Beer Is Good !

[66Fury3]

Re: Beer Is Good !

Steve, I never knew it was that complicated to drink beer, and they say drinking kills brain cells...... Not with that kind of knowledge stuck in you head..... You are the man! ;D

[Monster]

Re: Beer Is Good !

Bump !
;D

[Pumpkin]

Re: Beer Is Good !

Leaving for Montana this morning for a wedding. I will try to drink my weight in Fat Tire and Moose Drool.

Cheers

Steve

Steve, also try just about anything produced by Big Sky Brewing http://www.bigskybrew.com/index.aspx/Our_Beers also anything by the AlackinBrewing Co. My favorite was tha Ale http://www.alaskanbeer.com/amber.html while you're out there, if you could pick me up a case of Moose Drool I'd be indebted to you for a long time.

[Monster]

Re: Beer Is Good !

http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-001407.html

For those who don't like "clicking" on links ....

Former Ford worker Ken Brooker, now an award-winning professional brewer, calls his newest beer Old Engine Oil. He admits the name may not appeal to every drinker, but the beer won a blindfold tasting be chosen as the featured winter brew in the British nationwide supermarket chain Tesco.

"Old Engine Oil" describes the beer's near-black colour, viscosity and lubricity, reckons brewer Brooker. "And it makes people smile," adds his wife Ingrid. I smiled rather more after having a glass of the 6.0 per cent brew. It is silky-smooth, with a rummy aroma, a coffeeish palate, and a suggestion of the darkest chocolate. An after-dinner beer as much as a winter warmer or bedtime brew.

Thanks Schtauffer ...
;)

[Schtauffer]

Re: Beer Is Good !

http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-001407.html

[rightpedal]

Re: Beer Is Good !

Leaving for Montana this morning for a wedding. I will try to drink my weight in Fat Tire and Moose Drool.

Cheers

Steve

[Brian Lohnes]

Re: Beer Is Good !

A good friend of mine suggested Fat Tire beer............I can't wait to give it a tryout.........

Fat tire is good stuff.

Someone actually makes some stuff called "Old Engine Oil" that was pretty tasty.

Brian

[383S-10]

Re: Beer Is Good !

A good friend of mine suggested Fat Tire beer............I can't wait to give it a tryout.........

[Monster]

Re: Beer Is Good !

Now that you know the two major categories of beer and how they are made, and have learned how to taste beer, the final lesson in your Beer Education is how to appreciate beer.

Step by Step Guide to Beer Appreciation
Welcome to the step-by-step guide to beer appreciation. By following these simple steps you will learn how to use your senses of sight, smell and taste to become a beer appreciation expert!

Step 1 - Appearance
First you must determine the appearance and color of the beer. You are looking to determine whether the following characteristics are acceptable according to style:

Color - color should be appropriate to the beer?s style and should be consistent. So for example, a lager should be yellow (not reddish) and a stout should be black (not brown).

Clarity or Limpidity - styles of beer which have been filtered such as lagers should be clear or even limpid (which means crystal clear). On the other hand you obviously cannot expect a bottle conditioned ale or a wheat beer to be clear but even these should not be too cloudy.

Head - this is the foam on a glass of beer. What is an appropriate head depends on the style of beer and the manner in which it has been poured. Generally it should be firm and fall slowly. Lacing should be left on the side of the glass once the beer is finished (a stroke for each sip - you can tell your drinking style by your empty glasses if they have too few laces then you?re guzzling and if they have too many then you?re dawdling). The desired size depends on the style of the beer. For example a lager or a stout should have a medium sized head of about 2cm. Pilsners should have a higher head.

Step 2 - Odor
When you have determined the appearance and color of your beer you should smell it to evaluate its odor. Odor consists of aroma which comprises the pre-fermentation smells and the bouquet which comprises the smells which are the product of fermentation.
The smells you are looking for include:

Hoppy - this is the grassy, flowery or tangy aroma which comes from the essential oils in the hops.

Malty - this is the sweet brewery aroma which comes from the sugars in the malted grain. It may have caramel (ie. slightly burnt toffee-like), earthy, roasted, molasses or coffee characteristics.

Fruity (estery) - this a fruity, sweet aroma which comes from the strain of yeast used. For example it could remind you of bananas, apples or raspberries. Strong fruitiness is more common in ales than in lagers.

Undesirable odors include:

Cardboard or Wet-Papery - this a smell which comes from beer that is too old or oxidized, i.e. which has been in contact with air for too long and has been damaged by oxygen.

Buttery or Honey (diacetyl) - a buttery, butterscotch or honey smell in beer is caused by bacterial infection (or sometimes by fermentation that was too short or conducted at too high a temperature). Not to be confused with a honey taste in a beer brewed with honey.

Skunky - this is the sulphery smell given off by beer which has been exposed to too much light. It is caused by the breakdown of hop oils by ultraviolet light.

Step 3 - Taste
When you first sample the beer you will sense its sting or ?effervescence? (caused by the bubbles of carbon dioxide gas). Then when you have the sip of beer passing through your mouth, you should ask yourself questions such as whether you are getting a sweet, sour or bitter sensation. Sweet sensations come from the malt or sugar used in the fermentation process, bitter sensations from the hops and sour sensations come from problems with the beer.

It is vitally important that you swallow your sample so that you can experience the full bitterness of the brew. This is because as shown on the diagram of the tongue, the taste buds which detect bitterness are located at the back of the tongue. Consequently, beer ? unlike wine - should never be spat out during a tasting. As if you were going to that anyway - not bloody likely!

When tasting, you are looking to determine whether the following characteristics are present:

Bitterness - this is the bitter flavor imparted by the female flowers of the Humulus Lupulus plant (i.e. the hops). Bitterness is experienced at the back of the tongue.

Sweetness or maltiness - this is the sweet taste which comes from the sugars in the malted grain.

Body or Mouthfeel - the body or mouthfeel is how the beer feels in your mouth before you swallow it. It may be thin, watery, or light on the one hand or viscose, big and full-bodied on the other. Whether a beer is big and full-bodied is often dependent on the qualities and richness of the malt.

Balance - a balanced beer is one where all the taste sensations that we expect of a beer are present in desirable proportions and one does not overpower the others. In a well-balanced beer the malty sweetness and hoppy bitterness complement one another and neither predominates.

Finish - finish is related to bitterness but includes other sensations that linger in your mouth after you have swallowed your sample. Bitterness and astringency contribute to a desirable clean finish.

Tasting Score Card
When rating beers it may be helpful to record your ratings on a score card for consistency. Here is one based on the wine judging score card of the Office International De La Vigne Et Du Vin.

Attribute Best score Rating Comments
Appearance
Appearance and Colour 1
Odour
Odour Intensity 1
Odour Quality 1
Taste
Taste Intensity 2
Taste Quality 3
Harmony or Balance 1
Finish 1


CONGRATULATIONS !
So now you are equipped to skillfully rate and review beers and amaze your friends with your beer knowledge and expertise. Perhaps you may become as accomplished as I am (LOL !!)

If all this is just way too much, just drink the stuff and enjoy it !!
;D

[Ron Ward]

Re: Beer Is Good !

I would like to see a sales graph of the beer companies we have spoken of in about a month and see if the brands we mentioned had sales spikes over the same month from a year ago.

On that same note, I wonder if Orange Julius had a good year last year? ;D


Ron

[tiresmoke!]

Re: Beer Is Good !

I was gonna say, I figured Shiner Bock was gonna be one of those beers that would be rich and heavy....while is has a full-bodied taste, it doesn't leave me feeling like I swallowed a damn brick.

My wife just walked past me and declared I'm becoming a "expensive beer snob"....she liked it better when I preferred a 12-pack longneck of Red Dog(yeah, I drank it at one time....so what?!).

All in moderation.

[Ron Ward]

Re: Beer Is Good !

Is it anything like Amber Bock ?

Amber Bock is a bit richer and heavier. It fills me up.


Ron

[Monster]

Re: Beer Is Good !

Is it anything like Amber Bock ?

[Ron Ward]

Re: Beer Is Good !

Tiresmoke has discovered 2 very interesting things today regarding beer:

1) Yuengling Beer is NOT sold in the state of Indiana....some odd reason, but it flat-out ISN'T.
2) Shiner Bock, however, IS......picked up six-pack(bottles), sampled one.......ME LIKEY!

I'm finding that I'd rather drink one or two quality beers on occasion and enjoy the flavor than pound down a case of horse-piss cheap beer........must be getting old.

;D

I'm tellin' ya, that Shiner Bock is goooooood stuff!


Ron

[Monster]

Re: Beer Is Good !

tiresmoke!, you're not getting older, just getting wiser ...
;D