How many possible beers exists?

[gunhaus]

While 42 would seem an acceptable answer, it is not because of course BEER is the actual answer to life the universe and everything.

BUT, the answer to this question is OBVIOUS and it is 2 - OUTTA BEER, and NEXT BEER.

 

[applescrap]

Hope you dont mind the question, why?

 

[lschiavo]

It's infinite. Beyond human comprehension. It's better to just enjoy.

 

[Vale71]

That's not unheard of at all around those parts.

There's an English brewery (at least one, probably more) that reportedly added brewer's caramel to a Bitter and sold (sells?) it as a Mild.

All the large breweries that market more than one type of beer do that. If you don't want to have to list caramel as coloring agent on the label (it's mandatory in the EU, of which GB is still a part albeit not for long...) you just use Sinamar from Weyermann, which doesn't need to be listed as legally it's beer and you're just making a blend of two different beers, a fact you dont' have to report or list anywhere.

 

[Pkrd]

Based on my calculations, 4,342,388,709.

At least.

Brulosophy will be along shortly to point out 1,303,426 out of 3,236,882 tasters can't tell most of them apart. There's the beer they drink every week, and everything else.

 

[Qhrumphf]

All the large breweries that market more than one type of beer do that. If you don't want to have to list caramel as coloring agent on the label (it's mandatory in the EU, of which GB is still a part albeit not for long...) you just use Sinamar from Weyermann, which doesn't need to be listed as legally it's beer and you're just making a blend of two different beers, a fact you dont' have to report or list anywhere.

The use of colorant (wether caramel or sinamar) to adjust color is very very common. With the

I didn't think the practice of simply coloring up an existing beer and selling it as something completely different was that widespread (but it certainly does happen).

 

[Vale71]

The use of colorant (wether caramel or sinamar) to adjust color is very very common. With the

I didn't think the practice of simply coloring up an existing beer and selling it as something completely different was that widespread (but it certainly does happen).

Breweries that do that usually also do high gravity brewing and use hop extracts so they might also adjust strength and hop aroma post-fermentation and not just color alone.
Don't know if IKEA is present in your area and if they have a foods section, but in Europe IKEA sells a light and a dark lager in their shops. It's the same beer, the dark one is just colored with caramel. It says so right on the label...

 

[Qhrumphf]

Breweries that do that usually also do high gravity brewing and use hop extracts so they might also adjust strength and hop aroma post-fermentation and not just color alone.
Don't know if IKEA is present in your area and if they have a foods section, but in Europe IKEA sells a light and a dark lager in their shops. It's the same beer, the dark one is just colored with caramel. It says so right on the label...

We have IKEA, and they have the food part, but to my knowledge the beer isn't available here yet.

 

[Vale71]

Their loss, not yours...

 

[4of7]

There is only one True Beer(TM). You 2017-join-daters are still using hops like chumps.

I had to go look up True Beer.Wow a picture of 4 glasses of grain on the cover.

 

[JohnSand]

I need the help of a mathematician. Based on how many types of malt, number of hop varieties and strains of yeast, how many possible variations of beer are there?

All of them.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I had to go look up True Beer.Wow a picture of 4 glasses of grain on the cover.

It's a reference to a troll on here. Who only made "true beer" and admonished everyone else for "still using hops", but wouldn't share details, because they were for his upcoming brewery.

 

[4of7]

It's a reference to a troll on here. Who only made "true beer" and admonished everyone else for "still using hops", but wouldn't share details, because they were for his upcoming brewery.

Thanks, this Beer Troll asking. How many base malts do you have at the brewery?.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Thanks, this Beer Troll asking. How many base malts do you have at the brewery?.

Two, a standard 2 row and a pils. But will use others from time to time.

 

[sixhotdogneck]

What you're asking is how many permutations of all the different ingredients make valid recipes (which in turn produce beer, but can you correlate the same recipe to the same beer?... possibly with process control, etc...)

The mathematical concept of factorials is what you're looking for.

A beer recipe consists of 4 ingredient malt, hops, yeast, water (back of the napkin guess).

~20000 valid combinations of different malts in different amounts
~20000 valid combinations of different hops in different amounts at different times
~200 different yeast strains
~20000 valid combinations of different water salts in different amounts

Permuting all of these together (malt+hops+yeast+water) =

n! = 60200!

= 9.329361597 E+261589 possible permutations of beer with valid components.

In reality many of these may produce close to the same tasting beer or may not produce a palatable beer. Of course you can plug your own numbers into the "valid recipe" amounts.

So perhaps a quarter to half are valid: (9.329361597 E+261589 / 4) - (9.329361597 E+261589 / 2)

It is possible to produce an algorithm to search this space and make recipes that some computer algorithm says would taste good. Now that's an interesting exercise, of course you'd have to populate a database with a bunch of taste information.

 

[RPh_Guy]

If at least half the possible beers aren't sour, you're doing it wrong

 

[4of7]

Two, a standard 2 row and a pils. But will use others from time to time.

Thanks.. so all The beers today started with from those two.. I have to ask , what did they Brew today?

 

[Qhrumphf]

Thanks.. so all The beers today started with from those two.. I have to ask , what did they Brew today?

You don't have to ask.

 

[Moose_MI]

 

[4of7]

You don't have to ask.

LoL How many vessels are used for each beer batch 2v or 3 v?

 

[Pkrd]

Do we times that by two for LODO even though we all know it makes absolutely zero difference?

 

[Lefou]

Do barrel aged count? Do you get bonus points for making your own barrel from an old back porch?

Extra bonus points added for heavy metals, cake mix, Doritos, food coloring adjuncts, and drywall.
Points deducted for extra sulfides and Essence de Stinkbug/Waterbug.

 

[seatazzz]

While 42 would seem an acceptable answer, it is not because of course BEER is the actual answer to life the universe and everything.

BUT, the answer to this question is OBVIOUS and it is 2 - OUTTA BEER, and NEXT BEER.

As to that, I only ever have two beers a day....the first one and the last one.

 

[GPP33]

At least twoinfinity, maybe three.

 

[SEndorf]

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