Some beer and glasses

A friend to share the experience

15 minutes to become familiar with the terms, and 20 minutes to a few hours to taste and discover what characteristics you can pick out

Megabrewers
The world's biggest brewers. Think Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors. They tend to make similar pale lagers.

Microbrewers
Small entrepreneurs with breweries that make fewer than 15,000 barrels a year. Many people assume that microbrew implies superior quality, but that's not always the case.

Some breweries offer tours, which are an excellent way to get to know your favorites intimately. You can learn how the beer is produced from beginning to end, and even get a taste of some to all of the varieties. And who knows, a friendly conversation with the right person might even land you a job with obvious perks.

2torial #0815: Learn2 Appreciate Beer Take one down and pass it around . . . It's O.K. to be a little suspicious. After all, good beer looks, smells and tastes a lot different than that case of "light" beer you just bought. Just be warned--as you start to like the good stuff, the realization that you've been buying weak, tasteless, cheaply produced swill for so long can be pretty painful. Quality also comes at a higher price. Bargaining with liquor store owners won't get you anywhere, though--case discounts rarely apply to microbrewed six-packs. So try not to get too depressed, the best things in life always seem to cost more, and drinking quality instead of quantity is a decent trade-off. Once you've finally accepted that you can't stomach cheap beer anymore, you'll be all right--you've opened the path towards a whole new range of conversation with that attractive stranger at the bar. It's just a matter of expanding your vocabulary a bit to describe what you can now appreciate. When you speak of beer, you're usually talking about how it looks and smells, as well as what it tastes like. People's tastes may be different, but chances are you'll be able to agree on a surprising number of things. It's mostly a matter of understanding a bit about what beer is made of, and how those ingredients contribute their own characteristics to the finished product. As you drink more beer, you'll develop some appreciation for the good stuff--beer that isn't brewed just to make the most money possible in the least amount of time. Understand the basic ingredients Hundreds of years ago the Germans must have been pretty upset with the quality of some of their brews, because they felt compelled to establish the German Purity Law. The law essentially said that their beer could made of four things: barley, hops, yeast and water. These four items each bring something a little different to the table when we speak about beer. Barley is a cereal grain, and the most fundamental ingredient. It must undergo malting before it can be used to make beer. Barley introduces color, sweet flavor, body, a good head and the natural sugars needed for fermentation. Hops are the pinecone-like flowers of a cannabis-family plant. Hops have many varieties, and they're usually so delicate that they're hand-picked. When boiled, they release a sticky substance called lupulin that provides the bitterness to counterbalance the barley's sweetness, adds flavor, provides aroma and helps preserve beer. Yeast: This single-cell organism of the fungus family is responsible for the fermentation process. It happily takes in sweet liquids and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. Some yeast works best in warmer temperatures (65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit) and rises to the top of the batch--it's used to make ales. Other yeast favors colder temperatures (38 to 52 degrees Fahrenheit) and sinks to the bottom of the batch--it's used to make lagers. Ales and lagers are discussed a little further on. Water makes up 95% of the finished beer, and surprisingly isn't always the pure spring water most commercials would have you believe. It's often chemically manipulated by adding calcium carbonate, magnesium, gypsum and other minerals. Many beers have other ingredients besides these basic four. Hopefully, the additions are made to create a specific characteristic. For instance, fruit-flavored beers may get some syrup added to them. Summertime beers are often brewed with high amounts of wheat, which gives them a light, crisp taste. Wintertime beers might contain various spices to warm up those cold, lonely nights. Some beers, though, use cheap additives to reduce the cost of brewing the beer. The largest American brewers are known for using unmalted cereal grains like corn and rice in their brews. They claim this produces a lighter-style that Americans like, and the cost reductions are just an unexpected bonus for them. Hmmm . . . Know lager from ale Beer basically comes in two forms: lagers and ales. One type isn't better than the other--just different. Terrific examples of each kind abound, but watch out! Some real stinkers are also out there. Lagers include the lighter tasting beers; they tend to be highly carbonated and crisper than ales. Beer vocabulary might have you describe them as smooth, mellow, subtle or clean, perhaps noting a balanced taste or subdued aroma. The five most common lagers are American pale lager, Bock, Munchener helles, Oktoberfest and Pilsner. Ales tend to be more robust and fruity, with a spicy taste and aroma. More bitter than those friendly lagers, ales can offer darker color and more distinctive tastes. The most common are pale ale, porter and stout. Wheat beers and barleywine styles have become more widely available as people's tastes have expanded. Look at the beer You have three things to look at when you pour a beer: the color, the clarity and the head. Of course, if you've already had a few too many, you may see some other things in your glass--but we'll let those pass for the moment. Color: To beer lovers, the colors of beer are almost as lovely as those of the rainbows in the sky. Beer can be a pale straw color, golden, amber, copper, red, brown, or black. Some fruit-flavored beers even have interesting pink or orange hues. It's best to stay away from that weird green stuff they serve on St. Patrick's day, though. Clarity: As brewing developed, one measure of a well-made beer became the clarity. A clear beer was considered the sign of a brewmaster who cared about his product. As differences in brewing styles became apparent, however, clarity became something best used as an indicator of technique, rather than quality of the brew. Unfiltered beers often retain great character, many wheat beers are cloudy as a rule, and some bottled beers contain live yeast, which allows them to continue developing more complex tastes. Head: The head is the foam you see at the top of the glass. A good head forms quickly on its own--not because it was splashed into the bottom of the glass. A head that results from natural carbonation looks bumpy and uneven, not artificially smooth and white. As you drink the beer, the remains of the head should leave little trails on the side of the glass. Smell the beer Like wine critics, serious beer critics use the term "nose" to describe the beer's aroma and bouquet. The first prominent aromas usually come from malting the barley, while secondary aromas often arise from the type and quantity of hops used. Malting can make a beer smell annoyingly perfumey, richly sweet, and anywhere in between. Depending how dark the beer is, roasted, toasted, coffee or chocolate-like aromas may waft from the surface. Hops produce a sharper smell that varies depending on the variety and amount of hops added to the boiling beer. Some beers are even "double-hopped," giving their scent a potency that announces itself as soon as the bottle is opened. Hops' smells are often described as spicy, herbal, floral, piney, citrusy, or even, well, cheesy if hops are old or oxidized. Other prominent aromas, like fruit and alcohol, come mostly from the fermentation process. If you perceive a scent of plastic, cooked vegetables, rotten eggs, skunks or wet dogs, it's a sign of badly made or stored beer. Taste the beer No matter if it's lager or ale, good beer is complex, and presents a wide range of flavors in each taste. If you really want to taste the beer, don't throw it down your throat. Let it hang around your mouth for awhile, and good things start to happen almost immediately . Any beer walks a fine line between the basics: sweetness and bitterness. The brewer decides what the balance between the two is going to be, and how best to include all the secondary flavors that make up a beer's character. That character is often described with some of the following terms: Aggressive, as in the non-beer world, means boldly assertive. Complex describes a beer that's multidimensional; many flavors and sensations commingle on the palate. Fruity is used to describe the nuances that remind you of berries, apples, pears, bananas, etc. Hoppy describes the bitter flavor of the hops, as well as the slightly spicy overtones that accompany it. Malty describes a grainy and caramel-like taste. Roasty and Toasty both refer to roasted grain flavors that may become prominent. Round describes a beer that strikes a smooth balance between sweet and spicy While it's swirling over your tongue, also notice the mouthfeel and body. Does it feel crisp and effervescent, or soft and chewy? Light or full-bodied, perhaps somewhere in between? Words used to describe these sensations are probably the easiest to understand. Some, like wimpy, voluptuous, massive and viscous are also just fun to use. Others you may hear are robust, astringent, flat, full, gassy, light, sharp, smooth, thin, thick or watery. And now, the finish. It would be a sad thing to forget how great a beer tasted as soon as it left your tongue. Contrary to what most beer commercials tell you, aftertaste can be a good thing. -end- Learn More!