Craft beer 101: Things to know before you drink

Craft brewers are defined by the Brewers Association as "small, independent and traditional," meaning they produce less than 6 million barrels of beer a year, are not more than 75 percent owned by another beverage industry company and use "traditional or innovative brewing ingredients." 

But Rob Fullmer of the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild says they like to keep the regulations a little more lax.

"We feel it’s more of a consumer thing." Fullmer says. "Our licenses dictate a microbrew is less than 200,000 barrels. Beyond that you’re considered a production brewery, but it’s still small." 

But as far as what makes a brew "craft," Fullmer considers it buyer's choice. The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in California, for example, which Forbes recently called "the king of craft beer," produces around 1 million barrels a year. 

What makes a beer local is a bit easier.

"Our guild supports breweries that are owned and operated in Arizona, and we leave it at that." Fullmer says. The Arizona Craft Brewers Guild counts 76 craft breweries in its membership. 

The Arizona Liquor Board has issued 93 licenses to microbreweries, 18 of those in Tucson.

Part of what makes craft brewing so distinct is the ability to play with flavors and styles. But beer basics are still the foundation, and knowing a bit will help you choose your brews, even when a knowledgable draught-curator can't be found.

John Adkisson is a founding member of the Tucson Homebrew Club, a licensed beer judge and co-founder of Iron John's Brewing Co., 245 S. Plumer Ave. His basic beer how-to breaks gives those of us sitting comfortably on the sipping side of things an idea of where our suds begin:

"There are four basic components of beer; malt, yeast, hops, and water. There are also four basic steps in beer making; the mash, the sparge, the boil, and the ferment. Malt is the germinated barley seed which naturally contains a mix of starches and enzymes. When mixed in hot water (the mash), the starches are converted to sugars by the enzymes. This malt sugar water is collected by rinsing with more hot water (the sparge) and sent to the kettle to be boiled with hops for bitterness, flavor and aroma. After cooling, the beer yeast is introduced for the fermentation to take place, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide gas, turning the mix into that lovely beverage we know as beer."

Ales vs. Lagers

Ales and lagers are the two main styles of beer. Ales are the older of the two varieties, estimated to be thousands of years old. Ales are generally "top-fermented" at higher temperatures, may have flowery or fruity flavors, and be more malty or bitter. Lagers are "bottom-fermented" and typically take longer to produce. The slower process and lager yeast produces less by-products, and can mean a milder, crisper flavor.

Source: beer-faq.com

A brief history of regional style

“My beer story goes all the way back to when I grew up in Wisconsin,” says Rob Fullmer, CEO of the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild. He grew up drinking Pabst and Schlitz in Milwaukee at a time "when the drinking age was much lower." Fullmer began homebrewing in Phoenix in 1998 or '99, and took a position with the Craft Brewers Guild three years ago.

"One thing people don’t consider is all of the existing beer styles were dictated historically by different things like access to ingredients." Fullmer says. "For example, certain kinds of hops don’t grow in certain areas, water in Dublin is different than London, in England they were taxed by alcohol content so they’d make weaker brews, whereas in Belgium, they were taxed by the weight so they would just jam all the ingredients into a smaller container which produced different fermentation and flavor outcomes."

For today's drinkers, such regional descriptions can give clues as to the potential flavor of their potion:

• German-style: lager with complex malt character and floral hops
• Belgian-style: fruity, spicy ales or sour beers
• English-style: pale ales, porters and stouts with earthy hop character
• American-style: hop-forward beers with flavors of pine, citrus and resin
• Belgo-American: fruity and spicy Belgian yeast flavor with American-style hop character

Source: craftbeer.com