CRAFT BEERS
IPAs
IPA stands for India Pale Ale. As the story goes, the drink earned its name during the British colonial era. It was too hot and humid to brew beer in India, but the British sailors still needed a drink. So they devised a heavily hopped beer (hops are a preservative) that could survive the months-long journey from the British Isles to India. The first recorded instance of an IPA being used to describe a beer was in an 1829 advertisement in the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser.
Lagers
Lager is beer which has been brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German for "storage", as the beer was stored before drinking – traditionally in the same cool caves it was fermented in.
Pilsner (also pilsener or simply pils) is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the Bohemian city of Plzeň (Pilsen), where it was first produced in 1842 by Bavarian brewer Josef Groll. The world's first pale lager, the original Pilsner Urquell, is still produced there today.
Kolsch beer stems from Cologne (Koln), Germany, but has found its way onto America's craft beer scene like many other German beers. Technically, for beer to be called a Kolsch, it has to come from the city of Cologne, but that hasn't stopped American craft brewers from embracing the Kolsch style of beers. Craft beer connoisseurs have been enjoying American Kolsch style beers during the warm seasons since the Kolsch was introduced to the American craft scene. This beer style pairs best with bratwurst, nutty cheeses, and even lighter desserts like apricot cake. We want to help you find a brewery that makes your next favorite Kolsch beer.
Belgian-Style
Belgian brewers often supplement the balance of malt sweetness and hop bitterness you find in every beer with fruity, spicy, floral and herbal aromas. Some Belgian beers are like running through a hayfield at harvest and others explode with a whole orchard of fruit flavors. You can sometimes find earthiness, a savory, mushroomy umami taste, and you can sometimes find sourness, ranging from a light tartness to a mouth-puckering acidity. There can be subtle flowery aromas from hops, hints of cardamom or chamomile, and perfumey alcohol aromas that smell like rose petals. You can find those same toasty or caramelly flavors you'll get from English beers, but they might be accompanied by a distinct aroma of dates and spices that transports you to a Levantine bazaar. Most importantly, when it's done properly the flavors are harmoniously balanced.
Ale
Ale is a type of beer brewed using a warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops.
As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to balance the malt and act as a preservative. Ale was originally bittered with gruit, a mixture of herbs or spices boiled in the wort before fermentation. Later, hops replaced gruit as the bittering agent.
Non-Alcoholic
Nonalcoholic beers are simply beers that have either had the alcohol removed or have been brewed to contain less alcohol than the legal limit. By law, beverages can claim to be nonalcoholic as long as they don't exceed the limit of 0.5 percent alcohol by volume (ABV), according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Stout
Stout is a dark, top-fermented beer with a number of variations, including dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout, and imperial stout.
The first known use of the word stout for beer, in a document dated 1677 found in the Egerton Manuscripts, referred to its strength. The name porter was first used in 1721 to describe a dark brown beer. Because of the huge popularity of porters, brewers made them in a variety of strengths. The stronger beers, typically 7% or 8% alcohol by volume (ABV), were called "stout porters", so the history and development of stout and porter are intertwined, and the term stout has become firmly associated with dark beer, rather than just strong beer
