On the shelves with alcohol you can find both beer and beer drink, and the bottles look almost identical. What is the difference between these two types of alcoholic products? Let’s start with the fact that outside of Russia there is no term “beer drink”, this is an exclusively domestic invention. The only question is who and for what it was necessary to introduce this concept. There are two diametrically opposed factors here.
1. Anti-alcohol propaganda, fight against competitors and PR. According to GOST, beer should consist of only four ingredients: malt, water, hops and yeast. It turns out that flavored craft beer, lambics, stouts, “foamy” from unmalted products, Belgian “shouts” and other varieties are not considered beer in Russia, even Guinness and Hoogarden are sold as a “beer drink”.
This is a double-edged sword: deviation from GOST can be in any direction, it is not necessary that the resulting product will be worse, and in the case of well-known Western brands, on the contrary, their quality is often much higher than Russian beer brewed only from permitted ingredients. But everyone is equal before the law: both cheap liquor with dubious production technology and exquisite author’s beer will be called “beer drink”.
2. Reducing the cost of production. Inexpensive bottled “beer cocktails” are most often made from special desalinated and decolorized beers. The desired taste is then achieved through chemical additives and flavors – it’s cheaper. Of course, these products also fall under the category of “beer drink”, especially since there is, in fact, no beer in it.
Composition of beer drink
Basically, anyone. The main thing is that it necessarily had the following ingredients: hops, brewer’s yeast, water. Optional – beer wort, but the amount of additives in this case can reach 80%. These components can be:
- Unmalted grain (not necessarily barley – it can also be rice, corn, etc.);
- Maltose syrup;
- Sugar;
- Fruit essences;
- Starch;
- Chemical additives and fragrances.
Difference between beer drink and beer
In addition to the requirements for composition, beer must also fall within the restrictions on strength: the content of ethyl alcohol in the fermented product cannot exceed 7%, respectively, craft varieties of increased strength also belong to the category of “beer drinks”.
Summarizing, we can summarize that the main differences between beer and beer drink are in the composition and strength: all these norms are spelled out in GOST R 55292-2012 and made available for free access.
We emphasize once again that a beer drink is not necessarily worse than beer – it simply does not meet the “classical” definition, despite the fact that in fact it can be tastier, better, and even healthier.
The inscription on the label “beer drink” cannot be a characteristic of the quality of the product, just like the name “beer”, when buying, you need to focus on other factors: price, brand awareness, composition.
Glossary of terms:
- Lambic is a Belgian beer made from unsprouted wheat grains. It is made without the use of yeast by the method of spontaneous fermentation.
- Stout is a dark ale made from roasted malt, the most famous representative of stouts is Irish Guinness.
- Creek is a fruity Belgian lambic, most commonly cherry.
- Craft beer – author’s, made at mini-breweries or at home according to their own recipes.