Types of Beer

The types of beer that dominate today’s world has evolved from centuries of beer making. They differ in not only taste and color but in the processes taken to craft this unique mixture of yeast hops, water and malted barley, and or wheat corn and rice which is most commonly used with the malted barley.

The process of making beer is a relatively simple one as the starch (malted barley, wheat, corn, rice, or a combination) steeped in water until enzymes in the malt break down the starch, producing what is called “wort“, a sugary substance. Hops is then added to the wort for flavoring and its preservative attributes. At this point many beer makers add in characteristic flavorings such as fruits and herbs. Now the yeast is added which begins the fermentation process. The yeast acts in the same way as it does in the wine making process where the yeast consumes sugar in the mixture and produces alcohol and waste products.

Most beer today can be classified into two distinct groups separated by the type of yeast used to produce them, namely lager or ale.

The main reason for using the different types of yeast to create the different types of beer is temperature. Beer that uses a type of yeast that ferments best at warm temperatures is known as ales where using the yeasts that ferment at colder temperatures produces lagers.

In the following pages we will delve into the specific types of beer in each category and explore some specialty beers that have come about recently that fall outside of our two main categories of lagers or ales.

You may also want to explore our tasting room where you can read about some of the thousands of beers that are hitting the marketplace as the micro-beer industry explodes.