Sumerian Beer The history of beer begins around 10,000 BCE during the Neolithic era and the rise of agriculture. During this period, societies began shifting away from hunting and gathering to establishing roots in agricultural development, cultivating crops like barley and wheat. Some scholars posit that the discovery of the intoxicating effects of beer may...

Trappist Beer A trappist beer is an elusive brew that refers to a specific appellation rather than a beer style with a shared set of characteristics. The trappist appellation is not geographically based but instead corresponds to a legal designation where the beer is brewed under a monk’s supervision on a monastic property. Trappist beer...

Leah is taking a short holiday from Beer School. This month our feature article is about distilled beer, otherwise known as whisky. Beer School will resume next month. History of Whisky Whisky is the fruit of a northern climate. The term whisky is a derivative of the expression “water of life” known in in Gaelic...

History of Christmas Ales & Norwegian Jól History of Jól The history of Christmas ales dates back to a pre-Christian era where Vikings brewed and consumed strong malty brews to honour their Norse gods. The Norwegian term “jul” meaning Christmas, is derived from the Old Norse word “jól,” which translates to “yule” in English. This...

How Non-Alcoholic Spirits are Made Non-alcoholic spirits are most often produced as distillates or compounds. Distillation starts with an alcoholic base, employing a technique of evaporation and condensation to separate out alcohol content from the richly flavoured fermented liquid base. A compound, by contrast, refers to any combination of juices, extracts and flavor additions to...

History of Sake Sake or o-sake, is the Japanese word for an alcoholic drink, and is specifically referred to as nihonshu (Japanese alcohol), or seishu (clear sake). The process of fermenting rice into an alcoholic drink was first developed in ancient China around 1000BCE, and it wasn’t until the Yayoi period (300BCE to 250CE) that...

History of Canned Beer Canned beer made its official debut on January 24, 1935. In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company launched a pilot project delivering 2,000 cans of Krueger’s beer to brand loyal drinkers in Richmond, Virginia. Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the canned beer, giving Krueger...

Leah is on a research break this month so we are reprinting our version of the classic: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Beer (But Were Afraid To Ask). Beer: The Basics Beer is a fermented beverage principally made from four ingredients: Water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. Each one of these ingredients will...

What Is a Gruit? The word “gruit” describes an herb mixture originally used to enrich the flavour of beer before the widespread use of hops. The earliest known reference to gruit dates back to the 10th century from an area now in the Netherlands, Belgium, and northwestern Germany. Historically, a gruit mix was primarily comprised...