Interesting Facts About Beer

What is the difference between a lager and an ale?

The yeast is the main difference between the two. Ales, fermented at warmer temperatures, use an ale yeast that often yields a fruity aroma and flavor. Lagers, fermented at cooler temperatures, use lager yeast that create smooth, crisp, and clean-tasting beers.

Also, other differences between beer and ale are:

• Greater amounts of sugar are used instead of the starches which are converted to sugar during the beer manufacturing process
• Ale is aged for a much shorter time than is needed for beer.

What does the pasteurizer do for beer?

Steam gradually heats the bottles or cans up to 140 degrees F. and then gradually cools them back down to room temperature. This stops the yeast growth, enabling the beer to be kept at room temperature. It does not have to be kept cold. This is one insurance that it will get to the consumer in good condition.

Why do all brewers use barley as a main ingredient?

Why do all brewers use barley as a main ingredient? Barley is the magic grain for beer. It is the only grain that contains the enzymes necessary to convert starches into fermentable sugars. In the malting process, when the barley is steeped it activates growth of the enzymes. Brewers need those enzymes in the brewing process to convert the starches in the grains to fermentable sugars.

Some Fun Beer Facts:

• There are over 200 styles of beer produced throughout the world.
• The growth of the specialty (craft or micro) beer segment has resulted in more breweries in the US than any other country in the world.
• A 12 oz. beer has fewer calories than two slices of bread and contains no fat.
• The average American annually consumes 47.3 gallons of soda, 26.5 gallons of coffee, and 23.1 gallons of beer.

Where did these words come from?

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts, so in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would tell them to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. That is where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's."

After consuming a bucket or two of vibrant brew they called aul, or ale, the Vikings would head fearlessly into battle often without armor or even shirts. In fact, the term "berserk" means "bare shirt" in Norse, and eventually took on the meaning of their wild battles.

In the Middle Ages, "nunchion" was the word for liquid lunches. It was a combination of the words "noon scheken", or noon drinking. In those days, a large chunk of bread was called lunch. So if you ate bread with your nunchion, you had what we today still call a luncheon.

Brewery Definitions:

MICROBREWERY:
A small brewery which produces beer and packages it primarily for sale at retail outlets (supermarkets, beer stores, restaurants, etc.) The brewing industry defines microbreweries as those producing less than 15,000 barrels per year(30,000 kegs). As the craftbeer movement has grown, however, many microbreweries have grown beyond this classification. Rather than consider a production number, most beer lovers define 'micros' as producers who produce relatively small amounts of high quality, flavorful, traditional-style beers.

BREWPUB:
A brewery located in a restaurant and/or pub which produces beer for consumption on their own premises.

REGIONAL BREWERY:
A brewery in the United States or Canada that produces between 15,000 and 1,000,000 barrels of beer annually and packages all of its beer for sale off the premises.

LARGE BREWERY:
A brewery that produces more than 1,000,000 barrels of beer annually.

BEER MARKETING COMPANY:
A company that puts its own label on beer that is brewed for them by a Brewpub, Microbrewery, or Large Brewer. (Sometimes called a "contract brewer", but more correctly described as a "contract brewee".)

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