International Beer Day 2024: 5 tips on how to choose the right beer

History: International Beer Day was founded in 2007 in Santa Cruz, California, by Jesse Avshalomov and a group of friend.
-Purpose: The day is celebrated to gather with friends and enjoy the taste of beer, celebrate those responsible for brewing and serving beer, and unite the world under the banner of beer .
Celebrations: The day is celebrated annually on the first Friday of August .

People come together to enjoy beer, try new brews, and appreciate the people who make and serve beer.
Global impact: The global beer industry consumes about 50 billion gallons annually, and the U.S. beer industry contributed $328.4 billion to the economy in 2018 .
Cultural significance: Beer plays a vital role in cultures around the world, often at the center of social gatherings, and has inspired countless songs and traditions .

Beer is brewed is every part of the world. The Egyptians, of course, take the cake when it comes to beer antiquity. Belgian Trappist beer and German Klosterbrauerei  have been made in the same way for centuries.  there is a reference to a kind of rice beer from Vedic times. Most beers made today can be slotted into two categories: lager or ale, though there are further categories and subcategories too.

Today, over 90 percent of beer sold in India is lager, says Arijit Ghosh, vice-president of sales at LoneWolf Bev. A lighter-bodied beer, lagers are typically low on bitterness, lighter on the stomach than some other types of beer and has some very cheap variants in India.

Lager: To brew lager, yeast is added from the bottom of the container to ferment a mix of malted and unmalted barley, water and hops. Most beer sold in India is lager beer. Kingfisher, Carlson, Budweiser, Heineken, Tuborg, Haywards 5000 all sell varieties of lager.

Ale: India pale ale (IPA), Belgian ale, brown ale, pale ale, and stout are all types of ale that are top-fermented and tend to be fruitier. In terms of colour, they can be darker than lagers and pilsners, but not always. These beers may also be unfiltered, and create a feeling of fullness after one or two pints.

It’s a wrong notion that lighter coloured beer has lower ABV (percentage of alcohol by volume,” says Prasanna Kumar, founder of BLR Brewing Co, which has four outlets in Bangalore, including a 1,200-seater in Whitefield.

Further, if you are keen to try non-alcoholic beer or gluten-free beer, there are variants from beer makers like Budweiser, Kingfisher, Cobra and Stag. But these tend to be more expensive.