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Learning
to Taste The Drinking section of Pencil&Spoon will talk about all things booze, with very particular attention paid towards beer: beer on its own and beer with friends, beer inside and out, local beer and beer from miles away. The matching of beer with food; how the beer tastes; pubs; brewers; the different styles of beer; the good and the great. As a member of the British Guild of Beer Writer's (www.beerwriters.co.uk), I will use these pages to talk about the greatest long drink in the world. This first page is an introduction of sorts into the world of beer, discussing how beer is made and a glossary of key terms. Beer Speak is my own selection of beer-related words, including reviews of beers and pubs, latest news from the beer world, and just some general wanderings. Beer&Food is my contribution to the pairing of dinner with a glass of ale and looks at how to pair successfully. I honestly believe that the a well-chosen beer is as good - or better - than a glass of wine at the dinner table. My Beer Tasting Notes feature a selection of beers that I like a lot and those that have been suggested as a pairing in any of the recipes on this site. To let me know what you think add a comment in the
Forum, or send me an email at
mark@pencilandspoon.com and give me your own suggestions,
favourites, pairings to try and pairings to avoid. Cheers! The great beer writer Michael Jackson exclaims in 'The World Guide to Beer' that "before British beer can be enjoyed, experience is required, but the same could be said for sex". First of all taste and smell are subjective and unique. By this I refer to the aromas you can distinguish and to the flavours that your palate can pick up, as well as the flavours and textures that you actually like and enjoy, or dislike. To try these beers and to pick out subtle flavours is not an easy thing. You could open a bottle of beer one day, drink it and notice a few flavours, then the next day you could open another bottle of the same beer and pick out different aromas or tastes. The way that I do it is to take a long, deep smell of the beer and pick out the particular words, flavours and memories which come to mind, these can be as far removed as chalk and chocolate, grass and greengages, bread and bananas, and these flavours come from experiences that I have previously had of them, from within a beer glass or away from it. Next take a mouthful or two and just think about the first words and thoughts that come to mind, whether they sound feasible or ridiculous. When I first started drinking beer I couldn't recognise or notice these small little hints of biscuit or caramel or grass or fruits or chicory-bitterness, or maybe I did but just couldn't associate them properly. It is something that takes a while - experience is required as Michael Jackson writes - but it is also a practice that you just keep getting better and better at, and more equipped for. Don't be put off if you can't taste a slight kick of lime peel or an underscore of flowers, or that you can't smell milk chocolate or bubble-gum; your palate or sense of smell might not pick up on these, or recognise them, but it will pick up on something, you just have to work out what it is! Flavour and taste are different things: taste is sweet, savoury, salty, bitter and sour. The flavours are the distinct and specific qualities of something. Apple pie tastes sweet with a savoury pastry, but has flavours of apples and sugar, with buttery pastry. If you see the word malty then the flavours and qualities can include: biscuit, bread, toast, caramel, toffee, sugar, banana, banoffee, popcorn, butter, dried fruit, fresh sweet fruits, dates, plums, damsons, milk and dark chocolate, sweet and bitter coffee, mocha, burnt, smoky, roasted, nutty, honey, spicy, oaty, milky, creamy, brandy, molases. If you see hoppy then the flavours and qualities to expect are: citrus, grassy, herby, spicy, spruce, bitter, bite, dry, chalky, crisp, clean, sour fruits, tart, tannic, acidic, apple, tropical, vinegar, orange, lemon, lime, zesty, citrus peel, metallic, biscuit, tar, tobacco, fresh, earthy. Some flavours overlap and some come from being added in, but these are basic qualities and words which are associated to Malty and Hoppy.
Some Basic and Interesting Facts All beer goes through the same basic process which is adapted along the way to create the different styles of beer. There are four ingredients that you need to make beer: a grain, water, hops and yeast. The hops are best understood as a seasoning or an ingredients; beer is made with it, not from it. The hops add the bitterness to the taste and also the aroma. Think about adding salt and pepper to a meal, or a squeeze of lemon, some chilli powder or some tomato ketchup; the hops work in a similar way to these, enhancing and changing the flavours to make it exactly how the brewer (chef) wants it. Beer essentially exists in two forms; top fermented and bottom fermented. Ale is top fermented and lager is bottom fermented. Inside these two broad categories live all the other styles. Like different wine from different grapes grown in different places the end product can vary. The same is true of beer. By adding a different hop, or mix of hops, the brewer will be able to create different flavours. Some hops are used more for their bitterness, while others are favoured for their aroma-giving qualities. The timing of the addition of these hops also affects the final brew. The same concept is true with the malted grain. There are different varieties such as Maris Otter, the premium malt; Amber malt; Cara malt; Chocolate malt; Crystal malt; Lager malt; Roasted malt, Torrified malt; as well as wheat and oats. The individual flavours and characteristics change in each of these also. Cara malt, like its name suggests, has a caramelly, toffee taste; Chocolate malt tastes like a dark, bitter-sweet chocolate; Amber malt is crisp and nutty; and Maris Otter has a delicious sweet nuttiness to it, which when eaten tastes like a good muesli.
First of all the beer maker takes the grain, which is most often barley. The grain is germinated which is a process by which the starch in the grain turns to a fermentable sugar. From here the grain, or malt as it is now known, is dried and sometimes roasted. The general rule is the longer it is roasted the darker it becomes. The roasting develops the flavour also, to begin there is a delicate biscuity characteristic, which moves into caramel, then chocolate and then coffee, becoming increasingly stronger and more bitter throughout. A stout will have been heavily roasted, leaving a black beer with a deep, roasted bitter flavour. The grain is then crushed and mixed with water in a ‘mash tun’. The mixture is heated up, and 'cooked', which helps to turn the starch into sugars. When the ‘mashing’ is complete the mixture is strained. It is not called beer just yet and at this stage it is known as wort. This liquid is intensely sweet and actually very tasty - think sweet, weak tea. The wort is then boiled in a copper or kettle. Next the hops are added, this stage sterilises the wort and stops the enzymatic process that occurred in the malting and the mashing, and it also adds the bitterness and aroma. Hops are added at different stages, the first in adds the bitterness while the ones added towards the middle or the end help develop the aroma, as well as the bitterness. In this stage some other flavourings can also be added, these include herbs, chocolate, fruits, honey, and so on. More often than not these flavourings are not the real thing, but essences or 'syrups'. After this liquid has been cooled the fermenting process can begin. The yeast is added to the wort and for the first time it can be called beer. The yeast converts the sugars in the mix into alcohol. The magic is really happening now. The mix ferments for varying periods of time, usually between 4 and 10 days depending on the beer and the brewery. Different yeast can be used to create different styles of beer, with special yeasts needed for some of the stronger beers. Next the beer moves to conditioning tanks where finings are added to ensure that the beer is clear. Finings never used to be needed in brewing when the beer was served in tankards or pewter's, but since glass became popular the beer had to get clearer. When almost all of the sugars have been digested in the conditioning tank the yeast begins to settle, either on the top (‘top fermented’) or the bottom (‘bottom fermented’). Bottom fermentation creates lager and occurs at a slightly lower temperature than top fermentation which accounts for beers such as ale, stout, wheat beer and virtually all other styles. This is known as the conditioning period, and it can last for anything up to 3 months, though it is usually around a week; bottom fermented beers will have a much shorter conditioning time than top fermenting beers. The fermenting and conditioning phases of the brewing can either take place in separate units or the same one, depending on the brewer. The beer is now ready. 'Real ale' is unpasteurised and undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle or cask which means that it keeps developing in flavour and characteristic and essentially means that it is a live product. Lager is pasteurised and does not have this second fermentation. Because real ale continues to change inside the bottle it can be kept for longer than a bottle of lager, and some and even suited to last for a number of years. These are the stronger beers, the ones that have been specially developed to last longer, such as Fuller's Vintage. This is my basic understanding of the brewing process. It is essentially the same for each different style of beer, with changes being made along the way to develop certain characteristics.
Beer Glossary, Styles and Terminology Here is a list of some of the most popular and common styles of beer as well as some terminology that may be used to describe beer. Ale – A top fermented beer. Classed further into Pale, Brown and Strong/Dark, as well as Porter, Stout and Mild, Wheatbeer, Trappist and Kölsch. Bitter – A well hopped beer without the fizz of a lager. Deep golden colours of browns and reds separate bitter from ale and stout. Normally fairly low in alcohol, smooth to drink with simple flavours and the underlying hoppy crisp bitterness. Often floral notes in the smell, with delicate sweet flavours underlined by a citrusy bite of bitterness. Young’s Bitter is a good example. Bitter is quintessentially British, something which probably is in part due to the abundance of hops that grow on the fair isle. Bock – A strong lager style beer, bottom fermented. A typical example is Artois Bock which is now becoming available in the supermarkets (probably thanks to the ‘success’ of its Artois brethren), a golden copper coloured beer, strong and full with sweet malt flavours of toffee and caramel, along with honey and grassy herbs with some bitterness at the end. Body – The body of the beer is how it feels inside the mouth. It can be thick like cough medicine or thin like water. Bottle Conditioned – Beer which finishes, or continues, the fermentation process in the bottle with a sugar and yeast sediment. These beers are essentially ‘alive’ when you drink them and you must take care not to pour too much sediment out from the bottom of the bottle. If you do pour in the sediment then the beer will have a cloudy look to it and the flavour may be different to the one you would get without the sediment, but this is not necessarily bad. These beers have a certain shelf-life and their flavours can and should change over time. Sometimes it is good to try a beer soon after it is bottled, whereas others become better and better. Beer can also be cask conditioned. Brown Ale – A developed form of mild, brown ale is often stronger than a mild and sweeter with malty flavours like caramel, toffee and sweet nuts. Good examples are Hobgoblin, Newcastle Brown Ale, Samuel Smith’s Brown Ale and Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale. All of these have a deep reddish-brown colour, full flavours of caramel malts, a nutty bite and a smooth, strong and lengthy finish to them. CAMRA – The Campaign for Real Ale. www.camra.co.uk Cider – Alcoholic drink made from fermented apple juice. It can be as good as beer and the variety is excellent. Especially in England where we have so many different apples growing. Dry Hopping – Some beers have hops added into them during the conditioning process, this is done to enhance the aroma of the beer. Esters – Beer gets its smell from the hops and to some extent from the grain, but there are other smells which come from neither the grain or the hop, and these smells are drawn out from the yeast during fermentation. Often these are sweet or fruity and the smell will vary depending on the yeast used and the reaction it has with the existing components of the beer. Extreme Beers - They are exactly what they sound like. Beers brewed in extreme ways, or beers which challenge the normal conceptions of what a beer is. American micro breweries seem to be the fore-runners in this emerging style. Expect beers with very high alcohol levels (up towards 20%), mega-hopped monsters or with the addition of unusual ingredients such as chilli. Fermentation – The process in which the yeast turns the sugar into alcohol. Filtering – The filtration of the beer after the conditioning phase of the brewing process. This is dependent on the style of beer and can leave a beer somewhere between golden, clear and thin to cloudy or dark and thick. Finish – The finish in the mouth after you have tasted it. Normally judged by length: a short finish will mean the flavours have left the palate soon after drinking, whereas a long finish will remain on the palate, developing and lingering for a while after tasting. Size does matter here; generally, the longer the finish the better. Fruit Beer – Beer that has fruit or fruit juice added to it. Can realistically be added to any style of beer. Germination – The initial stage of beer making when the grain is allowed to develop by converting the starch into sugar before any roasting takes place. Golden Ale – A golden, smooth, clean ale. Typically a beer that is simple in flavours, usually with hints of biscuit, sweet juicy tropical fruits, some earthy notes, some dry hop bitterness, and a clean finish. It is a beer often likened to lager and was probably in fact brewed to appeal to this market. Fuller's Discovery is an excellent example of this, as is Deuchar's IPA (a golden ale and not in fact an India Pale Ale, hence the confusion which exists between the classification of IPA, pale ale and golden ale). Grain – Often barley, but can be wheat, rye, rice or corn. The grain is converted into malt, which becomes sugar and the sugar is converted into alcohol. Head – The foam that is produced on top of the poured beer. Guinness has a thick foam like cream, whereas some bitters will only have a very small, slight head. Bottled beers heads’ vary in thickness, colour and the amount of time it lasts. Hops – Added into the beer making to create aroma and bitterness. A beer that is hoppy in its characteristics has got a simple bitterness to it, it is grassy or clean, perhaps with a hint of citrus or peel to it. The aftertaste of a hoppy beer is dominated by a dry crispness. India Pale Ale - In order to be able to transport the beer from England to India more hops were added to the brew to help preserve it over the journey. These are often higher in alcohol compared to 'normal' ales. The style has developed somewhat now into a hoppy version of a golden ale or a pale ale. Kölsch – A German lager style beer that is actually an ale, often light and fruity with a gentle dry bitterness, served cold it is particularly refreshing. Like Champagne, Kölsch, which is brewed in Cologne, has an appellation of origin. Küppers Kölsch is a good example; it is fruity with hints of apple and sweetness from a touch of honey. The finish is quite short but refreshing and palate cleansing with the hoppy fizz. Kriek – A beer that is flavoured with cherries. Often low in alcohol, malts and hops to allow the fruit to dominate, the variety in quality and taste is vast. Some Kriek beers are sharp, tannic and bitter, these are examples of Kriek produced in the lambic style, whereas others are sweet like fruit juice. Liefmann’s or Lindemann’s are good examples, also try Melbourne Bros. or Samuel Smith’s for a cherry beer that is very good and drinkable with the irrefutable taste of cherries, without being sickly sweet. If you see a Kriek or cherry beer on tap then try it, it is wonderful; the bottled varieties can differ. Lager – Bottom-fermented beer. The beers that surround us daily are almost always lagers; Stella, Carlberg, Kronenbourg 1664, Budweiser, as well as Pilsner and Bock. The flavours vary from bland, simple, clean and generic mainstream stuff, to full flavoured biscuity, bready, flowery lager such as Samuel Smith’s Organic lager, to the Japanese or Asian lagers designed for spicy foods which have a vibrant fizz to them creating a palate cleansing sweep across the tongue while simultaneously kicking the palate into life, and then all the way to dark lager with flavours becoming more malty, caramelly and sweet. Dark lager is less refreshing and more akin in taste to something like Newcastle Brown Ale. Lambic – Top fermented beer made with unmalted wheat as well as barley. Often sharp and sour in taste, sometimes similar to lemon juice, vinegar or white wine plonk. Cherries are sometimes added. Malt – The grain which has been allowed to germinate, producing enzymes which convert the starch into sugars. The malt creates the sweetness or intensity of a beer through, firstly the roasting of it, and then the fermentation. A malty beer is one that has sweet flavours ranging from biscuits up to sugar, and then on up towards stronger flavours such as caramel, chocolate and coffee. Mild – A ‘mild’ version of bitter. It is often low in alcohol, although some of the higher alcohol versions are excellent. Mild is low in hops, and the flavours, which come from the roasted grains, range from subtly sweet in the maltiness to bitter coffee in the finish. They are usual quite thin in the body. May is traditionally Mild Month in England. Old Ale – Often rich and strong, deep and dark in colour, with long lingering finishes of malt sweetness, dried fruits, and even moving into port or brandy characteristics. A good old ale can be a very fine drink indeed, although they are often high in alcohol. I like to drink them in the evening, or after dessert, perhaps with a cheese board. They are beers to be savoured and enjoyed, not downed by the pint. Fuller’s do a vintage ale each year, if you see this buy it! Pale Ale - A beer which seems to me a little lost between other styles. Often a fruitier and less hopped drink than bitter, and similar in style to a golden ale, the actual possible ranges of flavour are wide. Sierra Nevada brew a very good pale ale, I would also class London Pride and Old Speckled Hen in this category. America, Australia, England and some European countries brew pale ales. Perry – Like cider, but made from pears. Pilsner – A well-hopped lager style beer, with some malt sweetness and leading to a citrusy dry end. Part of the lager family which has unfortunately become quite generic, but it can still be refreshing and tasty, especially served ice cold on a hot day. Try the Whitstable Bay Pilsner for a light beer with golden and light biscuit flavours, and grassy undertones with apples and pears. Or even better, try a proper Czech Pilsner, preferably a Pilsner Urquell. Porter – A dark, top-fermented beer originating from London. It is somewhere between a bitter or mild and a stout, often being very dark in colour with roasted malts, some fruity sweetness on occasions, and bitter dry finishes on others. It is sometimes flavoured with late summer fruits such as damsons or blackberries which add the subtle sweetness before the bitter finish. Try the Fuller’s London Porter for a good example. Real Ale – Beer that is alive when it is packaged. Either bottle or cask condition. Snakebite – A potent mixture of lager and cider, often served with a dash of blackcurrant cordial. A campus favourite that I just had to mention. Steam Beer – A bottom fermented lager beer originating from California. It came into production because of a lack of adequate refrigeration and so uses a yeast that works at a higher temperature than the usual in lager brewing and which relies upon a long shallow tank to cool the beer down. Anchor Steam beer is the most available example of this. It has a smooth golden colour, richer and deeper than lager, it has a clean taste, crisp and very drinkable. No strong flavours win out, just some gentle malt biscuit tastes and a dry, grassy finish. It is strange in that although is not particularly flavourful, it is still a very good beer. It does not taste like steam! Stout – A very dark, often black beer, most commonly seen in the form of Guinness. The flavour comes from the malted grain which is heavily roasted and the flavour ranges from berry fruit sharpness, through port richness into caramel and then chocolate, smoke and coffee bitterness. The textures and body of stout also varies greatly, from thin like mild or porter, up to the thick creamy Guinness. Stouts also take on other flavours too, with oatmeal and oyster being the two most common. Both of these add a good subtle sweetness to the beer. A good oatmeal stout will be creamy and have a sweetness to it that is almost milky. Whitstable Bay do a good oyster stout, but drink it on the beach outside the brewery bar for the best taste. I have had oyster stout before that was astringent to the point of actually being fishy. The Porterhouse in Covent Garden (they also have pubs in Ireland but I haven’t visited these) is the place to go for stouts in my opinion. They have their standard stout, an oyster stout, and on occasions a chocolate stout, all of which are fantastic. Also, just go to the pub in general for one of the biggest selections of beer you will be able to find. Russian Imperial Stouts are much stronger versions, but some can be incredible to drink. Stout is brewed in the Caribbean and Sri Lanka Trappist – Strong, top-fermented Belgian beer, brewed in Trappist monasteries under the supervision of monks. There are only 6 brewers of genuine Trappist beer in the world and they are bound to specific regulations. Trappist beer must be made inside the monastery or be controlled by the monks from them, and it is these monks who decide how the beer is produced. Also, the beer must not be brewed for profit, only subsistence. Trappist beer comes in three different styles, each increasing in strength: single, double and triple. Try the range of Chimay beers which is readily available, I recommend you buy one of each, try them all and see the differences for yourself, also try Orval and Rochefort. The beers have flavours of caramel sweetness, orange peel, nuts, dried fruits as well as spicy, earthy notes, all of developing depth and length with the increasing strengths of the beers. Wheat beer/Weissbier – A top-fermented beer brewed using wheat and barley malt. Served with a cloudy appearance and with flavours ranging from sharp and citric, through clean and crisp, and up towards biscuity and then on to spicy. A friend of mine describes the taste as being ‘meaty’ which I can also understand, with a savoury hint of the delicatessen smell to it. Wheat beer has a sediment in the bottle which, unlike real ale, is to be poured into the glass thus creating the cloudy colour. There are vast numbers of wheat beers, in the same way as there are many many real ales. The most common is probably Hoegaarden with flavours of clove, banana, citrus peel and subtle sour spice.
Yes, there is more. It is not enough to know the right beer, and to serve it alongside the right meal, it is also important to serve it in a glass that will enhance all the good things about it. You wouldn’t serve wine in a pint glass after all (but you would serve beer in a wine glass!). There is a large selection of glasses to be served with different beers, and many European brewers also create a glass to go with the beer, in these cases the choice of glass is already chosen for you. See the picture of me enjoying a glass of Kwak from their speciality glass which has a rounded base, like a test tube, so it comes with a wooden stand.
I will simplify the choice of glasses down to just 4 different basic shapes: Pint Glass/Mug – The ubiquitous pint glass, ideal for any standard lager, ale, cider and stout. Fits perfectly in the hand and just feels good to hold. Nothing more really needs to be said. Tall, Thin ‘Pilsner’ Glass – Often referred to as ‘Pilsner’ glasses, they also work well for good quality lagers and Kölsch as they point the bubbles neatly towards the top of the glass, in the same way that a champagne flute does. They are also designed to keep a good even head down the glass and show of the fizzy, golden, clear nature of the drink. This style tends to either narrow again at the top, or it stays straight and tapered up to the rim. Tulip - If you have no other glass then this will be the one you need. Essentially every beer style will work well in this type of glass, which opens wide in the middle and tapers inwards towards the rim. Ideally suited to golden beers and ales, but good for stouts and bitters, lagers and even big Belgian beers. Brandy Glass/Snifter/Chalice – Perfect for more complex beers. The wide base of the Brandy glass enables the drinker to have a good swirl, sending the aromas spouting out the rim. While the Chalice works in a similar way, although without having a narrower rim than base. These are ideal with Belgian beers and strong dark or vintage ales, as well as fruit beers as they promote the aromas and the volatile flavours and encourage you to sip and enjoy the beer. If you cannot get a Chalice or a Snifter then just use a large wine glass for the high strength beers as they work in just the same way. You want to be able to swirl these beers around in the glass and then be able to get your nose right in there and have a good sniff. And finally... Temperature is important too. Lager, pilsner, fruit beer, Belgian beer, cider and some ales need to be served spankingly cold. This enhances the clean, crisp nature of them. Dark ales, vintages, stouts, porters and mild benefit from being served slightly chilled, not warm but not cold, as this reveals the flavours inside them more willingly. If they are served too cold then the flavours are hidden behind the temperature. Some bottled beers now come with an ideal serving temperature.
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All pictures and words copyright of Mark Dredge 2007-2008. All rights reserved.
