beer

/bɪər/

/bɪə/

Other forms: beers

Beer is an alcoholic drink usually made from barley and hops. A beer is a can or pint of the stuff. Too much beer can make people, often college students, wear lampshades as hats or dance like chickens. Cheers!

Beer is a foamy, malt-flavored beverage with a relatively low alcohol content. Beer is actually the most commonly consumed alcoholic drink around the world, and it's believed to be the oldest too. Brewers make beer by fermenting a grain — usually barley or wheat — and adding hops or other flavoring agents. The word comes from the Old English beor, and though experts disagree about its roots, one guess names the Vulgar Latin biber, "beverage," as a possible origin.

Definitions of beer

1. noun

   a general name for alcoholic beverages made by fermenting a cereal (or mixture of cereals) flavored with hops
   types:

   draft beer, draught beer

   beer drawn from a keg

   suds

   a dysphemism for beer (especially for lager that effervesces)

   lager, lager beer

   a general term for beer made with bottom fermenting yeast (usually by decoction mashing); originally it was brewed in March or April and matured until September

   ale

   a general name for beer made with a top fermenting yeast; in some of the United States an ale is (by law) a brew of more than 4% alcohol by volume

   Munchener, Munich beer

   a dark lager produced in Munich since the 10th century; has a distinctive taste of malt

   bock, bock beer

   a very strong lager traditionally brewed in the fall and aged through the winter for consumption in the spring

   light beer

   lager with reduced alcohol content

   Octoberfest, Oktoberfest

   a strong lager made originally in Germany for the Oktoberfest celebration; sweet and copper-colored

   Pilsener, Pilsner

   a pale lager with strong flavor of hops; first brewed in the Bohemian town of Pilsen

   Weissbier, wheat beer, white beer

   a general name for beers made from wheat by top fermentation; usually very pale and cloudy and effervescent

   malt, malt liquor

   a lager of high alcohol content; by law it is considered too alcoholic to be sold as lager or beer

   bitter

   English term for a dry sharp-tasting ale with strong flavor of hops (usually on draft)

   Burton

   a strong dark English ale

   pale ale

   an amber colored ale brewed with pale malts; similar to bitter but drier and lighter

   porter, porter's beer

   a very dark sweet ale brewed from roasted unmalted barley

   stout

   a strong very dark heavy-bodied ale made from pale malt and roasted unmalted barley and (often) caramel malt with hops

   type of:

   brew, brewage

   drink made by steeping and boiling and fermenting rather than distilling