Depending on how you regulate the amount of honey you will use to produce mead, one will be able to create either sweet mead, semi-sweet or a plain dry (with almost no trace of sweetness in it) mead beer. One should also put into consideration the kind of honey that will be used since different types of honey (e.g. blended, polyfloral, monofloral honey, honeydew honey, etc.) confers flavor, aroma and a certain level of sweetness to the beer.

Some manufacturers are able to experiment on the production of beers such as mead by putting in additional fruity flavours from citruses and other fruits and sometimes even spices. They may include the added flavours into the mixture while the honey undergoes fermentation process or when the honey has been completely fermented. While this maybe applicable for producers who produce beers in bulk, one may also experiment on following your own taste by adjusting the level of sugar present on mead.

This was perhaps one of the most stable beers ever produced and its technique was largely adapted by breweries around the globe. The brewing technique started using the method employed by Sedlmayr in Germany. Unlike beer ale, fermentation for lager beers is much slower and yeasts used settle at the bottom of the fermenting medium and are more active at low temperatures.

With the new procedure in place, it was found out that the resulting beer produced during that process is very neutral in the sense that there has been a little mark of bitterness and sweetness on the beer. Cool climates in Europe supported the success of lager breweries and its soothing taste has gained quick acceptance from the tastes buds of beer drinkers around the globe. Due to the cost associated with cool storage, small-time breweries cannot afford to stay in the market. This is why breweries with large capital are the only industries that are able to keep their place in lager brewery market.

India Pale ale (IPA) or bitter also contains plant infusion or extract such as hops (flowers). Hops (Humulus lupulus) acts to stabilize beer and also confers the bitter taste of IPA. Since malt produce sugars that may give India pale ale its sweet taste, hops balance its sweetness and confer its characteristic bitter taste.

IPA has been in the market since the early 1700’s and was thus created because of British brewers’ efforts to combat beer contamination. When pale ale is exported, particularly to India and other territories, the beer often experienced contamination. The contamination was due, in part, to fluctuating temperature conditions. This apparent temperature fluctuation allows bacteria and other microbes to compete with the fermenting yeast which, along the process, produce acids that spoil the entire brewing process. This then gives the beer its sour taste.

Brewers during that time discovered that hops flower extracts and alcohol could prevent microbes from competing with yeast in the consumption of sugar in the brewing medium. By doing so, brewers concluded that such process resolved the outstanding issue of spoilage but were able to discover another variety of beer with characteristic bitter taste of hops, i.e. IPA.

Countries which produce amber ale in bulk for commercial purposes use the same ingredients, although with slight variations and have evolved to have their own identity in them such as Altbier (alt, old in German; bier, beer) for Germans, American pale ale for the United States and most countries in America, Bière de Garde for France which is brewed during the winter season to keep the yeast from fermenting due to unstable and unfavorable weather during the summer season.

Amber ale is particularly the pale ale produced in North America. The color may vary from near light to dark copper color. French people use almost the same term, Ambrée, although North Americans produce a wide variety of amber ale with varying degree of bitterness. The most recommended or common pairings for amber ale is usually sea food dishes, grilled or fried, and or hamburgers.

Porter has been made popular in London during the 18th century since the beer can be produced quickly and can be brewed by almost everybody evident by the number of microbreweries in London during that time. Porter was also one of the beers of choice in the United States during that time but breweries saw a decline in its production on the succeeding years.

However, porter was seen to have made a revival for the past 15 years since macro and microbreweries alike are starting to produce such beer due in part, to its low production cost, great sweet taste and fast to produce and taste can be from strong (bitter), medium to sweet.

Strong porter, known as stout, was seen to be very dark due to the concentration of malt in it hence making it more concentrated than a regular porter. Among porter’s popular brand are Fuller’s London Porter, Anchor Porter by Anchor Brewing Co. and London Porter by Arcadia and Samuel Smith’s, The Famous Taddy Porter.

Hefeweizen is just one of the most popular beers in the region and is known due to its marked streaks or indistinct masses of yeasts in it. Hefeweizen is literally translated as ‘yeast wheat’ since the word hefe would mean ‘yeast’ in German and the word ‘weizen’ means wheat in that region.

The quality of Hefeweizen production gives the beer its cloudy look since the remaining yeasts that are used to ferment the wheat during the production are not removed or filtered. The yeast then stays in the beer and gives the beer its cloudy appearance every time you pour it on a bottle or container. Perhaps, one may see that during Oktoberfest shown on TV or any type of advertising program.

Hefeweizen are somewhat sweet in taste and sometimes infused with other types of yeast that alters the white beer’s distinct taste. Due to its nature, the Germans usually call Hefeweizen “weissbier mit hefe” or white beer with yeast.

Rice, cereals or corn are just some of the ingredients incorporated in the production of light lager in order to neutralize just some of the bitterness of taste among premium lagers due to its rigid fermentation process and high amount of hops extract in it which gives its bitter taste.

Some breweries use 100% malt for the production of light lager in order to balance the bitterness, alcohol content and or sweetness of a premium lager beer. This adds more flavour but not aroma, to the light lager and therefore “kills” the bitterness brought about by the incorporation of hops extract during the initial fermentation process.

Alcohol content for a usual premium lager beer is around 6% to 7% but light lager beer cuts that into half (usually around 2.5% to 3%). Countries in the European region have more flavorful light lager beers than Breweries in North America and this same reason gave light lager beer more success in its production and has managed to stay for more than 200 years now.

History also records details that master brewers were mostly women and people who worked at beer breweries were respected men and women of the society back in time. There were hundreds to thousand kinds of beer and to date more and more variety is being produced due to research and existing technology. Almost every type of food is fermented to produce an alcohol out of a certain foodstuff which is quite fascinating, too.

There are a couple of beers around and all of them undergo the basic process of fermentation in order to extract alcohol out of foodstuffs. Mead or honey beer for example is made from honey, porter out of malt and Hefeweizen (kind of German beer) out of wheat.

Many are just variants of existing beers, with slight alteration on contents, fermentation or distillation process. Beers have differing alcohol content and can be popular in one state and not in another or very famous in all countries around the globe. We’ll be taking a look at all of them as time goes by here at this Blog.

Cure for the Common Ale!