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Seriously, we can talk about beers forever. There’s just so many ways to combine yeast and grains into delicious fermented foaminess. Some of these ways have hundreds of years of tradition, methods honed literally as a sacred art form.

Then we get beers like Steam Beer. Steam beer is a mid-19th century invention that arose during the California gold rush as as on-the-fly “holy crap we need beer – what do we have on hand that will allow us to make beer?” sort of a thing. It was originally considered, well, bad. And kinda bootleg.

Then Anchor Steam Brewing Company (which has a pretty extensive, if forgiveably slanted, history of Steam Beer on their website) revived the method and began selling “Anchor Steam Beer” as a San Francisco tradition. Their brew is tasty and refreshing on a hot day, and has been a pretty unique brew on the scene. This brew and others that have cropped up using similar style are known in modern brewing parlance as “California common beer.”

The basic components which define a beer as a steam beer is a lager yeast brewed as an ale (we’ve talked about the differences before). When gold rush towns were cropping up in California, they were booming so quickly that there wasn’t any infrastructure to speak of, and commodities like ice were impossible to get. So they brewed the lager yeast, which they could get their hands on, as an ale – that is to say, at high temperatures, due to lack of ice.

Since Anchor Steam’s brewery is located here in San Francisco, I think I’m going to have to follow up on this post after a visit there.

Over the last decade or so, pale ales have boomed in the US. American brewers reinvented the style for American palates and American hops, creating their own beer distinct from its English ancestor. During the same time period (perhaps even as a reaction to the over-the-top hoppiness of American Pale Ale), wheat beers have seen increasing popularity in the states. Unlike their treatment of pale ales, American brewers have tended to stick more closely to tradition with wheat beers, and many are making very good versions of these German and Belgian beer styles. These days, hefeweizens and “white beers” are available in bars across the US.

Wittbier/Weissbier

Wittbier (Belgian), weissbier (German), or “white beer” is an unfiltered ale made predominately with wheat. It gets its name, obviously, from its color; because it’s unfiltered, wittbier has a light, cloudy appearance. If you order a bottle, you’ll often see bartenders swirling it around as they pour it to distribute the sediment more evenly.

In Germany, the brewing process of Berliner Weissbier is strictly regulated (think bourbon laws in the US), and must be top-fermented with 50% wheat. These have a lot of head when poured, but it dissipates quickly. The Belgian wittbiers are similar, but less regulated. These are traditionally unmalted and heavily spiced, particularly with coriander or orange peel.

You’ve probably tried Hoegaarden and Blue Moon, but there’s a lot more to this category. Look for the interesting Japanese version, Hitachino Nest White Ale (don’t serve this ice cold, though, you’ll lose a lot of the flavor), Ommegang’s Witte, Allagash White, and the organic Mothership Wit to get an idea of the range available.

Hefeweizen and Dunkelweizen

These are two relatively close German styles of wheat beer. Dunkelweizen means “dark wheat” and hefeweizen “yeast wheat.” Both are unfiltered with strong fruit notes and a cloudy golden color. If it’s filtered, it’s called a kristallweissbier.

We recommend Ayinger Brau Weisse and Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier. You should also try the widely available Widmer Bros. Hefeweizen.

Weizenbock

Weizenbock is basically a dunkelweizen with more alcohol. Brewing a weizen beer in the bock style gives the beer more spiciness and darker fruit notes. Victory make a good version called Moonglow. Also try Schneider Aventinus if you can find it and the Ayinger Weizenbock.

Lambics

Yes, lambics are a wheat beer. If you’re unfamiliar, they’re a Belgian style of super-sour beers that often have fruits added after fermentation. Because they’re so unique, however, we’ll dedicate a separate post to lambics.

The Fruit Question

Adding a citrus wedge – either orange or lemon – is a purely American trend. Some people find it tasty, but a lot of people see it as an insult to the beer. The Edukatorz don’t really care either way, so go ahead and add fruit it  you want. But be aware that you might be offending some Europeans.

Apparently this is booze week at Edukatorz (but really, when isn’t it?). Today we’re going to talk about  a specific type of pale lager – Pilsners. Most Americans are probably familiar with pilsners in the form of Budweiser or Miller Lite. Those beers are disgusting and have given pilsners a bad name.

Pilsner is the main type of beer you think of when you think of lagers. Created in Pilzner, Czech Republic (then known as Bohemia in Germany) in the 19th century. Pilsner’s are created when city officials opened up a city brewery and utilized Bavarian brewing techniques and experimented with the new ‘lager’ style of beer. You end up getting a crisp, subtle clean taste and a golden color with this type of brewing technique.

Now-a-days pilsner is distinguished from other lagers by its use of soft spring water and Saaz hops. And they make pilsner all over the world. Technically crappy American beers like Budweiser or Miller Lite originally started off as pilsners, but we try to forget about them. The brands you’re most familiar with are probably Pilsner Urquell, Grolsch, Stella Artois, Bitburg, Beck’s, Yuengling and Pabst Blue Ribbon (beloved by hipsters everywhere).

We’ve gone over the basics of lagers, ales and stouts so now it’s time to dive a little deeper into the specifics of each type of beer. Today we’re going to focus on pale ales.

Pale ale originated in the dour country of England around the 18th century. British brewers wanted a “paler” ale so they used coke (no, not that kind, this kind is made from coal)  instead of wood to roast the barley for fermentation. They discovered that the wood would burn the barley, while the coke would evenly roast it creating a pale beer during fermentation.

Pale ales have gotten a reputation as being bitter, though not all of them are. They range from smooth and crisp to super bitter.

Burton Pale Ale

This is the original real deal type of pale ale. When British brewers discovered how to make pale ale they did it in Burton-on-Trent, England. This particular type of pale ale is malty and balanced with a smooth aroma. Burton pale ale’s get their distinctive taste from the gympsum in the local water that brought out the taste of the hops. They clearly had a monopoly on this taste until a chemist came up with a process called Burtonisation that adds sulphates to the water to bring out the hops taste. Pale ales are now made pretty universally with water that has been through the Burtonisation process. The most famous Burton Pale Ale is Bass which is easily obtained in the US of A.

Bitter

Bitter beer came about when 19th Century drinkers in England started referring to pale ale as bitters to distinguish it from other beers with a distinctive hop taste. British brewers then started categorizing bitters as session (or ordinary), best (or regular), and premium (or strong or extra strong). These beers range from either a lower alcohol content of around 4.1% for session bitters to 4.8% and above for premium bitters. Though bitter, these types of beer isn’t very hoppy, but tends to taste maltier. We recommend checking out Young’s Bitter or Fuller’s ESB if you want to try some of this style out.

Indian Pale Ales

Indian pale ales were developed by the British in order to survive the trip from England to India.  The beer had to stay in its casks for a very long time sans refrigeration so in order to preserve it the British added extra hops to it. This style of pale ale is distinctively hoppy. We recommend trying out Dogfish Head’s 60 Minute IPA if you’ve never had IPA and work your way up from there.

American Pale Ales

American pale ales tend to be cleaner and hoppier then their British cousins. There is a wide variety of different types of pale ales out there, but all of their flavors tend to focus on the citrusy quality of American hops. We recommend trying out Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale or Flying Dog’s Classic Pale Ale if you want to try this variety.

Well, if you’re keeping tabs, we spent a few months dwelling on all the glories and intricacies of our favorite liquor: whiskey. When that was done we were sad and sober, until we realized that summer is for beer, and the people need to know. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve covered the basics of lagers and ales. These might seem very basic, but beer is a big subject, so it’s best to start on broad principles. 

After ales and lagers, the next broad category of beer to discuss is stout. You are probably familiar with Guinness, the eternal staple of the Irish pub and quintessential draught for the grimy corner dive that wants to be a “real bar” with a “beer selection.” However, there’s a lot more to stout than that.

The word “stout” comes from an archaic English usage of the word that meant “strong” or “robust.”* Stouts were typically the strongest brew (in terms of alcohol content; they usually have 7-8% abv) available. The first stouts were brewed in England in the first half of the 18th century, and became extremely popular across the British Isles for the purposes of getting drunk (recall that ales had been around long before that, with a minimal alcohol content, and were seen more as a “nutritional” beverage than anything else).

The stout industry was soon dominated by Irish mega-breweries like Guinness and Murphy’s. However, pale ales eventually replaced stouts as the beer of choice for the British empire, and they fell back into relative obscurity. Despite a brief renaissance after World War II, it is really only recently that stouts have seen more popularity. In the last couple of decades, however, a vast array of breweries around the world have developed ever-more-diverse versions of the drink.

The types of stout include imperial stouts, porters,** dry/Irish stouts (Try Guinness, if you haven’t. We know you can find it.), oatmeal stouts (which are actually made with oats – try Samuel Smith’s, it’s delicious), and the more deceptively named milk stouts (brewed with lactose, but not with actual milk), oyster stouts (to be eaten with oysters, and (thankfully) usually not actually containing bivalves), and chocolate and coffee stouts (which are, again, named for their flavor and not the actual ingredients).

*Actually, it might still mean that in England. Everything they say sounds pretty archaic.

**There is actually a fair amount of debate as to whether porter should be included with stouts, and, if so, whether it should be considered to have predated modern stouts. We’ll discuss that debate in more detail later on.

Last time we told you that you’d better know a beer, we discussed the basics of lagers. If lagers represent one of the major categories of beer, the other is definitely ales. Each has a number of sub-varieties, which we will discuss anon, but at the most basic level the difference between lager and ale is one of the most important divisions to help you understand beers.

Originally, calling a drink “ale” was meant to differentiate it from “beer,” beer being understood as having been brewed with hops. Ale was brewed with herbs and spices (called at “gruit”) and was a major part of a medieval diet. They even brewed low-alcohol-content ales so they could drink it with breakfast, since it was a source of nutrition for those malnourished old-timey Europeans.

Now, of course, the ale is a drink that falls into the “beer” category. The term refers to the actual brewing method. Where lagers are brewed with a bottom-fermenting yeast, ales are brewed with a top-fermenting yeast. This type of yeast likes higher temperatures (around 60-75 degrees Fahrenheit) and ferments much fast than a lager would.

Of course there are all sorts of different things you can add to ale, or different ways to manipulate it. There is a huge variety of beers, that unless we told you, you might not realize are all ales. From the highly hopped India Pale Ale (so popular in the United States these days) to brown ales to golden ales, all these types of beer are brewed in the same basic style and fall under the category “ales.”

Lagers are the beer most Americans are familiar with. If you’ve had a Budweiser or Miller Lite you’ve had a lager, albeit an awful lager.

Lagers are brewed using bottom-fermenting yeast at cool temperatures. Bottom fermenting means the yeast settles at the bottom of the brew versus the top of the brew like in an ale. This type of yeast thrives in cool temperatures hence the brewing in cold temperatures.

German brewers discovered lager when they left beer to ferment in caves that were naturally cool. They realized the beer would become crisper, cleaner and drier than other beers because the yeast wouldn’t impart any extra flavor on the beer.

There are may different types of lagers: pale (including pilsners), dunkel, märzen, bock, schwarzbier, kellerbier, Vienna and baltic porters. While some lagers are light and some are dark, all types of lagers taste crisp and clean.

We enjoy lagers on hot days and when we’re too lazy to order anything else. Yuengling has always been our go-to beer in all situations*.Edukatorz approved lagers include Yuengling (obviously), Spaten, Pilsner Urquell, Shiner Bock and others. If you have a question about a lager leave it in the comments or email us and we’ll let you know if they’re quality or not.

* Fact: Just say “I want a lager” in Pennsylvania and they’ll give you a Yuengling.

While we’re done edukating you about the ins and outs of whiskey (at least for the immediate future), we’re not done talking about alcohol by a long shot so we now humbly introduce our new feature “Better Know a Beer.” Yes, yes, we’ve already hinted at the series with an introduction to Trappist beers, but we’re going all in on beer because really, what’s summer without beer?

Beer is awesome, this is undeniable, but what exactly is beer? Beer is a delicious brewed beverage that’s created when starches are fermented. Human beings have been drinking this delicious concoction since around 9000 BCE. Everyone from cavemen in the Neolithic period to Egyptians to Benjamin Franklin has enjoyed a pint or three.

To make your basic beer all you need is a starch (usually barley, but it can be wheat, corn or another stach) and yeast and voila you have fermented starch aka beer. Flavor is then added to the beer with hops or fruit or some other flavoring agent. With such versatility it’s easy to see how there can be so many different kinds of beers out there.