Beer: An Insider's Guide

The once archetypal beer drinker though has transformed into a much more discerning character reflected by the recent surge in sales of premium and imported beers. We meet Australia's largest independent importer of beer, Franck Berges 'recently crowned a Knight by the Belgian Brewer's Guild - to see what the trends are and the future predictions for this booming market.

With their low-yield, high quality products, small regional producers are meeting the demands of a more sophisticated marketplace and beer has joined the queue - small breweries offering unique, full-flavoured, full-bodied beers. It's boom time for hand-crafted beers.

Their campaign to take barbeque cooks back to school is part of a gastronomic revolution that has swept beer along in its wake. We join their new age barbeque class that shows men how to cook moderncuisine and how to match particular beers with particular foods.

After touring their beer-filled house, we follow them to the 25th Anniversary 'Canathon' where beer can collectors from all over the world gather to swap andtrade. Beer can collectors are just one example of people afflicted by 'Beer mania.

We go behind the scenes of the world's largest annual competition for professional brewers to see how they decide the beers worthy of Champion Trophies at the Australian International Beer Awards. Three weeks before the winners are announced at the 'Academy Awards of Beer,' from 9am to 5pm for five straight days, the nine judges will each sample the 502 entered beers, and unlike wine judges, they don't spit it out.

There are around 50 styles of beer that can be broadly categorised into distinct groups. We begin the series by explaining what makes each beer style unique and what distinguishes ales from lagers; the two major beer 'families.