
As German hopped ale became fashionable in England in the late Middle Ages, the English word beer took on the German meaning, and thus in English too, beer came during the early modern period to denote hopped, malt-based alcoholic drinks. In German, however, the meaning of the beer-word expanded to cover the meaning of the ale-word already before our earliest surviving written evidence. In Old English and Old Norse, the beer-word did not denote a malted alcoholic drink like ale, but a sweet, potent drink made from honey and the juice of one or more fruits other than grapes, much less ubiquitous than ale, perhaps served in the kind of tiny drinking cups sometimes found in early mediaeval grave goods: a drink more like mead or cider. The earlier etymology of the word is debated: the three main theories are that the word originates in Proto-Germanic * beuzą (putatively from Proto-Indo-European * bʰeusóm), meaning ' brewer's yeast, beer dregs' that it is related to the word barley, or that it was somehow borrowed from Latin bibere 'to drink'. The word beer comes into present-day English from Old English bēor, itself from Common Germanic although the word is not attested in the East Germanic branch of the language family, it is found throughout the West Germanic and North Germanic dialects (modern Dutch and German bier, Old Norse bjórr). In early forms of English and in the Scandinavian languages, the usual word for beer was the word whose Modern English form is ale. See also: Ale § Etymology Old English: Beore 'beer' When beer is distilled, the resulting liquor is a form of whisky. īeer forms part of the culture of many nations and is associated with social traditions such as beer festivals, as well as a rich pub culture involving activities like pub crawling, pub quizzes and pub games. The strength of modern beer is usually around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume (ABV), although it may vary between 0.5% and 20%, with some breweries creating examples of 40% ABV and above.

The brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. īeer is distributed in bottles and cans and is also commonly available on draught, particularly in pubs and bars.
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Some of humanity's earliest known writings refer to the production and distribution of beer: the Code of Hammurabi included laws regulating beer and beer parlours, and "The Hymn to Ninkasi", a prayer to the Mesopotamian goddess of beer, served as both a prayer and as a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people. In commercial brewing, the natural carbonation effect is often removed during processing and replaced with forced carbonation. Other flavouring agents such as gruit, herbs, or fruits may be included or used instead of hops.

Most modern beer is brewed with hops, which add bitterness and other flavours and act as a natural preservative and stabilising agent. During the brewing process, fermentation of the starch sugars in the wort produces ethanol and carbonation in the resulting beer. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal grains-most commonly malted barley, though wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. It is the third most popular drink overall after potable water and tea.

Beer is one of the oldest types of alcoholic drinks in the world, and the most widely consumed.
