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If you try wine tastings, try beer!!Jul 18 '00 Write an essay on this topic.Its amazing to me - so many people attend and are familiar with wine tastings, whether professionaly run or just a bunch of friends. But many of those same people probably never realize that beer has just as many different styles as wine - possibly even more! For starters, there's the problem of the what I like to call 'the wine/beer stigma'. Many wine aficionados are perceived to be chi-chi, snooty, only wanting the best of the best, etc. Whether its true or not,I think you all know what I mean. Beer fans, however, are seen in an entirely different light. I'm a huge beer fan, yet when I tell people my passion, they automatically think of the big, loud, beer-gut guys who regularly attend ball games and shout at the umpires. And yes - whether that is true or not, I think everyone knows the stereotype. Yet, beer drinkers cut across all ages, races, regions and probably are of a more varied cross-section of Americans than wine aficionados. Wine fans are thought of as 'elitist', while beer fans are the common man, so to speak. With that in mind, many wine fans wouldn't dare think of trying different beers - after all, how different could they be? (say it with your nose in the air) Well, these same people are missing out - or should I say, more for us who are in the know!! I like to use a very, very simple analogy to explain to those who don't know the variety of beers out there. Take an ordinary glass of unsweetened iced tea. If you like you're iced tea very perky and somewhat sour, you add lemon slices. If you really like it sour, you add more lemon. The 'lemon' in beer could be seen as how 'hoppy' a beer is. The more hops in a beer are present, the more of a 'bite' the beer is said to have. On the other hand, if you like your iced tea sweetened, you'd add sugar or some type of sweetener. If you like it very sweet, more sugar is added. The 'sugar' in a beer could be analogous to the 'malt' taste of a beer, where the maltier the beer, the sweeter it tastes. (Remember, this isa crash course in explaining beer tastes, there's obviously a lot more than just this)An iced tea could be said to have a 'balanced' taste if you can detect both 'lemon' and 'sugar' tastes. The same holds true to a beer. There are very hoppy beers, which are great thirst-quenchers for either warm climates and temperatures, just like lemony iced tea, or even lemonade. Then there are malty beers, which have a nice, mellow, lingering sweet taste, generally better for cooler, wetter climates and weather. The well-balanced beers are great any time of year or season. If you'd like to try a nice, hoppy brew, Liberty Ale from Anchor Steam, San Francisco fits the bill. Many other fine examples could be found in the Northwestern US. Malty beers, my personal favs, run the gamut from ambers and ales to more hefty, Guiness-type brews along the types like oatmeal stouts and barley wines. German Octoberfest beers and many British beers fit the 'malty' type nicely. I'd highly recommend Brooklyn Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Anchor Steam for well-balanced brews, if you wanna give them a try. As I said, the iced tea analogy completely leaves out those truly extraordinary brews out there. I'm talking about Belgian brews, which are so unique and diverse they almost defy description. Wine is to France what beer is to Belgium. They're also very potent in alcohol, so watch it when tasting them. Also, beers flavored with fruit, oatmeal, chocolate might sound truly weird and disgusting, but many are very well made, and worth a try. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, Belgian Kriek beer (which is flavored with cherries, tastes almost like champagne, and great over ice cream!)and almost any British Oatmeal Stouts are truly great, one-of-a-kind tastes. So believe me, there's more to just wine out there when you wanna try something different! Also, its a really fun ice-breaker at parties. Who knows, you might stumble on something that you really, really like. An easy rule of thumb is determine what kind of 'iced tea' you like best, then ask your local beer distributor for good examples of hoppy, malty or well-balanced beers. Ya never know unless you try them!!  |
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