Beer : Health and Nutrition

70 Chapter Three
are fermented at very high gravities and so develop much higher alcohol contents (up
to 10% by volume). They are usually sold in smaller volumes, in bottles called ‘nips’.
Porters (named after the main customers in eighteenth-century London) are traditionally
very dark, due to the use of a proportion of roasted barley in the grist, and not
overwhelmingly strong (about 5% ABV). Stouts are close relatives of porter, originating
in Ireland, with intense colour and burnt, smoky avours due to the use of roasted barley
adjuncts, and high bitterness. These robust avour characters are frequently mellowed
by the use of nitrogen gas, which ‘smoothes’ the palate as well as affording the rich,
white and creamy foam. Alcohol content may be between 4 and 7%, with up to 10% in
Imperial stouts. Sweet stouts are a British variant, of lower alcohol content (up to 4%
ABV), with less roast character (often due to the use of caramel and less roast barley
as colourant). Trappist beers, from Belgium, are relatively dark, intensely bitter, acidic
products of up to 12.5% alcohol by volume. Lambic and gueuze have very complex
avours, owing to the use of a more complex micro ora than brewing yeast alone.
They are sour (low pH) and usually hazy. Various avourants may be added, including
cherries (Kriek) or raspberries (Framboise). The German wheat beers comprise a
further class of top fermentation beers. Weizenbier is made from a grist of at least 50%
wheat malt. The products are relatively highly carbonated, affording a refreshing nature
alongside the fruity and phenolic (clove-like) characters. Often they are cloudy due to
yeast, which is employed traditionally to carbonate the bottled product through ‘natural
conditioning’. The products are relatively lightly coloured (straw-like) and have alcohol
contents of 5–6% by volume. Weissbier (‘white beer’) is much weaker (e.g. 2.8%
alcohol by volume), made from a grist of less than 50% wheat malt, with the addition
of lactic acid bacteria to generate a low pH of 3.2–3.4. Therefore such beers are quite
sour, and may be taken with raspberry or sweet woodruff syrups.
The classic style of bottom fermentation beers originated in Pilsen and is known as
Pilsner. It is quite malty with typically 4.8–5.1% ABV and a pale gold colour. Particularly
important is the ‘late hop character’, which is introduced by retaining a proportion of the
hops for addition late in the kettle boil. The term ‘lager’ is used by many, inaccurately,
as a synonym for Pilsner. Lager as a term is really an umbrella description for relatively
pale beers, fermented and dispensed at low temperatures.
Malt liquor is a term used to describe alcoholic products (6–7.5% ABV) which are
very pale, very lightly hopped and quite malty and sweet.
Light beers comprise the most rapidly growing segment of the beer market. ‘Standard’
beers retain a proportion of carbohydrate that is not fermentable by yeast, whereas a
light beer has most or all of this sugar converted into alcohol. These beers therefore
have fewer calories, provided that the extra alcohol is diluted to the level found in
‘normal’ beers.