the Proto-Indo-European base *alut-, which holds connotations of "sorcery, magic, possession, intoxication".^[82]

Real ale is the term coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) in 1973^[83] for "beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide". It is applied to bottle conditioned and cask conditioned beers.

Pale Ale

Pale ale is a beer which uses a top-fermenting yeast^[84] and predominantly pale malt. It is one of the world's major beer styles.

Stout

Stout and porter are dark beers made using roasted malts or roast barley, and typically brewed with slow fermenting yeast. There are a number of variations including Baltic porter, dry stout, and Imperial stout. The name Porter was first used in 1721 to describe a dark brown beer popular with the street and river porters of London.^[85] This same beer later also became known as stout, though the word stout had been used as early as 1677.^[86] The history and development of stout and porter are intertwined.^[87]

Mild

Mild ale has a predominantly malty palate. It is usually dark coloured with an abv of 3% to 3.6%, although there are lighter hued milds as well as stronger examples reaching 6% abv and higher.

Wheat

Wheat beer is brewed with a large proportion of wheat although it often also contains a significant proportion of malted barley. Wheat beers are usually top-fermented (in Germany they have to be by law).^[88] The flavour of wheat beers varies considerably, depending upon the specific style.

Lager

Lager is the English name for cool fermenting beers of Central European origin. Pale lagers are the most commonly consumed beers in the world. The name "lager" comes from the German "lagern" for "to store", as brewers around Bavaria stored beer in cool cellars and caves during the warm summer months. These brewers noticed that the beers continued to ferment, and to also clear of sediment, when stored in cool conditions.^[89]

Lager yeast is a cool bottom-fermenting yeast (Saccharomyces pastorianus) and typically undergoes primary fermentation at 7–12 °C (45–54 °F) (the fermentation phase), and then is given a long secondary fermentation at 0–4 °C (32–39 °F) (the lagering phase). During the secondary stage, the lager clears and mellows. The cooler conditions also inhibit the natural production of esters and other byproducts, resulting in a "cleaner"-tasting beer.^[90]

Modern methods of producing lager were pioneered by Gabriel Sedlmayr the Younger, who perfected dark brown lagers at the Spaten Brewery in Bavaria, and Anton Dreher, who began brewing a lager (now known as Vienna lager), probably of amber-red colour, in Vienna in 1840–1841. With improved modern yeast strains, most lager breweries use only short periods of cold storage, typically 1–3 weeks.

Lambic

Lambic, a beer of Belgium, is naturally fermented using wild yeasts, rather than cultivated. Many of these are not strains of brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and may have significant differences in aroma and sourness. Yeast varieties such as Brettanomyces bruxellensis and Brettanomyces lambicus are common in lambics. In addition, other organisms such as Lactobacillus bacteria produce acids which contribute to the sourness.^[91]

Measurement[link]

Beer is measured and assessed by bitterness, by strength and by colour. The perceived bitterness is measured by the International Bitterness Units scale (IBU), defined in co-operation between the American Society of Brewing Chemists and the European Brewery Convention.^[92] The international scale was a development of the European Bitterness Units scale, often abbreviated as EBU, and the bitterness values should be identical.^[93]

Colour[link]

Paulaner dunkel – a dark lager

Beer colour is determined by the malt.^[94] The most common colour is a pale amber produced from using pale malts. Pale lager and pale ale are terms used for beers made from malt dried with coke. Coke was first used for roasting malt in 1642, but it was not until around 1703 that the term pale ale was used.^[95][96]

In terms of sales volume, most of today's beer is based on the pale lager brewed in 1842 in the town of Pilsen in the present-day Czech Republic.^[97] The modern pale lager is light in colour with a noticeable carbonation (fizzy bubbles) and a typical alcohol by volume content of around 5%. The Pilsner Urquell, Bitburger, and Heineken brands of beer are typical examples of pale lager, as are the American brands Budweiser, Coors, and Miller.

Dark beers are usually brewed from a pale malt or lager malt base with a small proportion of darker malt added to achieve the desired shade. Other colourants—such as caramel—are also widely used to darken beers. Very dark beers, such as stout, use dark or patent malts that have been roasted longer. Some have roasted unmalted barley.^[98][99]

Strength[link]

Beer ranges from less than 3% alcohol by volume (abv) to around 14% abv, though this strength can be increased to around 20% by re-pitching with champagne yeast,^[100] and to 55% abv by the freeze-distilling process.^[101] The alcohol content of beer varies by local practice or beer style.^[102] The pale lagers that most consumers are familiar with fall in the range of 4–6%, with a typical abv of 5%.^[103] The customary strength of British ales is quite low, with many session beers being around 4% abv.^[104] Some beers, such as table beer are of such low alcohol content (1%–4%) that they are served instead of soft drinks in some schools.^[105]

The alcohol in beer comes primarily from the metabolism of sugars that are produced during fermentation. The quantity of fermentable sugars in the wort and the variety of yeast used to ferment the wort are the primary factors that determine the amount of alcohol in the final beer. Additional fermentable sugars are sometimes added to increase alcohol content, and enzymes are often added to the wort for certain styles of beer (primarily "light" beers) to convert more complex carbohydrates (starches) to fermentable sugars. Alcohol is a by-product of yeast metabolism and is toxic to the yeast; typical brewing yeast cannot survive at alcohol concentrations above 12% by volume. Low temperatures and too little fermentation time decreases the effectiveness of yeasts and consequently decreases the alcohol content.

Exceptionally strong beers

The strength of beers has climbed during the later years of the 20th century. Vetter 33, a 10.5% abv (33 degrees Plato, hence Vetter "33") doppelbock, was listed in the 1994 Guinness Book of World Records as the strongest beer at that time,^[106][107] though Samichlaus, by the Swiss brewer Hürlimann, had also been listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the strongest at 14% abv.^{[108][109][110]} Since then, some brewers have used champagne yeasts to increase the alcohol content of their beers. Samuel Adams reached 20% abv with Millennium,^[100] and then surpassed that amount to 25.6% abv with Utopias. The strongest beer brewed in Britain was Baz's Super Brew by Parish Brewery, a 23% abv beer.^[111][112] In September 2011, the Scottish brewery BrewDog produced Ghost Deer, which, at 28%, they claim to be the world's strongest beer produced by fermentation alone.^[113]

The product claimed to be the strongest beer made is The End of History, a 55% Belgian ale,^[101] made by BrewDog in 2010. The same company had previously made Sink The Bismarck!, a 41% abv IPA,^[114] and Tactical Nuclear Penguin, a 32% abv Imperial Stout. Each of these beers are made using the eisbock method of fractional freezing, in which a strong ale is partially frozen and the ice is repeatedly removed, until the desired strength is reached,^[115][116] a process that may class the product as spirits rather than beer.^[117] The German brewery Schorschbräu's Schorschbock, a 31% abv eisbock,^{[118][119][120]} and Hair of the Dog's Dave, a 29% abv barley wine made in 1994, used the same fractional freezing method.^[121] A 60% abv blend of beer with whiskey was jokingly claimed as the strongest beer by a Dutch brewery in July 2010.^[122][123]

Serving[link]

Draught[link]

Draught beer keg fonts at the Délirium Café in Brussels

Draught beer from a pressurised keg is the most common method of dispensing in bars around the world. A metal keg is pressurised with carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas which drives the beer to the dispensing tap or faucet. Some beers may be served with a nitrogen/carbon dioxide mixture. Nitrogen produces fine bubbles, resulting in a dense head and a creamy mouthfeel. Some types of beer can also be found in smaller, disposable kegs called beer balls.

In the 1980s, Guinness introduced the beer widget, a nitrogen-pressurised ball inside a can which creates a dense, tight head, similar to beer served from a nitrogen system.^[124] The words draft and draught can be used as marketing terms to describe canned or bottled beers containing a beer widget, or which are cold-filtered rather than pasteurised.

A selection of cask beers

Cask-conditioned ales (or cask ales) are unfiltered and unpasteurised beers. These beers are termed "real ale" by the CAMRA organisation. Typically, when a cask arrives in a pub, it is placed horizontally on a frame called a "stillage" which is designed to hold it steady and at the right angle, and then allowed to cool to cellar temperature (typically between 11–13 °C / 52–55 °F),^[125] before being tapped and vented—a tap is driven through a (usually rubber) bung at the bottom of one end, and a hard spile or other implement is used to open a hole in the side of the cask, which is now uppermost. The act of stillaging and then venting a beer in this manner typically disturbs all the sediment, so it must be left for a suitable period to "drop" (clear) again, as well as to fully condition—this period can take anywhere from several hours to several days. At this point the beer is ready to sell, either being pulled through a beer line with a hand pump, or simply being "gravity-fed" directly into the glass.

Draught beer's environmental impact can be 68% lower than bottled beer due to packaging differences.^[126][127] A life cycle study of one beer brand, including grain production, brewing, bottling, distribution and waste management, shows that the CO₂ emissions from a 6-pack of micro-brew beer is about 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds).^[128] The loss of natural habitat potential from the 6-pack of micro-brew beer is estimated to be 2.5 square meters (26 square feet).^[129] Downstream emissions from distribution, retail, storage and disposal of waste can be over 45% of a bottled micro-brew beer's CO₂ emissions.^[128] Where legal, the use of a refillable jug, reusable bottle or other reusable containers to transport draught beer from a store or a bar, rather than buying pre-bottled beer, can reduce the environmental impact of beer consumption.^[130]

Packaging[link]

Most beers are cleared of yeast by filtering when packaged in bottles and cans.^[131] However, bottle conditioned beers retain some yeast—either by being unfiltered, or by being filtered and then reseeded with fresh yeast.^[132] It is usually recommended that the beer be poured slowly, leaving any yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle. However, some drinkers prefer to pour in the yeast; this practice is customary with wheat beers. Typically, when serving a hefeweizen, 90% of the contents are poured, and the remainder is swirled to suspend the sediment before pouring it into the glass. Alternatively, the bottle may be inverted prior to opening. Glass bottles are always used for bottle conditioned beers.

Many beers are sold in cans, though there is considerable variation in the proportion between different countries. In Sweden in 2001, 63.9% of beer was sold in cans.^[133] People either drink from the can or pour the beer into a glass. Cans protect the beer from light (thereby preventing "skunked" beer) and have a seal less prone to leaking over time than bottles. Cans were initially viewed as a technological breakthrough for maintaining the quality of a beer, then became commonly associated with less expensive, mass-produced beers, even though the quality of storage in cans is much like bottles.^[134] Plastic (PET) bottles are used by some breweries.^[135]

Temperature[link]