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- Herausgeber: Ryland Peters & Small
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014
Beer and Food is the definitive book about matching great food with the world's tastiest beers. Whether you have cooked dinner and don't know what beer to choose, or you've got a pale ale and can't decide what dish is best to serve with it, Beer and Food has all the information you could possibly need. It looks at the science of taste and how the ingredients in a brewery work with ingredients in a kitchen, examining the principles of matching beer and food, and looking at the flavours they share. Over the following pages, more than 35 beer styles are showcased, telling stories about the brews and picking perfect pairings for each, before delving into different cuisines and food types from around the world. Everything is covered, from sandwiches to curries to desserts and, of course, the best beers to enjoy with fast food. As well as the greatest pairings and suggestions of the best styles to try, there's a recipe section with over 50 dishes which use beer as an ingredient. With over 350 beers featured in total, chosen from all over the globe, it's the book for everyone who loves a drink and a tasty bite to eat.
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BEER
AND
FOOD
MARK DREDGE
BRINGINGTOGETHER THEFINEST FOODAND THE BESTCRAFT BEERSIN THE WORLD
Published in 2014 by Dog 'n' Bone Books
An imprint of Ryland Peters & Small Ltd
20–21 Jockey’s Fields519 Broadway, 5th Floor
London WC1R 4BWNew York, NY 10012
www.rylandpeters.com
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Text © Mark Dredge 2014
Design and photography © Dog 'n' Bone Books 2014
The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library.
eISBN: 978 1 911026 32 7
ISBN: 978 1 909313 23 1
Printed in China
Editor: Caroline West
Designer: Mark Latter
Illustrator: Nicholas John Frith
Food photographer: William Lingwood
Food styling: Luis Peral
Home economist: Lucy Mackelvie
Picture credits: p50 © Brasserie Cantillon, p77 and 83 © Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
For digital editions, visit www.cicobooks.com/apps.php
CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter 1The Basic Ingredients
Chapter 2Beer Styles
Chapter 3Matching Food and Beer
Chapter 4Cooking With Beer
Index
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION
It was the day I was eating dinner and had four glasses of beer in front of me that I realized I was really getting into this beer and food thing. It had come from somewhere, but I’m not exactly certain where. I’d always loved cooking different dishes and was thirsty to try lots of different beers, but I’d never purposefully tried to pair what I was drinking to what I was eating. It seemed a curious thing…
Sure, I loved bar snacks with my pint, pizza with Pale Ale, or cold lager with a hot curry, but it was never anything more than that. Then, one day, I tried a semi-sweet (dark) chocolate mousse with a sour cherry beer, and everything changed. Beer and food became something different, something better, something fun and interesting and challenging. I wanted to learn more.
Learning more meant reading Garrett Oliver’s The Brewmaster’s Table. It’s a must-read book for beer lovers and the first dedicated to the combined joys of drinking beer and eating great food. It succeeded in inspiring me to try the things the Brooklyn Brewmaster was talking about, as well as to try a few pairings of my own. For a couple of years I planned my weekend meals in advance, always knowing the beers I’d put with them and typically choosing a couple of different bottles to see how they worked or didn’t work. It became natural to open beers with dinner.
I discovered that beer can do brilliant things with food. There are so many different beer styles, each one with different qualities, strengths, and tastes, which means that there’s a beer for every dish and a dish for every beer. I don’t think any other drink has as much flavor variety and versatility as beer: dry, snappy Pilsners; spicy Saisons; sweet-and-sour Belgian Reds; bitter IPAs; creamy Milk Stouts; and fruitcake-like Dubbels. There’s an extraordinary choice of beers and I loved seeing what each of them did with food.
My ambition with Beer and Food is to try to make you both thirsty and hungry by suggesting ideas for pairing different drinks with different dishes. It isn’t intended as an indelible list of rules; instead, I hope it inspires you to try combinations of your own and to attempt to find something perfect to go with your favorite beer or food. Taste is subjective, and the things I like could be things you hate, so the best I can do is recommend pairings that I enjoy. You may hate them, but, if you don’t like them, then hopefully you’ll be able to think of something that will work better. And you’ll try it.
The beers I’ve chosen for this book are deliberately picked because they are available in mainstream markets around the world. Where my previous book Craft Beer World was about some of the rarer and harder-to-find beers, I felt it was silly selecting those for Beer and Food. I want you to be able to try these matches and a once-a-year, super-limited-release beer isn’t very achievable. And I’ve tried to keep everything simple and, hopefully, unpretentious—I’ve included a Big Mac; Budweiser is in here; there’s a match for a pint of shandy; and a plate of seasoned fries also features because sometimes the best match for a beer really is something as simple as a plate of fried potatoes. Beer and Food isn’t about finding unusual and complicated matches (although sometimes it’s nice to work a little harder to discover something spectacular). It’s about choosing the very best thing to eat with a beer, even if that is just a sandwich, a slice of cheese, or a piece of cake. Simplicity is often the best approach.
There are no secrets to pairing beer and food; all you need is the confidence or curiosity to try different beers with different foods. Sometimes, it just won’t work and other matches will be fairly neutral, but then you’ll get a match that tastes so good you’ll want to have it again and again and again. And I hope that you’ll share it with others, because beer is a social drink to enjoy with friends while relaxing and talking. But, since it’s a laidback drink, closely linked to the pub, bar, or sports event, it hasn’t had a place on the (formal) dinner table, which is a real shame. Now is the time to discover how brilliant beer and food can be together.
Love beer and food. Embrace how they sometimes just don’t work, celebrate how other times they are amazing, love how the possibilities are limitless, love how sometimes a beer you don’t enjoy can be made delicious by a good dish, and love how beer and food are surprising and interesting and fun.
I love beer and I love food, and I love them together. Hopefully, you’ll soon understand why.
BASIC INGREDIENTS
WHY BEER AND FOOD?
Whether beer likes it or not, wine is the default drink at most dinner tables. But that’s changing. I’ve heard beer-lovers arguing with an esteemed wine writer about each side’s success (or not) with food. The wine guy took the view that the great Old World wine nations—France, Italy, and Spain—have great food cultures and so their joining at the table is a natural fit, whereas the great traditional brewing nations—Britain, Belgium, Germany—are not known for their cuisine. The beer guys disagreed.
While I understand the wine guy’s point-of-view, it’s definitely a dated mentality that overlooks the way in which food and drink now transcend nations. Beer is great for that: of the world’s 200 or so countries, the vast majority make their own beer, with small-scale craft brewing consistently growing worldwide to produce an ever-increasing number of beers.
The early American craft brewing pioneers of the 1970s and 1980s took inspiration from old British brewing and did their own thing with it, using local ingredients to develop recipes. They then looked to Belgium and Germany. Now, brewers around the world are looking at what others are making, or looking back at old recipes, and applying their own influences: British brewers are taking the big hops of American IPA and combining them with the low-ABV, session-strength ales; Italian brewers are using their countrymen’s wine barrels to produce Sour Beers, as in Belgium; and New Zealand brewers are making wonderful Pale Lagers in the German style and using local hops to give a glorious fruitiness to their beers.
Brewing is a worldwide industry, but the ingredients in beer tend to come from a small number of countries. For this reason, many breweries have to order their ingredients from around the world. This means the provenance of a beer is often tied to who made it and where, rather than the ingredients used or the inspiration behind it. It also means that any brewer, from anywhere in the world, can create any beer style and compare it with anyone else’s. Think of it like French fries or a cheeseburger. Every chef can, or does, make fries and a cheeseburger, but they vary enormously, depending on what ingredients and processes are used. The better versions are always well regarded and the best are worth traveling around the world for. American Pale Ale is the beer equivalent: surely the most-brewed craft-beer style, inspired by American breweries, and made within relatively narrow parameters (straw to amber in color, 4.0–6.0% ABV, hop-forward). Although a huge variety exists in terms of quality and taste, American Pale Ale still manages to be a “local” beer, thanks to where it’s made.
BEER DRINKERS: AN INCREASING SOPHISTICATION
As brewing continues to grow and spread, so drinkers want better beers and are gaining more knowledge about what is great and what is not so good. That knowledge is important and is linked to food. Within a few generations we’ve gone from eating mainly local and traditional recipes to enjoying world cuisine in our daily diets, while a general intellectualization of food and drink has combined with a general search for better-tasting things. Now, if we’re going to go out for a coffee, we don’t want to pay for instant; we want fresh beans ground while we wait. If we want a sandwich in a café, we don’t want pre-sliced white bread; we want something fresh from the bakery. We know more than red, white, rosé, or sparkling. We’re becoming more aware of seasonality and where ingredients come from. And we’re generally learning more about beer: where it’s brewed, how it tastes, and why it tastes the way it does.
We don’t go to a pub or bar because we know we can get a great pint of Carling, Castlemaine, or Coors. But we do go to a bar if we know there’s a choice of five, ten, 20, or even 50 different craft beers. And we’re promiscuous and curious about what we drink, choosing different beers when we go to the bar, searching for something tastier than the last one, or something to suit our particular thirst, mood, or a meal. It’s taken a long time—and there’s still a long way to go—but drinkers are gradually learning more about beer and expecting more than a plain pint of Pale Lager.
TIME FOR FOOD TO STEP UP
And that’s where food can help. We tend to know more about food than we know about beer. If someone offers you a guava, Thai basil, or chorizo, you probably know roughly what to expect, whereas being offered a Berliner Weisse, Saison, or ESB can be more daunting. But, if you are pushed in the right direction with beer and food, you can use this as an opportunity to try the two together with confidence, using your knowledge of the food as a kind of stepping stone toward the drink.
Beer is a worldwide drink. We can now order a Japanese-brewed IPA with BBQ ribs in a diner in London; we can have an American-brewed Saison with Chinese food in Auckland; and Brazilianbrewed Hefeweizen with Banh Mi in San Francisco. We can also order Dubbel in Belgium to go with carbonnade, Golden Ale with fish and chips in Britain, Dunkel with bratwurst in Munich… There is absolutely a romance to drinking local beer styles with local food, but the world of beer can go way beyond that and yet still somehow retain some provenance.
That wine writer’s view of beer, wine, and food was outdated. Beer has developed and so has food. And this isn’t about beer being better than wine or vice versa. It’s about understanding and appreciating the wide variety of beers and seeing their potential with a meal; it’s about having the freedom to choose different food and drink, and knowing a little bit about them both to make them better together. It’s simply about enjoying good food and good drink.
BEER AND FOOD: TOGETHER FOR 10,000 YEARS
Around 10,000 years ago, in the Near East, a shift in human civilization saw our ancestors change from nomadic peoples who migrated seasonally to find the best food and means of survival to settled groups who began to grow their own produce. Among the first crops to be cultivated were grains such as wheat and barley. As a versatile food-stuff, grain could be ground and mixed with varying amounts of water and turned into bread, porridge, or beer.
Some scientists have argued that brewing was a catalyst for the beginnings of agriculture, while others believe bread and porridge are of greater importance. Either way, beer and bread are key points on the timeline of human evolution. However, exactly why, when, and how the first beer was brewed are questions to which we’ll probably never know the answers, so we can only speculate.
What we do know is this: grain contains starch and these starches are converted into fermentable sugars when they are soaked in water. A grain-and-water mix would naturally have attracted airborne wild yeasts and these would’ve started the fermentation process. So, after a few hours or days, the porridge would start to bubble and fizz. When an intrepid farmer took a sip, he would have felt the pleasing warmth of intoxication and surely set about recreating it and making it even better. One development we are sure of is that grain was baked into dry breads or biscuits, which were then crumbled into water, thus starting off the brewing process.
10,000 years ago beer was a liquid form of bread and bread was a baked form of beer. In other words, beer was food, and the two have been together since the first days of settled human civilization.
CURRENCY, CALORIES, AND CEREMONY
As time passed, grain remained important to human civilization. For example, beer and bread were staples of the Ancient Egyptian diet. The workers who built the Great Pyramids of Egypt were paid a daily ration of beer and bread (about 1 US gallon/4 liters and four loaves), and over 15 different types of beer have been identified from this period, with names such as The Beautiful and the Good, The Joy Bringer, and The Addition to the Meal.
We know that beer also became a sociable drink from depictions of people drinking from large pots with long straws. These straws also helped to remove the sediment that accumulated as a result of the brewing process. This sediment had other benefits in its turn. Since the beer was unfiltered (and so still contained yeast), it was high in vitamins, minerals, and protein, as well as extra calories. For this reason, beer combined the refreshment of a drink with the sustenance of food. On top of all that, once boiling the liquid became a part of the brewing process, beer was safer to drink than water.
There’s more: beer also had a religious role and links to the gods. The Egyptians believed that Osiris, who was the god of agriculture, discovered beer—one day, he made some gruel and forgot about it, returning later to a fermented bowl of beer. Osiris told the world about this magical drink and so confirmed his godly status. Ninkasi was the Sumerian goddess of alcohol and the brewster for the other gods. The Hymn to Ninkasi is a recipe for beer and one of the earliest written mentions of the drink. Beer also played a part in religious ceremonies for birth and death.
FROM HOME-BREWED…
Jumping forward in time and across to Northern Europe, we find that brewing was something predominantly done in the home before it became established in the monasteries (from the 9th to 12th centuries). As something small-scale and local, beer was inextricably linked to the kitchen and would inevitably have been used in cooking. Beer was also a part of people’s daily diet and was consumed as both a nutritious drink and liquid bread. Next came a more commercial approach to beer. Home-brewing alewives started to sell their beer (we’re in the 14th century now, by the way) before a demand for greater volumes saw a move toward larger, commercial-scale production (now the 16th century)—and so brewing became a proper profession. With the Industrial Revolution (the 18th century), beer was produced on vast scales and then it got smarter with scientific and technical developments in brewing (the 19th century).
TO MASS-BREWED…
By the start of the 20th century, brewing had become a large-scale commercial industry in many parts of the world, with new developments—such as advanced railway networks, pasteurization, and so on—allowing beer to travel. Then came a few decades of worldwide change with the First and Second World Wars, rationing, depressions, and prohibition in America, followed by a rebuilding and return to peacetime. These events all combined to affect food and drink in one major way: flavor disappeared.
The 1950s won’t be held up as our greatest culinary decade, as they were blighted by canned food, convenience food, the knock-on effect of rationing, and food shortages… And, where once 50 years earlier there were over 1,700 small local breweries in America, the big ones started getting bigger and dominating the market or buying out smaller breweries. Britain saw lager overtake classic cask ales in popularity. In the 1970s, the number of American breweries fell below 100. The 1970s was also the decade when light beer was introduced…
TO MICRO-BREWED…
The fight-back against the monopolized markets of mainstream lager came with new small breweries all looking to make the most delicious beers possible. They focused on local ingredients and local drinkers, and looked back into beer’s long history, as well as toward new tastes and styles. Food changed, too. We became more aware of freshness, provenance, and how to cook things. We looked at different cuisines and became interested in them, and we discovered beers from farther away. We simply got more knowledgeable about the things we consumed. Today, we’re more aware than ever about great food and drink from around the world.
THE RECIPE FOR BEER
Water, grain, hops, and yeast are the four main ingredients in beer. Just like creating a recipe in the kitchen, it’s a specific combination of different ingredients that defines each beer style and how it tastes. I like to explain the creation of a beer or beer style with an analogy to making a statue (bear with me, this will make sense).
Water and malt create the base of the beer—its color and strength. It’s the equivalent of deciding what your statue will be made of and what its approximate size will be. The addition of hops and yeast creates the definition, and determines the type of beer it will become—this is like deciding on all the finer details of the statue: its facial expression, its clothing. What I love is how the exact same base brew can be turned into very different beers by the addition of different hop and yeast combos. For example, say we’ve brewed a 5.0% black beer: add English hops and English ale yeast, and you’ve brewed a Stout; add American hops and American ale yeast, and it’s a Black Ale; add German hops and lager yeast, and you’ve got a Schwarzbier. It’s like ringing in the changes with a meat-and-tomato-based sauce—into one goes some chili and it’s served with rice, another gets basil and is mixed with spaghetti, and a third takes cinnamon and dried herbs to become the base of many Greek dishes. So, different combinations of similar ingredients can create different recipes.
WATER
This isn’t simply something that comes from the tap or an underground well. The specific composition of the water—whether it’s hard, soft, or high or low in sulfites, calcium, magnesium, and other minerals—affects the final drink in many complicated ways. Brewers have to know what their water is like and all of them will add something to their tanks to balance its composition so that it’s the best water for whatever they’re brewing. Water is like a chef’s plate or artist’s palette: it’s something in the background that’s very important, but shouldn’t be noticeable unless the drinker is actively and acutely looking for it.
GRAIN
Malted barley is the most common brewing grain, but wheat, oats, and rye are also frequently used. What we need from the grain is starch because that converts into sugar during the brewing process, and it’s those sugars that the yeast consumes to create alcohol. From the grain we also get the color, sweetness, and flavor of the beer and, in combination with the yeast, it also contributes much of the beer’s body.
A huge range of potential flavors and colors can be produced from the grain. This comes from how the grain is roasted when in production: the longer it’s roasted, the darker it gets. The closest analogy is with bread: it starts off sweet and bready as you begin to apply heat, then it caramelizes and becomes sweeter in the middle, gradually getting darker before it becomes black and bitter with no remaining sweetness. Brewers add different mixes of malt to make up the base of the beer.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF GRAIN
PILSNER MALT: VERY PALE, BISCUITY
PALE MALT: LIGHTLY TOASTY, CEREAL-LIKE
MUNICH MALT: AMBER, TOASTY, NUTTY
CRYSTAL MALT: CARAMEL, TOFFEE
CHOCOLATE MALT: DARK, BITTER, ROASTY
ROASTED BARLEY: BLACK, ACRID, BITTER COFFEE
WHEAT: NUTTY, ADDS SUBTLE ACIDITY
OATS: SMOOTH, CREAMY
RYE: SPICY, HERBAL
HOPS
Hops are the seasoning and spice in beer, providing bitterness, flavor, and aroma. They are varietal and each variety has different qualities. The place where the hop variety grows also has a big impact on the flavor of a beer. Indeed, the same variety grown in England, America, Germany, and New Zealand will give different qualities to a beer.
It’s possible to describe hops broadly, depending on where they are grown: English hops are earthy, spicy, and woody (with new varieties giving some orchard fruit and citrus); Central European hops (from Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Belgium) are peppery, floral, and grassy, with some stone fruit and lemon; American hops are resinous and citrusy like bitter oranges, pine, and grapefruit; New Zealand hops have tropical fruit with mango, pineapple, and lychee, plus a spiciness; while new hop varieties are being specifically developed around the world for their big citrus and spicy flavor and aroma.
Hop flowers are harvested once a year in each hemisphere. Once picked, they are dried immediately so that they can last until the next harvest. Hops have a high water content when picked and will deteriorate as soon as they leave the bine. Hence the need to dry them—although it’s possible to brew with the “green” hops straight from the field, it must be done on the day the hops are picked. Brewers can use hops as dried flowers or, more commonly, they are processed and packed together into pellets. It’s also possible to buy extracted hop oil.
Hops vary in flavor and intensity; some can be very delicate, while others can be incredibly pungent. European hops tend to be more subtle than American and Australasian hops, although it all ultimately depends on how many hops are used. It’s typical to combine different hop varieties in a beer in the same way that you combine different spices and seasoning when cooking.
GRAIN MIXES FOR POPULAR BEER STYLES
PALE ALE: 80% PALE MALT, 10% MUNICH MALT, 10% CRYSTAL MALT
DARK LAGER: 85% PILSNER MALT, 10% MUNICH MALT, 5% CHOCOLATE MALT
WIT BIER: 50% WHEAT, 50% PILSNER MALT
BROWN ALE: 85% PALE MALT, 5% CRYSTAL MALT, 5% BROWN MALT, 5% CHOCOLATE MALT
STOUT: 85% PALE MALT, 5% CRYSTAL MALT, 8% CHOCOLATE MALT, 2% ROASTED BARLEY
POPULAR HOP VARIETIES—AND THEIR FLAVORS
UNITED STATES
AMARILLO: PEACHES, APRICOTS, ORANGES
CASCADE: GRAPEFRUIT, MANDARIN, FLORAL
CENTENNIAL: ORANGE PITH, BLOSSOM, PINE
CITRA: MANGO, TANGERINE, PASSION FRUIT
SIMCOE: RESINOUS PINE, BITTER ORANGE
CENTRAL EUROPE
SAAZ (CZ): GRASSY, FLORAL, CITRUS BOTANICALS
HALLERTAUER (GER): FLORAL, WOODY HERBS, PITHY
SAPHIR (GER): TANGERINE, LEMON PITH, PEPPER
STYRIAN GOLDINGS (SL): EARTHY, PEPPER, LEMON
MAGNUM (GER AND US): HERBAL, PINE, CITRUS
ENGLAND
BRAMLING CROSS: BERRIES, ORCHARD FRUIT, WOOD
FUGGLES: EARTHY, WOODY, FLORAL
GOLDINGS: TANGY, FLORAL, PEPPERY
TARGET: PINE, WOOD, ROAST FRUIT
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
GALAXY (AUS): MANGO, PINEAPPLE, CITRUS
SUMMER (AUS): APRICOT, PINEAPPLE, CITRUS PITH
MOTUEKA (NZ): TROPICAL FRUIT, SWEET BERRIES
NELSON SAUVIN (NZ): GRAPE, GOOSEBERRY, MANGO
YEAST
Yeast creates the alcohol in beer and the qualities that come with that alcohol—a beer’s body, warmth, and depth. The yeast also determines the beer’s residual sweetness, which, in turn, contributes to the body and perception of the beer: for example, 50 units of bitterness, which is fairly standard for a Stout or Pale Ale, will seem moderate in a sweet beer but taste very bitter in a dry beer.
There are many different yeast strains and each brings different qualities to beer: some are delicate, some fruity, some peppery, and some will make the beer sour. In many beers, the yeast is in the background and only evident in the effects of the alcohol it’s created. However, some beers—typically Wheat Beers and Sour Beers—are dominated by their yeast flavor.
Yeast also produces aroma compounds called esters. These are typically fruity (banana, strawberry, bubble gum), nutty (almond), or spicy (clove). Sometimes, they are supposed to be there; at other times, they are not. (See pages 20–21 for more on beer’s off-flavors and their appropriateness.)
It’s also worth considering the difference between filtered and unfiltered beer. Filtration removes the residual yeast, while an unfiltered beer still contains that yeast, so giving extra texture, depth, and flavor to the beer. A filtered beer is typically sharper and cleaner to the taste than the soft roundness of an unfiltered beer.
OTHER INGREDIENTS AND PROCESSES
Name something edible. Anything. And it’s very likely that someone, somewhere, has brewed with it. Bacon, oysters, chili peppers, garden herbs and flowers, candy, tomatoes. Seriously. Brewers can, and have, made beer with most things. The most common beer ingredients are fruit, chocolate, coffee, vanilla, nuts, and spices. These all add their own qualities to the beer, some subtly so, others in a more dominant way.
You will also find beers aged in wooden barrels, most of which have previously held something else, such as bourbon, whisky, wine, rum, tequila, or other spirit. The wood gives texture and depth, perhaps some vanilla and spice, while the spirit gives its own qualities.
HOW IS BEER MADE?
As with any recipe, brewing beer involves combining a few simple ingredients in different proportions and variations to make new brews. Adding citrusy American hops is very different from adding earthy English hops in the same way as adding parsley and lemon to a dish differs from adding cilantro (coriander) and lime. Similarly, using a clean ale yeast, as opposed to a spicy Belgian yeast, is the equivalent of adding white pepper rather than dried chili.
What I find most interesting about the creation of different beers is that, with so many potential decisions to be made,the brewing process has limitless possibilities.
STAGE 1: Having chosen the grain bill, which will determine the color and alcohol content of a beer, brewers add malt to warm water in a mash tun where it’s churned around for an hour or two like a big, bubbling stockpot. Brewers are looking to convert the starch in the grains into fermentable sugars, which happens when the liquid reaches around 154°F (68°C).
STAGE 2: Next, brewers need to separate the grain from the sweet liquid (now called wort). This sometimes happens in a lauter tun or sometimes the wort is just run out of the mash tun. Either way, the grain is no longer of any use and is removed from the process. The wort is then transferred to the kettle (sometimes known as a copper) where it’s boiled.
STAGE 3: This is where the hops go in. It’s typical to have three hop additions over an extended boil (usually lasting 60–90 minutes)—the first addition is for bitterness, the second for flavor, and the third for aroma. Hops contain acids (which give beer its bitterness) and volatile oils (that provide flavor and aroma). The acids need to be isomerized, making them water soluble, in order to kick out the majority of their bitterness.
STAGE 4: A quick turn in a whirlpool removes residual hop “trub” before the liquid moves through a heat exchange that cools it down before sending it into the fermentation tank.
STAGE 5: This is where the yeast is added and starts to eat its way through all the delicious sugars, so producing alcohol and carbon dioxide. Every yeast strain works differently, at different temperatures, and takes different amounts of time to do its job. Ales classically ferment at between 61–75°F (16–24°C), while lagers require a temperature of 46–54°F (8–12°C); ales take 2–4 days to ferment, whereas lagers require 6–10 days.
Temperature makes the biggest difference here: the warmer it is, the harder and faster the yeast will work. If the yeast has to work too hard, then it’ll give off unusual and unwanted esters and aromas. (These esters are typically desirable in Wheat Beers where the fermentation temperature is higher than for other ales in order to produce these aromas.) If fermentation is too slow, then it’ll result in more unwanted qualities, or leave too much residual sweetness in the beer. So, managing temperature is key for good fermentation.
STAGE 6: Once it has fermented, the beer is cooled and left to condition—this is the equivalent of slow-cooking a stew compared with trying to make it in 20 minutes, whereby the long, slow cook tastes immeasurably better because all of the flavors have had a chance to come together. Most ales take around two weeks from brewday to drinking; lagers take four weeks or longer. If a beer is put into a barrel for extended aging, then it could live in there for months or even years before it’s ready to drink. After fermentation, more hops can be added to the tank. This is called “dry hopping,” and will result in more hop flavor and stronger aroma. For this to happen they need to boil for an extended period of time. To control the level of bitterness, all hops come with an alpha acid content, which is the equivalent of knowing whether the chili peppers you are about to cook with are mild or strong. By knowing the acid content, brewers can calculate the volume of hops to add to get the bitterness they want. Jumping ahead, the third hop addition doesn’t allow the acids to isomerize, but it does capture all of the fragrant volatile oils that are boiled away in the first hop addition. The second hop addition gets a bit of everything and rounds out the flavor.
STAGE 7: When the beer is ready, it is packaged in kegs, casks, bottles, or cans. Some beers will be filtered, meaning that the yeast is removed, while others retain the yeast. Real ales often have an isinglass fining agent added to the beer in the barrel, which makes the yeast settle to the bottom of the cask. (Vegetarians might want to check what brewers have added as their finings since isinglass, which comes from the dried swim bladders of fish, is often used.) Real ales and bottle-conditioned beers undergo a secondary fermentation in the cask or bottle. This means that a mix of sugar and yeast is added, and another fermentation occurs that provides the carbonation. Some beers, mostly those produced by the multinational breweries, are pasteurized. This involves heating the beer to a high temperature to kill off any bacteria in the container. Unfortunately, this also effectively “kills” the beer and some of its flavor.
THEN, FINALLY, THE BEER IS READY TO GO—AND WE CAN DRINK.
THE BREWING PROCESS
THE LANGUAGE OF BEER
When we talk about beer we tend to use some specific phrases or recurring terms. Here’s a short beer dictionary of the most frequently used words.
ABU
Alcohol-by-volume. This is the total percentage of your drink that is alcohol
ALE
A broad family of beers brewed with a top-fermenting yeast. Ales typically ferment quickly (taking 2–4 days) at warm temperatures (61–75°F/16–24°C). Styles include Hefeweizen, Kölsch, Best Bitters, Stout, Saison, IPA, Barley Wines, and many others.
ATTENUATION
A way of discussing the percentage of sugars that the yeast converts during the fermentation process. A highly attenuated beer will be dry and have little sweetness; an under-attenuated beer will be sweet.
BEER
An alcoholic drink made from fermented grain. The best drink in the world.
BODY
This is the weight and feeling of the beer in the mouth. It comes from a combination of the grain base, whether it’s filtered or not, and is dependent on the attenuation of the beer.
BOTTLE-CONDITIONED BEER
Beer that undergoes a secondary fermentation in the bottle. This means that priming sugar and yeast are added to the bottle, which starts a slow, gradual conditioning process to produce a natural carbonation. Some bottle-conditioned beers will continue to mature for decades. Watch out for yeast when you pour these beers—some drinkers like sediment in the glass, others don’t.
BU:GU
This is a way to look at the balance of a beer. Where some people use IBUs (International Bittering Units) to rate a beer’s bitterness, others—largely brewers—use BU:GU, which looks at the bitterness (the BU) in relation to the sweetness (the GU) of the beer. (The GU, or gravity, is a way of measuring the fermentable sugars in a brew.) This makes it a more reliable way of telling whether a beer will be sweet, bitter, or balanced.
COLOR
This can be measured on two different scales: the Standard Reference Method (SRM) and the European Brewery Convention (EBC). More usually, the color is simply described as gold, copper, brown, etc. The palest lager will be as low as 1 SRM/2 EBC or straw; American IPA ranges from 6–14 SRM/12–28 EBC or gold to amber; and the darkest Stout will be 70 SRM/138 EBC or black.
CRAFT BEER
This is difficult to define adequately, but craft beer is essentially beer with a story and purpose, produced by a brewer aiming to make the tastiest beer possible. Craft beer is what the majority of small breweries make. Ultimately, it’s just beer. We use the word “craft” to show that it’s different from macro beers.
DRY-HOPPING
Adding hops to beer after (or during) fermentation. This gives extra hop aroma and flavor to a beer.
ESTERS
Esters come out of beer as aromas, which are created during the higher temperatures of fermentation when alcohol and organic acids react with each other. They are (often) fruity aromas, but can be very harsh and veer toward nail-polish remover. Expect banana, pear, apple, rose, honey, strawberry, almond, bubble gum, and solvent. Sometimes, these are brewing faults, while at other times, they are desirable—it depends on the beer style and the volume at which they are present.
FINISH
This is how the flavor of a beer ends in the mouth and then hangs around. It can be short or long; dry, bitter, sweet, or sharp; or combinations of these.
IBU
International Bittering Unit. Also known as EBU (European Bittering Unit) or just BU. It’s the measure of bitterness in a beer and represents the parts-per-million of dissolved iso-alpha acids that the beer contains. Each beer style will have an appropriate IBU level: light lager might be 10 IBUs, Pilsner will be between 20 and 40 IBUs, Stout will be 35–55 IBUs, while Double IPAs and Barley Wines can hit 100 IBUs.
LAGER
Beer made using bottom-fermenting yeast. Lagers typically ferment slowly (taking 6–10 days) at cool temperatures 46–54°F (8–12°C), compared with fast-working, warm-temperature-loving ale yeast. The name comes from the process of lagering (or storing) beer in a cold place for it to mature. The range of lager styles includes Pilsner, Helles, Bock, Doppelbock, Märzen, and more.
MACRO BEER
Beer made by the big, multinational brewing companies. Not all are bad, but not many are great.
MOUTHFEEL
How the beer feels in the mouth. This is another way of describing the body of a beer, although mouthfeel is more about sensation: is the beer prickly, delicate, creamy, sharp, dry, or smooth?
NITROGEN/NITRO
A beer described as “nitro” has been pumped with nitrogen in tank and will pour with a full, creamy mouthfeel. This is often the case with Stouts such as Guinness, but you’ll see bars and brewpubs with dedicated “nitro” taps for any kind of beer.
SOUR BEER
Along with ale and lager, this is a broad family of beers. These beers are intentionally sour through the use of wild yeast and different souring bacteria—some are also spontaneously fermented from airborne yeast. Many of the best Sour Beers take years of gradual slow fermentation to develop their complexity, and you should expect funky aromas, sharp acidity, but not a vinegary quality. They will also be clean-tasting—try the Lambics, Gueuzes, and Belgium beers to see how the best taste.
UNFILTERED
This is beer that hasn’t had the yeast filtered out of it. Unfiltered beers are generally hazy and have more flavor and texture than a filtered equivalent. The haze may also be cleared by the use of a fining agent, which pulls all the particles left in the beer to the bottom of the container.
WILD YEAST AND BACTERIA
Some brewers deliberately add wild yeast and bacteria to get sourness and funky flavors into their beer. Brettanomyces is a common wild yeast, although it’s not always “wild,” and can be bought from yeast companies. Common bacteria are pediococcus and lactobacillus. If any of these get into a beer unintentionally, then it’s a bad thing.
SERVING BEER
At home, I drink most of my beer from a couple of favorite glasses: a straight glass, a shaker, and a teardrop. If you like to drink your beer out of a wine glass, tea cup, or plastic beaker, that’s fine because individual preference is more important than anything. However, there is some science behind using different glasses for different beer styles since the size and shape of the vessel can have an impact on the aroma and taste of the drink. Here are the types of glass that I think cover most beer styles:
STRAIGHT/PILSNER These glasses are tall and thin so the bubbles stream into a tight foam. Ideal for lagers because this style of glass sends the delicate aroma right up your nose, plus the glasses also make the bright, sparkling beers look fantastic.
WEISSBIER These have a vase-like shape for Hefeweizens where the foam is concentrated at the top of the glass like a fragrant pillow. Shaped so that you can see the beautiful haziness in the body and get the full impact of the estery aroma.
SHAKER A chunky all-rounder that is best for American beer styles—American Wheats, Pale Ales, Ambers, Reds, Browns, and IPAs—where you get the hop hit in the aroma without intensifying it too much.
TEARDROP An elegant glass for elegant beers, such as Wit, Saison, Tripel, and Wild Ale, or for styles where you want to swirl, sniff, and focus the aromas in the tapered rim. This is the glass I use most frequently and it works with almost every style of beer.
BOWL/SNIFTER For those big beers that demand more of your attention: Imperial Stouts and Barley Wines. Think of the beers like fine spirits as they roll around your glass, sending their intensified aromas swirling out as you sip.
PINT Nonic, straight-sided, tulip, or a dimpled mug, these are for low-ABV, session-style beers, including Bitter, Stout, Porter, Helles, Pilsner, and Dunkel. Not a swirling and sniffing kind of glass. Just drink it.
CHALICE/GOBLET Squat and round, and used for strong, dark Belgian beers where the high carbonation is softened. There’s something rather special about drinking from a chalice or goblet, especially when in a café in Belgium…
OR… JUST USE YOUR WINE GLASSES Large beer glasses can be daunting, plus not everyone has enough cupboard space for a wide range of glassware, so using a large wine glass is a good option for most beers.
SERVING TEMPERATURE
If your beer gets too cold, this will hide some of the flavor and aroma; if it gets too warm, it can seem heavy and overbearing. Each style of beer will have an ideal serving temperature: lagers are usually cold (although in Germany or the Czech Republic, they aren’t super-chilled as they are elsewhere around the world); kegged ales come chilled, normally between 37 and 54°F (3–12°C); British cask ales are often described as “warm,” which is incorrect—they are cellar temperature, which is between 50 and 57°F (10–14°C); some people (but not me!) like to serve strong beers, such as Imperial Stout, at room temperature.
Personally, when I’m drinking at home I like all my beer, regardless of what it is, served fridge-cold; a beer that starts too cold will warm up, whereas a warm beer isn’t going to get cooler. The best advice is simple: drink it at whatever temperature you like best, regardless of whether some people think you should serve it warmer or colder than you prefer.
FRESH VERSUS AGED
Most beers are best drunk fresh, especially those that have a big hop aroma—you should drink these as fresh as possible because hop aroma, flavor, and bitterness all fade. Some beers, especially strong Stouts, Sour Beers, and Barley Wines, benefit from being aged a little, as this can soften the flavors and bring out additional complexity. Just make sure that you don’t hoard a special beer hoping that the flavor is gradually getting better and better, only to open it finally and discover that it’s stale and tastes terrible. Beer is for drinking, so drink it.
For you to enjoy it, beer has to get from the brewery to your glass. The four most common types of container for beer are the keg, cask, bottle, and can.
KEG is the main draft container around the world. Beer goes into the keg already carbonated and, when the tap is opened on the bar, the beer is pushed out with counter-pressure and gas.
CASK is the other most common draft container, especially in Britain. Beer generally goes into these uncarbonated and a mix of yeast and sugar will start a natural secondary fermentation. A cask beer is not as sparkling as a kegged beer; instead, the beer has a gentle, subtle carbonation. (In Germany and the Czech Republic, you’ll find some lagers poured from gravity or direct from the barrel, and these will have a similarly soft carbonation to cask beers.)
BOTTLES AND CANS are generally closer to kegged beers than cask ones, and often have a bright carbonation.
BAD BEER VERSUS GOOD BEER
Here’s something that isn’t often said in a book championing the best-tasting brews in the world: not every beer is good. In fact, some are just dreadful and undrinkable. This could be personal preference (perhaps they are too bitter or too sweet for you), or it could be down to a brewing or serving fault.
This section is intended to highlight some of the common faults you’ll come across, how to identify them, where they come from, and how appropriate they are. (One note of interest: we perceive these things in a very individual way and some people are “taste blind” to certain flavors, while others are super-sensitive.)
BUTTER, BUTTERED POPCORN, BUTTERSCOTCH, FATTY MOUTHFEEL
WHAT? Diacetyl
WHY? A natural by-product of fermentation. If it’s in your beer, it could mean the beer was hurried out of the brewery. It can also mean infected yeast.
APPROPRIATE? In very small amounts in some lagers, Porters, and Stouts, but usually unwanted.
APPLE SKIN AND JUICE, CIDER, PAINT IN HIGH VOLUMES
WHAT? Acetaldehyde
WHY? A natural by-product of fermentation. If this is present, it’s because the beer is “green” (usually the result of haste on the part of the brewery) or made with poor-quality yeast. If the beer becomes “cidery,” it’s got to an extreme level.
APPROPRIATE? No.
SWEETCORN, STEWED VEGETABLES, TOMATOES
WHAT? Dimethyl sulfide (DMS)
WHY? Comes from the grain (pale malt) if it hasn’t had a vigorous-enough boil in the kettle or fermentation has been slow.
APPROPRIATE? In tiny amounts in some lagers.
PAPER, CARDBOARD, STALE SHERRY
WHAT? Oxidized
WHY? Oxygen is not good for beer. If a beer tastes like this, then you’re drinking stale beer.
APPROPRIATE? Never in fresh beer, although it can be an integral part of aged beers and contribute to their character and complexity.
BANANAS, PEAR DROPS, APPLE, ROSE
WHAT? Esters, including Isoamyl acetate (banana and pear drop), Ethyl caprylate and Ethyl caproate (apple and apple/aniseed), Ethyl acetate (solvent), and Phenylethyl acetate (honey, rose)
WHY? Fruity aromas given out by the yeast during fermentation.
APPROPRIATE? Yes, in certain styles and at low volumes—appropriateness is down to the detectable levels. Expect Isoamyl acetate (or banana) in Hefeweizens, but it’s often a fault in other styles, too. Can be more evident in strong beers.
SMOKY, ISLAY WHISKY, BAND-AIDS, DISINFECTANT
WHAT? Phenols
WHY? Could be from a reaction between the phenolic acid, which is naturally found in malt, and either the chlorine content in the water or a cleaning solution used by the brewery.
APPROPRIATE? No. And it’s not to be confused with the flavors of smoked malt or Belgian yeast that give a phenolic, clove-like spiciness.
“SKUNKY,” ROTTING VEGETABLES, GARLIC
WHAT? Light-struck
WHY? Sunlight and beer don’t work well together (unless it’s a hot day and you’re drinking a cold pint). The UV rays break down hop molecules, causing a reaction with the sulfur in the beer and producing some of the same stinky chemicals as a skunk.
APPROPRIATE? Never. Avoid beer in clear or green bottles, and keep all beer out of sunlight—skunking can happen almost immediately.
EGGS OR BURNING MATCHES
WHAT? Sulfur
WHY? Could be from the water (the “Burton Snatch” famously gives Burton-on-Trent’s beers a whiff of sulfur) or from the yeast. It could also be a warning sign of infection or of a young beer.
APPROPRIATE? Yes, but only in small amounts in ale and in some styles of lager (especially unfiltered lagers).
SOY SAUCE, BURNT TIRES, MARMITE
WHAT? Autolyzed yeast
WHY? Yeast that has died and ruptured its beerspoiling guts into your beer.
APPROPRIATE? It’s acceptable in small volumes in some aged beers; otherwise, it’s not.
SOUR MILK, VINEGAR, LEMON JUICE
WHAT? Sour beer, unless intentional, is bad.
WHY? Souring bacteria or yeast in the beer.
APPROPRIATE? It makes some Wild Ales what they are. Otherwise, it’s only good for pouring down the drain.
BABY SICK
WHAT? Butyric acid
WHY? Bacterial spoilage. Not very common, but horrible if you get it.
APPROPRIATE? No. Never. Do you want to drink a beer that smells of vomit?
BOOZY, ALCOHOLIC, NAIL-POLISH REMOVER
WHAT? Fusel, solvent, Ethyl acetate
WHY? From esters in the beer. Low volumes can come across as fruity, but it can sting the eyes in high volumes.
APPROPRIATE? Small amounts are okay. It can be present in strong beers, although it is not always pleasant.
CHEESY, SWEATY SOCKS
WHAT? Isovaleric acid
WHY? Could be a bacterial infection or a sign of using old, oxidized hops.
APPROPRIATE? No. Never is a beer that smells like socks or stinky feet going to be delicious!
MY BEER IS CLOUDY…
WHY? Could be many things: an unfiltered beer with yeast still in it, a “chill haze” from the beer being served cold, a “hop haze” from a very hoppy beer, or an infected beer.
APPROPRIATE? Just because it’s cloudy doesn’t mean it’s bad. If it tastes bad, then it is bad; otherwise, it’s fine.
SHARED FLAVORS OF BEER AND FOOD
Beer and food share many qualities and a good approach to getting great matches is to find common flavors between the two elements in order to naturally push them together. This is the basis of a “bridge” pairing, in which we seek those similarities and link them together. Outlined here are some suggestions based on popular ingredients and then, on the following page, we look at how there are flavors in beer which taste similar to flavors in food—by matching them up you build that bridge.
“MY FOOD CONTAINS [INGREDIENT], SO I WANT TO DRINK…”
Certain ingredients are consistent to different cuisines and we can use these to create some general ideas as to which beers will work with which types of food. Often these are ingredients which go on the side of a dish, seasonings, or are added late in the process: a splodge of ketchup, a squeeze of lime, a handful of fresh basil, or a knob of butter. Here are some of those common ingredients and the beer styles which naturally work well with them.
BUTTER:
KÖLSCH, PILSNER, TRIPEL, DUNKEL
BLACK PEPPER:
SAISON, DUBBEL, AMERICAN PALE ALE
LEMON:
PILSNER, HELLES, DUNKEL, SMOKED BEER, WILD ALE, TRIPEL
SOY SAUCE:
STOUT, PORTER, DUNKEL
LIME, BASIL, AND MINT:
PACIFIC PALE ALE, AMERICAN PALE ALE, NEW WORLD LAGER
CILANTRO (FRESH CORIANDER):
SAISON, NEW WORLD LAGER, PILSNER, PACIFIC PALE ALE
CORIANDER (SEEDS):
WITBIER, TRIPEL
BASIL, FENNEL:
SAISON, BELGIAN BLONDES, BELGIAN IPA, STOUT
ROSEMARY, THYME:
SAISON, AMERICAN PALE, IPA AND DOUBLE IPA
ROAST GARLIC, SWEET ONIONS:
AMERICAN PALE, IPA AND DOUBLE IPA
SALSA:
AMERICAN PALE ALE, DUNKEL, SAISON
TOMATO KETCHUP:
AMERICAN PALE ALE, AMERICAN IPA, BLACK ALE
MUSTARD:
SAISON, DUNKEL, AMERICAN PALE ALE
YOGURT:
WHEAT ALE, HEFEWEIZEN
BEER AND FOOD FLAVOR MATCHING
There are qualities in beer that are found in different foods, such as the shared roasted flavor of Stout and char-grilled steak. This chart presents different beer flavors and aromas, the styles in which you’re most likely to find them, and the foods they are in. This knowledge enables us to find commonalities to help bridge the flavor between your drink and your dinner.
FLAVOR COMPOUNDS IN BEER AND FOOD
The interaction between aroma, taste, and texture creates our interpretation of flavor. Break aroma down further, and you’ll find that it is made up of many different aromatic molecules and compounds, including esters, terpenes, ketones, lactones, organic compounds, and aldehydes. These are found in beer and food, and many of them naturally cross over, which can help us to create bridges of flavor between the drink and the food. Below are some of the most common:
YEAST Through the action of fermentation, a range of different aromas and flavors are produced. Often, we don’t want them to be there—flavors such as apple, butter, roses, and nail-polish remover are undesirable—but certain yeast-produced qualities, in certain beer styles, add important flavors. These shared qualities can point toward natural bridges of flavor. The most relevant is a 4-vinyl guaiacol, a phenol that gives a clove-like flavor. It’s often found in Hefeweizen and Witbier, plus similar qualities come from barrel-aged beers and smoked food. Isoamyl acetate smells like bananas or pear drops. It is often found in Hefeweizen and gives a natural fruity flavor. You might also find tropical fruit, aniseed, bubble gum, and others; their general fruitiness can be very nice with foods that share a similar fruitiness.
HOPS contain a variety of different oils and each of these has a different flavor. The common oils in all varieties are myrcene, humulene, farnesene, and caryophyllene (see the table below). Others include linalool (floral, orange, aniseed; found in oranges, cilantro/fresh coriander, and basil); limonene (floral and citrus; found in lemons, pepper, fennel, and grapefruit); pinene (resinous, spicy; found in rosemary, curry leaf, and mint); and citral (lemon, orange; found in limes and lemongrass).
THE MAILLARD REACTION Put a piece of steak on a hot griddle, cook it for two minutes, then turn it over: it’ll be brown in color, grill-marked, and a lot tastier than when it was raw. This is known as the Maillard Reaction. It happens when proteins and sugars interact with each other on being heated, changing the color of the food and also giving new aromas and flavors. This reaction takes place on meat, on toast, coffee, French fries, and the production of malt, which means that there are naturally shared flavors between beer and baked foods, grilled foods, fried foods, and coffee, plus many more.
AROMA, TASTE, TEXTURE, AND FLAVOR
By chewing on some food, or rolling some beer across the tongue, we pick up the sensation of touch, we recognize the basic tastes (sweet, bitter, sour, salty, umami), and a load of aromas ping around and find their way to the olfactory bulb. The combination of these factors creates our impression of flavor.
AROMA
Made up of many volatile compounds, aroma is like a jigsaw as it comes together to complete a whole picture. The aromatic compounds are rarely unique to one ingredient and will be found in a large variety of foods, which is why some beers smell like chocolate or lime without those items coming anywhere near the brewing process. We pick out these aromas in beer as the brain flicks through all the scents it remembers and matches them to similar things. For example, the fruity aromas of a Hefeweizen are largely due to the esters from the yeast; these esters are also naturally found in fruit, explaining why we can smell banana or pear.
