Beer

While almost all beers are made from the same base ingredients, they aren't all the same. Here's what you need to know about the differences between these two classic beer styles.

From lagers to stouts.

There's almost no waiting and ZERO need for special equipment.

There are two ways to go when you want to pair beer with a spicy plate of jerk chicken or chili-spiked seafood. You can cool the burn or you can kick it even higher. Whichever way you go, we have a few suggestions.To tame the heat, you want a beer that balances out the spicy flavors in the dish. Beers that emphasize malts over hops do this job nicely. Light lagers are great – there’s a reason why most Mexican beers are lagers, after all!

Advertising a beer as “bottle-conditioned” might sound like a clever marketing ploy – after all, couldn’t every beer sold in a bottle technically be thought of as bottle-conditioned? Well, it turns out that this particular feature is more than just fancy words!Bottle-conditioning simply means that the beer is sealed into the bottle with a little yeast and extra sugar. The yeast consumes the sugar and carbonates the beer within a few weeks.

Keep these easy hacks in mind all summer long.

We loved Nora’s post earlier today about the Dark and Stormy, largely because we’ve been drinking these quite a bit this summer.We lucked out and found the authentic ingredients — Gosling’s rum and Barritts ginger beer — conveniently stocked together in our local liquor store. But just in case some of you are thinking about Dark and Stormies for the first time this weekend, here’s a photo of that retro Barritts can you’ll be looking for.

This past weekend, we got out all our shiny new beer brewing equipment and went to work. In this first phase, we boiled the wort, added the yeast, and got our very first batch of beer fermenting happily. Our evening of brewing definitely had a few bumps, however!1. Warm Up the Extract – These are cans of pre-hopped malt extract – basically, super-concentrated beer! We need to mix the extract with hot water to get the right concentration.

A week after brewing our first batch of beer, it was time to transfer it from the primary fermentation bucket into a clean carboy. We’ve never actually siphoned anything before, so this was quite an adventure!1. The End Goal – It’s not completely necessary to transfer the beer into another container at this point. Some sources say that the beer can start to develop off-flavors from the dead yeast or evaporate too much due to the bigger surface area.

We’ve brewed the beer, let it ferment, and now we’re finally ready to get it into bottles. We’re so close to having homebrew we can almost taste it! And in fact, we did sneak a little taste – for purely scientific reasons, of course. Take a look!1. Fermented Homebrew – This beer has now been fermenting for three weeks – one week in the primary fermenter and two weeks in the secondary.

Can you tell whether this photo is of a porter or a stout? We can’t! These are both dark beers with a similar range of malty, roasted, and bittersweet flavors. They also both have a reputation for being fairly heavy and for making us feel quite toasty while sipping them. So is there any difference at all between a porter and a stout?This mystery has bothered us for quite some time, so we dove into research and discovered some interesting facts!

This beer is absolutely unlike anything else we’ve ever tasted. In fact, when we first tried it a few years ago, we hated it! But now that our taste in beer has grown up a bit, we decided to give this spicy, fruity beer another shot.Beer Details – Golden Monkey from Victory Brewing Company in Downington, Pennsylvania. This is a Belgian-style tripel ale, meaning that it is brewed with triple the amount of malts typical of Belgian ales. (9.

A few weeks ago, we got very lucky. Not only did we manage to snag a bottle of the 2009 Widdershins Barleywine, newly released from Left Hand Brewing Company, but we also stumbled across an old bottle of the 2007 Widdershins lurking at the back of a shelf. A vertical tasting was most definitely in order!The idea of aging beers is a relatively new concept to us and a lot of other folks.

When we’re standing in front of a wall of beer at the store, we often have trouble remembering our dopplebocks from our imperial stouts and our pilsners from our pale ales. As much for our benefit as for yours, we wanted to do a few round-ups of common beer styles for handy reference. First up: lagers!Lagers are on one branch of the beer family tree, with ales on the other. Lager beers are made with a particular kind of yeast that ferments at cooler temperatures than ale yeast.

Browse through the beer section of any well-stocked store and you’ll notice the word “imperial” showing up in front of many of your favorite beers: imperial stout, imperial pale ale, imperial pilsner and who knows what else. That word might actually mean something different than you think!The term “imperial” was used in the 1800’s for beer (usually stout) that was brewed in England but then shipped to Russia – specifically the imperial court of Russia!

We’re probably going to catch some heat for saying this, but we find it infinitely easier to pair food with beer than with wine. Between the roasted malts and the herbal hops, craft brews have so many nuances of flavor that it seems like there’s gotta be something in there that you can match to your dinner. Here’s where to start!The very first rule of pairing beer and food is that anything goes. Seriously!

When we reviewed their Dirty Bastard Ale a few months back, several of you professed your love for another one of Founders offerings: their seasonally-available Breakfast Stout. Well, it’s now out in stores and we finally had a chance to try it. Hoo boy, you really weren’t kidding about this beer!Beer Details: Breakfast Stout from Founders Brewing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Double Chocolate Coffee Oatmeal Stout, 8.

If you like your beers bitter, hoppy, and crisp, the family of pale ales is the place to go. Curious what makes a pale ale pale? Or an India pale ale distinct? You have questions, and we have answers.You can think of these beers as a spectrum with more mild pale ales on one end and aggressively-hopped double IPAs on the other. There is a lot of variation within the spectrum and an exception to every rule, of course, but you can follow this as a general rule of thumb.

I’ve been mighty curious about these one-gallon homebrew kits from Brooklyn Brew Shop. They’re designed for apartment dwellers (check!) who don’t have a lot of space for brewing equipment (double check!) but who still want to brew great beer (triple check!). Talk about microbrewing!Nearly everything you need for a one-gallon jug of homebrew is included in the package: grains, hops, yeast, sanitizing powder, siphon canes and hoses, and the jug itself.

Now, we’re not trying to get into a “Which is better: beer or wine?” debate here. It’s just that we believe that there are some beers that you steadfast wine drinkers out there might really enjoy. Call them cross-over beers. As in, they cross the line between beer and wine. As in, come on over and we’ll pour you a pint.These beer styles draw on many of the same flavor profiles as our favorite wines: robust, fruity, and spicy; crisp, tart, and dry.

Back in college, being handed a foamy beer was cause for exasperated eye-rolling. But glance through any beer review these days, and you’ll see effusive odes to creamy heads of foam and the delicate lacing they leave behind. What gives? The foamy head on a glass of beer offers a few different things for our beer-drinking experience. For starters, each one of those little bubbles is carrying a puff of aroma.

When I first started brewing beer at home, I was a five-gallon girl — much like most new homebrewers. It’s just what you do. But there were drawbacks almost immediately. Brewing this much beer meant clearing out a precious coat closet for storing carboys and bottles, always having a buddy on hand to help lift the heavy (and hot!

Today’s topic: What’s going on inside the bottle right now, plus 5 amber ales to try while you wait The Kitchn’s Beer School: 20 lessons, 7 assignments to brew your first 1-gallon batch of beer. Sign up & see all the assignments! The Kitchn’s Beer School One more week to go until your beer is ready to drink! Are you feeling tempted to sample a bottle a little early? Totally understandable.