Beer

Beeris analcoholic beverageproduced by thebrewingandfermentationofstarchesfromcerealgrain—most commonlymaltedbarley, althoughwheat,maize(corn),rice, andoatsare also used. The grain is mashed to convertstarchin the grain tosugars, which dissolve in water to formwort. Fermentation of the wort byyeastproducesethanolandcarbonationin the beer. Beer is one of the oldestalcoholic drinksin the world, the most widely consumed, and the third most popular drink after water andtea. Most modern beer is brewed withhops, which add bitterness and other flavours and act as a naturalpreservativeandstabilising agent. Other flavouring agents, such asgruit, herbs, or fruits, may be included or used instead of hops. In commercial brewing, natural carbonation is often replaced with forced carbonation.
Beer isdistributedin bottles and cans, and is commonly available ondraughtin pubs and bars. The brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominantmultinational companiesand many thousands of smaller producers ranging frombrewpubstoregional breweries. The strength of modern beer is usually around 4% to 6%alcohol by volume(ABV).
Some of the earliest writings mention the production and distribution of beer: theCode of Hammurabi(1750 BC) included laws regulating it, while "The Hymn toNinkasi", a prayer to theMesopotamiangoddess of beer, contains a recipe for it. Beer forms part of the culture of many nations and is associated with social traditions such asbeer festivals, as well as activities likepub games.
In early forms of English and in the Scandinavian languages, the usual word for beer was the word whose Modern English form isale.The modern wordbeercomes into present-day English fromOld Englishbēor, itself fromCommon Germanic, it is found throughout theWest GermanicandNorth Germanicdialects (modern Dutch and Germanbier,Old Norsebjórr). The earlier etymology of the word is debated: the three main theories are that the word originates in Proto-Germanic*beuzą(putatively fromProto-Indo-European*bʰeusóm), meaning "brewer's yeast, beer dregs"; that it is related to the wordbarley, or that it was somehow borrowed from Latinbibere"to drink".
Christine Fell, inLeeds Studies in English(1975), suggests that the Old English/Norse wordbēordid not originally denote ale or beer, but a strong, sweet drink rather likemeadorcider. Whatever the case, the meaning ofbēorexpanded to cover the meaning ofale. When hopped ale from Europe was imported into Britain in the late Middle Ages, it was described as "beer" to differentiate it from the British unhopped ale, later acquiring a broader meaning.
Beer is one of the world's oldest prepared alcoholic drinks.The earliest archaeological evidence of fermentation consists of 13,000 year-old residues of a beer with the consistency of gruel, used by the semi-nomadicNatufiansfor ritual feasting, at theRaqefet Cavein theCarmel MountainsnearHaifain northern Israel.There is evidence that beer was produced atGöbekli Tepeduring thePre-Pottery Neolithic(around 8500 BC to 5500 BC).The earliest clear chemical evidence of beer produced frombarleydates to about 3500–3100 BC, from the site ofGodin Tepein theZagros Mountainsof western Iran.
Beer is recorded in the written history ofancient Egypt,and archaeologists speculate that beer was instrumental in the formation of civilizations.Approximately 5000 years ago, workers in the city ofUruk(modern day Iraq) were paid by their employers with volumes of beer.During the building of theEgyptian pyramids, each worker got a daily ration of four to five litres of beer, which served as both nutrition and refreshment and was crucial to the pyramids' construction.
Some of the earliest Sumerian writings contain references to beer; examples include a prayer to the goddessNinkasi, known as "The Hymn to Ninkasi",which served as both a prayer and a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people, and the ancient advice ("Fill your belly. Day and night make merry") toGilgamesh, recorded in theEpic of Gilgameshby the alewifeSiduri, may, at least in part, have referred to the consumption of beer.TheEbla tablets, discovered in 1974 inEbla, Syria, show that beer was produced in the city in 2500 BC.A fermented drink using rice and fruit was made in China around 7000 BC. Unlikesake, mould was not used to saccharify the rice (amylolytic fermentation); the rice was probably prepared for fermentation bychewingormalting.During theVedic periodinAncient India, there are records of the consumption of the beer-likesura.Xenophonnoted that during his travels, beer was being produced in Armenia.
Beer was spread through Europe byGermanicandCeltictribes as far back as 3000 BC, and it was mainly brewed on a domestic scale.The product that the early Europeans drank might not be recognised as beer by most people today. Alongside the basic starch source, the early European beers may have contained fruits, honey, numerous types of plants, spices, and other substances such asnarcoticherbs.This mixture was called gruit, where if some were improperly heated could cause hallucinations. The mixture of gruit was different from every brewer. What they did not contain washops, as that was a later addition, first mentioned in Europe around 822 by a Carolingian Abbotand again in 1067 byabbessHildegard of Bingen.
In 1516,William IV, Duke of Bavariaadopted theReinheitsgebot(purity law), perhaps the oldest food-quality regulation still in use in the 21st century, according to which the only allowed ingredients of beer are water,hops, and barley-malt.Beer produced before theIndustrial Revolutionwas made and sold on a domestic scale, although by the 7th century AD, beer was also being produced and sold by Europeanmonasteries. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved fromartisanaltoindustrial manufacture, while domestic production ceased to be significant by the end of the 19th century.
In 1912, brown bottles began to be used by theJoseph Schlitz Brewing CompanyofMilwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States. This innovation has since been accepted worldwide as it prevents light rays from degrading the quality and stability of beer.The brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers, ranging frombrewpubstoregional breweries.As of 2006, more than 133 billion litres (35 billion US gallons) of beer are sold per year, producing global revenues of US$294.5 billion. In 2010, China's beer consumption hit 450 billion litres (120 billion US gallons), or nearly twice that of the United States, but only 5 per cent sold were premium beers, compared with 50 per cent in France and Germany.Beer is the most widely consumed of all alcoholic drinks.A widely publicised study in 2018 suggested that sudden decreases in barley production due to extreme drought and heat could in the future cause substantial volatility in the availability and price of beer.
The process of making beer is brewing. It converts the grain into a sugary liquid calledwortand then ferments this into beer usingyeast. The first step, mixing malted barley with hot water in amash tun, is "mashing".The starches are converted to sugars, and the sweet wort is drained off. The grains are washed to extract as much fermentable liquid from the grains as possible.The sweet wort is put into a kettle, or "copper",and boiled.Hopsare added as a source of bitterness, flavour, and aroma. The longer the hops are boiled, the more bitterness they contribute, but the less hop flavour and aroma remain.The wort is cooled and the yeast is added. The wort is then fermented, often for a week or longer. The yeast settles, leaving the beer clear.During fermentation, most of thecarbon dioxideis allowed to escape through atrap. The carbonation is often increased either by transferring the beer to apressure vesseland introducing pressurised carbon dioxide or by transferring it before the fermentation is finished so that carbon dioxide pressure builds up inside the container.
The basic ingredients of beer are water; a starch source, usuallymaltedbarley; abrewer's yeastto produce the fermentation; and a flavouring such ashops.A mixture of starch sources may be used, with a secondary carbohydrate source, such as maize (corn), rice, wheat, or sugar, often termed anadjunct, especially when used alongside malted barley.Less widely used starch sources includemillet,sorghum, andcassavaroot in Africa; potato in Brazil; andagavein Mexico.
Wateris the main ingredient, accounting for 93% of beer's weight.The level of dissolved bicarbonate influences beer's finished taste.Due to themineralproperties of eachregion's water, specific areas were originally the sole producers of certain types of beer, each identifiable by regional characteristics.Dublin'shard wateris well-suited to makingstout, such asGuinness, while thePlzeň Region's soft water is ideal for brewingPilsner, such asPilsner Urquell.The waters ofBurtonin England containgypsum, which benefits makingpale aleto such a degree that brewers of pale ale add gypsum in a process known asBurtonisation.
The starch source provides the fermentable material and determines the strength and flavour of the beer. The most common starch source used in beer is malted grain. Grain is malted by soaking it in water, allowing it to begingermination, and then drying the partially germinated grain in a kiln. Malting produces enzymes that convert starches into fermentable sugars.Different roasting times and temperatures produce different colours of malt from the same grain. Darker malts produce darker beers.Nearly all beers use barley malt for most of the starch, as its fibrous hull remains attached to the grain during threshing. After malting, barley is milled, which finally removes the hull, breaking it into large pieces. These pieces remain with the grain during themashand act as a filter bed duringlautering, when sweetwortis separated from insoluble grain material. Other grains, including wheat, rice,oats, andrye, and less frequently, corn and sorghum may be used. Some brewers have producedgluten-free beer, made with sorghum, for those who cannot consumegluten-containing grains like wheat, barley, and rye.
Flavouring beer is the sole commercial use ofhops.The flower of thehop vineacts as a flavouring and preservative agent in nearly all beer made today. The flowers themselves are often called "hops". The first historical mention of the use of hops in beer dates from 822 AD in monastery rules written byAdalard of Corbie,though widespread cultivation of hops for use in beer began in the thirteenth century.Before then, beer was flavoured with other plants such asgrains of paradiseor 'alehoof'. Combinations of aromatic herbs, berries, and evenwormwoodwere combined into aflavouring mixture known asgruit.Some beers today, such as Fraoch' by the Scottish Heather Ales company use plants other than hops for flavouring.and Cervoise Lancelot by the French Brasserie-Lancelot company,
Hops contribute a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt; the bitterness of beers is measured on theInternational Bitterness Units scale. Hops further contribute floral, citrus, and herbal aromas and flavours. They have anantibioticeffect that favours the activity of brewer's yeast over less desirable microorganisms, and aids in "headretention",the length of time that a foamy head created by carbonation will last. The acidity of hops is a preservative.
Yeast is themicroorganismresponsible for fermenting beer. Itmetabolisesthe sugars, producingethanolandcarbon dioxide, and thereby turns wort into beer. In addition, yeast influences the character and flavour.The dominant types of beer yeast aretop-fermentingSaccharomyces cerevisiaeandbottom-fermentingSaccharomyces pastorianus.Brettanomycesfermentslambics,andTorulaspora delbrueckiiferments Bavarianweissbier.Before the role of yeast in fermentation was understood, fermentation involved wild or airborne yeasts. A few styles, such aslambics, rely on this method today, but most modern fermentation adds pure yeastcultures.
Some brewers add clarifying agents orfiningsto beer, which typicallyprecipitate(collect as a solid) out along with protein solids, and are found only in trace amounts in the finished product. This process makes the beer appearbrightand clean, rather than the cloudy appearance of ethnic and older styles such aswheat beers.Clarifying agents includeisinglass, from theswimbladdersof fish;Irish moss, a seaweed; kappacarrageenan, from the seaweedKappaphycus cottonii;Polyclar(artificial); andgelatin.Beer marked "suitable for vegans" is clarified either with seaweed or with artificial agents.
In the 21st century, larger breweries have repeatedly absorbed smaller breweries. In 2002,South African Breweriesbought the North AmericanMiller Brewing Companyto foundSABMiller, becoming the second-largest brewery after North AmericanAnheuser-Busch. In 2004, the BelgianInterbrewwas the third-largest brewery by volume, and the BrazilianAmBevwas the fifth-largest. They merged intoInBev, becoming the largest brewery. In 2007, SABMiller surpassed InBev and Anheuser-Busch when it acquiredRoyal Grolsch, the brewer of Dutch brand Grolsch.In 2008, when InBev (the second-largest) bought Anheuser-Busch (the third-largest), the new Anheuser-Busch InBev company became again the largest brewer in the world.As of 2020, according to the market research firm Technavio, AB InBev was the largest brewing company in the world, withHeinekensecond,CR Snowthird,Carlsbergfourth, andMolson Coorsfifth.
Amicrobrewery, orcraft brewery, produces a limited amount of beer. The maximum amount of beer a brewery can produce and still be classed as a 'microbrewery' varies by region and by authority; in the US, it is 15,000 US beer barrels (1.8 megalitres; 390 thousand imperial gallons; 460 thousand US gallons) a year.Abrewpubis a type of microbrewery that incorporates apubor otherdrinking establishment. The highest density of breweries in the world, most of them microbreweries, exists inFranconia, Germany, especially in the district ofUpper Franconia, which has about 200 breweries.TheBenedictineWeihenstephanbrewery inBavaria, Germany, can trace its roots to the year 768, as a document from that year refers to a hop garden in the area paying a tithe to the monastery. It claims to be the oldest working brewery in the world.
Top-fermented beers are most commonly produced withSaccharomyces cerevisiae, atop-fermenting yeastwhichclumpsand rises to the surface,typically between 15 and 25 °C (59 and 77 °F). At these temperatures, yeast produces significant amounts ofestersand other secondary flavour and aroma products, and the result is often a beer with slightly "fruity" compounds resembling apple, pear, pineapple,banana, plum, or prune, among others.After the introduction of hops into England from Flanders in the 15th century, "ale" came to mean an unhopped fermented brew, while "beer" meant a brew with an infusion of hops.The term 'real ale' was coined by theCampaign for Real Ale(CAMRA) in 1973 for "beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured bysecondary fermentationin the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use ofextraneous carbon dioxide". It is applied to bothbottle conditionedandcask conditionedbeers.
As for the types of top-fermented beers,pale alepredominantly uses pale malt. It is one of the world's major beer styles and includesIndia pale ale(IPA).Mild alehas a predominantly malty palate. It is usually dark, with anabvof 3% to 3.6%.Wheat beeris brewed with a large proportion of wheat although it often also contains a significant proportion ofmalted barley. Wheat beers are usuallytop-fermented.Stoutis a dark beer made using roasted barley, and typically brewed with slow fermenting yeast. There are a number of variations including dry stout (such asGuinness), sweet stout, and Imperial (or Russian) stout.Stout was originally the strongest variety ofporter, a dark brown beer popular with the street and riverportersof eighteenth century London.
Lageris cool-fermented beer.Pale lagersare the most commonly drunk beers in the world. Many are of the "pilsner" type. The name "lager" comes from the German "lagern" for "to store", as brewers in Bavaria stored beer in cool cellars during the warm summer months, allowing the beers to continue to ferment, and to clear any sediment.Lager yeast is a cool bottom-fermenting yeast (Saccharomyces pastorianus). Lager typically undergoes primary fermentation at 7–12 °C (45–54 °F), and then a long secondary fermentation at 0–4 °C (32–39 °F) (the lagering phase). During the secondary stage, the lager clears and mellows. The cooler conditions inhibit the natural production ofestersand other byproducts, resulting in a "cleaner"-tasting beer.With improved modern yeast strains, most lager breweries use only short periods of cold storage, typically no more than 2 weeks. Some traditional lagers are still stored for several months.
Lambic, a beer ofBelgium, is naturally fermented using wild yeasts, rather than cultivated. Many of these are not strains of brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and may have significant differences in aroma and sourness. Yeast varieties such asBrettanomyces bruxellensisandBrettanomyces lambicusare common in lambics. In addition, other organisms such asLactobacillusbacteria produce acids which contribute to the sourness.
Around the world, many traditional and ancient starch-based drinks are classed as beer. In Africa, there are ethnic beers made fromsorghumormillet, such asOshikunduin Namibia andTellain Ethiopia.Kyrgyzstanalso has a beer made from millet; it is a low alcohol, somewhat porridge-like drink called "Bozo".Bhutan, Nepal,TibetandSikkimalso use millet inChhaang, a popular semi-fermented rice/millet drink in the easternHimalayas.
TheAndesin South America hasChicha, made from germinated maize (corn); while theindigenous peoples in BrazilhaveCauim, a traditional drink made since pre-Columbian times by chewingmaniocso that an enzyme (amylase) present in human saliva can break down the starch into fermentable sugars;this is similar toMasatoinPeru.
Beers made from bread, among the earliest forms of the drink, areSahtiin Finland,Kvassin Russia andUkraine, andBouzain Sudan. 4000 years ago fermented bread was used in Mesopotamia.Food wasteactivists got inspired by these ancient recipes and use leftover bread to replace a third of the malted barley that would otherwise be used for brewing their craft ale.
Beer is measured and assessed by colour, by strength and by bitterness. The strength of modern beer is usually around 4% to 6%, measured asalcohol by volume(ABV).The perceivedbitternessis measured by the International Bitterness Units scale (IBU), defined in co-operation between theAmerican Society of Brewing Chemistsand theEuropean Brewery Convention.The international scale was a development of the European Bitterness Units scale, often abbreviated as EBU, and the bitterness values should be identical.
Beer colour is determined by the malt.The most common colour is a pale amber produced from using pale malts.Pale lagerandpale aleare terms used for beers made from malt dried and roasted with the fuelcoke. Coke was first used for roasting malt in 1642, but it was not until around 1703 that the termpale alewas used.
In terms of sales volume, most of today's beer is based on the pale lager brewed in 1842 in the city ofPlzeňin the present-dayCzech Republic.The modern pale lager is light in colour due to use of coke for kilning, which gives off heat with little smoke.
Dark beers are usually brewed from a pale malt or lager malt base with a small proportion of darker malt added to achieve the desired shade. Other colourants—such as caramel—are also widely used to darken beers. Very dark beers, such asstout, use dark or patent malts that have been roasted longer. Some have roasted unmalted barley.
Beer ranges from less than 3%alcohol by volume(abv) to around 14% abv, though this strength can be increased to around 20% by re-pitching with champagne yeast,and to 55% ABVby the freeze-distilling process.The alcohol content of beer varies by local practice or beer style.Thepale lagersthat most consumers are familiar with fall in the range of 4–6%, with a typical ABVof 5%.The customary strength of British ales is quite low, with manysession beersbeing around 4% abv.In Belgium, some beers, such astable beerare of such low alcohol content (1%–4%) that they are served instead ofsoft drinksin some schools.The weakest beers are described as'alcohol-free', typically containing 0.05% ABV; this compares to low alcohol beers which may contain 1.2% ABV or less, and conventional beers which average 4.4% ABV.
The strength of beers has climbed during the later years of the 20th century. Vetter 33, a 10.5% ABV (33degrees Plato, hence Vetter "33")doppelbock, was listed in the 1994Guinness Book of World Recordsas the strongest beer at that time,thoughSamichlaus, by the Swiss brewer Hürlimann, had also been listed by theGuinness Book of World Recordsas the strongest at 14% |BV.Since then, some brewers have used champagne yeasts to increase the alcohol content of their beers.Samuel Adamsreached 20% ABVwithMillennium,and then surpassed that amount to 25.6% ABV withUtopias. The strongest beer brewed in Britain was Baz's Super Brew by Parish Brewery, a 23% ABVbeer.In September 2011, the Scottish breweryBrewDogproduced Ghost Deer, which, at 28%, they claim to be the world's strongest beer produced by fermentation alone.
The product claimed to be the strongest beer made is Schorschbräu's 2011Schorschbock 57with 57,5% ABV.It was preceded byThe End of History, a 55%Belgian ale,made by BrewDog in 2010. The same company had previously madeSink The Bismarck!, a 41% ABVIPA,andTactical Nuclear Penguin, a 32% ABVImperial stout. Each of these beers are made using theeisbockmethod offractional freezing, in which a strong ale is partially frozen and the ice is repeatedly removed, until the desired strength is reached,a process that may class the product asspiritsrather than beer.The German brewery Schorschbräu'sSchorschbock, a 31% ABV eisbock,andHair of the Dog'sDave, a 29% abvbarley winemade in 1994, used the same fractional freezing method.A 60% ABVblend of beer with whiskeywas jokingly claimed as the strongest beer by a Dutch brewery in July 2010.
Draught (also spelled "draft") beer from a pressurisedkegusing a lever-style dispenser and a spout is the most common method of dispensing in bars around the world. A metal keg is pressurised withcarbon dioxide(CO2) gas which drives the beer to the dispensingtapor faucet. Some beers may be served with a nitrogen/carbon dioxide mixture.Nitrogenproduces fine bubbles, resulting in a denseheadand a creamymouthfeel.In the 1980s, Guinness introduced thebeer widget, a nitrogen-pressurised ball inside a can which creates a moderately dense, tight head. This approximates the effect of serving from a keg, at least for a British-style beer which does not have a specially large head.
Cask-conditioned ales (or cask ales) are unfiltered and unpasteurised beers. These beers are termed "real ale" by theCAMRAorganisation. When a cask arrives in a pub, it is placed horizontally on a "stillage" frame, designed to hold it steady and at the right angle, and then allowed to cool to cellar temperature (typically between 11–13 °C or 52–55 °F),before being tapped and vented—a tap is driven through a rubber bung at the bottom of one end, and a hardspileis used to open a hole in the uppermost side of the cask. The act of stillaging and then venting a beer in this manner typically disturbs all the sediment, so it must be left for a suitable period of hours to days to "drop" (clear) again, as well as to fullycondition the beer. At this point the beer is ready to sell, either being pulled through a beer line with a hand pump, or simply being "gravity-fed" directly into the glass.
Draught beer's environmental impact can be 68% lower than bottled beer due to packaging differences.A life cycle study of one beer brand, including grain production, brewing, bottling, distribution and waste management, shows that the CO2emissions from a 6-pack of micro-brew beer is about 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds).The loss of natural habitat potential from the 6-pack of micro-brew beer is estimated to be 2.5 square metres (26 square feet).Downstream emissions from distribution, retail, storage and disposal of waste can be over 45% of a bottled micro-brew beer's CO2emissions.Where legal, the use of a refillable jug, reusable bottle or other reusable containers to transport draught beer from a store or a bar, rather than buying pre-bottled beer, can reduce the environmental impact of beer consumption.
Most beers are cleared of yeast byfilteringwhen packaged in bottles and cans.However,bottle conditionedbeers retain some yeast—either by being unfiltered, or by being filtered and then reseeded with fresh yeast.
Many beers are sold in cans, though there is considerable variation in the proportion between different countries. In Sweden in 2001, 63.9% of beer was sold in cans.People either drink from the can or pour the beer into a glass. A technology developed byCrown Holdingsfor the 2010FIFA World Cupis the 'full aperture' can, so named because the entire lid is removed during the opening process, turning the can into a drinking cup.Cans protect the beer from light (thereby preventing spoilage) and have a seal less prone to leaking over time than bottles. Cans were initially viewed as a technological breakthrough for maintaining the quality of a beer, then became commonly associated with less expensive, mass-produced beers, even though the quality of storage in cans is much like bottles.Plastic (PET) bottles are used by some breweries.
The temperature of a beer has an influence on a drinker's experience; warmer temperatures reveal the range of flavours in a beer but cooler temperatures are more refreshing. Most drinkers preferpale lagerto be served chilled, a low- or medium-strengthpale aleto be served cool, while a strongbarley wineorimperial stoutto be served at room temperature.
Beer writerMichael Jacksonproposed a five-level scale for serving temperatures: well chilled (7 °C or 45 °F) for "light" beers (pale lagers); chilled (8 °C or 46 °F) forBerliner Weisseand other wheat beers; lightly chilled (9 °C or 48 °F) for all dark lagers,altbierand German wheat beers; cellar temperature (13 °C or 55 °F) for regular Britishale,stoutand mostBelgian specialities; and room temperature (15.5 °C or 60 °F) for strong dark ales (especiallytrappist beer) andbarley wine.
Drinking chilled beer began with the development of artificialrefrigerationand by the 1870s, was spread in those countries that concentrated on brewing pale lager.Chilling beer makes it more refreshing,though below 15.5 °C (60 °F) the chilling starts to reduce taste awarenessand reduces it significantly below 10 °C (50 °F).Beer served unchilled—either cool or at room temperature—reveal more of their flavours.Cask Marque, a non-profit UK beer organisation, has set a temperature standard range of 12°–14 °C (53°–57 °F) for cask ales to be served.
Beer is consumed out of a variety of vessels, such as a glass, abeer stein, a mug, apewtertankard, a beer bottle or a can; or atmusic festivalsand some bars and nightclubs, from a plastic cup. The shape of the glass from which beer is consumed can influence the perception of the beer and can define and accent the character of the style.Breweries offer branded glassware intended only for their own beers as a marketing promotion, as this increases sales of their product.
The pouring process has an influence on a beer's presentation. The rate of flow from thetapor other serving vessel, tilt of the glass, and position of the pour (in the centre or down the side) into the glass all influence the result, such as the size and longevity of the head, lacing (the pattern left by the head as it moves down the glass as the beer is drunk), and the release ofcarbonation.
Abeer toweror portable beer tap is sometimes used in bars and restaurants to allow a group of customers to serve themselves. The device consists of a tall container with a cooling mechanism and a beer tap at its base.
Beer contains the phenolic acids4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid,vanillic acid,caffeic acid,syringic acid,p-coumaric acid,ferulic acid, andsinapic acid.Alkaline hydrolysisexperiments show that most of the phenolic acids are present as bound forms and only a small portion can be detected as free compounds.Hops, and beer made with it, contain8-prenylnaringeninwhich is a potentphytoestrogen.Hop also containsmyrcene,humulene,xanthohumol,isoxanthohumol,myrcenol,linalool, tannins, andresin. The alcohol2M2Bis a component of hops brewing.
Barley, in the form of malt, brings the condensedtanninsprodelphinidins B3,B9andC2into beer.Tryptophol,tyrosol, andphenylethanolare aromatic higher alcohols (congeners) produced by yeast during the brewing process.as secondary products ofalcoholic fermentation
Beers vary in their nutritional content.The ingredients used to make beer, including theyeast, provide a rich source of nutrients; therefore beer may contain nutrients includingmagnesium,selenium,potassium,phosphorus,biotin,chromiumandB vitamins. Beer is sometimes referred to as "liquidbread",though beer is not a meal in itself.
A 2016 systematic review and meta-analysis found that moderate ethanol consumption brought no mortality benefit compared with lifetime abstention from ethanol consumption.Some studies have concluded that drinking small quantities of alcohol (less than one drink in women and two in men, per day) is associated with adecreasedrisk ofheart disease,stroke,diabetes mellitus, and early death.Some of these studies combined former ethanol drinkers and lifelong abstainers into a single group of nondrinkers, which hides the health benefits of lifelong abstention from ethanol. Thelong-term health effectsof continuous, moderate or heavy alcohol consumption include the risk of developingalcoholismandalcoholic liver disease.Alcoholism, also known as "alcohol use disorder", is a broad term for any drinking ofalcoholthat results in problems.It was previously divided into two types:alcohol abuseandalcohol dependence.In a medical context, alcoholism is said to exist when two or more of the following conditions are present: a person drinks large amounts over a long time period, has difficulty cutting down, acquiring and drinking alcohol takes up a great deal of time, alcohol is strongly desired, usage results in not fulfilling responsibilities, usage results in social problems, usage results in health problems, usage results in risky situations,withdrawaloccurs when stopping, andalcohol tolerancehas occurred with use.Alcoholism reduces a person's life expectancy by around ten yearsand alcohol use is the third leading cause of early death in the United States.No professional medical association recommends that people who are nondrinkers should start drinking alcoholic beverages.In the United States, a total of 3.3 million deaths per year (5.9% of all deaths) are believed to be due to alcohol.
Overeating and lack of muscle tone is the main cause of abeer belly, rather than beer consumption, though a 2004 study found a link betweenbinge drinkingand a beer belly.Several diet books quote beer as having an undesirably highglycemic indexof 110, the same asmaltose; however, the maltose in beer undergoesmetabolismby yeast during fermentation so that beer consists mostly of water, hop oils and only trace amounts of sugars, including maltose.
The multi-step process of beer production is effective at removingpesticideresidues from grain. At each step (e.g. mashing or malting) pesticide levels are typically reduced by 50-90%, varying with the particular process and pesticide's chemical properties.
A 2013 study found that theflavourof beer alone could provokedopamineactivity in the brain of the male participants, who wanted to drink more as a result. The 49 men in the study were subject topositron emission tomographyscans, while a computer-controlled device sprayed minute amounts of beer, water and asports drinkonto their tongues. Compared with the taste of the sports drink, the taste of beer significantly increased the participants desire to drink. Test results indicated that the flavour of the beer triggered adopaminerelease, even though alcohol content in the spray was insufficient for the purpose of becoming intoxicated.
Some of the earliest writings mention the production and distribution of beer: thec.1750 BC BabylonianCode of Hammurabiincluded laws regulating it,while "The Hymn toNinkasi", ac.1800 BC prayer to the Mesopotamian goddess of beer, a recipe for it.
In many societies, beer is the most popular alcoholic drink. Various social traditions and activities are associated with beer drinking, such as playing cards, darts, or other pub games; attendingbeer festivals; engaging in zythology (the study of beer);visiting aseries of pubsin one evening; visiting breweries; beer-oriented tourism; orrating beer.Drinking games, such asbeer pong, accompany the drinking of beer.Even having a "shower beer" has developed a following.A relatively new profession is that of thebeer sommelier, who informs restaurant patrons about beers and food pairings. Some breweries have developed beers topair with food.Wine writerMalcolm Gluckdisputed the need to pair beer with food, while beer writersRoger Protzand Melissa Cole contested that claim.
Beer is considered to be asocial lubricant,and isconsumed in countriesall over the world. There are breweries in Middle Eastern countries such asSyria, and in someAfrican countries. Sales of beer are four times those of wine, which is the second most popular alcoholic drink.