What's the difference between an ale and a lager?

The Oktoberfest taste test

Wondering how the different Oktoberfest beers stack up? This article dives into the six official beers you’ll find at the festival. Each one has a write-up that includes a bit of history, tasting notes, and thoughts on where and when you might enjoy drinking it.

Budweiser still uses the same yeast lineage derived from the one used in the 1800s

During the late 1800s when Budweiser beers hit the market, darker, all‑malt lagers dominated the US beer market. Budweiser was brewed with a single, consistent yeast strain that gave it a crisp uniform flavor, differentiating it from darker beers.

Wine is divided between Old World and New World

The distinction stems from both geography and winemaking technique and tradition. This video breaks down how different viticultural regions fit into each category and the common traits of both Old World and New World wines. It also provides helpful tips for reading Old World wine labels.

How a modern 'beer archaeologist' crafts ancient ales

The short documentary follows Travis Rupp, a University of Colorado classics professor who also works with Avery Brewing to produce Ancient Egyptian, Roman, and Peruvian beer.

Distinguishing club soda, seltzer, and sparkling water

The three forms of drinking water are similar, but their differences lie mostly in the presence and proportion of minerals and carbonation. Read this quick explainer on the major differences.

How fermentation enables the pickling of food and the production of beer

This process occurs when microbes produce lactic acid, ethanol, or carbon dioxide after consuming sugars. The acid helps preserve vegetables in a brine solution during pickling and gives them a sour taste, while ethanol serves as the inebriant in alcoholic beverages. The acid and carbon dioxide give sourdough bread its taste and texture.

The difference between ice cream, gelato, sorbet, and Italian ice

Ice cream is made of eggs and is high in fat, served cold. Gelato, on the other hand, has more milk and less cream, and is typically served warmer than ice cream. Sorbet is dairy-free and often includes alcohol, while Italian ice is grainy, lighter, and low in calories (and often doesn't contain dairy).

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

Jam and jelly differ in texture because of how fruit is processed

Jam contains crushed fruit with preserved pulp and fibers for a thicker, spreadable texture. Jelly is made from filtered fruit juice and produces a smooth, translucent gel. The distinction reflects preservation methods developed to extend fruit shelf life while tailoring texture and appearance.

What's the difference between weather and climate?

A five-minute TedEd video exploring the differences between weather and climate – what they are, how we predict them, and what those predictions can tell us.

The term 'alcohol' has Arabic origins

Linguistic research reveals a lot about the ancient origins of alcohol. For example, studying various languages reveals that "mead," an alcoholic beverage made from honey, came even before wine.

How tea gets made

Tea is one of the most consumed beverages in the world, and this video walks us through the process of supplying it from farms to our mugs. Workers handpick leaves, ferment them, and dry them as part of this involved operation. Follow along for a scientific understanding of the many steps it takes to produce tea and appreciate the detail and effort to create its flavor, aroma, and color.

What's the difference between a stock and a share?

While the words "stock" and "share" are often used interchangeably in casual conversation, they have different meanings. For instance, "stock" is more general, whereas "share" is more precise.

Learn about the basic anatomy of mosquitoes

This short explainer video breaks down the mosquito's general body components, highlighting how mosquitoes breathe, fly, and more. It also touches on how experts can tell different mosquito species apart.

Operas rely more on music for storytelling than musicals

It’s easy to confuse operas and musicals since they both tell stories through singing and music—but a few key differences remain. While musicals rely on words as the primary tool for storytelling, opera relies more on music. Other key distinctions lie in vocal techniques.

Different brewing methods require different grinding methods

With so many brewing methods—AeroPress, Moka Pot, and French press to name a few—knowing the right grind size for your coffee beans is essential. Danish coffee expert Asser Christensen, also known as the Coffee Chronicler, explains how grinding works and recommends the best grind choice for different coffee makers.

A taxonomy of restaurant types

What's the difference between "fast food" and "fast casual"? Is there any real difference between a "diner" and a "family style restaurant"? This guide from DoorDash explores the industry's fine distinctions, along with some deeper dives into specific enterprises that found success.

An affineur is the person in charge of aging cheese to perfection

Their duties can include washing the rind with a salt solution, monitoring mold growth, adding herbs, and more. An affineur can take care of their cheeses from anywhere between a few months to several years.

Medieval taverns offered patrons a limited menu

Inns, taverns, and alehouses were more like bars than restaurants, though they did offer patrons (often travelers) food, it wasn't laid out on a diverse menu. Instead, the establishments offered a limited menu, often consisting of a single stew, and hungry customers could grab a bowl to go along with their alcohol.

1440: Everything you need to know about Alzheimer's

What is Alzheimer's, and is it different from dementia? In short, yes—Alzheimer's is a specific brain disease that falls under the umbrella of dementia. However it is the most prevalent form of the condition, accounting for 60 to 80% of reported dementia cases.

How radio works

Antennae tune a radio to a particular frequency (determined by the listener on their radio's dial) while tuning out all the other stations being broadcast. AM, short for amplitude modulation, and FM, short for frequency modulation, decode audio signals differently, leading to differences in sound quality and the distance a station can travel.

A fast explainer on every Winter Olympic sport

Slalom, luge, skimo: The 16 sports at the Winter Olympics aren't the most familiar to everyday audiences. They can be divided into three categories: track, indoor, and outdoor. This video breaks down each sport's rules and quirks and the variations of its events in less than eight minutes.

A look at types of crude oil, distinguished by properties like heaviness and sweetness

API gravity is a unit that describes how heavy or light a crude oil sample is based on its density, with higher values indicating lighter, more valuable oil that requires less processing. The sweetness of crude oil refers to the amount of sulfur it contains, where sour crude oil requires more extensive treatment to remove the more abundant sulfur and sweeten it.

From flowers to venues, seemingly everything gets a price markup when it's for a wedding

At the start of this video, a venue gives two people drastically different prices for what seems like essentially the same service: a family gathering and a wedding. These price differentials feel so ubiquitous across the wedding industry—and experts attribute this to quality of services for weddings versus other, more casual events. Learn more by watching this video.

Create anything from the elements in Little Alchemy 2

Various ancient cultures believed the most abundant substances in the world were its basic elements: earth, water, air, and fire. We may know better now, but you can make almost anything from those four things. Little Alchemy 2 is a fun, cartoonish game that allows users to create more complex items from simple substances.

View a gallery of various auroral shapes

Auroras can be generally classified as discrete (well-defined shapes) or diffuse (hazy shapes), with light taking various forms, including curtains, arcs, pillars, and rays. Some auroras can also pulsate, particularly after intense periods of auroral activity are winding down.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.