SEPTEMBER 2020, - ATHENS, GA - I spent two long, intense years working as the Tasting Room Manager at one of the fastest growing craft breweries in the nation, Creature Comforts Brewing Company in Athens, Ga. Part of my job was training staff to speak intelligently about our products and impart little nuggets of knowledge for guests to take home with them and impress all their friends.
One of my favorite things to do was to help people find the beer that was right for them. With more than 100 distinct kinds of beer out there in the world, I genuinely believe that it’s not a matter of whether you like beer or not, it’s a matter of if you’ve found the style that’s right for you. Keep in mind, there’s a lot of really, really bad beer out there. I don’t mean the big name brands either. I mean there’s a lot of really bad craft beer being made just cause someone had a hobby they felt was ready to make a business out of. While I’m one of the first people that will tell you “enthusiasm is attractive” and “don’t yuck someone’s yum”, some breweries could have benefited from a bit more testing time before dumping a quarter-grand into opening up to the masses.
Since beer in its current form has really only been around for roughly 40 years, there’s a lot of misinformation still circulating around about how it works and what it’s supposed to be. The following myths were the most common misconceptions we hoped to dispel before leaving. Take them with you. Impress your friends next time you're out having a pint. Share a moment of truth with your homebrewing parent that thinks they’re ready to open their own brewery.
Disclaimer: I recognize that this article may not be for everyone, at least in the eyes of the law, but maybe treat it as a little preemptive lesson for when you do start imbibing legally. At 18 it’s legal to own a gun and go to war but not drink alcohol all because some old white dudes forgot to write it down 300-plus years ago. They were probably drunk.
Foam is bad.
One of the most common things I was asked to do while working at CCBC was if I could “scrape some of that foam off” or “could you put more beer in this? There isn’t enough.” The foam at the top of your beer, known as the head, is actually pivotal to the tasting experience.
Tasting beer, and anything you eat or drink, starts with your nose. Think about it, before you put anything in your mouth, you’re going to smell it first. If you’ve ever seen someone stick their whole schnozz into a glass of wine and wax poetic about the notes and tannins present, this is really no different. You’ll also find that what you smell in a beer is often different from what you taste in a beer, but it still molds the experience all the same.
Your beer should have a good, thick inch of foam on top if it’s been served to you properly. Some bars, pubs, or breweries will even have a fill line on their glassware indicating to you and the staff where the liquid and foam should meet. When the liquid hits the glass, it activates the CO2 naturally occurring in the beverage and begins to foam. That CO2 is bringing all those flavor compounds straight out of the mouth of your glass that you’ll definitely want to get a whiff of. It’s also important to note that you shouldn’t pour your beer into an ice cold glass either as it keeps the beer from foaming properly and kills your taste buds too.
Throw your snout right in that glass and tell the world what you smell. Make it your next parlour trick. There are no wrong answers, I mean it, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. What you smell and taste is true to you and that should be enough.
Bottles are better than cans.
From the moment your beer is done being brewed, it begins aging and that age on beer has a flavor called oxidation. In fact, this is partly the same reason why humans age too. It’s some big 2020 energy for the very life-giving air we breathe to be slowly poisoning us over the course of our lives, eh?
There are three things that beer hates most, and they all act as catalysts for the oxidation: oxygen, sunlight, and heat. Glass bottles introduce each of these veritable kryptonites to the mix and cans do a better job of protecting from all three.
Each bottle and can is purged of oxygen in the container before filling it with liquid and capping it off, bottles just have more space for oxygen to remain. With that little bit of extra headspace in the top of every bottle, there’s that more room for error when keeping your beer fresh. The same goes for the sunlight. Most bottles are brown or clear, meaning sunlight is able to directly affect your beer more easily.
It’s more often than not that when someone says a beer tastes too “hoppy”, what they’re actually tasting is the oxidation in the beer. If you’re curious what it tastes like, grab a Corona. The company tried switching their bottles to darker bottles back in the 90’s but customers had a fit when their beer stopped tasting the way they were accustomed to, which was because they weren’t oxidizing as quickly. To fix the issue, Corona now injects the compound into their beers so they can directly control how much of the flavor is present in every bottle.
Hot→Cold→Hot→Cold→Hot→Cold≠Skunk
If I had a dollar for everytime someone asked for warm beer to take home cause they were afraid it would spoil, I’d be able to pay my rent many times over. There is no magic process that occurs when your beer changes temperature three times, it’s a bit more complicated than that.
That third thing beer hates, heat, is what ages your beer the fastest. When beer sits in room temperature conditions or above, it ages more rapidly. Some flavors, like hops, become more pronounced and bitter. Residual sugars will change, sometimes becoming sickeningly sweet and other times stale. What’s most important in making sure your beer tastes the way you’d like for it to, is paying attention to how old it is and how it’s been stored.
At the brewery and while it’s being delivered to its final destination, your beer is kept refrigerated. Retail stores and bars are where things may get a little screwy. Kegs and flats of cans kept in dry storage, especially in spaces above room temperature, will age more rapidly than beer kept in the cold. It’s also best practice to check the expiration date on beer. You wouldn’t buy other foods past their expiration date, right? Why should beer be any different?
The “best-by” date on the side of your can is typically three months after your beer has been brewed and most beers, especially hoppier ones like IPAs, are better when they’re less than a month old. Next time you head to the store, don’t buy the six-pack sitting on the floor of the supermarket, buy the beer that’s in the fridge. It’s better, I promise.