You may have heard of the “Bavarian Purity Law,” also known as “Reinheitsgebot.” This German law, dated 1516 and still enforced today, stipulates that only barley malt, hops, and water may be used in the making of beer. It is one of the earliest, and longest running, examples of consumer protection legislation. Inventive brewers, like...
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It took until until the 17th century for bottled beer to become commonplace. Up until that time most beer was consumed by pouring it directly out of a cask. Along with advances in science in the later 19th century such as pasteurization and mechanical refrigeration the inevitable march towards tightly controlled, factory produced, mass made...
There are two ways of dispensing a cask beer: Gravity or pouring the beer directly out of the cask and pulling the beer out of the cask using a piston called a beer engine or hand pump (patented, 1785). The Old English word “draught” meant, “to pull,” like the draught horses that used to deliver...
What is the big deal about a “microbrew,” isn’t beer all pretty much the same? Microbreweries (the little guys, however you want to define them) almost universally use craft brewing techniques. This is the traditional method of making beer in single batches. Each recipe is produced to maximize the desirable characteristics of one beer. On...
Yeast, although present in all fermented beverages, was not discovered until the 18th century. It is a member of the fungus family that, because of its cell-spliting capabilities, is self-reproducing. Yeast has a voracious appetite for sweet liquids and produces abundant quantities of alcohol (ethanol) and carbon dioxide (bubbles) as a waste product. There are...
Water, comprising about 96% of the final product, is a key ingredient. While some brewers like to evoke images of pristine glacier fed springs, effectively, water is an easy ingredient to modify by filtration (usually to remove chlorine) or the addition/subtraction of salts. Hard water tends to be more appropriate to ales while soft water...
There’s a lot of “hop talk” that gets thrown around when discussing beer. So, what’s the difference between dried hops and a dry hopped beer? And, are fresh hops and wet hops just two different names that mean the same? Dry Hopping & Dried Hops A common misconception is that dry hopping involves harvesting and...
As with many traditional systems of measurement definitions of common terms such as barrel vary from country to country. When it comes to casks, British terminology seems to rule. The most common size of cask is a Firkin at 9 imperial gallons or ¼ barrel. The standard keg size at The Beer Store follows American...
A lager is a light, crisp and refreshing beer. It’s fairly easy to taste the difference between a lager and ale, but what sets these two apart from a brewing perspective? The defining difference between lagers and ales is based on yeast strains, as well as length and temperature of fermentation. An ale uses a...
A contentious topic of conversation in the beer world is whether IBU ratings need to be accessible to the beer consumer. Many beer drinkers use the IBU scale as a reference tool, so they can judge the relative bitterness of a beer. On the other hand, most brewers argue against publishing IBUs, as they are...