Beer

Larger quantities of beer foam than shown atop this glass caused a stir in 1990s England when people received less than a pint (568 ml) of beer for the price of a pint.

A beer is any of a variety of alcoholic beverages produced by the fermentation of starchy material derived from grains or other plant sources. The production of beer and some other alcoholic beverages is often called brewing. Historically, beer was known to the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Mesopotamians, and dates back at least as far as 4,000 BC. Because the ingredients used to make beer differ from place to place, beer characteristics (type, taste, and colour) vary widely.

Ingredients

Typically, beers are made from water, malted barley, hops, and fermented by yeast. The addition of other flavourings or sources of sugar is not uncommon.

Because beer is composed mainly of water, the source of the water and its characteristics have an important effect on the character of the beer. Many beer styles were influenced or even determined by the characteristics of the water in the region.

Among malts, barley malt is the most often and widely used owing to its high enzyme content (which facilitates the breakdown of the starch into sugars) but other malted and unmalted grains are widely used, including wheat, rice, maize, oats, and rye.

Hops are a relatively recent addition to beer, having been introduced only a few hundred years ago. They contribute a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt and have a mild antibiotic effect that favours the activity of brewer's yeast over less desirable organisms. Yeast, in a process called fermentation, metabolize the sugars extracted from the grains, producing many compounds including alcohol and carbon dioxide. Dozens of strains of natural or cultured yeasts are used by brewers, roughly sorted into three kinds: ale or top-fermenting, lager or bottom fermenting, and wild yeasts. The scientific name for brewer's yeast is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, an important model organism in molecular and cell biology.

One pint of beer typically contains about two units of alcohol, although alcohol content can vary significantly with style and brewer.

History

This column of beer and taps behind dispense beer for bartenders to serve bar patrons in Brussels.

Almost any sugar or starch-containing food can naturally undergo fermentation, and so it is likely that beer-like beverages were independently invented in cultures throughout the world. In Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is on a 6000-year old Sumerian tablet which shows people drinking a beverage through reed straws from a communal bowl. Beer is also mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and a 3900-year old Sumerian poem honoring the brewing goddess Ninkasi contains the oldest surviving beer recipe, describing the production of beer from barley via bread. Beer became vital to all the grain-growing civilizations of classical antiquity, especially in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Babylonian Code of Hammurabi required that tavern-keepers who diluted or overcharged for beer should be put to death.

Beer was important to early Romans, but during Republican times wine displaced beer as the preferred alcoholic beverage, and beer became considered a beverage fit only for barbarians. Tacitus wrote disparagingly of the beer brewed by the Germanic peoples of his day.

In Slavic languages, beer is called "pivo", from the verb "piti" — to drink. So, "pivo" could be translated to English as "the drink".

The Kalevala, collected in written form in the 19th century but based on oral traditions many centuries old, contains more lines about the origin of brewing than are devoted to the origin of man.

Most beers until relatively recent times were what we would now call ales. Lagers were discovered by accident in the sixteenth century when beer was stored in cool caverns for long periods; they have since largely outpaced ales in volume. (See below for the distinction.) The use of hops for bittering and preservation is a mediaeval addition. Hops were cultivated in France as early as the 800s. The oldest surviving written record of the use of hops in beer is in 1067 by Abbess Hildegard of Bingen: "If one intends to make beer from oats, it is prepared with hops." In 15th century England, an unhopped beer would have been known as an ale, while the use of hops would make it a beer. Hopped beer was imported to England (from the Netherlands) as early as 1400 in Winchester and hops were being planted on the island by 1428. The Brewers Company of London went so far as to state "no hops, herbs, or other like thing be put into any ale or liquore wherof ale shall be made — but only liquor (water), malt, and yeast." However, by the 16th century, "ale" had come to refer to any strong beer, and all ale and beer were hopped.

Methods of brewing changed very little from that time. In 1953, New Zealander Morton W Coutts developed the technique of continuous fermentation which was the first major change to brewing since the 16th century. Morton patented his process which revolutionised the industry by reducing a four-month long brewing process to less than 24 hours [1]. His process is still used my many of the world’s major breweries today, including Guinness.

Types of beer

There are many different types of beers. A comprehensive description of beer styles can be found at the website of the Beer Judge Certification Program.

Lager

Lagers are probably the most common type of beer consumed. They are of Central European / German origin, taking their name from the German lagern ("to store"). Bottom-fermented, they were traditionally stored at a low temperature for weeks or months, clearing, acquiring mellowness, and becoming charged with carbon dioxide. These days, with improved fermentation control, most lager breweries use only short periods of cold storage (1–3 weeks).

Although many styles of lager exist, most of the lager produced is light in colour, high in carbonation with a mild hop flavour and an alcohol content of 3–6% by volume. Styles of lager include:

• Bock
• Helles
• Dry beer
• Märzen (only made for Bavarian Oktoberfest)
• Pilsener
• Schwarzbier

Ale

Top-fermented beers, particularly popular in the British Isles, include mild, bitter, pale ale, porter, and stout. Top-fermented beers tend to be more flavoursome, including a variety of grain flavours and fermentation flavours; they have also lower carbonation and are fermented and ideally served at a higher temperature than lager. Stylistic differences among top-fermented beers are decidedly more varied than those found among bottom-fermented beers and many beer styles are difficult to categorize. California Common beer, for example, is produced using a lager yeast at ale temperatures. Wheat beers are often produced using an ale yeast and then lagered, sometimes with a lager yeast). Lambics employ wild yeasts and bacteria, naturally-occurring in the Payottenland region of Belgium. Other examples of ale include stock ale and old ale. Real ale is a term for beers produced using traditional methods, and without pasteurization.

Other

• Wheat beer, including hefeweizen
• Barleywine
• Sake

North American beers are listed below.

Beer and nationality

Armenia

Armenia is more famous by its cognac, vodka and also wine. Three local beer brands are available throughout the country: Kilikia (named after a historic Armenian kingdom at the Mediterranean coast), Kotayk (named after Armenian province east of Yerevan) and Erebuni (historical settlement in southeasternpart of present day Yerevan). Russian beers, esp. Baltika, are also widely available throughout the country.

Austria

People usally drink beer that is brewed locally, like Mohrenbräu or Fohrenburger in Vorarlberg and Gösser or Schwechater in the eastern parts of Austria.

Australia

It is a common misconception that Australians drink Foster's Lager. This is untrue — it is a joke among Australians that Fosters was so bad that they decided to export that one and keep the rest. Australians are divided over their beer by their state; Queenslanders love their XXXX; South Australians drink Coopers; in New South Wales they drink Tooheys; Victorians prefer a VB; Western Australians drink Swan beer; and Tasmanians are further divided; those in the north drink Boags, and those in the south drink Cascade. Although it is generally quite difficult to tell an Australian that there is any other beer than his home state's beer, other popular brews are Hahn and Crown. Particularly in the trendier areas of the major cities, specialty brews, including a wide variety of ales, some by new divisions of the major brewers and some by new microbreweries, are beginning to become popular, as are some foreign beers.

Having said that, you can pretty much get most of these beers anywhere except the grubbiest most down-market pubs and clubs, which exclusively serve VB, the various varieties of Tooheys, and in NSW Resches.

Belgium

Like other nationalities, Belgians pride themselves on their rich beer culture. There are over 1500 kinds of Belgian beer (including label beer) among which Stella Artois, Alken Maes, Jupiler, Delirium Tremens (brand), Duvel, Kwak, Leffe and Hoegaarden are some of the best known. It is often said (particularly by Belgians) that the Belgian beers are particularly excellent. Lambics, known for their sour taste, are unique to Belgium, being prepared via spontaneous fermentation by wild yeasts endemic to the vicinity of Brussels. Belgium is the only country that has Trappist beer. External link: Beers of Belgium.

Each variety of Belgian beer is served in a specific glass. The shape and size of the glass varies, and functions to enhance the flavor of the particular beer.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria, while being quite a small country in Eastern Europe, has quite a number of beer brands. The most popular breweries (all producing namesake lagers) are Zagorka (produced mainly in Stara Zagora), AstikA (Produced in city of Haskovo) and Kamenitza. Other remarkable brands are Stolichno (bock beer produced by Zagorka), Shumensko (both lager and red ale, produced in the city of Shumen), Burgasko (produced in the city of Burgas), MM (produced in the city of Varna), Pirinsko (brewed in the city of Blagoevgrad), and Plevensko (produced in the city of Pleven). Most of the Bulgarian breweries are currently owned by foreign breweries, such as Heineken (Zagorka) and Interbrew (AstikA and Kamenitza).

Canada

Canada has a long history of beer production as the cold winter climate provided ideal conditions for brewing before artificial refrigeration was invented. It is well known for its two large commercial breweries, Molson and Labatt, and also for its large number of smaller companies brewing premium beers. Among these micro/mini breweries are Saint John, New Brunswick's Moosehead Brewery, Vancouver, British Columbia's Granville Island Brewery, Halifax, Nova Scotia's Alexander_Keith's Brewery, Calgary, Alberta based Big Rock Brewery and Guelph, Ontario's Sleeman Brewing and Malting Company. In addition, the popular SCTV characters, Bob & Doug McKenzie, are famous Canadian characters who are as associated for their love of beer as Cheech and Chong are for marijuana. I Am Canadian is a beer commercial that became a source of national pride.

Czech Republic

The Pilsener style of beer originated in the town of Plzen in Bohemia, and the Czechs make many well known and well regarded beers of this style, including the original Budweiser that recently obtained the PDO/PGI/TSG in the EU. The Czechs consume the highest per capita amount of beer.

Egypt

The local brand is called Stella, not to be confused with the Belgian Stella Artois. It is primarily sold to foreign, non-Muslim, tourists.

Estonia and Finland

Both of these countries are known for their traditional Sahti, which is a beer made from rye or oat malts that are filtered through straws and juniper twigs. According to beerhunter Michael Jackson, it is by far the oldest continuous living tradition of beer making, representing nothing less than a direct link with Babylonian beer-making methods.

France

Although the French market is dominated by industrial breweries, the Nord/Pas-de-Calais possesses strong brewing traditions and breweries (Pelforth, for example), which it shares with its Belgian neighbor across the border. Alsace, also has a strong tradition of brewing beer with bottom fermenting yeasts in the German style. Nowadays, there are more and more micro breweries that are producing "fashion beer", especially in the regions with a strong identity (Brewerie Lancelot in Bretagne, beer Pietra in Corsica,...)

Germany

With an extremely strong beer-oriented culture, the German market is a bit sheltered from the rest of the world beer market by the German brewers adherance to the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot (purity commandment) dating from 1516, according to which the only allowed ingredients of beer are "Wasser (water), Hopfen (hops) und (Gersten-)Malz (barley-malt)". After the invention of cultured yeast it entered the deal as the fourth legal ingredient. Through this agreement (which was law up to 1988 but it still adhered to by virtually all German brewers), beers from Germany tend to have a good reputation for their quality. The Germans are slightly behind the Czechs in their per capita consumption of beer. There are a variety of different styles of German beer, such as Helles (lager from Bavaria), Weizen (fermented wheat beer), Koelsch (top-fermented beer from the Cologne region), Alt (a dark beer drunk around Duesseldorf and Dortmund), the most popular kind Pilsner, Export (a milder version of Pilsner, more suited to "international" tastes) and Bock beer (a dark, very strong beer).

While the beer market is more centralized in northern Germany (with the biggest brands Krombacher, Warsteiner and Bitburger each selling about 400 million liters), the south has lots of very small, local breweries which add up to a total of 1350 breweries in Germany producing over 5000 brands of beer. One of these breweries, the Benedictine abbey Weihenstephan (established in 725) is reputedly the oldest existing brewery in the world.

The alcohol content usually is between 4.7% and 5.4% for most traditional brews. Bockbier or Doppelbock (double Bockbier) however can have an alcohol content of up to 12%, beating many Wines. Bockbier season is during June and July and a lot of local Bockbier festivals are typically held in the south of Germany.

The Munich Oktoberfest is well known for the millions of litres that are served every year (almost 6).

India

Modern brewing began for India in the early days of the British Empire — the mid-1700s. The demand for beer in the hot Indian climate by the British administrators and the troops was so great that it led to the creation of a completely new style of beer by George Hodgson in his London brewery — India Pale Ale. IPA is a strong, highly hopped ale designed to survive the five month ocean voyage to India without spoiling. India Pale Ale was shipped with every voyage for over a century and became very popular in Britain and North America.

In the late 1820s Edward Dyer moved from England to set up the first brewery in India at Kasauli (later incorporated as Dyer Breweries in 1855) in the Himalaya near Shimla, producing Asia's first beer called Lion. The brewery was soon shifted to nearby Solan (close to the British summer capital Shimla), as there was an abundant supply of fresh springwater there. The Kasauli brewery site was converted to a distillery which Mohan Meakin Ltd. still operates. Dyer set up more breweries at Shimla, Murree, Rawalpindi and Mandalay.

Another entrepreneur, H G Meakin, moved to India and bought the old Shimla and Solan Breweries from Edward Dyer and added more at Ranikhet, Dalhousie, Chakrata, Darjeeling and Kirkee. In 1935, when Burma was separated from India, the company was restructured with its Indian assets as Dyer Meakin Breweries, a public company on the London Stock Exchange. Following independence in 1949, N.N. Mohan took over management of the company and the name was changed to Mohan Meakin. The company continues to produce beer across India to this day and Lion is still available in northern India.

Today however, no brewer in India makes India Pale Ale. All Indian beers are either lagers (5 per cent alcohol — such as Australian lager) or strong lagers (8 per cent alcohol - such as the popular MAX super strong beer). International Breweries have recently announced an intention to work with Mohan Meakin to produce and launch an India Pale Ale called Indian IPA from India's first brewery at Solan.

In various parts of north-eastern India, traditional rice beer is quite popular. Several festivals feature this nutritious, quite intoxicating, drink as part of the celebrations. The rice is fermented in vats that are sometimes buried underground. It is quite popular, and not only with humans. Elephants have been known to attack villages and raid these vats.

Ireland

Ireland is best known for stout, of which Guinness is the largest selling and most widely distributed brand. Guinness also make the most widely distributed Irish lager: Harp. It is recommended that Guinness be served after being poured, waiting for three minutes and then topped-up. Along with Guinness there are also Murphy's, Caffrey's and Beamish.

Jamaica

Red Stripe is Jamaica's best-known beer. It is considered to be a blonde lager.

Japan

Beer is the most favoured alcoholic drink in Japan. It was introduced in the early Meiji Era from Germany. Major makers are Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo while small local breweries supply distinct tasting beers. Lager beers are most common but beers made with lower grain contents called "Happoushu" (low malt beer, sparkling alcoholic drink) have captured a large part of the market as tax is lower on these products. Drinking beer with salted boiled beans, edamame, is known as a favourite summer pastime for adults.

Latvia

Beer is a historic traditions in Latvia and is known to have been made before the Northern Crusades in the thirteenth century. Today, the most popular brand in Latvia is Aldaris.

New Zealand

The indigenous people of New Zealand (Maori) did not brew beer. Major ingredients of beer were not introduced to New Zealand until Europeans arrived in the mid 1800s. The late European history is characterised by the dominance of about three large breweries. The dominance of these was helped by the buying of some of the small local breweries. From the mid 1980s small boutique or microbreweries started to emerge. Consequently, the range of beer styles increased. Some pubs operate their own small breweries, often housed within the pub itself. Wine and ready mixed alcoholic drink consumption is increasing and is lessening the quantity of beer being sold.

Netherlands

The most popular beers in the Netherlands are Grolsch, Heineken, and Amstel. Most large breweries in the Netherlands are owned by Heineken.

Norway

High taxation and stringent rules governing when and where alcoholic beverages may be sold have made Norway somewhat of a harsh climate for beer drinkers. Nevertheless, in common with many European countries, there is a rich tradition of brewing in Norway. Currently, the Norwegian beer market is dominated by two large brewers: Carlsberg-Ringnes and Hansa-Borg. Most of their output is in the form of lager-style beers such as Pilsner and Fatøl which are widely (and to some extent exclusively) available and heavily consumed. Bayerøl, a kind of dark lager, slightly sweeter than German dark lagers, is also readily available. Freudenlund Bayerøl, brewed by Ringnes, is the most ubiquitous example of this style. Bokkøl is a stronger style of beer, typically 6-7% ABV, dark, with a sweet, complex flavour. A good example is Makk Bok-Øl, produced by the Makk brewery in the arctic city of Tromsø. Due to government restrictions, beers above 5% ABV are only available from licensed premises or the state-run Vinmonopol chain of shops. This rule has had a rather drastic impact upon the market, hence the production of strong beers, yet it is well worth the effort of locating them. Good locally produced beer can also be found at the small number of Norwegian brewpubs: for example the Trondhjem Microbryggeri in Trondheim.

Poland

Beer has always been extremely important for Poles. One Polish ruler, encouraged by the Pope to take part in a crusade, refused because, as he wrote to the Pope, the holy land has no beer. Traditional Polish beer is usually pilsener, lager or porter. The most popular Polish brands are Żywiec, Okocim, EB, Lech, Lezajsk, and Tyskie.

• Polish brands of beer

Romania

Romanian beer is known in Central and Eastern Europe for its taste and low price. Ursus is the king of the Romanian beer from 1879 (a brand of South African Breweries). Other traditional Romanian beer brands are Timisoreana, Bucegi and Neumarkt.

Russia

Russians are always being known as heavy drinkers and beer (Russian Ieai – Pivo) it is probably nation's number two alcoholic drink after Vodka. Unlike the rest of the world, Russians categorize beer by color, not by fermentation process: Light, Red or Semi-Dark, and Dark. Light is a more or less equivalent to Lager and last two are close to Ales. There are also super-strong beers (6-10% of alcohol) very popular in Russia. The most known brands of Russian beer are Baltica and Stary Melnik, however almost every region of Russia is proud to have its own brewery. By Russian laws beer is not categorized as an alcoholic drink so it can be bought really everywhere.

Serbia and Montenegro

see Beer in Serbia and Montenegro

Slovakia

The most famous brands in Slovakia are Šariš, Smaedny mnich (Thirsty Monk), and Zlaty bazant ((Golden pheasant).

United Kingdom

One common stereotype of the British (and indeed most residents of the British Isles) concerns their love of "warm beer". In fact, their beer is usually served around 12 degrees Celsius — not as cool as most cold drinks, but still cool enough to be refreshing. Modern-day pubs keep their beer constantly at this temperature, but originally beer would be served at the temperature of the cellar in which it was stored. Proponents of British beer say that it relies on subtler flavours than that of other nations, and these are brought out by serving it at a temperature that would make other beers seem harsh. Where harsher flavours do exist in beer (most notably in those brewed in Yorkshire), these are traditionally mitigated by serving the beer through a hand pump fitted with a sparkler, a device that mixes air with the beer, oxidising it slightly and softening the flavour. Nowadays, only real ale tends to be served via a hand pump, not a typical way for mass-produced beers to be served; it is common to find the latter sold in bottles or drawn from a carbon dioxide-driven tap. Real Ale is championed by the Campaign for Real Ale. With the growing of hops being characteristic of southern counties in particular Kent, traditional southern beers, such as London Pride, south of a line that can been drawn from the Bristol channel to the Wash (on the east coast of England) typically contain more hops than those found north of this line such as Boddingtons.

United States

The USA has always been a beer-drinking nation. The diary of William Bradford records that the Mayflower made landfall at Plymouth Rock under duress: "We could not now take much time for further search...our victuals being much spent, especially our beer." [2]

The brewing traditions of England and the Netherlands (as brought to New York) ensured that the colonies would be dominated by beer drinking and not the imbibing of wine. Up until the middle of the 19th century, ales dominated American brewing. This changed as the lager styles, brought by German immigrants, turned out to be more profitable for large-scale manufacturing and shipping. Names such as Miller, Pabst, and Schlitz became known through the breweries they founded or acquired, and many others followed. Czech immigrants also made their contributions to US beer.

The lager brewed by these companies was not the extremely weak and mild lager now associated with modern US megabreweries. This American pilsner was a significantly stronger beer, both in flavour and alcohol, that was designed to meet the appetites of both native Americans and central European immigrants.

All of this came to a halt when Prohibition was imposed. Only a few of the largest breweries were able to stay in business — by manufacturing near beer, malt syrup, or other non-alcohol grain products. Production and shipping of alcohol was largely confined to illegal operations, which could deliver potent liquors — smuggled rum and domestic moonshine — more efficiently and safely than bulkier products such as beer.

For more than fifty years after the end of Prohibition, the United States beer market was heavily dominated by large commercial breweries, producing beers more noted for their uniformity than for any particular flavour. Beers such as those made by Anheuser-Busch and Coors followed a restricted pilsner style, with large-scale industrial processes and the use of low-cost ingredients (such as rice and corn). The dominance of the so-called "macrobrew" led to an international stereotype of "American beer" as poor in quality and flavour.

However, since the resurgence of the commercial craft brewing industry in the 1980s, the United States now features many beers, offered by over 1500 brewpubs, microbreweries, and regional brewers such as Anchor (San Francisco) and Sierra Nevada (Chico, CA), and contract brewed brands such as Samuel Adams (beer). In much of eastern Pennsylvania including Philadelphia, the word "lager" is synonymous with Yuengling Traditional Lager, a flavorful beer from a regional brewery in Pottsville founded in 1829, making it the oldest continuously operating brewery in America. While in volume, the macrobrews still dominate, smaller producers brew in a variety of styles influenced by local sources of hops and other ingredients as well as by various European traditions.

The Association of Brewers has identified the following styles of North American origin:

• American-style pale ale
• American-style strong pale ale
• Imperial or double India pale ale
• American-style amber/red ale
• California Common beer
• Imperial or double red ale
• Golden or blonde ale
• American-style brown ale
• American lager
• American-style light lager
• American-style light amber lager
• American-style pilsener
• Dry lager
• American ice lager
• American malt liquor
• American-style Maerzen/Oktoberfest
• American dark lager

The success of the commercial craft brewing industry has led the large breweries to invest in smaller breweries such as Widmer, and to develop more complex beers of their own.

Related drinks

Beers, and similar beverages made from raw materials other than barley, include:

• hundreds of local African drinks made from millet, sorghum, and other available starch crops
• Finnish sahti
• Russian/Ukrainian kvass
• Chinese samshu
• Korean suk,
• Japanese sake, all brewed from rice
• pulque, an indigenous Mexican beer made from the fermented sap of the agave plant
• chicha, a Andean beverage made from germinated maize.

Brewing industry

• Anheuser-Busch (St. Louis)
• Budvar (Czech Republic)
• Interbrew (Belgium)
• Heineken (Netherlands)
• Prazdroj or Pilsner Urquell (Czech Republic)
• SABMiller (formerly South African Breweries)
  • Miller Brewing
• Carlsberg
• Scottish and Newcastle
• Swedish brewing industry

Commercial brands of beer

• List of commercial brands of beer

Quotes

• "Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy." — Benjamin Franklin
• We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice." — Samuel Johnson in 1781 on the sale of Henry Thrale's Anchor Brewery
• "Give me a woman who truly loves beer, and I will conquer the world." — Kaiser Wilhelm II
• "Malt does more than Milton can to justify God's ways to man" — A. E. Housman
• "This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord has intended a more divine purpose. Let us give praise to His name, and glory to his creation, by learning about beer!" Friar Tuck in the movie Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves.
• "Alcohol: The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." — Homer Simpson
• "He drank the Rainier and wouldn't drink the Busch beer." — Lisa Broxson, a campground employee; "He didn't like that (Busch) and consumed ... about 36 cans of Rainier." — Sgt. Bill Heinck of the Fish and Wildlife enforcement of Washington State, U.S. In August 2004, a wild American black bear was found passed out drinking too much stolen beer in Baker Lake, Washington.

See also

• Public house
• Alcoholism
• Drunkenness
• Widget
• Draft beer (aka draught or tap beer)
• Ice beer
• Non-alcoholic beer
• Near beer
• Beer belly
• Mead
• Cider
• Perry
• Wine
• Beer Judge Certification Program
• Smokebeer
• Homebrewing

External links

• The Oxford Bottled Beer Database — Where the public is encouraged to review different beers.
• [3] — The Budweiser brewery in the Czech Republic.
• Pilsner Urquell — The World's First Golden Beer
• carlsberg.com — danish brewery.
• ratebeer.com — Extensive evaluations of various beers.
• "Beer 101" class — BeerAdvocate.com
• World Brewing Academy — professional education in brewing technology, web based training
• www.bjcp.org Beer Judge Certification Program — has certified over 2000 brewers and beer-lovers, primarily in the US
• American Breweriana Association — organization dedicated to the collection of all things related to beer and breweries
• Interbrew — Belgian brewery holding
• Prague TV's Beer Counter for the Czech Republic — shows the number of litres consumed by Czech nationals so far this year