Beer

Brewing beer is about more than just mastering an ancient recipe for delicious flavours and styles, it is, for most of the craft and boutique producers and drinkers, almost a way of life. The Bottle Stop selection of beer includes all the favourites plus a collection of carefully selected discoveries from around the world. Our entire range of delicious alcoholic delicacies and stalwart favourites including whiskey, gin, tequila, rum and vodka, have all been chosen to bring you the best the world has to offer.

Allow us to take you through a brief history of beer, why it's so amazing, why you can produce so many different tastes, textures and types, and where you will find the best discoveries from both here at home and abroad.

What is beer made of?

Beer happens when almost any cereal grain containing the right mixture of sugars undergoes fermentation with yeast. It's discovery over 13, 000 years ago is considered one of the integral reasons for why the creation of civilisation, as we know it today, actually even happened. That's right. Beer could very well have created the modern world. Well, beer and bread.

Based on the history, it looks like beer occurred pretty quickly after people worked out how to domesticate wild cereal grains like barely, wheat and rye. Historians can only find evidence of it from about 13, 000 years ago but just because the evidence only dates that far back doesn't mean that beer isn't even older. The reason why this drink is so very ancient is in how easy it is or was to brew in the first place. They may not have been toasting steins in the caves of old of the kind of drink we'd consider beer to be today, but the basic ingredients were the essentially the same.

Beer is made primarily from barley grain but not always. Brewing beer starts with the process of malting barley, a process consisting of heating then drying out and cracking the grain. Barley is malted to ensure that the enzymes inside the grain can be broken down into sugars, the very vital ingredient required to make beer alcoholic. Once the barley is malted it is then mashed (which is a bit like making a cup of tea only entirely different). Mashing is when the cracked or malted grain is steeped in very hot water for roughly an hour or so. When done just right, the result is a sweet and sticky liquid of very nearly beer, but not quite, called wort. The wort must then be boiled and it's during this boiling process that the other little flavourings can be added. The traditional ingredient is the bitter and fresh tasting hops. Hops was added primarily to preserve the beer, but the distinctive sharp taste of this little green vine has now become synonymous with the flavour of beer.

When the boiling it done, the wort is cooled, strained of the floaty bits and finally filtered of all the other bits that weren't big enough to float. Brewing, the process of, is now complete but the beer has not yet been made and the type has not yet been determined.

Fermentation must happen now and for that we need a dose of yeast into the mix. Yeast is actually alive and, like all things that are alive, likes to eat. In the case of beer making, yeast eat sugar, or glucose, supplied by the wort and produces ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide gas as a result. This makes the beer a bit fizzy and capable of giving you a hangover.

How your beer is fermented will determine the first step toward discovering what kind of beer it actually is. Contrary to popular wisdom, ale and lager only look alike but they are not the same. Ales are stored during fermentation at room temperature while lagers are stored at very, very cold temperatures. The yeast magic that turns sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide gas works much more quickly, we're talking about a few weeks, in an ale and will sit at the top of the fermenting chamber. These are called top-fermenting. Lager yeast takes a lot longer, we're talking months, and the name is actually from the German word lager' which means to store'.

How much alcohol is in beer?

How much alcohol is in a beer will be determined by the brewing style, and the type that you're drinking. Nowadays, beer comes in all kinds of types and varieties. India Pale Ales (IPAs), for example, encompass a range of styles and are predominately flavoured with hops, herbal and citrus and fruity flavours. These can be quite high in alcohol content ranging from 4.5% to 17%. Don't let the name fool you, IPAs originated in England and the India' part of the name comes from the East India Docks in Blackwall, East London, where the beer was brewed.

The Bottle Stop selection of IPAs and other pale ales have been carefully curated from producers all over the world. You'll even find rye IPAs which add a bit of rye to the barely malt. Our traditional lagers include all of your favourite and well-known types include the best of the Aussie brewery collection, the finest Belgian discoveries, American creations, Japanese beers including Asahi, the favourites from Italy including Peroni, and the classic Irish stout that is Guinness among hundreds more from Germany, Holland, Mexico and our friends across the Tasman in New Zealand. Ensure that you check out the tasting notes and information to see what percentage of alcohol is in each type.

Of course, a good beer doesn't need to be alcoholic just to be enjoyed. Our range of non alcoholic beers include the Carlton Zero and for those who prefer cider, the Bilpin non alcoholic cider.

How much sugar is in beer?

Beer is generally quite heavy on the carbohydrates and sugars, but modern brewing techniques have developed some very low carb alternatives like Pure Blonde Ultra Low Carb Lager, Carlton Dry, Pure Blonde Premium Mid Strength Ultra Low Carb, Burleigh Brewing Co. Big Head, Miller Chill with Lime Lager and Hahn Super Dry.

Is beer vegan?

Beer flavours are derived from a range of different materials including some animal products like gelatine and egg whites so it's always best to triple check whether your chosen brewer of choice is a certified vegan producer. Spirits, on the other hand, are mostly vegan.

For those conscious of organic ingredients only, we have the Halo alcoholic ginger and lemon kombucha.

What is craft beer?

Craft beer is kind of like the beer world's equivalent to artisan cheese. The idea behind craft beer is that the producer of any particular type is small and independently run as opposed to owned by or directed by the big-name breweries. The Bottle Stop selection of craft beer includes every style imaginable from pale ales, pilsners, sour beers, stouts and IPAs, to porters, traditional lagers and blondes.

How to order?

The entire range of Bottle Stop is made available to you online. Purchase your beer in a 6 pack, a case or even a discovery case of a carefully chosen range of craft beers. Our Beer Club is a monthly or quarterly subscription which sees a case of delicious hand-selected mixed case of the best beers that we're drinking. Each case contains a pair of eight different beers, including a selection of new arrivals, some rare and limited releases as well as some old and timeless classics. If you love your beer and you love discovering new breweries, new types and new tastes, the Beer Club could be the perfect way to whet your appetite.

We will deliver your selection direct to your door and, when you join the Bottle Stop family, we can even tailor and personalise your beer choices for you. By filling out your preferences, you can let us know what kinds of styles you're most likely to enjoy and you can choose from more than just the beer styles and flavours, too. Just give us an idea of your preferences and what you'd like to spend, and we'll do the rest. We also guarantee the lowest price.

Other places will set the prices of their products, but we've simplified the process for Bottle Stop and just decided to locate the cheapest prices anywhere in Australian and then match them. On the very off chance that you manage to locate a sale or a special that we missed, we'll match your advertised price. Guaranteed. There are a few things that you'll need to provide us with to prove the better deal (fair's fair after all) so when you do find a lower price for one of our products, contact us here with the details.

You'll need to send us through a valid and current advertisement for a specific product, the competitor you found offering it must also have current stock in the same quantity that you wanted to buy it, it has to be able to be purchased by anyone and can't be a special price for buyers, auctions, a duty free price, liquidation sale price, membership or freebie-style rewards price. And, of course, we'll need to see the advertisement so you can either send it to us directly or provide us with a link.

Get the cheapest price on your favourite and as yet undiscovered beers online with Bottle Stop. Set up your account and start ordering now.

Bottle Stop

Whatever you love to drink, you'll find it available to order online at Bottle Stop and conveniently delivered to your door anywhere in Australia. If it's the best beer from your favourite producers or boutique operations carefully crafting their own signature tastes, you'll find it at Bottle Stop. If you're a wine drinker, browse our extensive selection of wineries, varietals and blends. Our selection of spirits and liqueurs include the big name producers that everybody knows as loves as well as tasty varieties sourced from the finest producing regions around the world.

Our entire range of alcohol is available to order online for the lowest prices. We guarantee it. We don't set our prices; we just match the lowest ones on offer found anywhere in Australia. If you find our stock listed for a lower price anywhere else, then we'll match it. We also offer online-only prices that no one else can match across all of your favourites.

We are home to Australia's largest collections of craft and boutique producers which means that our range of beer, wine, spirits and liqueurs include selections plucked from the finest producers tinkering away quietly, developing the best craft beers, the smoothest whisky, in both local and far-off places that the big name alcohol distributors have never heard of. If you let us know what you like to drink, then we can personalise your shopping experience on Bottle Stop. We'll suggest recommendations that we know you'll love based on what we're drinking and loving too.

We are always open so you can enjoy ordering online 24/7. Delivery covers all of Australia with expected arrivals in the capital cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane within 3 to 5 business days. We are always looking to improve our delivery options and are constantly improving arrival times in more capital cities so you can get the best tasting beverages that you love delivered even faster.