After water and tea, beer is the most popular drink in the world. Beer is very common, but not everyone has taken a liking to it. It is an alcoholic beverage made from yeast-fermented malt, flavored with hops. Beer is the oldest alcoholic drink known to man and has gone by many names.
Before more recent times, beer was brewed by individuals and naturally carbonated. Now, beer is being brewed on an industrial scale with different brand names and flavors all using artificial carbonation. If you haven’t had a taste of beer before let’s quickly point out the fact that it doesn’t all taste the same.
What does beer taste like? Beer tastes like the combination of ingredients that have been used in the brewing process. Depending on what brand of beer you are drinking the taste might differ. But bringing it all down to the three basic ingredients in beer, it can taste fruity, spicy, or funky due to the yeast.
The addition of hops before the fermentation of the malt would make the beer bitter. The fermented malt turns into sugar which in turn creates alcohol during the fermentation process. This could add a sour taste to the mix.
You cannot describe the general taste of beer because there are numerous ways to brew it. The brewing process and ingredients used, determine the taste. If you are trying to find a brand you would fall in love with, you might try several ones.
What Does Beer Taste Like For The First Time?
If you are new to the experience of drinking beer, your first impression of its taste would be that it is bitter. This is due to the alpha acids that can be found in hops used for beer. If you have been told that beer is hoppy, your first taste would be bitter.
Beer can be brewed in different ways, different strains of yeast could make it taste sour instead of bitter.
Nutritional Benefits of Beer
Beer is sometimes referred to as liquid bread even though it is not a meal. This is because of the kind of micronutrients that it has. Nutrients like selenium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, chromium, B vitamins, and biotin.
There is a popular misconception that beer is bad for your health. It is attributed to be the cause of weight gain and an inevitable beer gut. For this reason, some people stay away from it entirely. But just like everything else, too much would be detrimental to one’s health. There are scientific reasons why beer might do our body some good if we take it moderately.
You have to be careful of the calories in beer while you drink, but these micronutrients can contribute to the body’s daily nutrient intake. Beer contains more protein and B vitamins than wine. It even possesses a few antioxidants.
You also have some folate, niacin, fiber, and silicon. Silicon can protect from osteoporosis. Some research carried out on beer suggests that it might contain probiotics that promote the health of the bacteria in our gut that aids digestion.
Beer could have a lot of benefits if drunk moderately. It could clean our teeth, boost brain power, and help reduce the risk of diabetes. It could also be responsible for stronger bones. It has been found that moderate beer consumption has resulted in more than average bone density in men.
Beer contains antioxidants, so it may help reduce inflammation and just might be able to help you live longer. All of these health benefits are great, but heavy alcohol use is deadly and does nothing good for the body. It nullifies all the good parts of beer. So, maybe having a bottle or two during the weekends is just fine.
Culinary Uses of Beer
The use of beer can extend past just having a cold one once in a while, you can include it in your cooking. There are a lot of amazing things you could do with beer in the kitchen, the prospect is very much exciting.
You can add beer to batter. If you are a fan of gastropub fish and chips this shouldn’t sound strange to you. Beer acts just like sparkling water, it carbonates the batter and makes it lighter, crisp, and airy.
You might have stumbled across a video online, seeing people shoving a can of beer into the butt of a chicken. This process is called beer butt chicken. The beer is kept up there so that it can evaporate and soak into the meat, keeping it moist while it cooks. The result is magical.
Beer can be used in marinades or used to create a smoky glaze for fish. It can also be used in cake baking or added to soups.
Where Did Beer Originate from? How to Procure It?
Beer is one of the world’s oldest alcoholic drinks. Evidence of the fermentation process used to brew beer can be carbon-dated to 13000 years ago.
In the written history of Egypt and Iraq, beer is recorded in them. Employers do sometimes pay their employees with casks of beer. The first beer might have been made and drunk as far back as 10000 BC.
Beer can be traced to the English although back then, it was called ale. The present-day word for beer comes from an old English word bēor. This word itself has common Germanic origins. In English and Old Norse, the beer word did not denote the alcoholic beverage ale. It referred to a sweet, potent drink made from honey and the juice of different fruits. In German meaning, the word bēor covered ale. When German ale became very popular, beer became the generally accepted name for alcoholic malt beverages.
Beer is not hard to find. If you are of drinking age and have an identity card to prove it, you can get it at the mall, grocery stores, or in drinking bars.
Facts You Don’t Know About Beer
- Beer was spread through all of Europe by Germanic and Celtic tribes in 3000BC. The beer drunk by Europeans back then might not be recognized as beer in the present day.
- In 1516, William the fifth, Duke of Bavaria adopted Reinheitsgebot. This is probably the oldest food-quality regulation law in history. It defined that the only ingredients of beer should be water, hops, and barley malt.