What is Rootbeer?

The English language has lots of words that are used in two or three different ways. For example, the word "cabinet" can mean "storage space in your kitchen" or "a group of folks who advise the president."

Beer is a word with two meanings. It can mean an alcoholic beverage made from cereal grains, or a non-alcoholic beverage flavored by root extracts. Root beer, birch beer and ginger beer are three common forms of this non-alcoholic sort of beer.

In the case of root beer, the flavoring comes from the root of the sassafras tree or the sarsaparilla vine. Originally, the root was brewed like a tea to make an extract, but now it is much easier to buy the extract ready-made.

The root beer extract is mixed with sugar, yeast and water. If this mixture is placed in a tightly sealed bottle, the yeast will generate carbon dioxide at a high enough pressure to carbonate the water. You end up with fizzy, delicious root beer!

Credits

http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Introduction

Beer comes in a wide variety of styles, each with their own individual flavours, strengths and textures. An alcoholic beverage must contain malted barley, yeast and water in order for it to qualify as a beer.

Beer is the world's oldest and most popular alcoholic beverage. The moderate consumption of beer has been associated with a decreased risk of cardiac disease, stroke and cognitive decline. However, there is strong evidence that heavy and prolonged consumption of alcohol leads to liver disease including cirrhosis and malignancy. Heavy alcohol consumption has also been linked to pancreatitis and gout.

Beer style is a term used to differentiate and categorize beers by various factors such as colour, flavour, strength, ingredients, production method, recipe, history, or origin.

Beers may be categorized based on a number of factors:

• Aroma
• Flavour
• Appearance
• Mouthfeel
• Strength
• Yeast
• Grains
• Hops
• Water
• Other Ingredients

Beer styles all fall into two broad types, determined by where the yeast sits during fermentation: ales and lagers.

Over the next few posts, I shall be touching in detail on all aspects related to beer.