From ancient Greece, the "intoxicating journey" of beer begins...

A handful of lamb skewers, a plate of edamame, and five skewers of kidneys, what's the perfect match? Even Coke won't do, it must be a bottle of ice-cold beer!

What kind of beer is it? Snow, Harbin, Pure Draft, Tianya? Take a bag of beer in a plastic bag, or a bucket of "original beer" sold by the liter in restaurants? Old Wang, who was eating skewers, fell into deep thought...

In fact, no matter how familiar we are with these beers, they are only part of the beer system. Beer culture is very diverse. What category does your favorite beer belong to in the beer world? This has to start from ancient times.

10,000 years ago

Ten thousand years ago, in Mesopotamia, beer was born...

Like all foods that ferment unintentionally, beer was born accidentally.

One day, an ancient Greek (or several ancient Greeks) discovered that the porridge they cooked tasted sweet , and this taste was only possible when cooked with barley . After sealing it for a while, not only did the white hair not grow as expected, but it also tasted better. The sweet porridge was full of bubbles, and it could make people "intoxicated" after drinking it! This is the most primitive beer!

Fermented mash with bubbles

For the next 10,000 years, this carbonated drink was almost "bound" to human civilization.

Two people using reed pipes to suck beer from a large wine jar. A rubbing of a seal unearthed in Mesopotamia

The Sumerian civilization believed that drinking beer was a symbol that distinguished civilized people from barbarians; ancient Egypt paid beer as wages for laborers; in the Middle Ages when water purification technology was backward, drinking water was not as healthy as drinking beer, and people drank beer instead of water to avoid getting sick.

The knowledgeable Duke William IV of Bavaria issued a law specifically for beer, the "Beer Purity Law", which stipulated that beer could only be made with four ingredients: barley malt , hops , water and yeast .

Barley malt, yeast, water, hops

On Earth in 1516, the Constitution was not born until more than 200 years later, but beer had its own law.

Reprint of the Beer Purity Law

How to ferment

The pork from the food stall has been served, and it is so refreshing to drink it with a sip of "cold beer"! Lao Wang stared at the bubbles on the glass bottle and couldn't help but wonder, how exactly is beer fermented?

This brings us to the core role of yeast.

When there is sufficient oxygen, yeast can perform aerobic respiration to survive and reproduce in large numbers; when there is very little oxygen , yeast can perform anaerobic respiration , " eat " glucose , and metabolize glucose into ethanol (alcohol) and carbon dioxide to generate energy to sustain its own life.

The alcohol and bubbles in beer come from the ethanol and carbon dioxide produced by yeast anaerobic respiration. So to some extent, the beer we drink is actually the "excrement" of yeast.

What are the categories of beer?

After five bottles of beer, Lao Wang didn't feel drunk at all. He couldn't help showing off his superiority of being able to drink to his friends. But the handsome guy at the next table said that there was more than one kind of beer. He saw that they brought several bottles of "craft beer" on the table, which looked really delicious.

It turns out that in addition to the light beer we are most familiar with, there is another large category in the beer world. Lager and Ale are the names of these two beers, and also the names of the yeast used to brew them.

The " big green bottle " we often drink is basically brewed with lager yeast . Lager yeast likes low temperatures and can complete fermentation in 15 days at a temperature of 4-12 degrees. During fermentation, lager yeast sinks to the bottom, so this process is also called bottom fermentation.

In the yeast family, lager has a very low "presence" and it hardly brings any additional flavor and aroma to the beer . Its biggest feature is that it has no characteristics , so most of the styles are refreshing, smooth and elegant.

Lager beer used to be a very high-end beer. In ancient times, the refrigeration technology was not advanced, and it was very difficult to maintain the fermentation temperature at low temperature for half a month. After industrial progress, refrigeration became convenient, and lager beer was easy to achieve mass production, and the quality and taste were quite stable, so lager beer became industrial beer, which is the most common beer in our supermarkets.

Most ale beers are craft beers , which are the opposite of lager in every aspect. Ale yeast likes high temperature, and at 15-25 degrees, it will complete fermentation in 3-5 days. During fermentation, ale yeast floats on the top, so this fermentation method is also called top fermentation.

The most prominent feature of ale yeast is that it gives beer a more complex and unique flavor , such as the aroma of bananas , apples , pears , and sometimes even the aroma of stone fruits such as peaches and apricots .

The beer fermentation process itself is not divided into high and low, but due to the low cost of producing lager beer and few characteristics, it can only be awkwardly named "bronze". But price and quality really have little to do with each other, and which one you choose depends on the flavor and taste you like.

The classifications we usually think of as raw beer , draft beer , and cooked beer are not actually the standard classification methods of beer , but the different processing techniques of beer after industrial brewing .

The original puree is almost unprocessed, retaining the flavor of the beer. It tastes the best, but also has the shortest shelf life.

Draft beer has a shelf life of 3-7 days after simple filtration. For example, pure draft beer has impurities and most yeast removed, small molecular proteins and hops are retained, and the shelf life is several months.

Mature beer undergoes more rigorous processing and sterilization, and its shelf life can be more than one year, but its taste is only average.

Refreshing, light, dry, icy, super refreshing... are just sales gimmicks and have nothing to do with the beer making process.

Choose your favorite beer color

After finishing the skewers, although Mr. Wang was full, he was still tempted by the craft beer at the next table, so he went to the beer bar. However, with so many different colors of beer, such as dark beer and yellow beer, which one would be the right one for him?

Let’s first understand the beer making process and then make a choice.

Barley is needed in the beer fermentation process, but dry barley cannot be used for brewing, and over-germinated barley is not conducive to brewing.

How to prevent barley from over-germination in batches ? People came up with a solution - baking .

Different roasting degrees are the key to brewing different colors of beer.

Choose your favorite beer flavor

The taste of beer will also change depending on how much hops are added . The floral aroma in beer comes from hops, but the bitterness also comes from hops. The more hops are added, the more bitter the beer is, the stronger the floral aroma is, and the longer the shelf life is.

Bitterness comparison of various beers using the International Bitterness Unit (IBUs)

IPA (India Pale Ale), a little star in the craft beer world, is a type of beer with a very high hop content.

In addition to hops , different flavors of beer can be brewed according to different raw materials .

Looking at the colorful bottles in the craft beer store, Lao Wang couldn't help but feel confused again.

Why should beer bottles be treated differently ?

Simply put, it is the light-proof requirements and cost constraints.

Beer has three major enemies : heat , oxygen and light .

Beer contains a large amount of reducing substances such as alcohols, phenols, esters, aldehydes, etc. Oxygen can easily oxidize these substances, producing strange sour and rancid tastes, or even causing it to deteriorate directly.

High temperatures make it difficult for carbon dioxide to dissolve in wine, and the carbon dioxide escaping from the wine may cause the bottle to explode. High temperatures also accelerate the oxidation process of the wine, making it more likely to go rancid.

The ultraviolet rays in the light can induce water ionization in the beer and accelerate the oxidation process; it can also destroy the structure of flavor substances such as xanthohumol in hops, making the beer produce a smell similar to freshly brewed coffee, sesame oil, and body odor, which people figuratively call "light odor."

Generally, brown bottles can block 98% of ultraviolet rays , and green bottles can block about 20% of ultraviolet rays . Therefore, dark bottles are more often used for beer with unique flavor, more hops, and higher prices.

For some cheap beers with low hop content and little flavor, which are mainly refreshing , they contain fewer flavor substances and the impact of "light odor" is relatively small. Based on the cost, green glass bottles are generally sufficient .

With this knowledge, choosing beer becomes simple and fun. However, for the sake of health, we still need to drink in moderation. After all, good wine does not need to be drunk in excess!