Self-Sufficiency: Home Brewing. John Parkes
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has also affected the type of beer brewed in a country, as high alcohol content beers often have attracted higher levels of duty, which is ultimately reflected in the price of the beer. This was particularly true in Ireland where the Guinness stout consumed there was of a lower alcohol content than the stout which was exported in order for it to be cheaper for local people to buy.
English beer styles
Being a country with a temperate climate, the United Kingdom has a wide variety of beers to suit the varying seasons. Many microbrewers and some of the larger brewers create seasonal beers at different times of the year.
Beer styles around the world vary immensely and are generally driven by the local climate and indigenous varieties of hops and grain. The style of brewing is also dependent on the ambient temperatures and the historical development in the regional brewing industries.
CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, has been a driving force in reviving traditional beer in pubs in the UK, which has aided the revival of small independent breweries. Beers can be classified in the following categories:
Mild beer
Historically, mild has been a dark beer with a low alcohol content and low hopping levels. It was originally named because of its age, being a younger beer than the ‘old ales’ generally served.
There has been a rapid decline in mild sales in recent years, and many smaller breweries have attempted to revive an interest by varying the style of the beer, creating higher ABV (alcohol by volume) beers and also lighter coloured ones. Whether purists would accept that these beers fall into the mild category is perhaps a matter for debate.
Golden ales
Golden ales are pale and well hopped with strengths ranging from 3.5 to 5.3 per cent. They are usually dry on the palate with citrus hops overtones. They are best served cool.
Pale ale and IPA
First brewed in London and Burton-on-Trent for the colonial market, India Pale Ales were strong in alcohol and high in hops: the preservative character of the hops helped keep the beers in good condition during the long sea journeys.
Beers with less alcohol and hops were developed for the domestic market and were known as pale ale. Today, pale ale is often a bottled version of bitter, although many smaller breweries are reviving the traditional pale ale and IPA styles.
Light bitters
These are bitters that have an ABV of 3.4 per cent or lower and, like mild, have fallen into decline in recent years. They are often, but not always, also light in colour.
Bitter
Bitter is generally deep bronze to copper in colour due to the use of slightly darker malts, such as crystal, that give the beer fullness of palate. It has a higher hopping rate than mild and light bitters, and generally more body. It has an ABV of 3.4 to 3.9 per cent. Best bitter has the same characteristics of bitter in terms of colour and hopping rate but has an ABV in excess of 4 per cent. To achieve a higher ABV, the brewer must start off with a beer that contains more fermentable sugars than a weaker beer. The specific gravity of the beer before the yeast is added is called the ‘original gravity’, often termed OG. Generally speaking, the higher the OG, the stronger and often more full-bodied the finished beer. This is due to the increased presence of non-fermentable constituents in the wort, giving the beer a fuller mouth feel.
A further development of bitter comes in the shape of Extra or Special Strong Bitters, which have an ABV of 5 per cent or higher. These beers are often strongly flavoured and have a sweet finish, which can be something of an acquired taste.
Old ale
Old ale recalls the type of beer brewed before the Industrial Revolution, which was stored for months or even years in unlined wooden vessels known as tuns. The beer would pick up some lactic sourness as a result of wild yeasts, lactobacilli and tannins in the wood, adding a distinct flavour to the beer. Old ales do not have to be especially strong: they can be no more than 4 per cent alcohol although many current versions are considerably stronger than this. The hallmark of this style is that the ale undergoes a lengthy period of maturation, often in bottles rather than bulk vessels. Old ales typically range from 4 to 6.5 per cent ABV.
Barley wine
Despite the name, this is not a type of wine but rather a robust, often richly coloured ale. Barley wine is usually very strong, often with an ABV of between 10 and 12 per cent, and is stored for periods as long at 18 months or two years to mature and allow the complex flavours to mellow. It is traditionally served in ‘nips’ (approximately 200 ml / ⅓ pint measures).
Porters and stouts
Porters are complex in flavour, range from 4 to 6.5 per cent ABV and are typically black or dark brown; the darkness comes from the use of dark malts. Stouts use roasted malted barley to create the dark colour and add a distinguishing finish to the beer. Stouts can be dry or sweet and range from 4 to 8 per cent ABV.
Lager
Sadly, many of the beers that claim to be lagers do not do justice to the quality beers produced in the true lager-brewing areas of the world, notably Eastern Europe. To brew ‘true’ lager at home is almost impossible. Although you can buy very good quality lager yeasts and malts, the traditional ‘lagering’ process is beyond the reach of most home brewers. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have a try, of course. Your lager will probably taste better than the majority of the cold fizzy beers that are purveyed as lager!
Lager production process
The key difference between ale and lager is in fermentation; lager is fermented at a much lower temperature than ale and uses a different type of yeast.
The primary fermentation period for lager takes at least twice as long as for ale; this time is furthermore compounded by weeks or months of lagering. The term ‘lagering’ means the storage of beer for long periods of time in cool conditions; originally this would have been in caves, which was a common practice throughout the medieval period. Now, lager is stored in temperature-controlled fermentation and conditioning tanks.
As the low-temperature fermentation (which can take place at temperatures as cool as 0–5°C/32–41°F) allows diacetyl, a natural by-product of fermentation, to remain free in the fermenting beer, the fermentation temperature may briefly be raised near the end of the primary fermentation to allow the consumption of this chemical. This is called the diacetyl rest.
Before the introduction of refrigeration, this reliance on lower temperatures separated Europe into ‘lager’ and ‘ale’ spheres, with warmer countries generally producing ales and colder ones producing lagers. Difficulties in temperature control also create a disincentive for microbrewers to produce lagers because of the huge capital costs of the equipment required.
One exception to the rule of low-temperature lager brewing is found in a beer style known as steam beer, or California Common. The strain of yeast used in steam beer had originated in Germany and was brought over to breweries in the central and eastern states of America. In the 1840s and 50s the same strain was used in breweries in California on the west coast. The higher ambient temperatures in that region caused brewers to favour shallower fermenters in order to better