Macrovision

The beer is a Alcoholic drink obtained by Fermentation manufactured starting from Eau, of Malt (Orge germinated and torrefied and/or other cereals) and of Houblon.

Going back to the Antiquity (Celtic S, Egyptian), it remains a very popular drink through the world and in all civilizations .

Versions slightly alcoholic (less than 2 °) are present on the market. Contrary to other drinks “without alcohol”, they are manufactured by the same processes as traditional beer. The industrial production of the beer is held in a Brasserie.

History

With the Neolithic (), the man discovered the culture of cereals and fermentation by chance. Often made up of barley, this beer Préhistorique used the current food crossed time until the culture of the barley is attested in Mésopotamie as of and the mixing of beer towards. Consumed in family and used as means of payment with Babylon, then drink of the gods in Egypt, the beer became in the ancient Greece and the Roman Empire that of poor, and the Vin that of the gods. It remained however the drink of choice of the people of the Northern , Celte S and Germains. The preference for the wine was confirmed in the Christian Europe at the beginning of the Moyen-âge, in particular thanks to the council of Aachen of 816 which encouraged the episcopal and monastic vine growings with an aim of celebrating the Eucharistie. It was necessary to wait the 8th century to see the mixing of beer taking again importance there, in particular in Bavaria. Thereafter, around the 12th century, certain monasteries (for example in Belgium and Bavaria) specialized in the mixing of beer, drunk by the population in the place of a Eau often nondrinkable.

Today, the beer enjoys a world success as a refreshing drink and tasting. This success goes back to the 19th century when the control of the low fermentation thanks to the Réfrigération and the Pasteurization allowed the production of new varieties of beer like their export. For example the Pils , beer Lager born with Plzeň in Bohemia (Czech Republic) in 1842, conquered the Planet at the point to represent 90  % of consumption mondiale.

Manufacture

The manufacture of beer evolved/moved through the ages. What one regarded as beer 8000 years ago is without any doubt very distant from what we know today. The “migrations” of this beverage through the World and time obliged the brewers to adapt the manufacturing process de according to the technical evolutions and the raw materials available. What was formerly only one kind of “pulp” alcoholized nearer to solid foods than of drinks, became, in particular thanks to progress of microbiology and the industrial techniques at the 19th century, the limpid drink which one knows today. The current manufacturing methods are however very close to those of these last centuries what indicates a standardization in the manufacturing process.

Ingredients

To produce beer, one needs certain raw materials which will be transformed throughout the manufacturing process. It is necessary to lay out:
  • of water of very good quality: water constitutes 80 to 90% of beer. Its qualities are thus very important, they are at the origin of the clearness and the taste of beer. It allows malt and hop to release their sugars and their flavors;
  • of Malt (primarily of Barley but also of wheat for the Weizenbier);
  • of Hop. The hop contains Acide S which stabilize beer and get its Amertume to him, as well as essential Huiles which enrich its flavors.

In addition, one can also use:

  • of the believed grains (not malted but cooked, in particular of wheat for the white Beer and the Lambic);
  • of the spices such as the Coriandre, the orange bark, the Hemp, the Honey…

In glass, one finds thus on average:

  • 35 water Cl;
  • 50 G of barley;
  • 0,5 G of hop;
  • and a pinch of yeast.

Process

To transform these raw materials, one will use various techniques of heating, steeping and will use Levure S in order to allow the fermentation of must (production of alcohol).

The stages of manufacture are the following ones:

  1. malting ;
  2. saccharification ;
  3. boiling (also called “hopping”);
  4. fermentation ;
  5. the guard ;
  6. conditioning (being able to be preceded by a filtration and follow-up of a Pasteurization).

Fermentation

One distinguishes four types of fermentations:
  • the beers of low fermentation are usually called Lager S . They are often called Pils although that is an abuse language, the pils being does itself of it a lager ;
  • the beers of high fermentation are called Ale S . These last have more complex flavors and can reach a degree of higher alcohol. The ales and the lagers are generally fermented thanks to Levure S of cultures;
  • the beers of spontaneous fermentation are on the other hand fermented thanks to wild yeasts present naturally in the surrounding air. The Lambic is the only still produced beer in this manner in the developed countries. It is used then basic for manufacture of the faro , the Gueuze and fruity beers the such Kriek ;
  • the beers of mixed fermentation combine high fermentation and spontaneous fermentation.

Certain beers, in particular in Belgium, undergo a new fermentation after the setting out of bottle. A yeast different from the first can be added to this occasion.

Characteristics

Color

The color results from the types of malt of speciality used. Hardly malt " 10%; black patent" , mixed with a basic malt, is sufficient to produce a black beer like ebony:
  • fair brewed with very pale fair malts, giving the bitterness and of the fruity and floral flavors with an abundant foam. The majority of the Lager S are lagers;
  • ambrées and russet-red brewed with slightly torrefied malt, giving a color oscillating between coppered gold and the russet-red one frankly, getting caramelized savors, notes of liquorice and hazel nut;
  • the brown generally utilize a torrefied malt, of dark color varying from the brown mahogany tree to the black ebony. With the taste, a balance between the bitterness of caramelized sugars and that of hop;
  • the black ones (mainly the Stout S) containing very torrefied malts (black malt of 1000 EBC, to see more);
  • the white are originating in Germany . They owe their fair pale with the use of wheat.

The beers are naturally turbid, however, the current trend tends to generalize the filtration of beer in post fermentation, which explains the limpidity of our current beverages. It is in particular the case of the Pils or the Kölsch . Contrary to this logic of market, certain brewers continue to produce beers not, or little, filtered. The beers Trappists, which are fermented once again during their period of guard, belong to these turbid beers. A guard prolonged without filtration makes it possible to obtain a perfectly limpid beer without however causing the loss of savors often obtained during filtration.

Degrees

In France, one generally notes beer by his Degré of alcohol, but also by other degrees indicating the proportion of cereals in must:
  • the Degré of alcohol corresponds to the percentage of ethanol in volume contained in drink;
  • the degree Balling corresponds to the percentage of dry extract of must before fermentation (used in Germany and in certain countries of Central Europe to determine the tax on beer);
  • the degree Régie French corresponds to the density of must before fermentation: a density of 1,10 is equivalent to 10° Régie.

One should not confuse these degrees between them. For example Eku 28 titrates 28° Balling and approximately alcohol 12°. One can retain that the alcoholic strength is generally a little more of the third of the Balling degree.

Taste

One can gather beers by structure of Goût:
  • the soft ones;
  • the bitter ones;
  • acids;
  • the liqueur-like ones;
  • the absurd ones (surprising and unclassable).

Classification

For practical reasons, the consumers quickly classified beers in order to find themselves there among the big number of beer on the market. There exist two principal types of classification: the “classification by color”, and the “classification by fermentation”. The “classification by color” corresponds only to the color of beer, independently of its manufacturing method, of its composition, or its source. A contrario , the “classification by fermentation” corresponds to the type of fermentation of beer, like, in certain cases, of the color.

Certain categories are without relationship with the intrinsic characteristics of beer:

  • name beer Trappist is strictly reserved for beers brewed under the supervision of monasteries having adopted the rule of the Ordre cistercian of the strict observance. It is to be noticed that the beers Trappists can be brewed by the laic ones, in as far as they it are done under supervision Trappist;
  • the Bière of abbey bears the name of an abbey but is nowadays generally manufactured apart from this one. Certain abbeys lending their name to these beers do not exist any more, or even never existed;
  • the Bière of season, which is distinguished from the style season, is produced at the time of a particular event of year (beer of Christmas, beer of St Sylvestre, beer of Mars, etc).
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Certain specialists as various associations tried to establish the most complete possible classification various existing types of beers (see detailed article). The classification created jointly by Beer Judge Program Certification (BJCP) and the Institute of beer describes for example 23 types and 78 sub-types of beers.

Containers

Glasses

There exist seven great types of glasses. Flutes to serve the pils , glasses chalices to be used beers as abbey and Trappists, the cups of different size for the witbier, the lambic (straight and gueuze) and for British ales, the tankards (or glass of bier) for English ales and the service of great quantities of beers at the time of festivals, the tulips for unquestionable white, the balloons for liqueur-like beers and glasses whimsical (glass of notching, glass in the shape of boot etc).

The capacity of the beer glasses oscillates between 12,5  Cl and 2  L. Standard capacity varies from one area to another, just like names which one gives to various capacities.

The beer is sometimes been used for the meter: a display unit of 1 meter length is bored in order to be able to present to it a dozen glasses of 25  Cl (0,25  L). In the pubs and the bars, one can also find a mode of original service: the “giraffe” (cf photograph above). The “giraffe” is a transparent cylinder, of a capacity of 2,5  L with 5  L, assembled on a display unit and provided with a tap to ensure the service. Although the word is an expression entered the language running it is in fact a registered trademark by company PMP Innovation.

There exist also glasses misleading in the shape of boot, spiral, etc, which one can find in Germany for example and which is used at the time of the beer festivals. The contents of glass are reversed on the drinker if that Ci does not take guard there.

Bottles

Since the origin of beer, the main issue was to transport the invaluable liquid one. At the beginning, the Egyptians and the Romans used Amphore S out of terra cotta, which allowed the trade of “beer”. But transport was delicate because of relative brittleness of the Terra cotta. It will be necessary to await the beginning of our era to see appearing the invention of the barrel in Bois by the Gaulois.

Thereafter, the means of storage hardly evolved/moved until the 19th century when the first metal drums were used. The metal drums are always used by outputting drinks (of 20  L with 60  L) and by certain breweries for the periods of guard (until 400  L).

The true passion for beer arrived thanks to the invention of the Bouteille of 33  Cl in 1949 followed closely by the bottle of 25  Cl and of the metal quill in 1953. But there exist many other variations of these individual containers which are sometimes endemic with certain areas of the Globe.

Apart from the individual bottles and quills, one finds larger containers out of glass:

  • the Magnum - 1.5  L;
  • the Jeroboam - 3  L;
  • Réhoboam - 4.5  L;
  • Mathusalem - 6  L;
  • Salmanazar - 9  L;
  • Balthazar - 12  L;
  • Nabuchodonosor - 15  L;
  • Solomon - 18  L;
  • the Primacy - 27  L;
  • Melchizedec - 36  L.

It is when one takes account of the color of the bottles used by certain breweries which one notes at which point the look and the Marketing of a beer pass well before the quality of the product. The brewers know for a long time that the ultra-violets cause the Photolyse hop isomers contained in beer giving to the latter an odor of Mouffette. Only a container of glass brown or - better still - opaque, adequately protects beer against this phenomenon. However, Marketing obliges, the breweries continue to use bottles green or - worse still - colorless.

Economy

Production

The Europe of the 25 is the first world beer producer with an annual production of 340 million Hectolitre S (either 25% of the worldwide production).

France is the fifth European beer producer with a production of 16,8 million hectolitres (2004) of which it exports 10  %. The brewery sector generates nearly 2 billion euros sales turnover and maintains more 4  500 employment. The essence of the production is ensured in Alsace, Lorraine and in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais.

In spite of a market of small size and a strong viticultural tradition, more than 300 different beers are produced on the French soil. With the 5,4 million hectolitres of importation (2004), average consumption per annum and per capita reaches the 33,7  L what locates French among the weakest beer consumers of Europe.

Belgium is often recognized as being the country of beer. It produced there more than 700 beers different including 6 from the 7 beers Trappists: Orval, Chimay, Westvleteren, Rochefort, Westmalle and Achel. The yearly consumption per capita is of 96,2  L (2003).

Consumption

The worldwide production, although lowers these last years by them, currently borders the 1400 million hectolitres. This production is with the hands of an increasingly reduced number of international firms. The sector is dominated today by the company InBev which reached the title of first world beer producer in 2004 at the time of the bringing together between the Interbrew Belgian and Brazilian Ambev.

The large ones of the brewery sector

In 2000:
  1. Anheuser-Busch - 121 million hectolitres (US);
  2. Heineken - 74 million hectolitres (NL);
  3. Ambev - 63 million hectolitres (Br);
  4. Miller Brewing - 53 million hectolitres (US);
  5. SAB ( South Africa Breweries ) - 43 million hectolitres (ZA);
  6. Interbrew - 37 million hectolitres (BE).

In 2004:

  1. InBev - 233,5 million hectolitres (BE-BR);
  2. Anheuser-Busch - 152 million hectolitres (US);
  3. SABMiller - 135 million hectolitres (US-ZA);
  4. Heineken - 107 million hectolitres (NL);
  5. Carlsberg - 78 million hectolitres (DK);
  6. Scotish&Newcastle - 52 million hectolitres (the U.K.).

In 2005:

  1. InBev - 235,6 million hectolitres (BE-BR)

See too

Related articles

  • List of the types of beers
  • List of the beer marks
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