Beer Review

Kriek is a refreshingly unique and tasty type of Belgian beer fermented with sour (also known as Morello) cherries. The name came from the Dutch word for this type of cherry (kriek). Traditionally "Schaarbeekse krieken" (a rare Belgian morello variety) from the area around Brussels are used. As the Schaarbeek type cherries have become more difficult to find, some brewers have replaced these (partly or some even completely) with other varieties of sour cherries, sometimes coming from other countries.

By tradition, Kriek is made by breweries in and around Brussels using lambic beer to which sour cherries with the pits are added. A lambic is a sour and dry Belgian beer, fermented spontaneously with airborne yeast said to be native to Brussels. Initially, this sweet-acid drink was obtained by adding fresh black cherries to a barrel Lambic of 6 months young. The addition of fruits provokes a new fermentation in the oak barrels. After another 8 to 12 months, only peels and stones left and the Kriek-Lambic is ready to be filtered and bottled. The residual sugar can be adjusted with straight-on fruit juice to give a refermentation in the bottle. The traditional type of fruit beer is more acid, sour and less fruity. The cherries are left in for a period of several months, causing a refermentation of the additional sugar. Typically no sugar will be left so there will be a fruit flavour without sweetness. There will be a further maturation process after the cherries are removed.

Lately, several lambic brewers have included sugar to the final product of their fruit beers, in order to make them less intense and more approachable to a wider audience. They also use cherry juice rather than whole cherries and are matured for much shorter periods.

For additional informatiom, Framboise or Frambozenbier is a related, less traditional Belgian beer, fermented with raspberries instead of sour cherries. Kriek is also related to geuze, which is not a fruit beer but is also based on refermented lambic beer. Some breweries, like Liefmans, make cherry beers based on oud bruin beer instead of lambic. These beers have a very different taste, and should not be called kriek, although some of them are high quality products.

In conclusion I would say, that it is really superb and delicious beer, has a nice sweet cherry flavor with a pink-red color, it is very hard to find something better!

Dunkel, or Dunkles, is a dark beer in German, but there are two different types and several sub-types, so it can be a disorienting term. Dunkel beers typically range in colour from amber to dark reddish brown. They are distinguished by their smooth malty flavour. What's more, this tasty beer can generally be divided into dark wheat beers and dark lagers.

All Lagers were dark (Dunkel/SchwarzBier) until the 1840s, when breweries in Pilsen (in what is now the Czech republic) started brewing golden lagers. Dark lagers are brewed with a darker roasted malt than pale lagers and have a distinctive taste. Dark lagers gradually gave way to pale lagers from the 1890s throughout the 20th century, though many Bavarian breweries still include a Dunkel Lagerbier in their range.

There are 3 main types of dark lager:
Franconian Dunkles - a very heavily hopped, bitter dark beer that also has dark malt flavours. It's only really brewed in Franconia and, probably, there is no similar beer from elsewhere. Confusingly, in Germany it usually is called Dunkles Export, just like the Munich style.

Münchner - a malty, lightly-hopped beer that used to be the standard beer of Munich. This was the type of lager that was the first to be brewed outrside Bavaria. Gammel Carlsberg is a (very modest) example of a foreign imitation. It's still brewed in various countries around Europe, almost always poorly.

Schwarzbier - a very dark, opaque beer that is mostly brewed in Saxony and Thuringia. It can have burnt and liquorice notes that resemble flavours found in a stout. This style is becoming increasingly well-liked and some formerly West German breweries have started brewing it.

Dunkel, along with helles, is a traditional style brewed in Munich and popular throughout Bavaria. With alcohol concentrations of 4.5% to 6% by volume, dunkels are weaker than Doppelbocks, another traditional dark Bavarian beer. Dunkels are produced using Munich malts which give the Dunkel its colour. Other malts or flavours may also be added.

Dunkels were the original style of the Bavarian villages and countryside. Lighter-coloured lagers were not common until the later part of the 19th century when technological advances made them easier to produce. Dunkels have a distinctive malty flavour that comes from a special brewing technique called triple decoction. In some parts of Germany, such as North Rhine-Westphalia, Dunkelbier (also Kinderbier) refers to a sweet malt beer containing no alcohol (0%).

As already mentioned, usually, dunkel beers are dark lagers, but the term is also used to refer to dark wheat beers such as Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Dunkel and Erdinger Weissbier Dunkel. Schneider Weisse is half way between an ordinary Weiss and a Dunkel. These include a yeast sediment that should be swirled in the last part of the bottle and poured into the glass. The tastes often include toffee, chocolate, nuts, spicy hops, and sometimes a little coffee.

Nowadays Dunkel is still made primarily in Bavaria, but a few breweries outside Bavaria make Dunkel beers, too. Among the most well-known Dunkel beers imported to the United States are Alt-Bayerisch Dunkel from the Ayinger Brewery, König Ludwig Dunkel from the Kaltenberg Brewery, and the Warsteiner Dunkel from Westfalia.

Many of us after coming back from work like to enjoy the delightful taste of a beer, and just a few hardly ever were thinking about how different beers are made, about brewing industry, its history. And of course this post would be very useful for those people that have had beer before but thought it tasted terrible and wonder why people even drink it then perhaps my diligence will assist you find that acquired taste.

Beer is the world's oldest and most popular alcoholic beverage. Some of the first known writings refer to the production and distribution of beer. It is produced by the fermentation of sugars derived from starch-based material—the most common being malted barley; however, wheat, corn, and rice are also widely used, almost always in conjunction with barley. The starch source is steeped in water. Enzymes in the malt break down the starch molecules, producing a sugary liquid known as wort, which is then flavoured with hops, which acts as a natural preservative. Other ingredients such as herbs or fruit may be added. Yeast is then used to initiate fermentation, which produces alcohol and other waste products from anaerobic respiration of the yeast as it consumes the sugars. The process of beer production is called brewing.

Beer uses many varying ingredients, production methods and traditions. Different types of yeast and production methods may be used to classify beer as ale, lager or spontaneously fermented beer. Some beer writers and organisations differentiate and categorise beers by various factors into beer styles. Alcoholic beverages fermented from non-starch sources such as grape juice (wine) or honey (mead), as well as distilled beverages, are not classified as beer.

Beer is one of the world's oldest beverages, possibly dating back to the 6th millennium BC, and is recorded in the written history of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The earliest Sumerian writings contain references to beer. A prayer to the goddess Ninkasi known as "The Hymn to Ninkasi" serves as both a prayer as well as a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people. The earliest known chemical evidence of beer dates to circa 3500–3100 BC from the site of Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. As almost any substance containing carbohydrates, namely sugar or starch, can naturally undergo fermentation, it is likely that beer-like beverages were independently invented among various cultures throughout the world. The invention of bread and beer has been argued to be responsible for humanity's ability to develop technology and build civilization.

As for the close link between bread- and beer-making, women produced most beer prior to the introduction of hops in the thirteenth century, selling the beverage from their homes as a means of supplementing the family income. However, by the 7th century AD beer was also being produced and sold by European monasteries. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, and domestic manufacture ceased to be significant by the end of the 19th century. The development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process, and greater knowledge of the results. Beer was also known by Slavic tribes in early 5th century.

Today, the brewing industry is a huge global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. More than 133 billion liters (35 billion gallons) are sold per year—producing total global revenues of $294.5 billion (£147.7 billion) in 2006. InBev is the largest beer-producing company in the world, followed by SABMiller, which became the second-largest brewing company when South African Breweries acquired Miller Brewing in 2002. Anheuser-Busch holds the third spot.

Beer is made by brewing. The essential stages of brewing are mashing, sparging, boiling, fermentation, and packaging. Most of these stages can be accomplished in several different ways, but the purpose of each stage is the same regardless of the method used to achieve it.

Mashing manipulates the temperature of a mixture of water and a starch source (known as mash) in order to convert starches to fermentable sugars. The mash goes through one or more stages of being raised to a desired temperature and left at the temperature for a period of time. During each of these stages, enzymes break down the long dextrins that are present in the mash into simpler fermentable sugars, such as glucose. The number of stages required in mashing depends on the starch source used to produce the beer. Most malted barley used today requires only a single stage.

Sparging (or lautering) extracts the fermentable liquid, known as wort, from the mash. During sparging the mash is contained in a lauter-tun, which has a porous barrier through which wort but not grain can pass. The brewer allows the wort to flow past the porous barrier and collects the wort. The brewer also adds water to the lauter-tun and lets it flow through the mash and collects it as well. This rinses fermentable liquid from the grain in the mash and allows the brewer to gather as much of the fermentable liquid from the mash as possible. The leftover grain is not usually further used in making the beer. However, in some places second or even third mashes would be performed with the not quite spent grains. Each run would produce a weaker wort and thus a weaker beer.

Boiling sterilises the wort and increases the concentration of sugar in the wort. The wort collected from sparging is put in a kettle and boiled, usually for about one hour. During boiling, water in the wort evaporates, but the sugars and other components of the wort remain; this allows more efficient use of the starch sources in the beer. Boiling also destroys any remaining enzymes left over from the mashing stage as well as coagulating proteins passing into the wort, especially from malted barley, which could otherwise cause protein 'hazes' in the finished beer. Hops are added during boiling in order to extract bitterness, flavour and aroma from them. Hops may be added at more than one point during the boil. As hops are boiled longer, they contribute more bitterness but less hop flavour and aroma to the beer.

Fermentation uses yeast to turn the sugars in wort to alcohol and carbon dioxide. During fermentation, the wort becomes beer. Once the boiled wort is cooled and in a fermenter, yeast is propagated in the wort and it is left to ferment, which requires a week to months depending on the type of yeast and strength of the beer. In addition to producing alcohol, fine particulate matter suspended in the wort settles during fermentation. Once fermentation is complete, the yeast also settles, leaving the beer clear. Fermentation is sometimes carried out in two stages, primary and secondary. Once most of the alcohol has been produced during primary fermentation, the beer is transferred to a new vessel and allowed a period of secondary fermentation. Secondary fermentation is used when the beer requires long storage before packaging or greater clarity.

Pasteurisation is an optional stage of the beer process in which the beer is slowly heated and cooled to kill off any existing bacteria in order to maintain longer shelf life. This is generally a stage not included in higher end beers, but is quite common in mass-produced beers such as American-Style lite beers, and other mass-produced lagers. It is less common in ales as pasteurization can change the many flavours.

Packaging, the fifth and final stage of the brewing process, prepares the beer for distribution and consumption. During packaging, beer is put into the vessel from which it will be served: a keg, cask, can or bottle. Beer is carbonated in its package, either by forcing carbon dioxide into the beer or by "natural carbonation". Naturally carbonated beers may have a small amount of fresh wort/sugar and/or yeast added to them during packaging. This causes a short period of fermentation which produces carbon dioxide.

The basic ingredients of beer are water; a fermentable starch source, such as malted barley; and yeast. It is common for a flavouring to be added, the most popular being hops. A mixture of starch sources may be used, with the secondary starch source, such as corn, rice and sugar, often being termed an adjunct, especially when used as a lower cost substitute for malted barley. Less widely used starch sources include millet, sorghum and cassava root in Africa, potato in Brazil, and agave in Mexico, among others.

The mineral elements of water are very necessary to beer because minerals in the water influence the character of beer made from it. Different regions have water with different mineral components. As a result, different regions are better suited to making certain types of beer. For example, Dublin has hard water well-suited to making stout, such as Guinness, and Pilzen has soft water well-suited to making pale lager, such as Pilsner Urquell. As a result, it is argued that the mineral components of water have an influence on the character of regional beers. The starch source in a beer provides the fermentable material in a beer and is a key determinant of the character of the beer. The most common starch source used in beer is malted grain. Grain is malted by soaking it in water, allowing it to begin germination, and then drying the partially germinated grain in a kiln. Malting grain produces enzymes that convert starches in the grain into fermentable sugars. Different roasting times and temperatures are used to produce different colours of malt from the same grain. Darker malts will produce darker beers. Nearly all beer includes barley malt as the majority of the starch. This is because of its fibrous husk, which is not only important in the sparging stage of brewing, but also a rich source of amylase, a digestive enzyme which facilitates conversion of starch into sugars. Other malted and unmalted grains (including wheat, rice, oats, and rye, and less frequently, corn and sorghum) may be used. In recent years several American manufacturers have produced gluten-free beer made with sorghum with no barley malt for those who cannot consume gluten-containing grains like wheat, barley, and rye. The flower of the hop vine is used as a flavouring and preservative agent in nearly all beer made today. The flowers themselves are often called "hops". Hops contain several characteristics that brewers desire in beer: hops contribute a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt; hops also contribute floral, citrus, and herbal aromas and flavours to beer; hops have an antibiotic effect that favours the activity of brewer's yeast over less desirable microorganisms; and the use of hops aids in "head retention", the length of time that a foamy head created by carbonation will last. The acidity of hops acts as a preservative that—after its introduction—gave brewers the ability to transport their product over longer distances, thereby allowing for the rise to commercial breweries. The bitterness of beers is measured on the International Bitterness Units scale. Yeast is the microorganism that is responsible for fermentation in beer. Yeast metabolizes the sugars extracted from grains, which produces alcohol and carbon dioxide, and thereby turns wort into beer. In addition to fermenting the beer, yeast influences the character and flavour. The dominant types of yeast used to make beer are ale yeast and lager yeast; their use distinguishes ale and lager. Brettanomyces ferments lambics, and Torulaspora delbrueckii ferments Bavarian weissbier. Before the role of yeast in fermentation was understood, fermentation involved wild or airborne yeasts. A few styles such as lambics rely on this method today, but most modern fermentation adds pure yeast cultures directly to wort. Some brewers add one or more clarifying agents to beer. Common examples of these include isinglass finings, obtained from swimbladders of fish; Irish moss, a seaweed; kappa carrageenan, from the seaweed Kappaphycus cottonii; Polyclar; and gelatin. Clarifying agents typically precipitate out of the beer along with protein solids, and are found only in trace amounts in the completed product. If a beer is marked "suitable for Vegans" then it has either been clarified with seaweed or with artificial agents.

I hope that this information will help you to understand and appreciate different kinds of beer much better!