- published: 11 Jun 2013
- views: 5035
Draught beer (UK) or draft beer (US) is beer served from a cask or keg rather than from a bottle or can. Draught beer served from a pressurised keg is also known as keg beer.
Until Joseph Bramah patented the beer engine in 1785, beer was served directly from the barrel and carried to the customer. The Old English dragan ("carry; pull") developed into a series of related words including drag, draw, and draught. By the time Bramah's beer pumps became popular, the use of the term draught to refer to the acts of serving or drinking beer was well established and transferred easily to beer served via the hand pumps. In time, the word came to be restricted to only such beer. The usual spelling is now "draught" in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand and "draft" in North America, although it is spelt both ways in Canada depending on the origin of the beer. Regardless of spelling, the word is pronounced /drɑːft/ or /dræft/ depending on the region the speaker is from.
Beer is the world's most widely consumed and likely the oldestalcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. The production of beer is called brewing, which involves the fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal grains—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), and rice are widely used. 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. The fermentation process causes a natural carbonation effect, although this is often removed during processing, and replaced with forced carbonation. 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, 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.