Quiz on Beer

Which country is most famous for Oktoberfest?

• Austria
• Belgium
• Germany ✓ (Correct answer)
• Netherlands

Source: Munich's Oktoberfest actually starts in September, ending on the first Sunday of October to catch better weather.

What process turns sugars into alcohol when making beer?

• Distillation
• Pasteurization
• Oxidation
• Fermentation ✓ (Correct answer)

Source: Yeast eats the sugars and excretes alcohol and CO2, making it the tiny living engine behind every beer.

Which microorganism is essential to brewing beer?

• Mold
• Bacteria
• Yeast ✓ (Correct answer)
• Algae

Source: Brewers used yeast for millennia before Louis Pasteur revealed it was a living organism doing the fermenting.

What grain is the main ingredient in most beers?

• Barley ✓ (Correct answer)
• Rice
• Corn
• Oats

Source: Barley's husk acts as a natural filter during brewing, which is why it became beer's backbone over wheat or corn.

Which flower-like ingredient gives beer its bitterness?

• Lavender
• Hops ✓ (Correct answer)
• Chamomile
• Elderflower

Source: Hops are the cone-shaped flowers of a climbing vine, and they're a close cousin of the cannabis plant.

Which beer style is typically dark, thick, and roasty?

• Stout ✓ (Correct answer)
• Pilsner
• Golden ale
• Saison

Source: Stout gets its color from roasted barley, and Guinness famously uses nitrogen for its creamy cascading head.

Which color is NOT a natural beer color?

• Amber
• Blue ✓ (Correct answer)
• Golden
• Black

Source: Beer color comes from roasting the malt, ranging from pale gold to pitch black, but never naturally blue.

Roughly what percentage of a typical beer is water?

• About 60%
• About 90% ✓ (Correct answer)
• About 75%
• About 50%

Source: Beer is roughly 90% water, so brewers obsess over their local water chemistry.

A pilsner belongs to which broad family of beer?

• Ale
• Porter
• Bitter
• Lager ✓ (Correct answer)

Source: Pilsners are lagers, fermented cold and slow at the bottom of the tank, unlike warm top-fermented ales.

Witbier and Hefeweizen are examples of which hazy beer style?

• Wheat beer ✓ (Correct answer)
• Bock
• Brown ale
• Saison

Source: Wheat beer stays cloudy because the proteins and yeast aren't filtered out, giving it that hazy golden glow.

What does the abbreviation 'IPA' stand for?

• Irish Pale Ale
• Italian Pale Ale
• Imperial Pale Ale
• India Pale Ale ✓ (Correct answer)

Source: India Pale Ales were loaded with extra hops to survive the long sea voyage from Britain to colonial India.

Which Irish stout brand is known worldwide for its dark color?

• Guinness ✓ (Correct answer)
• Harp
• Smithwick's
• Kilkenny

Source: Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease on his Dublin brewery in 1759, betting big on his future.

What does the term 'ABV' measure in beer?

• Color depth
• Alcohol content ✓ (Correct answer)
• Calorie count
• Carbonation

Source: ABV stands for Alcohol By Volume; bitterness is measured separately on the IBU scale instead.

The unit 'IBU' rates which characteristic of a beer?

• Bitterness ✓ (Correct answer)
• Sweetness
• Strength
• Cloudiness

Source: IBU stands for International Bitterness Units; a hoppy double IPA can hit numbers your tongue can't even detect.

Which German law historically limited beer to four ingredients?

• Lebensraum
• Bundestag
• Reinheitsgebot ✓ (Correct answer)
• Zeitgeist

Source: The 1516 Reinheitsgebot allowed only water, barley, and hops; yeast was added later once science discovered it.

Which monks are historically famous for brewing strong ales?

• Franciscan monks
• Jesuit monks
• Trappist monks ✓ (Correct answer)
• Dominican monks

Source: Trappist monks brew beer to fund their abbeys, and only a handful of monasteries earn the authentic label.

Which country drinks the most beer per person annually?

• Germany
• Belgium
• Ireland
• Czech Republic ✓ (Correct answer)

Source: Czechs out-drink everyone, downing roughly 180 liters of beer per person each year.

Which city's soft water famously gave birth to the pale pilsner style?

• Munich
• Brussels
• Plzeň ✓ (Correct answer)
• Vienna

Source: Plzeň's exceptionally soft water let brewers create the first clear golden pilsner in 1842, copied worldwide ever since.

Which Belgian beer ferments from wild airborne yeast, not added yeast?

• Saison
• Lambic ✓ (Correct answer)
• Dubbel
• Tripel

Source: Lambics ferment in open vats so wild yeast from the Brussels air can drift in.

What is the name for the foam head sitting atop a poured beer?

• Crown
• Veil
• Shroud
• Collar ✓ (Correct answer)

Source: Beer foam is called the collar or head, and a 'lacing' pattern it leaves on the glass signals good retention.