Craft beer has exploded in popularity over the past decade. Walk into any supermarket or restaurant and you’ll likely see a wide array of craft beer options. With so many unusual styles, ingredients, and tasting notes on the labels, craft beer can seem complex and intimidating to the casual beer drinker. However, appreciating craft beer doesn’t need to be confusing. This beginner’s guide breaks down the key things that set craft beer apart from mainstream beers.
What is Craft Beer?
First, let’s define what exactly craft beer is. Craft beer is beer produced by small, independent breweries using traditional brewing ingredients and techniques. The craft beer movement emphasizes quality, flavor, and innovation rather than mass production. While definitions vary, production of 6 million barrels or less per year is typically considered a craft brewery. Here are some key characteristics that set craft beer apart from corporate, large-scale beer:
Small Scale Production
Craft beer is made in small batches at independent breweries rather than mass-produced at large factories owned by national or multinational beer corporations. This allows for experimentation and tailored recipes.
High-Quality Ingredients
Craft breweries use high-quality, traditional beer ingredients like malted barley, hops, yeast, and water. Many emphasize local, fresh ingredients. Craft beer avoids cheap flavorings, preservatives, and adjuncts like corn and rice used by corporate breweries.
Innovation and Creativity
Craft brewers break free from traditional beer styles. They innovate with new, unique ingredients like fruits, spices, and nuts. Craft beers express creativity through distinctive flavors and brewing techniques.
Focus on Flavor
Above all, craft beer prioritizes flavor intensity and balance rather than mass appeal. Craft beers showcase complex, bold hop profiles, malt flavors, aromas, and yeast characteristics.
Popular Craft Beer Styles
With an emphasis on innovation, craft breweries produce an ever-evolving array of beer styles. However, some common styles you’ll likely encounter include:
India Pale Ale (IPA)
This hop-forward, bitter beer style highlights floral, citrus, piney hop flavors and aromas. Variations like New England and double IPAs each have their own flavor profiles.
Sour Beer
Tart, funky sour beers get their distinct flavor from wild yeast and bacteria during fermentation. Popular choices are gueuze, gose, and Berliner weisse. Fruit and spice additions complement the sourness.
Stout
Dark, roasty stouts showcase coffee, chocolate, and toasted malt flavors. They can range from dry Irish stouts to high alcohol, thick imperial stouts and coffee-infused variations.
Pale Ale
Refreshing and easy-drinking pale ales have medium hop bitterness and light malt flavor. American pale ales and session pale ales are common craft beer pale ale choices.
Wheat Beer
Crisp and light wheats like hefeweizen and witbier are perfect summer styles. They use wheat malt and sometimes additions like orange, coriander and lemon.
Common Craft Beer Ingredients
Craft beers distinguish themselves through unique ingredients and experimental flavor combinations. Here are some interesting ingredients commonly found in craft beer recipes:
Hops
The flowers of the hop plant add bitterness, flavor, and aroma. Popular varieties like Citra, Mosaic, and Amarillo create floral, fruity, and citrusy flavors.
Malt
Malted grains like barley form the sweet, malt backbone. Specialty malts provide flavors like toffee, chocolate and coffee.
Yeast
Yeast turns sugars into alcohol and carbonation during fermentation. Ale vs. lager yeast and flavorful Belgian yeasts produce distinct flavors.
Fruits and Spices
Ingredients like oranges, berries, pineapple, ginger, coffee, vanilla and more add unique dimensions of flavor and aroma.
Oats and Wheat
Oats soften mouthfeel while wheat adds cloudiness, head retention and a hint of tartness.
Wood Aging
Aging beer in barrels or with wood chips imparts flavors like oak, smoke, and vanilla from the wood.
Key Brewing Processes
Craft beer follows a traditional brewing process while finding ways to innovate at every step. Here’s an overview of important stages in craft beer creation:
Mashing
Grains are steeped in hot water to convert starches into fermentable sugars. The mash temperature affects beer style.
Boiling
The wort (sugary liquid extracted from mash) is boiled with hops for bitterness and flavor. Boil times vary.
Fermentation
Yeast is added for fermentation, converting sugars into CO2 and alcohol. Fermentation takes weeks.
Conditioning
Beer conditions in tanks or bottles, smoothing out flavors. Some styles undergo additional aging.
Packaging
Craft beer is packaged into cans, bottles or kegs. Unfiltered beer provides a fuller flavor and appearance.
Key Takeaways
- Craft beer is produced by small, independent breweries focused on quality and innovation.
- Popular craft beer styles highlight unique flavors like hops, sours, stouts, and wheats.
- Craft beers feature high quality ingredients and experimental combinations of hops, malt, yeast, fruit and spices.
- Through innovative brewing processes, craft brewers create an amazing diversity of full-flavored beers.
So don’t be intimidated the next time you see an odd-sounding beer on the shelf with an ingredient list at American restaurant. Craft beer is all about discovering new tastes. Sample a variety of styles to discover your favorites. Part of the craft beer experience is learning as you go, so feel free to ask your local brewer or bartender any questions. Don’t hesitate to try limited small-batch beers and provide feedback directly to your brewer. Remember – exploring craft beer should be fun! The more you learn, the more you’ll enjoy this tasty world of flavorful brews.
