Beer is the world's most widely consumed and probably the oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea.
Wheat beers vary in name according to the place in which they are brewed and small variations in the recipe.
The inhabitants of the British Isles have been drinking ale since the Bronze Age, but it was with the arrival of the Roman Empire on its shores in the 1st Century, and the construction of the Roman road networks that the first inns, called tabernae, in which travellers could obtain refreshment began to appear. After the departure of Roman authority in the 5th Century and the fall of the Romano-British kingdoms, the Anglo-Saxons established alehouses that grew out of domestic dwellings, the Anglo-Saxon alewife would put a green bush up on a pole to let people know her brew was ready.
These alehouses quickly evolved into meeting houses for the folk to socially congregate, gossip and arrange mutual help within their communities. Herein lies the origin of the modern public house, or "Pub" as it is colloquially called in England. They rapidly spread across the Kingdom, becoming so commonplace that in 965 King Edgar decreed that there should be no more than one alehouse per village.
The act of making beer is called "brewing". Beer is made by adding warm water to malted barley and other grains. The enzymes in the barley change the malted barley and other grains into simple sugars. This is called the mash. The water is then sparged (drained) from the grain. The water is now called wort. The wort is boiled and hops are added. Hops provide flavour and preserve the beer. After boiling the wort is cooled and yeast is added. The yeast turns the sugars into alcohol and the wort into beer.
Different beers can have different natures, depending on the ingredients used; for example, an ale uses top fermenting yeast. Top fermenting yeasts eat more sugar and produce more alcohol. A lager uses bottom fermenting yeast. Bottom fermenting yeasts eat less sugar and produce a crisper, cleaner taste. Adding hops makes the beer more bitter and aromatic. Specialty malts (different types of cooked barley) produce different flavours and colours. These flavours and colours are most notable in dark beers like Porter and Stout.
Different countries have different ways to make beer. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia, beer is usually made from just hops, malt, water, and yeast. This is because of the Reinheitsgebot. The Reinheitsgebot was a law that said says that beer can only be made from hops, malt, and water. Yeast was discovered after the Reinheitsgebot. The law was overturned by the European Union in 1992. In Belgium, however, beers have always been made with wheat, sugar, fruit, and other ingredients.