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History of Grisette In the late 1800s, Southern Belgium’s Hainaut province became an industrial mecca, moving away from agriculture, into coal and stone mining. With industrialization on the rise, local brewers began producing beer for growing population of local miners. Saison was the brew of farmhands, and grisette became the brew of miners. The term...
What is a Czech Pilsner? The origins of pilsner beer dates back to 1842, named after the ancient city of Plzen, now part of Western Czech Republic, where the beer was first brewed. Prior to the advent of pilsner, beer drinkers were only accustomed to dark, heavy, cloudy beers. This Plzen brew is renowned for...
What is Nitro Beer? Most beer is carbonated through CO2, both naturally through fermentation and additionally through forced carbonation. To achieve peak effervescence, carbon dioxide is injected into the beer, pressurizing bottles, cans, or kegs. Nitro beer differs in that it contains a mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, where nitrogen accounts for 70-75% of...
What makes beer like Al’s Cask Ale so special? Read on. Definition of “Cask Ale” Cask ale is unfiltered and unpasteurized. Traditionally cask ale is also cask-conditioned, undergoing a secondary fermentation in the cask. This contrasts with “keg beer” which is generally filtered and carbonated. Cask-conditioned beers are also referred to as “real ales”. Beer...
History of Tequila & Mezcal The origin of fermenting agave began somewhere between 1000 B.C. and 200 A.D., where pulque, a drink made from fermented sap of the agave plant, was first documented on a stone carving from 200A.D. A prized drink among the Aztecs communities, it is thought that pulque may have existed as...
What is an English bitter? A modern bitter describes a subset of English pale ales that are gold to dark amber in colour, ranging in strength from 3% to 7%. The description of bitter is fairly vague, mostly because regional differences and variation between breweries make it difficult to precisely define. Historical Bitter In the early 19th century,...
Non-Alcoholic Beer Low alcoholic brews have been around for centuries, and can be traced back at least to medieval Europe, where beer was commonly brewed with an alcoholic strength falling between 0.5% to 2.8%. This low alcohol beer, or small beer, was often produced as fortifying beverage for labourers and farmhands. Non-alcoholic beer has a...
History of Scotch Ale Scotch ale, also known as Wee Heavy, originated in Edinburgh, Scotland during the 1800s. Part of the strong ale family, this Scottish beer style was based on English Strong ales, specifically inspired by English barleywine. Like an English barleywine, the original Scotch ale was rich, strong and dark amber in colour,...
What is a Mild? A mild is typically a malty brew, copper to dark brown in colour, with a sessionable gravity between 3.1-3.8%. A mild may showcase a wide range of malt and yeast-related flavours, including caramel, toffee, toast, nutty, chocolate, coffee, roast, vinous, fruit, licorice, molasses, plum and raisin. By current standards, mild generally...
What is a Rauchbier? Rauchbier, or “smoke beer” is a German amber lager with a richly toasted malt profile, restrained bitterness and a low to high smoke profile. Historically, the distinctive smoke character in rauchbier was achieved through smoking malted barley over a fire from beechwood logs. History of Rauchbier There is much folklore surrounding...
