Real English: Talking about BEER

Have you ever been offered a "cold one"? This means you were invited to go drink some beer. In many countries (and most English-speaking countries), beer is a big a part of the local culture, so it's a good idea to know some of the language involved with this celebrated drink. In this lesson, we will look at beer types, customs, and even the process of making beer. I'll talk about vocabulary, slang, expressions, and more. So sit back and relax with a brewski, and enjoy the lesson!

Next, watch my video on vocabulary for taking a road trip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnT2S70xO8Q&list=PLxYD9HaZwsI5C0d8CivHvoI_-0rs8XMfc&index=16&t=0s

Take the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/real-en....glish-talking-about-

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. Welcome to engVid. I'm Adam. Today's lesson is a very special one, especially here in Canada because we're going to talk about beer, one of our favourite drinks, one of our favourite pastimes. In fact, it looks something like this. This is a beer. Not a Canadian beer, but that's okay, it's an import. We're going to talk about the different types of beer, we're going to... You're going to be drinking here when you come to visit us. And beer is a very delicious, cold drink, made with a few particular ingredients. It's alcoholic, so I know not everybody drinks it, but if you come to Canada it's a big part of our culture; we drink it summer, winter, lunch, dinner, sometimes breakfast but not usually. It happens. But there's a bunch of things you need to know if you're going to come to Canada and talk about beer. Of course, in Europe and other places in the world, very common as well.

So, first of all, we have a few nicknames for beer. We could call it: "a brew", "a brewski", "suds", "a cold one", some people even call it "a barley sandwich". "Barley" is like a little grain, it's a cereal that you make beer with, so if anybody offers you a barley sandwich, they are offering you a beer.

So, first let's talk about the process of making beer. You begin with... By making a "malt". You take the barley, you put it in a container and let it "sprout". So like little seeds come out and little strips of that come out. And once you have those sprouts, you put them in a different container and let them "ferment". In other words, you let the sugar content become alcohol. Okay? You..."Fermenting" is used with a lot of different things, but especially in beer. Once the sprouts have fermented and the alcohol is there, then you add "hops". "A hop" is a particular type of plant, very green, very bitter that you add, and you also add "yeast". "Yeast" is the same thing we put in bread, or in flour and water, in dough to make it rise. Okay? So we put it also in beer, that's why you have the white foam on top of the beer. Okay? And the hops and the yeast, they add the bitters and the flavours. That's why your beer tastes a little bit bitter, depending on the type of beer. Some of them are more sweet, some are less, we're going to talk about that after.

Okay, so next we need to think about the "alcohol content" or "alcohol by volume". Now, there is such a thing as non-alcoholic beer, but it doesn't really taste that good. They say it's supposed to taste the same as beer, but I'm not so sure. I'll let you decide that yourself. So, every time you get a bottle of beer it will say on it: "alcohol by volume" or "ABV". Okay? So, a lite beer-and we generally spell it "l-i-t-e", not "g-h"-is 4% usually, 4.5 maybe. A regular beer is usually 5, 5.5, and a strong beer is 7 or higher. And a strong beer will get you drunk pretty quick. Okay? And it's a very strong taste to it.

Now, how do we drink beer? You can drink it from the bottle, you can drink it from a can, or you can drink it from "a mug". A mug is usually glass, it's usually pretty big and has a handle. If you go to a pub or a bar here, they will keep it in the fridge, it's nice in cold, they put the cold beer inside, you drink it, it's very delicious. "A stein" looks like a mug, but generally it could be bigger, it could be different sizes, different shapes. It's usually very decorative. It has, like, colours, or it has shapes, or it has emblems, all kinds of things on it. You will see this especially at Oktoberfest which I'll talk about in a second.

Now, the size of your beer also makes a difference. You can get "a pint" or "a half pint". If you want to know measurements, that's 20 ounces or 568 millilitres, give or take. So, a half pint is not usually half, it's usually about 12 ounces. You can get a glass or you can get a full pint in a mug. Now, if you're with a bunch of friends, you can just order "a pitcher". A pitcher is usually about 3 or 4 almost pints I think. And I think in Europe, three pints. So about that. In Europe I think you can buy by the litre, is usually the case, and that's more personal, too; it's not to share with your friends. […]