Portal:Beer/Sandbox

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The Beer Portal

Introduction

P:Beer

Beer is one of the oldest alcoholic drinks in the world, the most widely consumed, and the third most popular drink after water and tea. Beer is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grains—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The fermentation of the starch sugars in the wort produces ethanol and carbonation in the beer. Most modern beer is brewed with hops, which add bitterness and other flavours and act as a natural preservative and stabilising agent. Other flavouring agents, such as gruit, herbs, or fruits, may be included or used instead of hops. In commercial brewing, natural carbonation is often replaced with forced carbonation.

Some of the earliest writings refer to the production and distribution of beer: the Code of Hammurabi included laws regulating it, and "The Hymn to Ninkasi", a prayer to the Mesopotamian goddess of beer, a recipe for it.

Beer is distributed in bottles and cans and is also commonly available on draught, particularly in pubs and bars. The brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. The strength of modern beer is usually around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume (ABV).

Beer forms part of the culture of many nations and is associated with social traditions such as beer festivals, as well as activities like pub crawling, pub quizzes, and pub games. (Full article...)

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Image 1
A beer sommelier tapping a barrel for a taste at Nebraska Brewing Company

A beer sommelier, also known as a cicerone in the United States, is a trained professional, working in the hospitality and alcoholic beverage industry, who specializes in the service and knowledge of beer, similar to a traditional wine sommelier. The knowledge required for certification includes an understanding of styles, brewing, ingredients, history of beer and brewing, glassware, beer service, draught systems, beer tasting, and food pairings. The profession is relatively new but growing. (Full article...)
Image 2
Original Beer Nuts in a pull-top "beer" can

Beer Nuts is an American brand of snack food building on the original product, peanuts with a sweet-and-salty glazing. According to the manufacturer, the ingredients include peanuts, coconut oil, corn syrup and salt. In the United States, Beer Nuts are a staple of bar snacks and are often referred to as "the quintessential American bar food".

Although Beer Nuts do not contain any beer, the name suggests that they are intended as a side dish to beer consumption. (Full article...)
Image 3
A glass of porter, showing characteristic dark body

Porter is a style of beer first brewed in London, England, in the early 18th century. The name is believed to have originated from its popularity with porters.

The popularity of porter was significant. It became the first beer style to be brewed around the world, and production had commenced in Ireland, North America, Sweden, and Russia by the end of the 18th century. (Full article...)
Image 4
The previous location of AleSmith Brewing Company in San Diego

San Diego County, California, has been called "the Craft Beer Capital of America". , the county was home to 155 licensed craft breweries – the most of any county in the United States. Based on 2016 sales volume, three San Diego County breweries – Stone, Green Flash, and Karl Strauss – rank among the 50 largest craft brewers in the United States. San Diego County brewers pioneered the specialty beer style known as Double India Pale Ale (Double IPA), sometimes called San Diego Pale Ale. Its beer culture is a draw for tourism, particularly during major festivals such as San Diego Beer Week and the San Diego International Beer Competition. San Diego County breweries including Stone Brewing Co., AleSmith Brewing Company and Ballast Point Brewing Company are consistently rated among the top breweries in the world. (Full article...)
Image 5
The seven of diamonds

In trick-taking card games such as bridge, the beer card is a name informally given to the seven of diamonds (7♦). Players may agree that if a player wins the last trick of a hand with the 7♦, their partner must buy them a beer. This is not considered as part of the rules of these games, but is an optional and informal side-bet between players. This practice likely originates from Danish Tarok or Skat in the middle of the 20th century. In most decks, the 7♦ is the only diamond number card that lacks rotational symmetry. (Full article...)
Image 6
Horse Shoe Brewery, London, c. 1800

The London Beer Flood was an accident at Meux & Co's Horse Shoe Brewery, London, on 17 October 1814. It took place when one of the 22-foot-tall (6.7 m) wooden vats of fermenting porter burst. The escaping liquid dislodged the valve of another vessel and destroyed several large barrels: between 128,000 and 323,000 imperial gallons (580,000–1,470,000 L; 154,000–388,000 US gal) of beer were released in total.

The resulting wave of porter destroyed the back wall of the brewery and swept into an area of slum dwellings known as the St Giles rookery. Eight people were killed, five of them mourners at the wake being held by an Irish family for a two-year-old boy. The coroner's inquest returned a verdict that the eight had lost their lives "casually, accidentally and by misfortune". The brewery was nearly bankrupted by the event; it avoided collapse after a rebate from HM Excise on the lost beer. The brewing industry gradually stopped using large wooden vats after the accident. The brewery moved in 1921, and the Dominion Theatre is now where the brewery used to stand. Meux & Co went into liquidation in 1961. (Full article...)
Image 7
Brown ale in a glass

Brown ale is a style of beer with a dark amber or brown colour. The term was first used by London brewers in the late 17th century to describe a lightly hopped ale brewed from 100% brown malt.

Today brown ales are made in England, Belgium and America. Beers termed brown ale include sweet, low alcohol beers such as Manns Original Brown Ale, medium strength amber beers of moderate bitterness such as Newcastle Brown Ale, and malty but hoppy beers such as Sierra Nevada Brown Ale. (Full article...)
Image 8
A yard of ale

A yard of ale or yard glass is a very tall beer glass used for drinking around 2+1⁄2 imperial pints (1.4 L) of beer, depending upon the diameter.

The glass is approximately 1 yard (91.4 cm) long, shaped with a bulb at the bottom, and a widening shaft, which constitutes most of the height. (Full article...)
Image 9
A dark amber American-brewed pale ale

Pale ale is a golden to amber coloured beer style brewed with pale malt. The term first appeared in England around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with high-carbon coke, which resulted in a lighter colour than other beers popular at that time. Different brewing practices and hop quantities have resulted in a range of tastes and strengths within the pale ale family. (Full article...)
Image 10
Assortment of beer bottles

A beer bottle is a bottle designed as a container for beer. Such designs vary greatly in size and shape, but the glass commonly is brown or green to reduce spoilage from light, especially ultraviolet.

The most widely established alternatives to glass containers for beer in retail sales are beverage cans and aluminium bottles; for larger volumes kegs are in common use. (Full article...)
Image 11
Can of Finnish Olvi beer

Finland has a long history of beer (Finnish: olut) dating back to the Middle Ages. The oldest still-existing commercial brewery in Finland and the other Nordic countries is Sinebrychoff, founded in 1819. The Finnish Beer Day (suomalaisen oluen päivä) is celebrated on 13 October to commemorate the founding of the Sinebrychoff brewery and the birth of Finnish beer. The largest Finnish brewers are Hartwall, Olvi and Sinebrychoff. Most of the beers brewed in Finland are pale lagers. , Finland's standing is 23rd in per capita consumption of beer: Finnish people consume 70.2 litres (15.4 imp gal; 18.5 US gal) of beer annually per capita, while the total annual consumption is 393 million litres (86,000,000 imp gal; 104,000,000 US gal). (Full article...)
Image 12
Bottles of beers from several Canadian-based breweries placed on a table being used to play beer pong

Beer was introduced to Canada by European settlers in the seventeenth century. The first commercial brewery was La Brasseries du Roy started by New France Intendant Jean Talon, in Québec City in 1668. Many commercial brewers thrived until prohibition in Canada. The provincial and federal governments' attempt to eliminate "intoxicating" beverages led to the closing of nearly three quarters of breweries between 1878 and 1928. It was only in the second half of the twentieth century that a significant number of new breweries opened up. The Canadian beer industry now plays an important role in Canadian identity, although globalization of the brewing industry has seen the major players in Canada acquired by or merged with foreign companies, notably its three largest beer producers: Labatt, Molson and Sleeman. The result is that Moosehead, with an estimated 3.8 percent share of the domestic market in 2016, has become the largest fully Canadian-owned brewer.

Beer sales have been sluggish overall in volume and in growth in industry revenue as other beverages have increased in popularity. Growth in revenue for beer makers averaged 1.3 per cent per year during 2011-2016; the estimated annual growth over the subsequent five years is only 0.4 percent per annum. Nonetheless, the number of licensed breweries in Canada increased from 310 in 2010 to 640 in 2015. Many of these are small operations since there were only 30 large (making over 7.5 million litres per year) breweries in 2015. (Full article...)
Image 13

Memorial plaque of the author with the song's name in Czech, German and English

"Beer Barrel Polka", originally in Czech "Škoda lásky", also known as "The Barrel Polka", "Roll Out the Barrel", or "Rosamunde", is a 1927 polka composed by Czech musician Jaromír Vejvoda. Lyrics were added in 1934, subsequently gaining worldwide popularity during World War II as a drinking song. (Full article...)
Image 14
Pilsner Urquell

Beer (Czech: pivo) has a long history in what is now the Czech Republic, with brewing taking place in Břevnov Monastery in 993. The city of Brno had the right to brew beer from the 12th century, while Plzeň and České Budějovice (Pilsen and Budweis in German), had breweries in the 13th century.

The most common Czech beers are pale lagers of the pilsner type, with a characteristic transparent golden colour, high foaminess, and lighter flavour. The Czech Republic has the highest beer consumption per capita in the world. (Full article...)
Image 15
A Chimay tripel beer with its branded glass

Beer in Belgium includes pale ales, lambics, Flemish red ales, sour brown ales, strong ales and stouts. In 2018, there were 304 breweries in Belgium, including international companies, such as AB InBev, and traditional breweries, such as Trappist monasteries. On average, Belgians drink 68 litres of beer each year, down from around 200 each year in 1900. Most beers are bought or served in bottles, rather than cans, and almost every beer has its own branded, sometimes uniquely shaped, glass. In 2016, UNESCO inscribed Belgian beer culture on their list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. (Full article...)

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Three Horses Beer (better known locally as THB) is a pale lager that has been brewed by Star Breweries of Madagascar since 1958. It is the highest-selling beer in Madagascar and has been described as emblematic of the country. THB is sold nationwide and, since 2005, has been exported to such markets as France, Reunion Island, Comoros, and Mayotte. The Malagasy beer is produced at two breweries in Madagascar, the first centrally located in Antsirabe and the other in the northern city of Antsiranana. THB Pilsener, the most common variant of THB, has a light taste and is produced from mostly local barley, corn, and hops. Star Breweries also produces THB Fresh (a shandy with less than 1% alcohol), THB Special (6.2% alcohol), and THB Lite (1% alcohol). Recent investments in Star Brewery infrastructure have allowed a 20% increase in production since 2011.

After advertising alcohol in the media was banned under former President of Madagascar Marc Ravalomanana, Star Breweries has increasingly promoted THB through unconventional means. These have included sponsoring the THB Champions League, Madagascar's national football championship, and holding annual beer festivals. In addition, THB is a regular sponsor of local musicians through major annual festivals and tours. Star Breweries has also hired musicians to perform in music videos created to promote the beer. In 2014 the THB label was significantly redesigned, and in 2015, a new slogan, "THB eo foana e!" ("THB always!"), was promoted alongside the beer's longstanding trademark Soa Ny Fiarahantsika ("The Pleasure of Being Together"). Malagasy musical stars and other public figures regularly promote the beer. (Full article...)

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Eberhard Anheuser (27 September 1806–May 1880) was a German-American soap and candle maker, and the father-in-law of Adolphus Busch, the founder of the Anheuser-Busch Company.

Anheuser grew up in Kreuznach, where his parents operated a vineyard that had been in the family since 1627. Two of his brothers and he moved to North America in 1842. He was a major creditor of the Bavarian Brewery Company, a struggling brewery founded in 1853. When the company encountered financial difficulty in 1860, he purchased the minor creditors' interests and took over the company. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated) - load more entries

... that a beer named after the barley variety Golden Promise was not brewed using the variety?
... that Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority general manager Phillip Eng brews his own beer?
... that the patu clubs on the New Zealand threepence were compared to bottles of ginger beer?
... that at the 1965 World Pentathlon Championships, Herbert Polzhuber was said to have drunk ten beers and a bottle of cognac before firing his pistol at the ground and passing out?
... that Fred G. Sullivan's film The Beer-Drinker's Guide to Fitness and Filmmaking depicts Sullivan being humiliated with mud and whips for the failings of his previous film?
... that Abeer Odeh was the first woman to serve as Minister of National Economy in Palestine?

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General images

The following are images from various beer- and brewing-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A yard of ale at Jolly Brewery, Taiwan (from Craft beer)
Image 2A 16th-century brewery (from Brewing)
Image 3Mexican craft beer from Tequixquiac in Zumpango Region (from Craft beer)
Image 4Diatomaceous earth, used to create a filtration bed (from Brewing)
Image 5Conditioning tanks at Anchor Brewing Company (from Brewing)
Image 6Bottling beer in a modern facility, 1945, Australia (from History of beer)
Image 7Malted barley before kilning or roasting (from Brewing)
Image 8Brew kettles at Brasserie La Choulette in France (from Brewing)
Image 9Bergenhus microbrewery, Bergen, Norway (from Craft beer)
Image 10Spent grain, a brewing by-product (from Brewing)
Image 11Pasteur Street Brewing, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (from Craft beer)
Image 12Philistine pottery beer jug (from History of beer)
Image 13Casks of real ale from British microbreweries at a beer festival (from Craft beer)
Image 14The Caledonian Brewery, founded in 1869, Edinburgh, Scotland (from History of beer)
Image 15A beer sommelier tapping a barrel for a taste at Nebraska Brewing Company (from Craft beer)
Image 16Robohop, a session IPA from Cervisiam in Oslo, Norway (from Craft beer)
Image 17Dogo Beer from Minakuchi-shuzō microbrewery in Matsuyama, Japan (from Craft beer)
Image 18A funerary model of a bakery and brewery, from the Eleventh dynasty of Egypt, c. 2009–1998 BCE (from History of beer)
Image 19A growler of beer from Flounder Brewing, a nanobrewery in New Jersey, US (from Craft beer)
Image 20A selection of French craft beers (from Craft beer)
Image 21A 16th-century brewery (from History of beer)
Image 22A replica of ancient Egyptian beer, brewed from emmer wheat by the Courage brewery in 1996 (from History of beer)
Image 23A hydrometer measures beer's specific gravity (from History of beer)
Image 24Great Leap Brewing operates a chain of brewpubs in China (from Craft beer)
Image 25Irish Craft Beer Festival, 2015 (from Craft beer)
Image 26Bill Urquhart at Litchborough Brewery (from Craft beer)
Image 27Rock mortars in Raqefet Cave, used to make beer during the Stone Age. (from History of beer)
Image 28World beer consumption per capita (from History of beer)
Image 29Steamworks Brewing, Vancouver (from Craft beer)
Image 30Cask ales with gravity dispense at a beer festival (from Brewing)
Image 31D. G. Yuengling & Son is the oldest operating brewing company in the US, established in 1829. It is also the largest craft brewer, and the 6th largest brewing company overall. (from Craft beer)
Image 32Zoigl beers from the communal brewhouses of Oberpfalz in Germany (from Craft beer)
Image 33A mash tun at the Bass Museum in Burton-upon-Trent (from Brewing)
Image 34Traditional fermenting building (center) and modern fermenting building (left) in Pilsner Urquell Brewery (Czech Republic) (from History of beer)
Image 35Castaña, a smoked beer with chestnuts from Cerex in Extremadura, Spain (from Craft beer)
Image 36Spontaneous fermentation at Timmermans in Belgium (from Brewing)
Image 37Gambrinus – king of beer (from History of beer)
Image 38Modern closed fermentation vessels (from Brewing)
Image 39Alulu beer receipt recording a purchase of "best" beer from a brewer, c. 2050 BCE, from the Sumerian city of Umma in ancient Iraq. (from History of beer)
Image 40Põhjala Brewery, Estonia (from Craft beer)
Image 41The Alulu beer receipt records a purchase of "best" beer from a brewer, c. 2050 BC from the Sumerian city of Umma in Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq). (from Brewing)
Image 42Microbreweries, regional breweries, and brew pubs per capita (from Craft beer)
Image 43Lauter tun (from Brewing)
Image 44Craft brewing at Allagash in Portland, Maine (from Craft beer)
Image 45Yeast ring used by Swedish homebrewers in the 19th century to preserve the yeast between brewing sessions. (from History of beer)
Image 46Open vessels showing fermentation taking place (from Brewing)
Image 47Hop cone grown in a hop field, Hallertau, Germany (from Brewing)
Image 48A can of Juicy Ass IPA from Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery in Barrie, Ontario, Canada (from Craft beer)
Image 49Smoked beer from the Schlenkerla brewpub in Bamberg, Germany (from Craft beer)