Beer is produced by fermenting some sort of starch product. In many cases this is barley, wheat, oats or rye, but even corn, rice, potatoes, and certain starchy roots in Africa have been used. In parts of Latin America, corn is chewed, spit out and left to ferment and become a sort of corn beer called chicha. I’ve tried it… before my traveling companion told me about the chewing process. We are no longer on speaking terms. Don’t expect Tsingtao to be rolling it out in mass quantities very soon. And since you don’t hear anyone advertising “brewed from the finest Senegalese cassava roots” you can guess barley is still the primary grain of choice. There’s no distilling for beer—that would make it some kind of liquor, and it’s not strictly sugars or fruit juices—which is where your wine comes from. But the beer we are primarily talking about on this site is the barley variety. We might come across some with other grains added or with spices, fruits, herbs and such to create different styles, and even some that use the sugars from other grains to cut some costs or make a really mild beer.
With few oddball exceptions a beer is either a lager or an ale. The difference begins in the yeast. Some yeasts like it on top, some prefer to be on bottom. Up until now, yeasts have not been more creative in their brewing positions, but we can always fantasize.
Ale yeasts ferment at the top of the batch and at higher temperatures (60-70°F) and so are quicker finishers than lagers (1-3 weeks). Usually ales are sweeter and have a fuller body, which really starts to take this sexual allusion to extremes.
Lagers, on the other hand, use yeasts that settle in at the bottom to do their work and prefer colder temps of about 40-55°F. They take 1-3 months to ferment. Lagers tend to be lighter and drier than ales and are the most common beers, often easier to get along with for the average drinker. For lager we can thank the Bavarians who—when they found that cold temperatures could control runaway wild yeasts in the warm summer ale batches—moved them to the Alps. The name lager comes from the German “to store.”
Kevin Revolinski has written several books, including Wisconsin’s Best Beer Guide. He has spent numerous years abroad and is also the creator of The Mad Traveler. Revolinski will be informing Hops readers about the wonders of beer in a special six-part series on his favorite form of happiness. Read his introduction as well.
