What is beer?
Beer is a combination of fermented malt barley, hops, yeast, and water. Barley sprouts and grains are roasted to add sweetness to beer while hops, little green flowers from the hope vine, give beer its fruity flavor. Bittering hops, added early in the boiling process, provide bitterness to the beer to balance the sweetness of the malt. Finishing hops, added at the end of the boil, add flavor and aroma to the beer. Yeast makes beer by converting sugars from malt alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The two basic categories of beer are ales and lagers.

Ales
Robust, complex and fruity, these are brewed fast, fermenting the yeast at warmer temperatures. Some varieties of ales include Barley Wines, Amber and Red Ales, Bitters, Pale Ales, Porters and Stouts.

Lagers
Smooth, light in flavor and subtler than ales, lagers are brewed slowly at cooler temperatures. They're generally more carbonated than ales and include varieties like your basic American beers, ambers, reds, bocks and pilsners.