This foamy drink is appreciated and loved in many countries of the world. It is prepared from various ingredients in the East and in the West. The recipe may also vary, but the principle of natural fermentation remains valid everywhere - weak alcohol is produced. How many degrees should there be in beer and what can this characteristic depend on? We will talk about this and much more, no less interesting, in our article.
A bit about technology
How many degrees in beer directly depends on the technology of its preparation. Recall briefly the main stages of cooking this drink. It is obtained, like two millennia ago, with the help of alcoholic fermentation of wort from malt, brewer's yeast and hops. We won’t go into the intricacies of the process, but in this way a drink that is not too strong is usually obtained. How many degrees are usually in beer? From 3 to 5 and a half.
Raw materials
The main raw material for making the drink is barley. But in some countries beer is traditionally made from wheat (rye), rice, and corn. Drinks of the same nature can also be made from non-cereal. There is a banana, dairy, herbal, potato, and even fruit beer . Of course, from the point of view of our traditions, it’s hard to call it beer either!
Color and nature of fermentation
By color, beer is divided mainly into light or dark, as well as white and red, but there is still a dark (mixed) one. The latter occurs as a result of mixing dark and light.
By the nature of fermentation, beer is divided into lower and upper. The first type of fermentation, also called camp fermentation, occurs at a low temperature (from 4 to 9 degrees) and occurs when using special brewing yeast. How many degrees is this kind of beer? It is usually from 4 to 5.5. Top fermentation is the most ancient, known millennium ago method of making a drink at sufficiently high temperatures (up to 25 degrees). Ale and stout, porter and beer made from wheat - its bright representatives. Moreover, ale, for example, can be both dark and light - there are no special laws between the color of beer and fermentation methods.
Fortress
And yet, how many degrees of alcohol in beer? A fortress is the volume fraction of ethyl alcohol (percentage) contained in a particular drink. For most varieties, it does not traditionally exceed 3-5.5%. There are more high-grade varieties - 6-8 degrees. This is due to the fact that the ordinary yeast involved in the cooking process ceases to ferment at degrees of strength above 5.4%. For the production of a higher degree drink, special hardy microorganisms are used, and modern technologies allow you to cook very strong foamy drinks. German “Fetter 33” - 10.5%. Austrian Samiklaus - 11.8. Czech X-Beer 33 - 14%. These are the strongest varieties brewed by traditional methods. As a rule, for the production of such beer, additional technologies of freezing water and distillation are used.
The strongest
American beer “Samuel Adams”, which has a strength of 27%, and Dave with 29%, can be considered standards in this context. But these varieties are brewed with champagne yeast. Recently, the Scots released the drink "Tactical Nuclear Penguin", which has a fortress of 32%. Such a high portion of alcohol is achieved because the water in the beer is removed by freezing. And then a strong drink ripens in whiskey barrels. The same Scots in 2012 released the Armageddon collection beer, with a strength of 65%!
How many degrees are there in Zhiguli beer?
But our people are accustomed to more traditional degrees in beer. So, in the popular “Zhigulevsky” popular among the people, 4%, sometimes a little more (depending on the manufacturer). Usually this beer is not stronger than 5%.
How many degrees does Baltika beer have?
But with “Baltika” the situation is a little different. Under this brand produce beer of various strengths.
- "Nulevka". How many degrees does Baltika non-alcoholic beer have? Not more than 0.5%.
- No. 1 - light, 4.4% (special, light).
- No. 2 - bright special, 4.7%.
- "C grade" - the most famous and popular among the common population, bright, 4.8%.
- No. 4 “Original” - dark, 4.5%.
- No. 5 “Golden” - light, 5.3%.
- No. 6 “Porter” - dark, 7%.
Next are “Export”, “Wheat”, “Strong” (the favorite “nine”, 8%), “Jubilee”, “New Year's” and some other specific varieties of “Baltika”.
Non alcoholic
A few words about the so-called non - alcoholic beer. Contrary to its name, it still contains a small percentage of ethyl alcohol. Usually this rate is in the range of 0.2-1%. At the Donetsk plant "Sarmat" non-alcoholic with a content of 1.5% ethyl alcohol was produced. So those who like to give such beer to minors should know: this should not be done in any case! As a rule, it is not possible to completely get rid of alcohol. By the way, it may be contained there even more than stated on the label. There are several varieties of technology for obtaining "null": vacuum distillation, dialysis, suppression of fermentation. In any case, in such a beer a certain degree is necessarily present.