Beer Variations 1
Types of Beer
The Different Types of Beer
Beer is extremely popular all over the world, and even synonymous with various cultures. It would be almost impossible to list out all countless variations of beer all over the world, but we can still lay out the major types of beer. These beer types can have different textures, flavors, and appearance. Distinguishing one type of beer from another beer type depends on various factors ranging from the aroma, the beer color, the amount of bitterness and the amount of sweetness in the beer flavor. The good thing is usually no matter the attributes of the beer it can be categorized broadly into Lager beer and Ale. These two types of beer contain thousands of fvariations among them and even have a few ingredients in common. These ingredients include hops, yeast, water, and malted barley. Beer can also be classified to form sub divisions of beer type, which makes categorization and naming easier as well. Enough blabbing, on to the different beer types!
Ales
A type of top fermenting beer, in the past is was actually not considered to be a part of the beer family. Throught Ale’s history it has been thought of as an English drink and has references in most of British literature. The difference from other types of beer was its base ingredients that form flavor. While ale was made from grains that were malted and have a bitter herbal taste, in past history beer was primarily known as a hops based flavored drink. Ales are fermented with yeasts at the temperatures of 10-20 degrees Celsius. Ales are classified into three major types called stout, porter, and brown ale. Though there are several other kinds as well, these are the main types:
Stout
This is a dark colored beer type, which can be dry, bitter, sweet for the sweet tooth and imperial for the royal court in Russia. Stout actually means strong and true to its name. This beer type has strong flavors of the hops and, malted barley that brewed it.
Brown Ale
A drink low in alcohol and once very popular with the working class. Brown Ale is one of the lightest ales in nature. It is dark in color, but more on the copper reddish side rather than the color brown which defines it. It has a sour to bitter taste which comes because of the use of lactic yeast and the slow process of simmering.
Porter
Porter is less strong than the stout beer type, Porter is also a dark colored beer that tastes strongly of the barley that is used in manufacturing it. It has a chocolate flavor to it which blends well with the mild flavor of the hops.
Lagers
Lager is a type of bottom fermenting beer. Unlike the Ales, which are brewed at warmer temperatures. Lagers are brewed at cold temperatures ranging from 2-10 degrees Celsius. They are slowly simmered and therefore, the name. The most popular types of lagers are the following:
Pale lager
pale lager is available practically anywhere in the world because pale lager is consumed all over the world. It comes in a beautiful color of pale gold, is light and has varying degrees of the bitterness that comes from hops.
Pilsner
Produced in the province of Pizen in Czech Republic, it is also a light colored beer that is, however, more bitter than the pale lager. The hops add a nice flowery aroma to the beer.
Beer Variations
Beer is also known to be produced in different variations ranging from fruit and vegtables. These variations are used in the brewing process all over the world and the majority of cultures are known to have they’re own form of a beer variation. Here are some of the most popular beer variations in the world:
- Apple beer (Hard Cider, apple cider)
- Ginger beer
- Potato beer
- Raisin beer
- Pear cider
- Malt beer (beverage)
- Rye Beer
- Rice Beer
For all the different types of alcohol, check out or types of alcohol article