Beer has long been the favoured drinks of men (and some women) since its early beginnings way back in 9,000 BC. Recent studies have furthered the cause of beer as it was found that a 12-ounce beer can do wonders to one’s health. Beer can relieve stress. It has the tendency to loosen tension and reduce stress. Beer can give you cleaner arteries as the hops that give beer its distinctive taste is a rich source of polyphenols – a compound that lower cholesterol and help fight cancer. Dark beer could make you look young as it is rich in antioxidants that eliminate free radicals. A glass of beer can decrease fibrinogen, a blood clotting agent, and increase albumin for the protein metabolism. Heck! Beer is a wonder drug!

However, too much of everything is bad. Too much beer could do a flip and beer could turn “deadly”. But as long as you can handle your beer then there should not be any problem.

Do you know your beers? There are two major types of beers: ale and lager. A third type is more of a specialty beer – mixed with fruits and juices and what have you as against the hops, yeasts, water and malted barley of “real” beer. There are probably tens of thousands of beer varieties the world over and choosing even the top 100 beers in the world is not an easy feat.

A quick beer lesson shows that beer is also qualified according to its IBU or International Bitterness Unit. A unit is equal to a milligram of isomerised alpha acid (the bitter compound) per liter of beer.

15-30 IBU – wheat style beer or wiezen
25-45 IBU – amber lager
30-45 IBU – pilsner
40-60 IBU – pale ale
50-75 IBU – amber ale
55+ IBU – India pale ale
60+ IBU – porters and stouts
100+ IBU – Barley wine

It is hard to qualify the best beers in the world for like wine, beer can be paired with food. For example, the best beer for pizza and mackerel is pilsner, lager. This dry and crisp beer can definitely overcome the strong flavours such as pizza toppings and fishy oil taste. For spicy and curried food, Indian pale ale would be perfect as the bitterness of the beer mixes well with spicy food. If you were to combine spicy food with sweet beer, then the flavors will clash leaving you to judge the beer as inferior.

However, according to a year-long survey done by a variety of beer-loving communities, the top beer for 2010 is a Belgian beer branded as Westvleteren 12. Brewer is Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus. The style is abt/quadruple very strong Trappist and abbey ale with high alcohol content.

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