IPA (India Pale Ale)

India Pale Ale is a style of light-coloured beer, first brewed in the UK in the 18th century and noted for it's strong hoppy flavour. It became favoured by the East India Traders who transported a number of these beers to India, which proved to benefit from conditions of the voyage.

Today, this English style of beer has been adopted to great success by the craft brewers of the United States.

Flying Dog Ales |  Brooklyn Brewery |  Anchor Steam Brewery |  Goose Island Brewery

IPA is a fascinating subject matter within brewing history - please click here for a more in-depth article on Wikipedia.

Lager

From the German word for 'storage', lager is a general term indicating beers such as pilsner, export and marzen which were usually stored for at least three weeks prior to being served. This style of beer is now the most commonly drunk worldwide: in the UK, it replaced traditional ales in around 1950 as being the most consumed beer in the country.

Although widely known for being light in colour, there are darker variations: in Germany, darker lagers are referred to as Dunkel lagers with darker ones still such as the Balltic Porters.

Brooklyn Brewery |  Menabrea |  Flensburger |  Lindeboom

Lambic

Lambic is a distinctive type of beer brewed only in the Pajottenland region of Belgium.

Unlike conventional ales and lagers, Lambic beer is produced by spontaneous fermentation by being exposed to wild yeasts and bacteria. It is this unusual process which gives the beer its distinctive flavour: dry, vinous, and cidery, with a slightly sour aftertaste.

Many Belgian fruit beers have Lambic as their base for blending with cherry (kriek), raspberry (framboise), peach (pêche), blackcurrant (cassis) or strawberry (aardbei) as either whole fruit or syrup.

Malt (or Malting)

In brewing, partially germinated grain (usually barley) is dried and either toasted in a kiln or cured in a malthouse. The grains develop enzymes which modify the grain's starches into sugars and forms which can be utilised by the brewing yeast.

The toasting of the grains gives them thier colour and flavour, and is determined by the heat. Beers are primarily made from pale malt, but the darker grains give additional flavour such as chocolate, as well as the distinctive deep brown and amber colours.

Mashing

The first stage of brewing beer, where the grain (usually malted barley, perhaps with the addition of rye, wheat or maize) is mixed with pure hot water and keeping it at a maintained temperature to allow the enzymes to break down the starch in the grain into sugars.