Don't Believe Everything you Hear

Don't Believe Everything You Hear

By Jim Anderson

Despite our better efforts, beer remains one of the most mysterious and misunderstood members of the gastronomic community. Many is the wine geek who can rattle off the Premiere Cru Vineyards of Bordeaux and September rainfall in the Russian River Valley, yet clings to the notion that beer is what kids drink in college because it's cheap. That's how rumors get started. And when a rumor hangs around long enough, it attains myth status. May we present some of our favorite beer myths and some suggested snappy comebacks.

MYTH: Dark Beer is Stronger Than Light Beer
SNAPPY ANSWER: Try this Westmalle Tripel

Dark beer takes a lot of bad raps -- thick, bitter, flawed -- but this myth is the most common. Beer gets most of its color from roasting some or all of the grains that go into it. The heavier the roast, the darker the beer. But the depth of the roast has virtually no effect on alcohol content, which is determined by the quantity of malt used and the degree to which it is fermented. In the cases when roasting does have an effect strength, it actually can reduce a grain's ability to render alcohol.

MYTH: Ale is Stronger Than Lager
SNAPPY ANSWER: Oh yeah? Why?

In the middle of this century, it was common for beer above a certain alcohol content to be called "ale", regardless of whether the beer was top fermenting (a true ale) or bottom fermenting (lager). This practice can still be found in some states, such as Texas. By brewing convention, your average American ale tends to be a little higher in alcohol than your average lager, but that's by design rather than by nature. In fact, ale yeast has a lower tolerance for high levels of alcohol, and the world's strongest beers tend to be, with the exception of some hybrid beers, all lagers.

MYTH: Draft Beer is Better Than Bottle Beer
SNAPPY ANSWER: I'd take an old bottle of beer before on old draft beer any day.

This is more an assumption based on fact than a falsehood. This observation holds true for most beers your average Joe is exposed to, as draft versions are often unpasteurized and fresher. But we know about a whole realm of bottle conditioned beers -- notably many Belgian, English and American ales -- that just don't cut it on draft. In bottles, these beers have a chance to condition on their own yeast, sometimes improving over several years.

MYTH: Bock Beer is From The Bottom of the Barrel
SNAPPY ANSWER: How do they get those Germans in the barrels to scrape it out?

This is a dangerous one, because it leads people to believe that beer can change styles simply by aging. Bock beers are variously brewed in late winter through the spring, and their recipes result in beers that run the gamut from pale to quite dark, from strong to really strong. If there's any truth to this myth, it would apply to Maerzen beers, which were traditionally brewed in March, consumed throughout the summer, and finished off in late September at harvest festivals like Oktoberfest. By the time these last stores of Maerzen were consumed, the beer had gathered quite a bit of strength and complexity.

MYTH: Guinness is Really Strong
SNAPPY ANSWER: Like a Coors Light.

This one is true only if you've had Guinness in Belgium or Africa. The versions we get in America run from about 3.8%ABV (draft & pub draft cans) to around 4.5% in the bottle. While the Belgian and African bottled versions top out around 8%ABV, the Irish & American versions are designed as "session" beers, to be drunk over a period that might last six, seven, eight hours. Only a low-alcohol beer could accompany such sessions. The root of the myth is probably those yahoos who only drink Guinness once a year, accompanied by far too many glasses of Jameson. See also first myth.

MYTH: The Best Beer Comes in Green Bottles
SNAPPY ANSWER: That must be why Heineken tastes so good.

This one's a hangover from the early days of post-war imports. To distinguish European beer from domestic blue-collar brews, importers started to use green bottles. It quickly became a status symbol, and domestic breweries began putting their better stuff in green to cash in on the import association. The fact is, green glass is actually is efficient in protecting beer against the harmful effects of light than brown glass.

MYTH: Beer Makes You Fat
SNAPPY ANSWER: Oh, I thought it was that bag of fat-free cookies you just ate.

Anything you eat has the potential to make you fat, including beer. But where this notion becomes a myth is over which properties put the belly in your beer. Carbohydrates are often blamed, but they're not as bad as people might think, as they contain lots of food value. The dual culprits are alcohol (which is the main source of calories in beer and, being devoid of food value, a good example of "empty calories") and the resultant inactivity that virtually every drinker -- beer and otherwise -- experiences after a couple.

MYTH: Beer Tastes Best Out of a Frozen Mug
SNAPPY ANSWER: Only on the Titanic.

Actually, beer tastes least the colder it gets, just like any food. Ever wonder why pizza loses its zip when you have it out of the fridge the next morning? No, it's not the cotton in your mouth -- it's that most flavor components have an ideal temperature range. To suppress the impact of these flavor components, simply lower the temperature. This technique works fine for beers whose flavors you might want to minimize, but -- like with red wine and cheese -- has limited application to the good stuff. In addition, a frozen glass tends to dissipate most of the CO2 in your beer, leaving it flat and tasteless.

Jim Anderson is the publisher of "Beer Philadelphia."

This Article can be found at:

http://www.hospitalityguild.com/GuidePro/Beer/Beer_Myths.htm

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