The Encyclopedia of Beer is a seriously readable celebration of beers and brewing around the world--the ultimate reference source for beer lovers everywhere. With more than 900 entries of everything from "Abbey Beer" to "Zymurgy," and hundreds of illustrations, this book answers all your questions on:
- influential brewers and their products
- beer styles--both the popular and the obscure
- brewing terminology and equipment
- ingredients and flavorings
- festivals and traditions
- the history of beer, from ancient Sumer to today's craft-brewing boom
- and much more
Definitive, wide-ranging, and a great browse, The Encyclopedia of Beer by Christine P. Rhodes is destined to become the cornerstone of every beer connoisseur's library.
The Encyclopedia of Beer is a seriously readable celebration of beers and brewing around the world--the ultimate reference source for beer lovers everywhere. With more than 900 entries of everything from "Abbey Beer" to "Zymurgy," and hundreds of illustrations, this book answers all your questions on:
- influential brewers and their products
- beer styles--both the popular and the obscure
- brewing terminology and equipment
- ingredients and flavorings
- festivals and traditions
- the history of beer, from ancient Sumer to today's craft-brewing boom
- and much more
Definitive, wide-ranging, and a great browse, The Encyclopedia of Beer by Christine P. Rhodes is destined to become the cornerstone of every beer connoisseur's library.
Encyclopedia of Beer
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Encyclopedia of Beer
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Overview
The Encyclopedia of Beer is a seriously readable celebration of beers and brewing around the world--the ultimate reference source for beer lovers everywhere. With more than 900 entries of everything from "Abbey Beer" to "Zymurgy," and hundreds of illustrations, this book answers all your questions on:
- influential brewers and their products
- beer styles--both the popular and the obscure
- brewing terminology and equipment
- ingredients and flavorings
- festivals and traditions
- the history of beer, from ancient Sumer to today's craft-brewing boom
- and much more
Definitive, wide-ranging, and a great browse, The Encyclopedia of Beer by Christine P. Rhodes is destined to become the cornerstone of every beer connoisseur's library.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781466881952 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Holt, Henry & Company, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 08/06/2024 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 1008 |
| File size: | 30 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
General Editor Christine P. Rhodes is a writer and editor whose specialty is beer and brewing.
Thomas Bedell is an award-winning homebrewer and a certified beer judge who has written for many beer publications.
Beer historian Alan Eames is a founding director of the American Museum of Brewing History & Fine Arts in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.
Bred Eckhardt is the author of several books on brewing, including The Essentials of Beer Style and Sake (USA).
Robert Haiber is the founder of the North American Guild of Beer Writers and co-author of the book A Short but Foamy History of Beer.
Karl F. Lutzen is the co-author of Homebrew Favorites and other collections of beer recipes.
Brewmaster Alan John Pugsley is president and majority partner of Peter Austin & Partners Ltd. and part owner of Shipyard Brewing Companies.
Peter V.K. Reid is the editor of the trade journal Modern Brewery Age.
Mark Stevens, a writer and collector of beer recipes, is the co-author of Homebrew Favorites and other works on brewing.
Read an Excerpt
The Encyclopedia of Beer
By Christine P. Rhodes
Henry Holt and Company
Copyright © 1995 Storey Communications, Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4668-8195-2
CHAPTER 1
A
ABBAYE
A general name for a top-fermented, bottle-conditioned ale of the Trappist order currently available from only six breweries in the world. Abbaye beer or Trappist beer is not a single style of beer, but is a protected appellation in Belgium and the Netherlands that refers only to beer brewed by and under the control of the Cistercian Trappist monks. The standards are guaranteed by the governing body. Each Trappist beer is distinctive, in the manner of Belgian ales.
At one time, there were more than 500 monasteries in Europe. Trappist monasteries can be traced back to the 1600s, when a monk named Rancé founded a monastery at La Trappe in Normandy.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the nobility wrested power and brewing from the church throughout Europe. In France, the Revolution of 1789 crushed the power of the church. Monasteries were looted, and their lands were seized and sold off. Monastic life therefore ceased for 40 years, and it took the monasteries many more to reestablish themselves.
During the 1930s, all Trappist monasteries brewed beer, but their beers were found only at the monasteries. Not until after World War II did their products become available outside the monasteries. By the late 1950s, commercial breweries had produced copies of Trappist beers, and in the early 1960s the Orval Monastery petitioned the Belgian Trade and Commerce Tribunal in Ghent for a legal appellation of origin for Trappist beers, which was granted in 1962. Commercial beers in this style, therefore, must be called abbey beers, not Trappist. Only the six Abbaye or Trappist breweries are entitled to use the word Trappiste on their beer labels.
Today, the six Benedictine monasteries of the Trappist order that brew their own beer in Belgium and the Netherlands are:
• Chimay (Abbaye de Notre-Dame de Scourmont), in the French border province of Hainaut. It was founded in 1850.
• Orval (Abbaye de Notre-Dame d'Orval), in the province of Luxembourg, near the rivers that form the border with France. It was founded in 1070.
• Rochefort (Abbaye de Notre-Dame de St. Rémy), near Dinant in the province of Namur. It was founded in 1230, began to brew in 1595, then started brewing again in 1899.
• Schaapskooi (Abdij Koningshoeven), the abbey in the Netherlands, is near Tilburg in North Brabant. It was founded in 1884.
• Westmalle (Abdij der Trappisten), in the province of Antwerp. It was founded in 1794 and began to brew in 1836.
• Westvleteven (Abdij Sint Sixtus) in West Flanders. It was founded in 1899.
Together the six breweries have as many as 20 different beers (mostly strong ales). All are made on monastery grounds. Some are exported to the United States.
In general, Trappist beers have the following characteristics: 12.5–23.2/1.050–1.095 OG/5–9.5 Belge, 2.6–5.6 final gravity, 5–11 percent alcohol by volume, 20–45 IBU, 3.5–20 SRM, and low pH (3.9–4.3). They usually include candy sugar and sometimes even spices. They are all top-fermented, usually at very warm temperatures as high as 85°F (29°C), and either with a yeast strain that has a multiple bacterial complement or with different yeasts for the primary and secondary ferments and even for the tertiary ferment. All are bottle-conditioned, usually with yet another yeast. None of these conditions is a requirement, since Trappist beers can be anything the monasteries want them to be. All, however, are fruity and estery in taste, often with a quite distinctive character.
Orval
The oldest of the Trappist beers is Orval (Abbaye de Notre-Dame d'Orval) at Villers devant Orval. Founded in 1070, this monastery was rebuilt a number of times over the centuries. Its beer is certified by the Brussels School of Brewing to be a totally natural beer with no artificial ingredients or flavorings. Three separate yeast strains are used in the triple ferment, along with Belgian-grown and malted barley (three kinds), white candy sugar, and German and English hops. The usual initial (primary) ferment is followed by a second ferment. The second ferment takes place during the 2-month aging process at a temperature of 59°F (15°C). During this ferment, the beer is dry hopped. A third ferment takes place in the distinctive bottle, after the addition of a champagne-style dosage of yeast. When bottled, the beer is allowed to age for at least 3 months. Orval Trappist Ale has an original gravity of 13.7/1.056/5.6 Belge and 6 percent alcohol by volume.
Chimay
The first monastery to sell its beer to the public and label it Trappist was Chimay. The three Chimay beers — Chimay Red (the original), Chimay Grand Reserve (blue cap in Belgium), and Chimay Cinq (white in Belgium) — are the best known of all Trappist beers and are available in the United States.
Westvleteven
The Westvleteven Abdij Sint Sixtus is the smallest of the monasteries. Its beer is St. Sixtus. The St. Sixtus beer found in the United States is an abbey beer that is not brewed by the monastery itself but is brewed under license by the St. Bernardus Brewery in nearby Watau.
Rochefort and Westmalle
The beers of the monasteries of Rochefort and Westmalle are found in the United States from time to time, but they do not seem to be regularly available.
La Trappe
The Koningshoeven Monastery at Schaapskooi in the Dutch province of Brabant, just across the border from Belgium, started its brewery in 1884 to finance the monastery.
ABBAYE DE NOTRE-DAME DE ST. RÉMY, ROCHEFORT, BELGIUM
A small, secluded Trappist brewery in the Ardennes, St. Rémy has been a holy site since the 13th century, and monks have brewed there since the late 16th century. Today the monks produce three beers under the Rochefort label, designated by their original gravity (in degrees Belge) as "six," "eight," and "ten."
The beers are brewed with German malt and hops, and like many Trappist brewers, the monks of St. Rémy add candy sugar to the brew. White sugar is used for priming. The beers are bottle-conditioned.
See Abbaye, bottle-conditioned beer, hops, and malt.
ABBEY BEER
Any top- or bottom-fermented beer produced by a commercial brewery under license of a monastic order. Belgian custom lends the term Trappiste only to beers brewed in Trappist monasteries, or under license from a Trappist monastery. Secular breweries label similar beers Bière d'Abbaye or abbey beer. German and Austrian brewers use the terms Klosterbraü and Stiftsbraü to describe their commercial products. In 1962, the Orval monastery obtained an appellation injunction forbidding the use of the name Trappist by any but the brewing monasteries themselves. The commercial brewers, therefore, had to call their beers something else, and the generic term for these many beers and beer styles became abbey. General guidelines for them are similar to those for Trappist beers. In theory, an abbey beer can be any style the brewer wishes, but the Trappist guidelines are usually followed.
Dubbel and Tripel Beers
The terms Dubbel and Tripel refer to gravity or density. The old brewers often drew off the earliest wort (the heaviest) to make a double- or triple-strength brew. The later draw (near the end of the wort run) might be used to produce a "single," or simple (small) beer. These are similar to English and American brewers' use of XX and XXX.
The Trappist abbey of Westmalle was the first to brew Dubbel and Tripel Trappist beers. This occurred after World War II.
Dubbel. A not very hoppy brown ale, with an original gravity of 15.3–17.1/1.063–1.070/6.3–7 Belge, Dubbels are made from mostly pale Pilsner malt, dark candy sugar, and a small amount of amber and caramel malts for color. They are 6–7.5 percent alcohol by volume, 18–25 IBU, and 10–14 SRM. Up to three different yeast strains might be incorporated, and the brewing temperature might be allowed to rise to 86°F (30°C). The beer is bottle-conditioned.
The Great American Beer Festival guidelines for Belgian-style Dubbel are 12.5–17.5/1.050–1.070 OG, 6–7.5 percent alcohol by volume, 18–25 IBU, and 10–14 SRM.
Tripel. A strong (some at barley-wine strength), very pale (3.5–5.5 SRM) beer brewed mostly from Pilsner malt and white candy sugar, with an original gravity of 17.1–23.2/1.070–1.095/7–9.5 Belge, 7–10 percent alcohol by volume, and 20–25 IBU. Up to three different yeast strains and fairly high brewing temperatures might be used, and the beer is bottle-conditioned. The Great American Beer Festival guidelines for Belgian-style Tripel are 17.5–24/1.060–1.096 OG, 7–10 percent alcohol by volume, 20–25 IBU, and 3.5–5.5 SRM.
As the summaries below indicate, not all abbey ales fit the Dubbel/Tripel description fully.
ACA CHICHA
A sacred corn beer made by Native American women and by the Inca Sun Virgins for their leaders at Cuzco, now in Peru. Also called Chicha.
See Chicha and Latin American Breweries.
ACCUMULATION TABLE
Generally, a mechanized table in which a motor causes the round top to rotate. The table is placed at the end of a bottling line in small microbreweries. Bottles accumulate on the table without knocking into each other and hence scuffing the labels. The table also might be located in overspill areas in case of stoppage, such as before the labeling machine.
ACERBIC
A description of an acidic or sour taste.
ACETALDEHYDE
A substance that is normally produced during the fermentation process but decreases as the process progresses and the beer ages. Excessive levels of residual acetaldehyde give beer a cidery or green apple–like taste. It also can produce a breadlike or solventlike character at higher concentrations. One common cause of acetaldehyde is the excessive use of cane or corn sugar in the beer. Other causes can be pitching too little yeast or under-aerating the wort. A bacterial infection also may convert the ethanol to acetaldehyde and water. In most cases (except for bacterial infection), a long, cold aging should reduce the amount of acetaldehyde in the beer.
ACID
See PH and WATER.
ACID REST
A step at the beginning of the mash during which the temperature is held at about 90°F (32°C). This is done to correct the pH (increase the acidity) of the mash by causing a naturally occurring salt known as phytin to form phytic acid. More often a brewer will simply correct the pH by using gypsum and dispense with the acid rest. The acid rest is usually used in a traditional decoction mashing schedule, such as would be used for producing a lager or German wheat beer, and it is also the first step of a step mash.
ACROSPIRE
Part of a kernel of barley that grows during the germination phase of the malting process. Malt that contains acrospires at least three-quarters the seed length in size is considered to be highly modified.
The modification and growth of the acrospire and rootlets during malting is broken down into stages in the illustration. At first (1) there is no modification. Then (2) the rootlets first appear and the acrospire begins to grow, with the modification beginning at the bottom of the grain. Modification continues upward and outward (3) until the acrospire is about half the length of the kernel. When the acrospire is about three-quarters the length of the kernel (4), modification is almost complete. Only the tip remains hard and steely. The acrospire is fully grown (5) when it has achieved full modification but has not sprouted. It has overgrown (6) when germination has gone too far.
ADA
An abbreviation for apparent degree of attenuation, a measurement of the effectiveness of the yeast in consuming sugars in beer.
ADAMBIER
See Dortmunder beer.
SAMUEL ADAMS
See Boston Beer Co.
ADAM'S ALE
An old English/Scottish term for water.
ADDITIVE
Anything added to beer other than malted barley, adjunct grains, hops, water, and yeast, as well as some flavorings added to specialty beers, such as fruits or spices. Typically, additives are chemicals or enzymes added at any point in the brewing process to alter the physical properties of the beer so that it is more stable in commercial distribution and therefore appeals to a mass-market economy. Some homebrewers and craft brewers also use additives, particularly clarifiers such as isinglass, Irish moss, and some gelatins.
Some types of additives are alkalines, acids, and minerals to adjust water chemistry; enzymes that affect the mashing process to change the sugars or dextrins — for example, to produce a diet (light) beer or malt liquor; clarifiers to enhance protein removal and thereby eliminate haze; heading agents to improve head retention (carbonation); and yeast nutrients to encourage vigorous fermentation.
See clarifier; fruit, vegetable, herbal, and specialty beers; gelatin; isinglass; and Irish moss.
ADJUNCT
A grain other than malted barley added to beer as a source of fermentable sugars. Some typical adjuncts are corn, rice, oats, and wheat.
Adjuncts are used — primarily by mega-brewers — to create a special flavor, to enhance or reduce some property of the beer, or to cut costs by substituting cheaper grains for the more expensive malted barley. For example, oats are added to oatmeal stout to create a unique flavor. Unmalted barley or wheat is added to improve head retention.
Breweries are not required by the United States government to list adjuncts or any ingredients used in their products.
ADRIANNE BROWER BIERFESTEN
An annual beer festival held in late June in Oudenaarde, Belgium, to celebrate the birth of the famous painter by this name, born in Oudenaarde in 1605.
AERATION
The process of supplying oxygen to the wort. To provide the best possible fermentation, the wort must be thoroughly aerated. This can be done in any number of ways, but in all cases the wort should be near yeast-pitching temperatures — anywhere below 80°F (27°C). The cooler the wort, the more soluble the oxygen will be. When the wort is aerated at higher temperatures, it can become oxidized, leading to a paperlike off-flavor.
A simple method of aerating wort is to allow the cooled wort to splash into the fermenter while filling it. Other methods include stirring vigorously with a spoon or wire whisk or using an aquarium air pump, a 2-micron or smaller air filter, and a sanitized air stone. Without an adequate supply of dissolved oxygen, the yeast cannot reproduce properly, leading to a stuck fermentation, an off-flavor, and a greater risk of ruined beer.
See FERMENTATION, HOT SIDE AERATION (HSA), and YEAST.
AFRICAN BEER
Beer has been brewed in Africa for approximately 8,000 years, from the great commercial brewing dynasties of ancient Egypt to the tiny huts of remote villages. The first Europeans to explore Africa found a staggering number and variety of beers brewed by tribes everywhere. Beer was a critical component in the daily diet of African peoples, and beers brewed from indigenous grains and grasses varied according to the availability of fermentable materials. Palm sap, cassava flour, barley, sorghum, millet, and, after its introduction by Arab traders, maize all figured into the brewing of more than 100 native beer styles. Some of these ancient ingredients are still used in modern, commercially brewed beers.
Most African beers taste like thin, sour porridge, with a hint of raisins in the finish. Varying in strength from mild, milky brews to unusual ceremonial concoctions close to barley wine in strength, native beers continue to be an important part of many Africans' diet.
Throughout Africa today, many tribes drink beer through hollow reed straws stuck in a communal beer pot. The villagers sit around the pot gossiping and telling stories. The beer straw is at least 5,000 years old and can be seen in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Middle Eastern tablets dating to 4000 B.C.
Many of Africa's ancient tribal customs are threatened by modernization and industrial development. In Kenya, for example, teetotaling President Daniel arap Moi banned all homebrewed beer in 1989. "I am not prepared to lead a drunken nation," he said, banning even ceremonial brews.
AGING
The process of allowing fermented beer to sit, undisturbed, until it is potable. Aging allows the yeast and other particles to settle and helps remove fermentation by-products, reducing off-flavors. Aging also allows the aromatics to mellow and meld, creating a more pleasant aroma.
If the beer is to be bottle-conditioned, aging is even more important. A small amount of sugar is added to the beer, which still contains active yeast. The beer is then bottled, and the yeast consumes the sugar, producing carbon dioxide and thus carbonating the beer.
Some beers require very long aging periods, others quite short periods. Barley wines and strong ales often must be aged for months or years.
AIR COMPRESSOR/DRYER
A piece of equipment that generates air at a delivery pressure suited to a particular bottling line, generally 60 psi (414 kPa) and up. Typical applications are the drive mechanisms of bottle rinsers, the pistons of bottle fillers, air diaphragm pumps, and automatic label glue dispensers.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Encyclopedia of Beer by Christine P. Rhodes. Copyright © 1995 Storey Communications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Henry Holt and Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Contributing Editor Profiles,Introduction,
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BEER: A–Z,
APPENDICES:,
Organizations,
Collectors' Clubs,
Educational Organizations,
Mail Order Beer Clubs,
Importers of Beer,
Magazines, Newsletters, and Journals,
Bibliography,
Text and Picture Credits,
Acknowledgments,