Hefeweizen literally means wheat beer with yeast. Weizen or weissbier is the Bavarian style of wheat ale. Hefe is the German word for yeast. Hefewiezen should be cloudly and sometimes even murky. This is due to the high protein of the wheat as well as being unfiltered of yeast.

Some places in Bavaria will keep some extra yeast slurry just in case you want a little more in your beer; just ask for it mit hefe…

Most beer historians believe that the rich, dark ale called porter got its name from the hard-working porters of the London shipyards in the19th century. This was the porter’s drink, to provide refreshing nourishment and energy in order to do what had to be done. The origins of porter are older than its name, going back to the early 18th century. The ale was originally a concoction of stale brown ale, strong-brown ale and a lighter stock ale, hence its original name of the three threads (it was also sometimes called — entire — Intire Butt. If beer is the drink of the common-man, porter was the drink of the working-man.

London brown porterbecame the first mass-produced beer. There are many stories about the enormously large wooden vats that were built for mass production. Many of the vats were bigger than the largest stainless-steel vats used in today’s macro breweries. One story tells of a large banquet that was held inside one of the huge vats to serve as its “christening party”. One very unfortunate testament to the enormity of the vessels is the time when some of them ruptured, flooding the surrounding neighborhood and drowning several people. What a way to go! … (more…)

The subject of beer style guidelines is a hot-button issue amongst beer geeks and brewers. I once heard it described as a “right brainers vs. left brainers” issue. The argument centers on whether or not beer should be judged against a stylistic standard. For instance, does Anchor’s Liberty ale fit within the guidelines of “American india pale ale”?

The most widely used style guidelines are developed and maintained by the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program). The BJCP style guidelines exist for the sole purpose of setting standards for judging beer in homebrewing competitions. Many have taken the liberty of using them to benchmark commercial offerings of beer worldwide. I think this is an abuse of the guidelines, and is the real source of pain for many professional brewers.

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“You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.”

– Frank Zappa