Brew U

So, what'll . - it be?

ERTO

Humans have been slurping beer for 5.000 years. The Romans called beer cerevista. from Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, and vis, the Latin word for strength. The Greek philosopher Plato is said to have invented the shotgun technique; he liked to get his goggles on. Through the centuries different types of the beverage evolved according to brewing techniques in different parts of the world, and today there are as many types of beer as there are wine. We encourage you to drink responsibly, and by that we mean you should know exactly what you're consuming. Herewith, a syllabus:

• Ale: Every kind of beer today is either an ale or a lager. Ale showed up first, in Europe hundreds of years ago. Brewed from water, hops, barley malt (barley soaked in water until it germinates) and top-fermenting yeast, it tends to have a stronger and fruitier flavor than lager. A good example: Bass Ale.

* American Lager: Lager, the other kind of beer, is a crisper, lighter-flavored brew made with the same holy trinity of hops, barley malt and water. Instead of top-fermenting yeast, it's brewed with bottom-fermenting yeast (which settles to the bottom rather than the top during fermentation). Most American lagers are also made

with rice, hence their light character and color. Example: Budweiser, which accounts for 49 per­cent of the beer drunk in the States. • Bitter: A staple of the English pub. bitter is a kind of ale made with lots of hops. It's fruity, slightly bitter and less fizzy than other kinds of beer.

• Blond: A species of female known for mental acuity. Also a type of Belgian ale that's golden and fruity. Example: Duvel. Belgium's most popular brand.

• Bock: A hearty beer high in alcohol content (often about six percent), this thick, sweet burst of flavor emerged in a German town called Einbeck and was originally made by Catholic monks.

• India Pale Ale (IPA): British brewers of the 18th cen­tury had a problem: how to ship ale to the West Indies, where there was great demand. It tended to spoil during the long boat jour-neys-unless. that is, it was brewed with very high alcohol content. Thus the India pale ale. among the booziest brews you can find.

• Light Beer: Beer reduced in calories and alcohol content. Example: Bud Light is 4.2 percent alcohol compared with five percent for regular Bud.

• Malt Liquor: A high-alcohol, generally cheap version of American lager. It's not malty, despite its name, but it'll get you drunk fast, should the need arise. Colt 45 doesn't list its alcohol content, but it's roughly six percent (eight percent in Canada).

• Pale Ale: This term is used as a catchall for any ale that is bronze- or copper-colored, as opposed to dark.

• Pilsner: The worlds first light-colored beer, pilsner appeared in 1842 in the town of Plzeii in what is now the Czech Republic. A lager, it usually has a golden color and crisp taste. Pilsner Urquell and Heineken are examples. Today pilsner is the world's most popular beer.

• Porter: This bittersweet ale. full-bodied and dark brown, is made with well-roasted barley. A good example is Sierra Nevada. First brewed in London circa 1721 and supposedly named for the porters who worked the docks, it's a lighter version of...

• Stout: Darker and fuller bodied than sissy beers, stout is made using dark-roasted barley malt and hops. Its name describes its character well. It's also good for you. Doctors have traditionally fed it to blood donors because of its high iron content.

• Wheat Beer: Add wheat to the mix of barley malt, hops and water, and you've got wheat beer, a light and slightly sweet mugful. The most popular brands are Hoegaarden from Belgium and Paulaner from Germany (the latter being a Hefeweizen. a style of wheat beer that's cloudy because the yeast isn't filtered out). -David Critchell