One might wonder what would be involved in spending a full day tasting some of the very best of the specialty beers now available in the world. In fact, every two years a professional panel of so-called beer judges does exactly that. These people have the honor of designating the top three beers in 81 different style categories by awarding gold, silver and bronze awards. The World Beer Cup, casually called the Olympics of beer, recently was held in the United States in Seattle, Washington. The Cup featured more than 2,000 entries from 540 brewers in 56 countries around the globe. The beer testing differs significantly from wine tasting. Unlike wine tasting, the beer judges actually drink the brew samples and do not spit it out as happens in typical wine tasting events. As Chuck Skypeck, the co-founder of Memphis, Tennessee based Bosco brewpubs, these judges are drinkers and not spitters. He indicated that in order to fully appreciate a given beer, you really must swallow and not just swish. Swallowing completes the experience. The award for Large Brewing Company went to Miller Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and its brewmaster Dr. David S. Ryder. (He also won in 2004.) The award for Lawrge Brewpub went to the Russian River Brewing Company of Santa Rosa, California and its own brewmaster, Vinnia Cilurzo. (Like Miller, Russian River also took home this award in 2004.) The award for Small Brewpub was given to Piece Brewing Co. of Chicago, Illinois, while the award for Small Brewing Company went to Brauerei Michael Plank of Laaber, Germany. Piece's winning brewmaster was Jonathan Cutler while the winning brewmaster at Brauerei Michael Plank was its founder, Michael Plank.
Beer is a common name for all types of alcohol beverages, manufactured from fermented cereals or a mixture of cereals, seasoned with hops.
Belgian types of beers:
Тrappist Beer:
Any beer, boiled in one of the six referred abbeys through top fermentation; the beer is durable and has a fruit taste.
Saison:
Saison is a type of beer in an amber or copper color, top-fermentation, from Belgium and France; in older days, it was manufactured only in summer, but presently, it is available throughout the year. It is available in liter bottles of a special Burgundian shape.
Lambic:
The beer is brewed from wheat in the Brussels region and has durable acidic characteristics and is manufactured through spontaneous fermentation with wild yeasts.
Guenze:
This variety of beer is formed by blending the old lambic with the new lambic followed by re-fermentation.
Faro:
A mixture of two different types of lambic beers sweetened by sugar and sometimes tinted and diluted with water. Faro is a partially old beer type.
Kriek:
This beer type is manufactured by adding sour cherries to a young lambic beer or guenze followed by a maturation process.
Berliner Weisse:
A variety of beer from North Germany; It is bitter and brewed through top-fermentation and made from wheat.
Best Bitter:
Is a variety of British ale and manufactured as per initial traditions till the end of the 1040s.
Biere de Garde:
A French term, pertaining to strong bottled ale, which is formed as a result of fermentation;
Bitter:
In Britain, the equivalent to bitter ale is a golden brown color. This variety of beer is made from top-fermentation, usually strongly hopped, dry and slightly aerated. It is served in 80% of the pubs in England.
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