Beer is water, barley, hops and yeast. More or less this is the recipe for the most popular alcoholic drink-and third overall-the world has ever known. There are many variations on this recipe, which, much like the variations in people, give rise to the differing characteristics that make the world such a diverse and awe-inspiring place (to drink). Yet, while some may consider these variations themselves to be of the utmost importance (what separates common Pilsner style American pale lagers from Trappist monk-crafted dark Belgian ales just as we used to segregate types of people), the basic ingredients are almost always the same. But what isn’t on your list of ingredients, what won’t show up on any menus, the thing that has given the drink of beer the power to allure literally billions of people over thousand of years is unquantifiable, because simply put, it’s magic.
