Come to a cup of craft brewed summer, let the fireworks at night be more intense.
You can always find the one that suits you best. Whether it’s at the end of a busy day, or when you’re having a barbecue with friends, you know you’re looking for hops and barley. A cold drink at this time must be the best option. Would you choose beer or craft? When it comes to craft beer vs commercial beer, the answer is always craft beer.
If you’ve been drinking popular commercial beer for a long time, I suggest you try craft beer. Produced by small, local, independent breweries, craft beer has a rich, unique flavor that may change your perception of beer in a way that’s almost impossible to achieve at a large commercial brewery.
What is so special about craft beer?
1. Better Taste
Craft beer has a richer and more distinct taste than watery mass produced beer. Most craft brewers are passionate about the taste and flavour of their beer. So they invest the time and energy required to maintain or improve the quality of the beer instead of concentrating on huge marketing campaigns. This is the Spirit of Craft Beer.
2. More Variety
Craft beer has a rich aroma, different shades of color, and different types of craft beer have different aromas. According to the brewing process, there are two types of ale and lager. The so-called craft beer is the beer brewed by the ale craft, also known as craft beer. It is a good beer that absolutely meets the requirements in terms of alcohol content and taste.
3. Health Benefits
Craft beer contains antioxidants, protein and vitamin B complex. Scientific research has shown that hops can act as a barrier to the gradual decline of cognitive function in the brain. Regularly citing craft beer (in moderation, of course) is good for your health because it uses high-quality ingredients.
4. More Alcohol
Most craft beers will give you more alcohol (at least 5% to 10%), and some will even offer up to 20% alcohol. Beers from large commercial breweries rarely offer more than 2.5% alcohol. That’s why they are typically called mass produced “beer water”. So you’ll need less craft beer every time you drink.
5. Better Ingredients
Beer is usually made from water, hops, grains and yeast, but most local breweries make sure to use the highest quality ingredients to brew the beer. Take a tour of the craft brewery closest to you and you’ll find them using fresh, organically grown, high-quality ingredients. In fact, almost all craft breweries are ready for you to see and understand the ingredients they use.
6. Supporting the Local Economy
Drinking locally made craft beer helps support the economy of the community where you live. You will help local farmers and create more jobs locally. Additionally, most craft breweries fund local charities and help host local events. So you should drink craft beer to help your community thrive.
What is craft beer?
Craft Beer is hand-brewed craft beer. Wikipedia defines it as a small-scale production of craft beer, while emphasizing the brewing craftsmanship of quality, style and taste.
The Brewer’s Association has three clear definitions for craft beer: low production, independent, and traditional brewing. The so-called tradition is the craft beer brewed only with malt, hops, water and yeast as the main raw materials.
Can such simple four elements make beer with multiple flavors?
1. Malt – an indispensable key to giving craft beer the soul
Soaking grains in water to germinate them produces malt. Malt is basically divided into four categories: base malt, special malt, caramel malt, dark malt, if more subdivided, there can be hundreds of types.
Malt plays a pivotal role in the composition of beer. It can affect the overall tone of craft beer, including taste, beer color, and aroma presentation, giving beer its soul.
For example: dark beer, which uses dark malt that has been roasted for an extended period of time, provides a deeper and richer taste experience for the beer.
2. Hops – Little Fairy that adds scent to Craft Beer
Craft beer can’t be made without hops!
When you’re drinking beer, you’re often smelling something special, and that’s usually where it comes from.
Hops, also known as Humulus lupulus, its essential oil is the key to the aroma of craft beer.
A very special point of hops is that they have “terroir characteristics”, which will create their own unique aroma and taste under the soil environment of different countries.
It will affect the bitterness, foam persistence, and clarity of the craft beer due to different processing procedures. At the same time, the hops contain resin components, which can inhibit bacterial reproduction and prolong the shelf life of craft beers.
3. Water – Its mineral ratio affects the flavor of craft beer
Craft beer, like all beverages, the most basic raw material is “Water”. What’s so special about it?
First of all, brewing has standard water quality, and the pH value should be between 5.5 and 5.8, which is a slightly acidic water quality.
Secondly, according to different geology and climate, the proportion of minerals in water in different countries and regions is also different, which greatly affects the flavor of craft beer.
For example, the Czech Pilsen beer (Pilsen), because the local water quality is filtered by granite and has less minerals, is suitable for making beer with light-colored malt, which makes the hop aroma more prominent and creates a warm and balanced beer.
Finally, the most important step for water in the hand-brewing process is the addition of saccharification in the malting process, the operation of the machine, and the cooling of the wort, which also requires a very large amount of water.
4. Yeast – the magic of turning all ingredients into craft beer
In terms of brewing craft beer, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is roughly divided into three major families: Lager, Ale and Lambic. The former two are distinguished by different fermentation temperatures, and the latter is floating in Wild yeast in the air may ferment a special smell.
The wort produced by all the aforementioned raw materials can be converted into beautiful craft beer only after fermentation by yeast, absorption of sugar, release of alcohol and carbon dioxide.
In addition to the four brewing elements introduced above, you can also add auxiliary raw materials such as honey, fruit peel, and coffee beans to ferment together, so that the ingredients can blend with each other to create a unique flavor.
Craft beer is a more high-end beer. It is precisely because of its plasticity and diversity that many brewers explore creativity and add unique personality to beer. It can be said that craft beer is people’s pursuit of a higher level of beer.
What is the difference between craft beer and commercial beer?
Appearance: Commercial beers are usually pale yellow and watery, and the beer head poured into the glass doesn’t last long. Craft beers are available in a variety of colors, and depending on the brew, have a crisp finish and a long-lasting taste.
Taste: Commercial beers often taste drab and are almost always as cold as possible. Craft beer focuses on specific flavors that vary from batch to batch. It’s usually served between 50 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit so you can notice the flavor better.
Production: Commercial beer is often made from cheaper raw materials to reduce the price of the final product. For example, many popular beers now use rice or corn instead of traditional hops to keep costs down. Craft beer is made with specific, hand-selected ingredients and produced only in small batches by master brewers who truly love beer.
Why Craft Beer is Better?
As mentioned earlier, craft beer is specially brewed according to taste. You can hardly find two craft beers that are exactly the same because of the variety they offer. Craft beer also often varies by season, whether in winter, fall or spring, you can get craft beers made primarily for that season.
What’s nice about craft beers is that usually there is some degree of thought put into it, a bit of skill… craft you might even say and this means there are more varieties of flavours available. Some of these work, others are very much niche tastes like chilli beers. So you might not be a beer person but odds are there is a craft beer somewhere that you might like because it has just the right amount of smoked bacon flavour to it or is hopped to the brim and that’s your figurative cup of tea. You don’t get that with mass produced beer because its all part of an industrialised process that deliberately aims to create a consistent product and not interesting new beers.
If being slightly drunk is a short-term withdrawal from the orderly society, then after get off work, have a toast with friends or yourself, and have a toast to life!