Shout out to Nicole Chowles for the link - definitely check out her site if you are ever stuck for a gift!!! Originally this discussion came up over Black IPA and Pulled Pork Sannies ironically. That place definitely owns most of my finances...
I like to think of myself as someone that tries to keep up with things - news, events and more importantly, South African budget speeches. OK, maybe I made that last bit up, everyone knows that our budget is usually reserved for the butt of a Trevor Noah joke, but either way it is important for you to see how it all works. If you are like me and like to understand the things around you, you should definitely check out this video where managing a country's finances are compared to the beer brewing process. This video originally appeared on Paula Chowles' site. Muchos respectos for helping us all understand this in a very unique way...and in a language I can understand!!! Cheers!!!
Shout out to Nicole Chowles for the link - definitely check out her site if you are ever stuck for a gift!!! Originally this discussion came up over Black IPA and Pulled Pork Sannies ironically. That place definitely owns most of my finances...
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We have all been down this road. One that leaves you waking up with a mouth lined with sandpaper, a room that is still slightly spinning and plenty of quick prayers to help you get through the day. The old adage to have some "hair of the dog" jumps around in the back of your mind in your dad's wise old voice, but it brings along a sudden surge of very real nausea as you think about having another sip of booze. You shoot off another quick prayer or two hoping to delay the inevitable headache and utter words like "I am never drinking again" in a blind panic...This is the feeling of the hangover also know as severe dehydration. Turns out the phrase is the shortened version of "hair of the dog that bit you" and it was in reference to treating a wound after being bitten by a dodgy dog. The story goes that one is to steal some of the hair from its tail and apply it to the wound to heal it faster, prevent you from also getting rabies and to "keep away evil spirits". In alcohol related terms, this translates to the idea that if you had one too many the night before, you can "cure" yourself by having another one the next morning to help the wounds heal faster and drive away that bad juju... MYTH DEBUNKED!!! Not only will having another pint of booze not help you in any way, shape or form, but it will actually just make things worse. "Bad idea," Dr. Hall-Flavin from MensHealth.com states flatly. "It will provide a numbing effect, but all you're doing is prolonging the inevitable, and it will likely make your headache worse." The crew over at alcoholrehab.com further state that: "While drinking alcohol after a heavy night of drinking may lessen the effects of a hangover it is not something that is recommended. Any reprieve from these symptoms will only be temporary and there are real dangers to drinking off a hangover including: Drinking alcohol in the morning is a common symptom of alcoholism." In my mind it would make sense: because you are having some more of the substance that caused you to feel so bad in the first place, you are only aiding to further dehydrate your body and therefore mostly only delaying the symptoms from showing up. There are some articles that suggest more alcohol the following morning is a good idea, stating that adding more alcohol allows the liver to focus on the new alcohol and "forget about the bit from the previous night". Again, this will make you feel mildly better, but only until the "newly introduced" alcohol starts getting digested by the liver so just repeating the cycle as I have suggested. I have written a (hangover-plagued) post on this before detailing the only scientifically proven thing that can be done to soothe a hangover and I must admit I have used it several times since to some great effect. Obviously, you will still experience some symptoms depending on how much you consumed, but surely the after-effects can be reduced compared to what they could have been. Especially if you do the Vitamin supplement/water combination before retiring for the evening..HowStuffWorks also list a couple more hangover remedy myths on their site. Maybe reconsider cracking that Label for breakfast the next morning, what you really need is available freely from any kitchen tap...unless you have mates like these!!! Critters. Organisms. Beer-slaves. Whatever you prefer to call them, yeast is at the end of the day one of the more important ingredients in your beer. It can impart a specific tinge of flavour, provide you with your alcohol and ultimately even clean up after itself. Yeast is actually a live little organism that lives inside your sugary-wort, eating, reproducing and burping up all sorts of things. I do not want to make this sound gross, but in a nutshell it is what it is. However, the end result can be really good or really bad depending on how you treat them. If anything, remember this: take care of your yeasties and they will take care of you. Pretty cool if you think about it. So far, every time I have purchased yeast it was the dry, vac-pack style in the little sachet. This works perfectly well and can be found in basically any variety to help you brew whatever style you prefer. In my opinion, dry yeast is probably the best option for beginners (and even the more advanced among us) as it is very easy to use. You can basically just snip the top off the pack and drop it straight into your fermenter - no real need for making a starter or re-hydrating (although this does not mean that you should not). It is also much easier to store and it will last much longer than the liquid variety if it remains sealed in the package. Finally, and most importantly, it is definitely much easier to come by and much cheaper than their liquid cousins. Recently, I have been doing some mild research and experimentation of my own with yeast. Pitching it, reusing it and storing it for future use. What are the rules? What are the best practices? The idea of reusing yeast is certainly not a new concept, I suspect that most of the beers you consume from breweries are using the same or a familial derivative of a yeast strain that was used with a previous batch. Re-using yeast helps to ensure that the beer keeps a similar profile. But is there a limit to the amount of times you can use yeast? There appear to be a couple of methods to go about harvesting, "washing" and "storing" used yeast. There are also one or two bits and bobs required for this (from billybrew.com):
Briefly, the steps to harvest some yeast would go something like this (paraphrased/adapted from the steps available on beersmith.com):
Some things to consider with this process: Always ensure everything is sanitised - even the top rim of the primary fermenter you are pouring the slurry from. Obviously re-using yeast provides another risky situation where you can transfer or introduce other nasties, so always be careful to keep everything that it will touch super clean and sanitised. The standard iodophor seems to do the trick for me every time. Harvest your yeast from a primary fermenter. It is best to obtain your yeast from your primary fermenter (although it is not unheard of to obtain from secondary) as this will ensure you get the most active, flocculent and healthiest of the lot. Harvest immediately after you syphoned off your beer. The faster you get the yeast out of there and clean it up, the lower your risk of getting it infected - kind of makes sense. Try to use the yeast for a similar style. Needless to say you cannot use your US-05 to suddenly brew a Saison or an English Ale - US-05 is still a standard American Ale yeast, and will always be! Best to re-use yeast from lower gravity beers on higher gravity beers. Example, you can start off by brewing a simple Pale Ale, next you can use that same yeast to make a slightly stronger IPA and ultimately you can use that same yeast to make that IIPA you have always dreamed of! This way the yeast will be really "hungry" by the time it gets to the IIPA as the previous beers basically serve as starters. Try to not re-use yeast more than 5 times. To keep the risk of infection to a minimum, it is advisable to only re-use yeast 3-5 times - unless of course you are a pro and have specific equipment and a team dedicated to taking care of and developing your special strains. For most home brewers, I will safely assume this is not the case...Remember, every time you wash and re-use you expose yourself to some risk so probably best to quit while you're ahead. I remember once quite early in my brewing days when I tried to rehydrate a packet of dry yeast with boiling water before adding it to my fermenter...what a waste. At this point I was also not aware that you could re-pitch new yeast so I ended up discarding 20 litres of hopeful Amber Ale. I know, right... I should have been hung with my own syphon tube and beaten with the bottle brush, but you live and you learn. The more I brew, the more I experiment and the more "risks" I tend to take. I guess this is part of the process and eventually teaches you one or two things along the way. Do you have any experience with re-using yeast? Any good/bad stories? Any ideas you could share with the rest of us? Do tell!!! Drop some comments or shoot me an email and I will update the post accordingly.
On the 17th of Oct, the DPBC Taproom played host to the first ever Beer Club meeting - the idea being to bring like-minded individuals together in the name of beer. The "Club" is all about visiting local breweries in Cape Town and surrounds, sampling what is on offer and having a chance to engage with brewers and industry professionals. The meetings also provide the opportunity for home brewers to bring along a couple of bottles to share and get some feedback from all in attendance. I must admit I was rather impressed with the setup and the talk from JC, the head brewer at Devils Peak Brewing Company. Even in just discussing the history of DPBC and the kind of beers they brew, one can see some serious passion and a wealth of knowledge. With DPBC beers being my favourite on the market (Black IPA all the way!!!), this was definitely right up my alley...especially when JC shared some tips on producing a solid IPA coming off their latest victory of being voted best beer in South Africa. On offer during the tasting evening were all the beers from their founder series - Golden Light, Silvertree, Woodhead and of course the King's Blockhouse. JC also delved into two of their lower alcohol beers from the "Explorer Series" in the form of the American Pale Ale and English ale. To end of the evening, we were lucky enough to share the final two bottles of the Vin de Saison - their lauded beer-wine hybrid. If you are at all interested to attend the next meeting (which I believe might be at Triggerfish), please give Wayne or Matthew a shout. Don't forget to follow The Beer Club on Twitter so you can watch it all unfold over the next year as they promise big things for the craft beer scene!
Hope to see you at the next one! We have all heard the stories. Moms moaning at dads, ladies at their hunk-of-chunk and slightly overweight men that have let themselves go a tad readily blaming the consumption of the glorious gold as the reason for the wondering waistline. Alas, this might not be the sole cause according to science. Science people! Pull up a pew and let me hit you with some knowledge. "It’s not necessarily beer but too many calories that can turn your trim waistline into a belly that protrudes over your pants. Any kind of calories -- whether from alcohol, sugary beverages, or oversized portions of food -- can increase belly fat" warns Michael Jensen, MD from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. It seems the issue is accelerated when consuming alcohol because the liver tends to deal with the alcohol entering the system first bypassing the fat that there is to process. On top of this people tend to eat more calorie rich foods when out drinking - think of the burgers, chips and other fatty, salty snacks that always taste oh-so-good on a night out. As the years tick on we also lose our teenage metabolism, but not so much the appetite so this only helps to complicate matters. MYTH DEBUNKED! I think it is safe to say that one cannot blame the "beer belly" solely on beer as it takes equal parts slow metabolism, laziness and an assortment of calories to attain this physique. Your body cannot discern between calories from beer or calories from food - it just sees calories - so blaming it on beer is not so fair. The next time you hear someone curse out a "bier pensie" you can correct them not to use our favourite bevvie's name in vain... Want my advice: swap out those butties at lunch for a chicken salad if you know you are going to have a beer later. And (more importantly) dust off that gym card once or twice a week or go for a brisk walk, you can always reward yourself with a cold one! On the other hand, if you do not already have a beer belly, it is time to get one!!!
Throughout my home brewing sessions I have constantly been wondering if there is any real use for the post-mash grain. It always seems like such a waste to dump it all out into the bin. A little "Googling" and before I knew it I had more tabs open on my browser than I had grain. There are actually so many uses that I thought it a good idea to turn it into a quick post. You can basically make anything you want and add a little bit of your grainy-flair to it! I found a wonderful resource in Brooklynbrewshop where they show you how to make a grain-flour. Armed with this flour you can make pasta, tortillas, banana and grain bread, muffins and even some interesting sounding desserts. I have gone through the process of making some flour and is actually quite painless: First off you need to find yourself a nice large baking tray or two - or improvise like I had to by using a deep baking dish, a baking tray and a strange little steel serving thing. Next you want to lay out your grains fresh from the mash, but be sure not to lay it out too thick as it will take longer to dry out. Now crank on that oven to its lowest setting - I think mine was around 70°C - and pop your various trays in there. This is going to be the longest part as what you need to do is slowly dry out the grains. It is recommended to do this over a six to seven hour period, but seeing as my last mini batch was brewed on a Thursday evening I had to change it up a bit. I stuck mine in the oven straight from mash (around 19h00) and let it sit until I went to bed around 23h00. At this point I pulled out my trays, gave everything a good toss before placing it back in the oven and switching it off for the night. I then switched it on for a bit the next morning before work and again after returning from work on Friday so I guess it does not really have to happen in one long session as mine came out just fine. The hardest part was grinding it up as I don't have a coffee grinder, only a pestle and mortar, but even that went pretty quick when we figured out not to take too much at a time. By the end of the weekend I had a jar full of my very own (menacing sounding) Black Rye flour. Mixing in some ground up and some whole grains, my lady was able to make some epic rusks for them chilly winters evenings!!! For the animals: There are a plethora of recipes available on the net that tell you how to make the perfect treat for your furry kids with your left-overs. Just be warned that they all come with the same warning: the acidity in hops can be toxic to some breeds so just make sure that the grains have not touched anything hoppy and you should be good. The simplest and most common one I found seems very easy and might just come in handy for when you visit that new lady friend and her pesky pooch. For those creatures of the grazing variety, grains can be used to feed chickens, pigs and even cows. From what I read it is basically the animal equivalent of heroin. If you don't have any of these hanging around, it might be worth a call or visit to one of the many local organic farms or markets around Cape Town to see if any of the farmers can take it off your hands as feed. For your green-fingered friends: If you would prefer not to eat it or feed it to your pets, you can turn it into compost if you know someone with a bit of backyard space. It might even be a way to convince your better half to allow you to brew more and for them to finally kick off that ever pending veggie patch. Who knows, you might just score some tomatoes or lettuce out of the deal! Well, there you have it. No more excuses for not having rusks when you have your mum round for tea and I am sure your pops will be proud to know that you helped feed the cow you served him at your last braai...especially if it comes with a pint of your home brew on the side. What other interesting uses have you found for your spent grain? Do you have a brilliant recipe to share? Let me know!
*Needless to say, all recipes/end-products/suggestions are to be used/consumed/followed at your own risk. When I think of brewing beer it involves steeping some grains (in my new cooler box mash tun configuration) and transferring it to my "kettle", usually with some spillage in the process. Then starts the uphill battle to convince my little Defy to break the laws of physics to get a pot nearly bigger than itself to start a rolling boil. After this there are the hop additions to keep track of, sanitation, syphoning and all sorts of messy tasks. Throughout this process there is monitoring temperatures, making sure you keep everything clean both before and after the brewing and of course the idea of bottling will also become a reality a week or two from brew day. All this effort will eventually lead me to sit back a couple of weeks later to a (hopefully) palatable beer that I can be proud of as I think back of what it took to create. To be fair, it is not all that hard and I maintain that this is where part of the fun and at least 50% of the (dare I say) "craft" comes in. Recently two guys over in the U.S of A have devised a new system they call Picobrew. I am not going to elaborate too much as I believe what they have managed to create is pretty incredible, but to be honest I am not so sure about how I feel about the home brewing implications it holds. Check out the video (also available on the site at above link): What do you think about this new system? How do you feel it will affect/change the home brew scene? To me the whole idea of getting messy and hands-on is part of the appeal. I suspect that such contraptions will not hit our shores any time soon, but how fair is that beer compared to a beer brewed by someone using "normal" home brew equipment for a competition? Just saying... Thanks to my friend, Flemming over in Spain for sending me this link.
I am sure you would have seen the ad campaign calling all willing warriors in the GaragistaHunt to reclaim craft beer from the hipsters by now? I tracked down one of the first ones I saw doing the rounds a couple of weeks ago... Seeing as I have never heard of this Garagista beer company and their slightly controversial marketing campaign, I thought I would look them up... (image http://www.mahala.co.za/freebies/mobster-malt/) I soon tracked them down on Facebook and found that they are currently kind of open on Wednesday and Saturday so I thought I would pop in to give it a look. I have a mate visiting town before he sets off for a permanent stay on the Australian shores so thought it would be cool to try out some beer at a new place to give him that last taste of home. We made our way down to Albert road in the fast-becoming brewing mecca, Woodstock. Once we found the building we found ourselves looking through the gate to find the owner, Steve, sweeping up and after a hesitant "Hi, are you guys open yet?" he kind of looked around and said "Sure, why not. Come on in". On offer were some of the last litres of left-overs from the media launch at the end of June which included a delicious apple cider, a beautifully tart pomegranate cider and their flagship Pale Ale. The latter completely took me by surprise as I must admit it challenges what I have come to know as a garden variety pale ale today...brewed like an ale and treated like a lager this beer has a beautiful granadilla nose which pulls you right into its mildly bitter, slightly dry and lager-styled finish. According to the owner it takes a bit of trickery to pull this off (treating the brewing liquor and tweaking temperatures throughout the process), but he should be proud of the results as it is a great beer. As for the actual brewery side of things they are still using some of the original "test batch" equipment from when they were dreaming up recipes last year in Stellenbosch and have now added some custom made fermentation vessels built to the owner's exact specifications by some Mzanzi wizards. It is a fastidious and well kept environment as every brewer knows the importance of cleanliness. During our afternoon visit we could see one of the employees walking around polishing and keeping things in order just in case. Steve's proudest achievement is the UV filtering system which will actually kind of revolutionize the craft beer industry in its own way. At the moment, your average ales are brewed with a recommended shelf life of around 4-6 months. With this system he estimates that beers will be able to keep safely for at least three times as long allowing South African brewers to reach a much wider audience with their product for example. A smart business man coming from a celebrated marketing background, Steve knows full-well how to promote his product and generate some interest. When I asked him about the marketing campaign (outsourced to an external agency) he assured me it was all in good fun and the idea is to bring beer back to pure enjoyment instead of it being a fashion item. I have done a post on this before so I know where he is coming from... I see someone trying to turn the beer industry inside out by trying to make people laugh at themselves and reminding them to get back to the basic idea of drinking beer for enjoyment. At the same time I see someone that is terribly passionate about his craft and will try anything to get it as near to his perfect vision as possible. In his estimation (and I kind of agree) the craft beer wave has swept up a couple of snobs in its tidal wave of success to the point of some patrons denigrating other brands and beer drinkers for their methods and choices. He has even seen some people sitting down to sniff at a glass and criticize a brewer for going three or four IBU's over what it should be...really!?!? This is a man that is very easy going and one who introduced himself to everyone that happened into the brewpub that afternoon after us. He is more than happy to discuss anything from street art, music and cars through travel and even a couple of naughty jokes and anecdotes. He is also very open about discussing all things beer and is quick to give you a run down of successes and failures he has had to endure thus far. During the afternoon of chatting to him I had picked up one or two tips that I can carry with me for my brewing experiments. I am honestly looking forward to their official (commercial) launch and cannot wait to try some of the other treats that I saw bubbling away as I was taking a quick tour of the brewery side - there was mention of a coffee stout and a possible witbier experiment.
With the attitude and drive l see from this guy and his Garagista ethos, it will be hard to fall short of the mash tun. If anything, I expect some serious stuff from this little "smaller than nano" brewery... This post required some research. Some in depth digging and it appears to be something rather new. Or rather not that well explored or documented. Unlike wine, beer has not been as “mainstream” and cool. It used to be reserved for belching bums in white vests vainly trying to contain their ever expanding waistline. But somehow, more recently, beer has come out smelling all rosy and looking cool...even in the hands of the most outrageous hipster...well... With the emergence of the beer scene in our Mother City we have seen some great beers with the likes of brewers from Devils Peak and Triggerfish pushing the limits of our palates to give us something new and exciting - bringing exotic beer styles to our shores in the form of barrel-aged, high ABV Imperial Stouts and Brett-infused Saison. I am sure this is more related to a personal challenge the brewers are putting out to themselves, but I can tell you that I am very happy with the results. What we end up with are some great limited edition runs like the Vannie Hout, the Black Marlin, the Kraken and the Crazy Diamond. Beers designed to stab you in your subdued sensory organs. Beers brewed for maximum enjoyment. Beers that exist to show you that it is not about white vests and drinking from bottles anymore. Since I have picked up a couple of these bottles I have been wondering if beers are also able to “age” like a good wine. What actually happens to the beer? Is it even a good idea? Would it improve or is it better to not be stingy and just drink the damn thing. Well, it seems there are many in the beer community that would suggest “cellaring” a beer might actually be a good idea. Cellaring, I guess, is a term borrowed from our friends in the grape-world meant to suggest the idea of storing your beer somewhere to gather dust and more character. I found consensus among many beer bloggers suggesting, like wine cellars, the environment for storing beer should be cool and dark. They recommend the ideal temperature somewhere between 10 and 15°C. Slight fluctuations are generally benign, but try avoid areas ranging from extreme heat to extreme cold too often. The main difference seems to be that storing beers upright is preferred as opposed to on its side like wines. Storing beers upright allows the sediment to drop to the bottom meaning a clearer pour, but surely most of you already know this. When deciding on what beers to age, there seems to be a common guideline that determines the criteria for the most eligible pints. To outline, these are the most common ones that I came across:
Think of it more like the idea that beers with these qualities are more suited to ageing than your average session ale or IPA. Keep these guidelines in mind when making your selection, but remember it does not guarantee that ALL beers of this nature will improve with time. It mostly comes down to trial and error. Cellaring beers is such a huge field (and new compared to wine), there are so many intricate factors that can change the beer profile in so many ways it is literally an endless experiment. I came across numerous blogs and posts where guys talk about the fact that you have some beer styles from some breweries suited to ageing and others of a same or similar style from other breweries not so much due to more hops being used by the brewer or subtle changes to ingredients and recipes. I guess at this point you are asking “well, what are you cellaring?” To be honest, not much, but I am keen to get into this. Currently I am sitting with the following:
When I see something that falls within the criteria I always try to buy at least two, or ideally three of that "vintage". This way I can taste one right away, keep one for a year or so and then have a third a couple of years down the line...or that is the plan should I say rather. One thing I do take away from all of this reading and research about ageing beer is that, firstly, beers do not become better or worse – their profile changes. You cannot suddenly implant better or different flavors simply by letting a beer sit for months or years. In reality it is just that some flavors “ease off” and others become more prominent. Years of cellaring practice by some gurus out there suggest that malty characters develop very well, whereas the bitterness will fade to the background. Secondly I learned that warmer temperatures allow for faster ageing whereas colder temperatures (like that of a fridge) are better for slowing down the ageing process practically to a stop. Translated for the layman: you can buy and store your speciality IPA's or more hoppy variety in a fridge or something similar - slowing down the breakdown of the hop profile - but it is better to let the more malty candidates sit on a shelf somewhere to allow their profile to fully develop. Finally, the concensus also seems to be that the alcohol bite seems to die down considerably with ageing, so that 12% with the aftertaste will probably just be so much sweeter after sitting around for a while. What have you got in your closet or garage beyond that dusty mountain bike? What do you think is a good candidate for ageing? What have you found that works and what do you think is best enjoyed fresher?
Of course there are always exceptions to these "rules" so feel free to break out and experiment. As Ryan Mazur from the Dog Fish Head quality line says: "You might not prefer what age does to certain beers, but you don't have to worry about beer going bad". Beer cellaring might be new to me, but not so much to you...it is all about patience, careful note-taking and, of course, experimentation in the end. Saturday afternoon, you are sitting at home and the urge for a good beer strikes you. Not the session ale that you default to, but one of your special beers from your stockpile. The question now is just as important as the result: what glass must I use? Can I just put it in a regular highball, do I use the stein I got form the last Oktoberfest or do I need a special IPA glass? Does it even matter? Do not fear my friends, for being the beer geek that I am, I have gone ahead and done some field-work to get some crystal clear answers. The problem is, you might not like the result... I started doing some research by trying to see what kind of glasses are available on the market. Man, was I in for a list...it almost looks like there are beer glasses made for every single style of beer available. Even to the recent development of the IPA glass and the Stout glass - both Spiegelau collaborations with some of the bigger American breweries. Strangely enough, and I guess I will agree to a certain extent, I read many posts about guys saying that the beer glass does not make much of a difference to the overall taste. Of course there are others that would completely disagree, but ultimately most of what we appreciate in taste actually comes from what we smell. I suppose this is why food tastes bland when you have a cold, and why serving beer in a glass instead of drinking from a bottle is preferred. Keep in mind, the brewer has already done his part by painstakingly producing a specific flavor in the beer and no glass can change that (except a dirty one of course!), but picking the right glass might just highlight subtle nuances hiding in your favorite pint making it all the more enjoyable. It is for this reason that I believe glassware will affect your overall experience of a beer, and not so much the actual taste to such a large degree. It is all about smell and presentation at the end of the day. Some glasses will help concentrate the aroma profile as you sip whilst others will try to trap some of the head, increasing the aroma profile in a slightly more subtle way but showing off other features of the pint. There are quite a few sites I found that give a good explanation on what beer glass suits what style and "how the glass works" to improve your experience, but instead of re-inventing the wheel and spinning someone else's articles here are some links: http://www.craftbeerware.com/beer-glass-types http://www.beerwrangler.com/the-beer-glass-guide/ For me, deciding on the correct glass would depend on two factors: 1) type of beer to be consumed 2) my mood/setting...which technically affects the choice in number one anyway Keeping 20 different glasses is not that practical, so I basically have three glasses in heavy rotation. My primary choice for just about any beer that I plan to sit down and enjoy will be a snifter. Whether I am trying a new beer, tasting one of my own concoctions or if I eventually have the heart to open up one of my speciality beers from the collection, the snifter does a pretty excellent job. Actually to be honest this is the glass I sip my Blockhouse from after a long day at the office or to accompany my Saturday night stout and spagbol. The glass shape helps to taper the aroma of the beer as you take a sip to concentrate all the lovely smell into the taste and has kind of become my go-to glass. On the other hand, throw in a braai and some Naked Mexican, Golden Light or Lakeside APA and I will be clutching one of my Willybecher glasses. Easy going consumption with no complications - I know what the beer tastes like, I enjoy drinking it and most of all it looks really inviting when you are hot and thirsty. Then of course there are the days when you need to have an Amber Weiss or sit back with a Bonecrusher from nothing other than one of the Weiss style glasses. Open topped to produce that wonderful aroma and keep that head thick whilst tall and curvy to show off that murky carbonation and give the perfect grip size in the middle. Case and point is that you are not exactly going to order something in a snifter at the Shack...hell, you would be lucky if whatever you order doesn't come with some snifter on the side anyway! Then again if you visit a brewery and are truly interested in their offerings I am sure you will want to consider all aspects of the beverage and what it has to offer. Color, depth, clarity and carbonation are all terms that will suddenly take on a much more important meaning in the overall result of enjoying the beer. Imagine ordering a Vannie Hout from The Taproom, and they brought you three weiss glasses instead of the suave, Devils Peak branded snifters? Imagine all those guys ordering a Castle LITE and getting it in a snifter...no more "it's already in a glass, boet!". So maybe in a taproom/pub setting the glass (or lack thereof) might also hint at what to expect from that pint you ordered. Whether to sit back and respectfully enjoy with some level of contemplation, or whether to quaff that ale like it's your birthday. In conclusion you will have your beer geeks who enjoy beers from their Spiegelau and other novelty glasses (this includes me of course) as this shows true appreciation for the craft and enjoyment thereof. There will be the average beer enthusiast drinking from whatever vessel they are served in trusting that it is the most correct. And of course there are those that will drink beer from coffee mugs or straight from bottles - this is your choice, but don't think I am going to take you seriously when you try to tell me how many "awards" your "Champion" beer has won...
What is your favorite glass? Do you think it makes a difference? or do you prefer to drink from the bottle? Don't just take my word, go ahead and experiment or let me know what you think and what your experiences are in different regions or with different glasses. |
About me
Recently enlightened by the exciting world of craft beer I have been falling in love with new flavors, colors and smells. I do not consider myself a professional brewer (yet), but I am an enthusiast and passionate about beer and that is all that matters... Archives
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