If you check out some things about beer in general, you'll find that there is more to beer than just who makes it, how it tastes and how much it costs. Sure, if you're just interested in popping open a cold brew and sitting yourself down in front of the TV, you probably only care about those 3 things and most likely just number two. But you'd be surprised how much you can learn about beer from magazines, books and the Internet.

For example. You can learn about the different kinds of glasses you can get to put your beer in. No kidding. You've got your flute glass, goblet, mug or stein, pilsner glass, pint glass, snifter, stange, tulip, Weizen glass and even an oversized wine glass. Of course you're probably used to seeing most beers being drunk either from the stein or pilsner glass in movies or commercials. Most guys just drink out of the bottle.

But we're just getting started. Did you know you could even learn how to store your beer? If you want, you can cork your beer and age it for about 3 to 6 months. Supposedly, this really brings out a very rich flavor from your beer. There are even different kinds of corks you can get. Bet you didn't know that.

From storing we go to pouring. Yes, you can learn how to pour your beer just right. Want a nice big thick head on it? No problem. Just pour it from a height of about 4 to 6 inches above the rim of the glass. However, if you want a perfect pour, then you have to hold your glass at a 45 degree angle and pour while making the middle of the glass your target. Yes, there is an art to pouring beer, one that all great bartenders have down to perfection.

Want to learn all the beer brewing lingo so you sound like a real cool dude? You can actually do that as well. Yes, you can learn all the hip words like hops, keg, lager, draft or draught, malting, extracting and on and on. If you needed to pass on test on all the beer terms, you'd have to study for a month of Sundays.

Speaking of hops. Did you know there is an actual hops guide? What, you thought there was just one kind of hops? There are a zillion types of hops (okay, not that many) and the names read like a chapter out of "What the heck is that?" Need a few? Well, there's crystal hops, which is actually a half sister to Mt. Hood and Liberty Hops. Okay you got the idea. There are a lot of hops.

But hey, hops isn't the only thing that goes into the making of beer. You've also got yeast and malt and a number of other things. There's more ways to actually make beer than there are beers. Of course if you threw enough things together in a rotten enough manner you'd probably come up with a pretty rotten tasting beer. But it would still be beer.

And all this that we've just mentioned? These are just the basics. Want to go beyond? Well, that's a whole other article.