Champane's Wine Cellars

Everything You Wanted to Know About Beer

....but were afraid to ask....

ALE:  The English term for a brew made up with a top fermenting yeast, which should impart to it a distinctive fruitiness.  Ales vary from light to dark and delicate to full bodied, depending upon the volume of malted barley, hops, and degree of roasting of the malted barley.  Because of the relatively higher fermenting temperatures, ales often extract more of the flavor from their ingredients.  Ales are still brewed around the world, but most of the distinctive styles known today originated in Britain.  The British used hops in brewing by the 10^th century, but the practice somehow died out and did not reassert itself until 1552, when King Edward VI issued an edict allowing their use.  Virtually all ales now use hops in the recipe, though some use additional flavorings.  Ales also are commonly conditioned or aged in the bottle to develop strength and flavor.

ALT:  A German Style of top-fermenting beer, altbier comes from the German alt, meaning “old.”  These ales are cold-conditioned, making them more similar in taste to lagers than ales.

BOCK:  The German term for strong beer.  They can range in color from golden to tawny to brown and are generally stronger than typical lagers (more than 6.25% alcohol by volume).  Bock beers are usually brewed to be served in Autumn, late Winter, or Spring depending on the company.

BROWN ALE:  Traditionally this is a mild brew that is also called Nut Brown Ale.  A sweet, dark brown ale is brewed in southern England.  Brown ales brewed in northern England are more reddish in color, slightly higher in alcoholic content, and have a drier finish.

CREAM ALE:  An American invention, cream ales are usually blends of pale golden, mild, light-bodied ale and lager.  Only two outstanding examples remain in this country, Geneses Cream Ale and Little Kings.

DOPPELBOCK:  “Double” bock.  German extra-strong bottom-fermenting beer.  Usually tawny or dark brown in color.  Names of this type of beer usually end in-ator.

DORTMUNDER:  Technically, this is a beer brewed in the German city of Dortmund, but it often refers to the city’s classic style of Export.  There are actually seven brewing companies in the city of Dortmund producing a  wide variety of beer styles with the name Dortmunder.  The Export style is a beer that is pale and medium dry, with a little more body and alcoholic content than pale lagers from Munich and Pilsen.

GOLDEN ALE:  Originally produced in the lateth century to compete with the growing popularity of golden lagers.  They tend to be light to medium in body with some hop aroma and a clean finish.

HEFE:  In Germany this means yeast.  If a beer is sedimented with yeast, it may be prefixed Hefe.

ICE:  First introduced in Canada in 1993, this style has been embraced by most of the large U.S. and Canadian brewers.  It has been more successful than dry beer but still accounts for less than 4% beer volume.  There are several different methods being used for brewing ice beer although Labatt claims to have invented ice brewing at cooler-than-normal temperatures then chilling the beer to below freezing to form ice crystals, which are then fltered out.

INDIA PALE ALE:  This style was originally created in the 1700’s with a higher alcohol content and a double dose of hops (a natural preservative) to withstand the long and arduous shipment to British troops and colonists in India.  This style is popular with many American microbrewers.

LAMBIC:  Brewed in Belgium, lambics are made with both barley and 30% to 40% unmalted wheat.  The mash is left to ferment spontaneously with wild yeast from the atmosphere for a night, then barreled for the rest of the primary and seconday fermentation.  Lambics are sometimes casked with cherries, raspberries or other fruit.  Young lambics are dry, sour, cloudy, and similar in taste to a cider.  Aged lambics are more mellow and settled.

LIGHT BEER:  This is an American term, indicating a watery Pilsner-type beer.

MAIBOCK:  A bock beer of excellent quality.  Made for the first of May to Celebrate Spring!

MALT LIQUOR:  Not especially malty, though they are usually low in hop character.  They are usually the strongest beers in an American brewers range and cheaply made.

MARZEN:  Originally a beer brewed in March and laid down in caves before summer weather rendered brewing impossible.  Intended to be consumed in the summer months.  Marzen eventually came to be associated with one specific style-a malty, medium-strong version of the Vienna style.

MILD:  The English term for ales that are only mildly hopped, and therefore less bitter than “bitters” or “stouts.”  Most are dark brown, though they range in color to copper.  They are full-bodied in flavor, but have relatively low alcohol content.

 MUNCHENER (or Munich-style):  This dark brown lager is full-bodied with a sweet alt. Flavor and slight hop taste that is more creamy and aromatic than a light lager.  The dark color and malty flavor come from roasted barley.  Most dark super premiums and imports (Michelob Dark, Lowenbrau Dark, Beck’s Dark) are fashioned after Munchener beers.

PALE ALE:  Pale generally refers to the color of the malt used to brew this ale.  The malt is only dried instead of roasted, giving the resulting brew a lighter bronze of copper color than the brown ales, and a lighter, less hearty flavor.

PILSNER (or PILS):  A true pilsner can only come from the town of Pilsen, Czechoslovakia.  Pilsner Urquell (“original”) is the only real pilsner still around, but most light lager beers are now modeled after this style.  Loosely, any golden-colored, dry bottom fermenting beer of conventional strength is referred to as a pilsner.  A classic pilsner has a gravity of around 12 plato and is characterized by the hoppiness of it’s flowery aroma and dry finish.

PORTER:  A style developed in London in the early 1700’s in response to customer demands for a blended brew drawn from casks of pale ale and brown or stout, Porter was originally a heavy brew.  The style has been revived in recent years and is made of highly roasted malt.  A lighter bodied companion to the stout.  Porters are sometimes fruity or can have a deep smoked flavor.

RAUCHBIER:  Smoked malts are used in the production of this dark, bottom-fermented specialty.