Beer

Not many drinks are as old and as well-known around the world as beer. For thousands of years, people have been working on improving and refining beer and creating new flavors. Almost every adult has probably drunk it at some point - but not many people know about the details of beer.

We'll show you everything you need to know about beer: its origins, its importance in Germany, the many different varieties and lots of interesting facts about liquid gold. Once you've acquired a taste for it, you can buy your favorite variety from us right away - or try something completely new!

Table of contents

• 1 What is beer?
• 1.1 What is beer made of?
• 2 Beer: history and origins
• 2.1 Who invented beer?
• 2.2 Where does beer as we drink it today come from?
• 2.3 Modern beer and its significance
• 3 Beer culture in Germany
• 3.1 Which beer is drunk where?
• 3.2 Beer culture on a small scale
• 4 The brewing process of beer
• 4.1 The brewing process and the ingredients
• 4.2 How do the different types of beer come about?
• 5. beer types from A to Z
• 6. beer variations
• 6.1 Non-alcoholic beer
• 6.2 Gluten-free beer
• 6.3 Organic beer
• 7. buying beer
• 7.1 Buying beer online: the advantages
• 8. beer facts
• 8.1 How many per mille does a beer have?
• 8.2 How many calories does a beer have?
• 8.3 "Drinking beer helps agriculture" - origin of the saying
• 8.4 Who drinks the most beer?
• 8.5 Which hops are most commonly used for beer?
• 8.6 How many breweries still brew beer today?
• 8.7 Why does beer foam when you tap the bottle?
• 8.8 What is the difference between beer and craft beer?
• 8.9 Craft beer and the purity law
• 9. beer fun facts
• 9.1 The strongest beer in the world
• 9.2 The most expensive beer in the world
• 9.3 The beer with the most types of beer on tap
• 10 Beer at Honest & Rare

What is beer?

Beer is a drink, and one of the oldest known drinks in the world. Beer can be traced back a good 10,000 years (more on this in a moment). Due to this extensive history, beer has numerous side effects and is therefore much more than just a drink.

What is beer made of?

At least according to the German Purity Law, beer always(!) consists of malt, hops, yeast and water. The exact composition may vary, but these basic ingredients must not be changed. Due to the different production processes, there are nevertheless significant differences in taste (and the alcohol level also varies considerably).

Beer in its traditional form is always alcoholic. This is caused by fermentation: Yeast is added to the beer wort (more on this later), which then stimulates malt sugar to be converted into carbon dioxide and alcohol.

Incidentally, many beers that do not follow the aforementioned purity law are also allowed to be sold on the market today. As long as the additives are printed on the label, this is all legal and fine. Fruit and vegetables as ingredients in beer are therefore no longer a problem. However, this has only been possible since 1987, when the then EC passed this resolution.

Beer: history and origins

Beer itself is one of the oldest drinks in the world. Its history and origins could easily fill entire books. Here we show you the most important facts about the origins of ancient and modern beer.

Who invented beer?

As is the case with most foods and drinks, we have to go (very) far back in history. Around 10,000 years ago, it was the Sumerians (who would be living in Iraq today) who probably discovered beer by accident while working with fermented bread dough. It is not known whether the drink was immediately recognized and recorded as such.

2,000 years later, there were already records, written in cuneiform script, that recorded beer and its production for posterity. By then at the latest, people knew about the qualities of the drink. Then the production of different beers (and their export) began.

Where does the beer we drink today come from?

When we talk about beer as we know it today, we owe the drink primarily to the monks. In the Middle Ages, they began brewing beer in monasteries, which was particularly popular during Lent. They were not allowed to eat - but they were allowed to drink. To finally ensure that the beer really remained beer, the famous Purity Law was issued in 1516. Today, the exact anniversary, April 23, is still celebrated as German Beer Day.

Over the centuries, beer brewing was then transformed by technological advances. For example, bottom-fermented beer, which requires very low temperatures of around 10° Celsius, could for a long time only be brewed in cellars and only in winter. When the refrigeration machine was invented - a kind of predecessor to the refrigerator - the brewing process could be extended throughout the year. This made it possible to offer bottom-fermented beer "out of season" at all.

Modern beer and its significance

Today, beer is of great economic importance in many countries. In Germany, there are around 1,500 breweries producing over 6,000 beers. Around 8 billion euros in sales are generated with this liquid gold every year, and thousands of jobs are kept alive by the beverage. Beers are therefore important both for us and for Germany in general.

Beer culture in Germany

Most drinks and foods that are thousands of years old develop a real culture at some point. You can observe this with wine, for example - but also with beer. You can now find out what regional differences there are and how important beer is to Germans.

Which beer is drunk where?

In Germany, there are clear differences depending on the region. These are roughly as follows:

• Pilsner has the entire north firmly in its grip. In Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein and Brandenburg, Pils dominates everything. Differences can be found more in the details - for example Berliner Weisse, which enjoys a high status in Berlin.
• If we look west to Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia or Rhineland-Palatinate, the dominance of pilsner beer is interrupted by export beer. The bottom-fermented beverage is very popular in these federal states. Here, too, there are small differences depending on the region: the famous Kölsch is the drink of choice in Cologne, while the Altbier tastes particularly good in Düsseldorf.
• In the south, beer consumption is strongly influenced by history. Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria love lager beers - due to the numerous monasteries that used to store beer - as well as wheat beer and wheat. Helles is also a typical Bavarian drink, which is often called Münchner Helles or Bayrisch Hell, depending on the region.
• In eastern German states such as Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, Schwarzbier is popular. The bottom-fermented, very dark full-bodied beer can sometimes even taste slightly sweet, the hop flavor is rather less pronounced. Black beer has been brewed in these regions since at least 1390 - and is still drunk today.

Depending on the region, you will therefore come across different beers. This also applies to pubs and bars: if you simply order a beer in Hamburg, you may be served something completely different to what you would get in Freiburg.

Beer culture on a small scale

In the previous paragraph, we only mentioned the big, world-famous beers. We have not included the numerous craft beers that are produced all over Germany by small breweries and enthusiasts. If you get the opportunity to try these beers locally, you should definitely do so. Every brewer has a different idea of the "perfect beer". Small suppliers in particular can therefore often surprise you with a taste that differs significantly from Krombacher, Warsteiner & Co.

The beer brewing process

The brewing process for beer has been continuously refined for several thousand years. For the following explanation, however, we will not focus on ancient methods, but only describe how the process works today.

The brewing process and ingredients

Generally speaking, beer always contains grain, hops, water and yeast. Once you have all the ingredients together, this is how the process works:

1. We soak the grain in water and get it to germinate. We then dry the grain and remove the germ, leaving us with pure malt. This malt is then milled. At this point, the specialist does not speak of grinding, but of milling.
2. We now mix the finished milled malt with warm water and then heat it. This is known as mashing. The starch contained in the malt dissolves and is converted into sugar.
3. Now we remove the liquid part - the wort - from the brew and boil it together with the hops. The brew is then separated from any other substances that may still be solid.
4. Now only the wort remains: it is brought to the desired temperature for the fermentation process. We then add yeast. The yeast ensures that the aforementioned sugar is converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This results in the intoxicating effect of the beer and the carbon dioxide.
5. The fermentation process now takes at least a few weeks, depending on the beer. This duration is necessary so that the yeast can do its work in peace.

If you are interested in learning the art of brewing beer yourself, you will of course (have to) delve much deeper into the subject. However, these five steps will suffice as a rough overview.

How do the different types of beer come about?

Since the same four ingredients are always used, laypeople will rightly ask themselves where the different flavors come from. The answer lies in the way the different components interact with each other.

• Malt gives the beer its color and determines the subsequent alcohol content, as the starch comes from malt, from which the alcohol is then produced during the fermentation process.
• The bitter taste is obtained from the hops, which also have a somewhat preservative effect. The type and handling of the hops therefore determine the taste of the beer.
• Yeasts are divided into top-fermenting and bottom-fermenting yeasts, which ferment at higher (top-fermenting) and lower (bottom-fermenting) temperatures. In general, top-fermented beers are more aromatic and full-bodied, while bottom-fermented beers are much easier to store over a long period of time.
• Last but not least, the water can also have an influence on the taste - for example through the degree of hardness or the salt content.

So the brewing process is one thing. The other is the ingredients and how they are processed. As these four different components alone can be used to produce practically infinite variations, there are theoretically also an infinite number of different types of beer. If we abandon the purity law, which is not a problem for some brewers, the variety increases even further.

Beer types from A to Z

There are dozens or even hundreds of different types of beer in the world. Common varieties such as pilsner and wheat beer are just the tip of the iceberg. Some beers are only drunk in certain countries, some are made from rice, others are very clear and light or almost black.

If you would like to find out more about the different types of beer in the world, we recommend our comprehensive overview (link: https://www.honest-rare.de/magazin/alle-biersorten-im-ueberblick). There you will find an overview of most of the well-known and lesser-known varieties.

Beer variations

Beer is available to buy in many different varieties. We show you some of the most important ones here.

Non-alcoholic beer

Non-alcoholic beer is actually wrongly named, as it still contains traces of alcohol - up to 0.5% is permitted. However, this is so little that healthy adults will not notice it. This beer also consists of hops, malt, yeast and water. However, the fermentation process is interrupted or throttled, the alcohol is filtered afterwards or special yeast organisms that work "gently" are used.

In any case, beers with a very low alcohol content are produced in this way. However, some groups of people - such as pregnant women - are advised not to drink this beer. In recent years, alcohol-free beer has become increasingly fashionable: a good 7% of beers on the market are alcohol-free, which is a record.

Gluten-free beer

As the name suggests, gluten-free beer contains no gluten. It is produced using gluten-free grains, which can include millet, buckwheat or quinoa, for example. Barley or wheat, which are often used for "normal" beer, are not used as they contain gluten.

An alternative is to break down the gluten afterwards using suitable enzymes. This works quite well, but residual traces of gluten may still be present. If you have a gluten intolerance, this could be enough to cause your stomach and intestines to rebel.

There are several dozen varieties of gluten-free beer on the market. The taste usually differs from normal beer, as a different grain is used. If you do not have an intolerance, you can go for beer containing gluten. Gluten is not bad per se, but only dangerous if you cannot tolerate it.

Organic beer

Organic beer differs from normal beer only in that the ingredients come from ecologically sustainable cultivation. This means that hops and grain are grown and harvested in a way that does not harm people or the planet. Synthetic additives are prohibited, for example, and fertilizers are also on the red list.

This beverage often has a shorter shelf life than normal beer. This is primarily due to the lack of pasteurization. You therefore have to drink the beer more quickly, but you can enjoy a slightly more intense taste.

Apart from that, organic beer is identical to standard supermarket beer. There are no other ingredients in the mixture, only the cultivation and harvesting methods differ. If you want to drink sustainably, you should therefore choose this beer.

Buying beer

When you buy beer in the supermarket, you are limited to what is available locally. You won't find the 6,000 beer varieties mentioned above, which are actually available in Germany, on the shelves of any supermarket. What's more, the selection is rather limited, especially in rural regions. Suppliers cannot drive to every supermarket - and in small regions with lower beer consumption, the expected turnover is lower. As a result, larger supermarkets tend to be supplied, but this doesn't help you if you live in a rural region.

If you need beer quickly, there is no way around supermarket beer - but if you have time, the internet offers you a better alternative.

Buying beer online: the advantages

If you buy beer online, you generally have a larger selection than in the supermarket. This is particularly important for connoisseurs who often want to try new varieties. You can also compare prices more easily so that you don't pay huge sums for beer that is much cheaper elsewhere.

You also know exactly what you are getting and when. You will be given the delivery dates and everything will be delivered to your door. Carrying heavy crates of beer in the supermarket isn't that easy? That's right: It's much easier if you simply have the bottles delivered to your door.

Beer facts

Beer itself is very interesting. Here are some important facts that beer drinkers should definitely know!

How many per mille does a beer have?

The blood alcohol level after drinking beer depends on several factors - including alcohol content, amount of beer and body weight. With a typical alcohol content of 5% (which is about right for most commercially available beers) and the consumption of exactly one liter of beer, a person weighing 75 kg would have about 0.76 per mille in them. This liter would therefore already be enough to make you unfit to drive (the limit at which you can still get away with a fine is 0.5 per mille).

There are therefore too many variables to determine how much alcohol leads to which blood alcohol level. It's best not to overestimate yourself: at 3.0 per mille, you've already reached the limit for severe alcohol poisoning.

How many calories does a beer have?

Beer gets most of its calories from alcohol - around two thirds - and one third from carbohydrates. A very small proportion is also attributable to the proteins it contains. As the alcohol contributes so much, the alcohol content also determines the calorie content. Strong beers are therefore particularly "fatty", while a wheat beer has fewer calories than low-fat milk, for example (38 kcal compared to 48 kcal). Compared to red wine, which normally has a higher calorie content (84 kcal), beer is still "low in fat".

You can find some typical beers and their calorie content here:

• Non-alcoholic Hefeweizen is a real slimming beer, containing no more than 20 kcal.
• A pale ale with around 5.6% has a much higher 35 kcal.
• Well-known beers such as a Warsteiner Pils increase the content to 43 kcal.
• A typical Kellerbier with a round 5.0 % comes to around 49 kcal.
• Have you ever drunk Desperados? This beer is a calorie bomb and contains 59 kcal.

As usual, all values refer to the calorie content per 100 ml of liquid. Due to the widely fluctuating values, we advise you to simply look at the label on the bottle if you want to be sure.

By the way: the colloquial beer belly is not really just caused by drinking beer. Rather, it is a mixture of alcohol, calories, too much food and, above all, hormones contained in beer. It is very difficult to really "get fat" from beer alone.

"Drinking beer helps agriculture" - origin of the saying

The well-known saying can be traced back to the period between the 1960s and 1970s. The well-known exclamation makes sense when you consider that the drink is made from hops, malt and barley - at least according to the German Purity Law. If the consumption of these three raw materials is increased, the farmers are happy and agriculture flourishes. Today, the saying is still often used to ironically make light of (too) high beer consumption. It can also still be found on numerous imitation billboards, which often hang on the walls of pubs.

Whether it generally makes sense to encourage massive alcohol consumption in order to strengthen a country's economy is, of course, another question...

Who drinks the most beer?

The Czech Republic is by far the biggest per capita beer drinker in the world: each person drinks around 191 liters a year, which equates to approximately one liter of beer every two days. Austria (107 liters) and Germany (101 liters) follow behind.

In absolute terms, China consumes the most beer: the sheer mass of the population means that a good 39 billion liters are drunk each year. In Germany, the figure is around 8.3 billion liters.

The trend over the years is interesting. Between 1970 and 1990, Germans drank the most beer, around 140 to 150 liters per capita per year. Since then, the trend has been downwards, with slightly less being consumed each year. Mind you, this does not mean that alcohol consumption as a whole is decreasing: What you don't drink as beer, you can of course make up for with other drinks.

Which hops are most commonly used for beer?

It is the hops that make a beer bitter and give it its typical taste. If you simply leave out the hops, beer tastes rather sweet, which is caused by the malt content.
The beer world generally distinguishes between bitter and aroma hops:

• Bitter hops are preferred overall and are used most frequently. This is a quick and inexpensive way to produce the desired bitter taste. In order to know how bitter a beer tastes, many craft beer breweries print the "bitter content" in IBU on the bottles. The higher the value, the more bitter the beer theoretically is. However, the addition of other substances can still create a sweet taste. An Irish stout, for example, has a very high 60 IBU. However, as it contains caramel malt, this substance significantly reduces the bitterness.
• Aroma hops are the second major category. The bitter note is rather subtle; instead, fruity, floral and sometimes spicy aromas are in the foreground. As the name suggests, beers of this type do not have to taste bitter at all. People who don't like beer are therefore often better off with beer based on aroma hops.

Of course, there is no such thing as the "best hops". Whatever you like is allowed. However, you will find bittering hops much more frequently in the normal trade: They provide the bitter taste desired by most people and are much cheaper to buy for beer production.

How many breweries still brew beer today?

In 2021, there were just over 1,500 breweries in Germany. The trend over the last few years and decades is clearly positive: in 1995 there were still around 1,250 breweries, so a good 250 breweries have been added in around 30 years. Although this trend has been declining slightly since 2019, this is likely to be largely due to the pandemic: small breweries in particular were unable to cope with the economic setbacks and were forced to close.

Beer is currently experiencing a renaissance, particularly in the USA. Around 1980, there were fewer than 100 breweries in the United States, many of them large corporations. The craft beer movement brought new momentum: several hundred breweries were added in the 1990s. Since 2010, the number of breweries has multiplied from around 1,500 to over 5,000 breweries in 2016. Today, there are more breweries in the country than ever before - which also applies to Germany.

Why does beer foam when you tap the bottle?

Everyone knows it: someone is opening a bottle of beer and another person takes their own bottle and "knocks". As a result of the blow to the top of the bottle, the beer suddenly starts to foam and shoots out of the bottle.

This is caused by the difference in pressure: a bottle containing carbon dioxide is under high pressure. When you open the bottle, the pressure is immediately released. Carbon dioxide leaves the liquid and dissolves everywhere in the drink. This creates the familiar gas bubbles. Hitting the bottle causes the glass to vibrate, which causes the bubbles of carbon dioxide to vibrate abruptly at the same time and detach from the glass. Foam forms inside the beer and more and more bubbles follow.

As the foam expands in volume, it has to leave the bottle somehow, as it cannot burst the glass - so it shoots out of the neck of the bottle. This works not only with beer, but with all carbonated drinks in general. The decisive factor is that the glass must be set in motion. Be careful the next time you try it out: This "trick" does not always go down well...

What is the difference between beer and craft beer?

The term craft beer originally comes from the USA. It was coined there to describe "smaller" beers that set themselves apart from the big breweries. There, craft beer is characterized by these definitions, among others:

• A maximum of seven million hectoliters of beer may be produced per year.
• No more than 25% of the brewery may be owned by a well-known large corporation.
• The taste may only come from the brewing ingredients, flavorings are taboo.

For Germany, this definition would be quite meaningless, as even very large breweries such as Bitburger are below the seven million hectoliters described.

In this country, the focus is therefore more on other characteristics of the beer. There is no official definition for the time being. In theory, you could start brewing beer next week and offer your mixture as a craft beer. There are no strict rules to follow.

In Germany, craft beer has therefore established itself as a term that refers to beers outside the mainstream. These beers often taste unusual - for example by adding unusual ingredients such as cocoa beans - and are brewed in rather small quantities. The aim of craft beer is to rethink old concepts in beer brewing and to bring new ideas to the beer itself.

That's why we can't say "what craft beer tastes like". There are so many flavors that it is impossible to make a meaningful statement. It can taste very tart and bitter - but also very sweet and refreshing.

Craft beer and the purity law

The production of craft beer usually follows the purity law - but not always. Adding natural ingredients, for example, is prohibited. This poses problems for brewers if, for example, cocoa beans are to be added. However, this purity law dates back to 1516 and is therefore over 500 years old. Brewers therefore argue that although the Purity Law stands for a certain quality, it is also restrictive.

Whether it bothers you or not if a craft beer is not brewed 100% according to the Purity Law is up to you to decide. If it doesn't bother you, there's nothing to stop you trying out unusual craft beer blends.

Beer fun facts

Everything you always wanted to know about beer!

The strongest beer in the world

Snake Venom from Scotland from the Brewmeister brewery takes the absolute top spot. At 67.5%, this beer is of course a far cry from "normal" beer. Peat malt and two types of yeast are used to achieve the high alcohol content. The brew is then frozen several times during fermentation. The manufacturer does not even recommend more than 35 milliliters at a time. Allegedly - we haven't tried it yet - Snake Venom still tastes like beer.

If you want to stay in Germany, Schorschbock from Schorschbräu in Gunzenhausen is the right alternative. Although this beer is "only" 57%, the drink does not have to be imported from abroad. The traditional Eisbock method provides the necessary fuel for the high revolutions per minute.

The most expensive beer in the world

The Vieille Bon Sexours Ale from Caulier, a brewery in Belgium, is particularly expensive. The beer is sold in 12-liter bottles, resulting in a price of around 870 euros per bottle. Half a liter costs a good 40 euros. This beer is aged for around ten years and has an alcohol content of 8%. Unfortunately, you can't buy it online; the beer is only available to drink in London in some restaurants.

If we want to get really specific, we can also mention a bottle of Löwenbräu Lager for around 11,000 euros. The price was achieved at an auction in 2009 and the bottle dates back to 1937, so the beer is no longer drinkable and the price is based solely on its value as a collector's item. Unlike the Vieille Bon Sexours Ale, you can't drink this beer, which is why we don't want to give it first place.

The pub with the most beers on tap

If you drink your way through this drinks menu, you'll probably wake up the next day with the biggest hangover of all time: At Releigh Beer Garden in the big city of the same name, Raleigh in the USA, you can choose between 369 different beers on tap. This number was verified by the Guinness Book of Records in 2015.

If it doesn't have to be on tap, a trip to the Délirium Café in Brussels is a good idea. There you can order several thousand different types of beer. In 2004, the bar made it into the Guinness Book of Records with 2,004 types of beer, in 2014 there were more than 2,400 types of beer. The interim record was 3,162 beers.

Beer at Honest & Rare

Fancy an unusual taste that you're guaranteed not to find on the supermarket shelves? At Honest & Rare, we offer you numerous different types of beer. Our range includes alcohol-free beer as well as various IPAs, lager and strong beers, beer from Belgium and stout beers in the English tradition.

It is important to us not to offer you off-the-peg beers, but high-quality drinks - and you are guaranteed to taste this quality with every sip. Take your time to browse through our range and don't hesitate to contact our customer service if you have any questions!