Fwg17 issuu(1) by Future PLC

Issue one

CRAFT BEER Best Bee 365

craft beer: the 365 best beers in the world

in the World

Discover beer you'll love TASTING NOTES & FOOD MATCHES BEER FOR EVERY SEASON THE BEST OF EVERY BEER STYLE TOP BREWERS INTERVIEWED ESSENTIAL BEER KNOWLEDGE

craft beer

Savour the flavours: What Every beer is a mystery waiting to unfold in your mouth, with as many different tastes as there are bottles. Here’s what you should be getting when the brewer succeeds and what happens when beer goes bad…

GOOD T N I P

or the brewer, bringing together all of the right ingredients is a bit like being a football manager. It’s his job to make sure the hops, malt, water and yeast train hard and work as a team to deliver a cracking result from kick off to final whistle. The hops are the superstar strikers, wowing us with their awesome abilities and taking all the credit when everything goes right. Brewers, like football managers, will also go to extremes to secure the best performers. Hops bring aroma, bitterness and a variety of flavour to the game, ranging from intense tropical fruit to delicate herbs. Bang in the middle is the malt playing in midfield. The malt lends support to the hops by sweetening them and balancing out the bitterness with qualities that range from dry crackers and sweet caramel to roasted coffee and dark chocolate. Water is back in defence. It’s not the most exciting role, but you’d definitely miss it if it wasn’t there! Lastly, the yeast has the most crucial position – the goalkeeper. From start to finish, everything hinges on this guy. If the brewer is managing his team correctly then the yeast should have an easy time of it, but if he gets it wrong then it’s all over. Yeast can hang back and go unnoticed, or the brewer can bring it forward to create fruit, spice or other more interesting flavours. The word pint on the right shows some of the winning results that can come about from having a well managed team of hops, malt, yeast and water. As is usual, they gain the glory on the day, but behind every good beer is a good brewer.

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beer flavours

does your beer taste of? BAD PINT

eer is a complex, living product and the true skill of the brewer is not making great beer but making great beer again and again. If proper care isn’t taken then flaws can creep in at any stage of the process and by the time it reaches you that fault can be magnified. Some off-flavours are desirable in small doses, or at least tolerable, while others make what should be the world’s best beer taste like something pulled out of a drain. The word pint on the right shows some of the most common off-flavours to look out for. Infection is the most common problem. A failure on the brewery’s part to clean their equipment, or a pub landlord not cleaning his lines, can make beer taste sour or vinegary. Stale hops lend a cheesy funk to beer, while a wet cardboard smell is a sign of either oxygen or sunlight getting in. Sherry wine flavours indicate a beer is old but whether it improves or ruins a beer depends on the style – who’d want a lager tasting of sherry? When the yeast isn’t given the right working conditions it will botch the job, leaving loose ends all over the place. If the beer is rushed out before the yeast is finished it’ll impart unpleasant amounts of green apples and cut grass that can taste cidery, or sickly sweet butterscotch flavours that dampen the taste of everything else. In extreme cases, overworked yeast can die a horrible death, causing beer to smell and taste of meat juice or burnt rubber.

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craft beer

how to pour Different beer styles not only benefit from different glassware, but different pouring methods too. Here’s how to get the best out of every bottle.

lager

Start with the glass at roughly a 45-degree angle, and slowly begin to pour steadily along the inside of the glass so head doesn’t build too quickly.

Try to pour the lager in a single motion, gradually straightening the glass and allowing more head to form as you do so.

As the glass straightens up, pour the beer into the middle of the glass to build the head. Try to ensure a good two fingers or more of foam, so that the maximum amount of aromatic compounds can be enjoyed.

Ale

Regardless of glass, whether it’s a pint tumbler or a stemmed tulip glass, start at a 45-degree angle and pour slowly and steadily.

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It’s especially important with bottleconditioned ales of any variety to pour them smoothly and steadily in one pour, so that little if any yeast sediment makes it into your glass.

As it fills, straighten up the glass and allow a decent head of at least a finger or two to form. Too much head and all the bitterness will hide in the foam, robbing the beer of balance.

pouring

Wheat beer

Belgian bartenders might wet the glass to help control the head when pouring these lively, highly-carbonated beers. Whether filtered or unfiltered, pour gently along the side of the glass at first.

When halfway, very gradually straighten the glass, and slow down the pour if it’s getting too foamy. Whether it’s a German hefeweiss or a Belgian wit, it should be nice and cloudy.

When only the last few gulps are left in the bottle, stop the pour and gently swirl the bottle around to agitate the remaining yeast in the bottle and pour it on top to create a blossoming pile of foam.

Stouts and Porters

Unlike other beers, it’s considered acceptable, if not encouraged, to pour stout or porter in two separate pours. Start out slow and let the head develop at its own pace.

Stopping halfway and allowing the head to settle before continuing will build a creamier head, which enhances the dry coffee and chocolate notes in the beer. Pouring in one pour will make for a smoother, sweeter taste.

Continue to fill the glass, but try not to exceed two fingers of foam. If it’s a bottle-conditioned variety, beware of the yeast in the end of the bottle, which can hide in the darkness of the liquid.

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ipa

hardcore ipa A beer that takes a long run-up, packs a serious punch and leaves you reeling in its wake

any agree that BrewDog are at their brewing best when the letters I, P and A are involved. Hardcore IPA epitomises, perhaps even more so than BrewDog’s flagship Punk IPA, what their brewery is all about: hops by the megaton. It’s more than just another hop-bomb, though. This is a beer with enormous depth of flavour, and for all its intensity, there are irresistible touches that make it far easier to drink than its strength would suggest. Give a glass of Hardcore IPA a proper swirl, and watch the off-white head and bronze body blend together, resembling a tornado of caramelising sugar and golden syrup. You’ll find those same things in the aroma too, beneath mountains of pithy, tropical fruit. There are bitter, dark chocolate notes as well, hinting at the warming depth to this beer. The initial caresses of syrupy, caramel malts are just a front: Hardcore IPA is only interested in giving you a fruity palatepummelling and a raucous, gasping throatgrip of hoppy anger. The usual American hop flavour suspects line up: pine, grapefruit, bitter orange pith, but each flavour is as big as a house. Instead of climbing down to a dry finish, Hardcore just keeps on shovelling out apricot jam, orange liqueur and pineapple, until the whole stack of fruit bursts into flames, sugars burning, until a pine forest grows out of the bitter, caramelised ashes. It’s so sticky and resinous that it’s hard to be sure if the finish ever, well, finishes. It’s very difficult to find anything that can match the flavours of Hardcore, so there’s no point even trying to. Instead, pit it against things that taste just as strong, or even stronger. It’s the perfect beer to attack the oiliness and spices of smoked or spiced sliced meats, and easily handles the pungent aromas and super-rich flavours of blue cheeses. Combine the lot to create a decadent supper with this enormously powerful and satisfying IPA.

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The Facts Brewer BrewDog Origin Aberdeenshire, Scotland Strength 9.2% Type Double IPA Cost £3.25-£3.80 Web www.brewdog.com Temperature 9-12 °C / 48-54 °F Suppliers Specialist off-licenses, online: www.beersofeurope.co.uk

Goes great with… Smoked or barbecued meats, or strong blue cheese

spring

8 ball rye ipa Real pool balls were used in the making of this heady mix of fruit, hops and malt

eavertown is what the people of London’s East End called the area of De Beauvoir. They had no reason to call it by its French name, like the rich people who had named it did, so Beavertown stuck. In modern day De Beauvoir, Duke’s Brew and Que is the home of Beavertown Brewery, founded by Logan Plant and Byron Knight. The onsite smokehouse and brewing kit should be enough clues as to what they offer there: meat and beer. After Beavertown’s beers became more popular, they moved into larger brewing premises nearby, but Duke’s is still their home. 8 Ball Rye IPA is one of the brewery’s signature brews: a ruby red IPA with rye added to mash and a lot of dry hopping after fermentation (achieved by weighing down the bag of hops with – you guessed it – old pool balls). 8 Ball Rye is a deep, red, russet colour, with a massive off-white head full of pepper, jammy pudding and pine aromas. Beavertown were extremely generous in the hopping of this beer; five varieties of American and New World hops are used to create its astonishing fruity, sweet and bitter character. The first sip is very jammy and stickily sweet, with a throattickling spiciness from the rye malt used. The bitterness and hop character develops in waves, at first seeming full of grapefruit and lychee, then orange and pepper, then twisting into a fruity booziness like rum punch. It’s a complex and rewarding beer that offers as much as you want to take from it. The finish is equal parts spice, pine and citrus, ending on a very dry, resinous note. It would be a crime to pair 8 Ball Rye with anything other than the biggest, meatiest, juiciest pork ribs you can find, slathered in barbecue sauce and slow-cooked to perfection. Each sip of 8 Ball cuts into the fat and burnt bitterness, injecting juicy sweetness and spicy bitterness into every bite. A match made in heaven.

Spicy, jammy and citrusy

The Facts Brewer Beavertown Brewery Origin London UK Strength 6.2% Type Rye IPA Cost £3.00-£4.00 Web www.beavertownbrewery.co.uk Temperature 9-12 °C / 48-54 °F Suppliers Specialist off-licenses, online: www.beersofeurope.co.uk

Goes great with… Sticky, charcoaled pork ribs CRAFT BEER | 55

fruit & sour beer Sour, sharp and fruity

London Sour Pineapple A divisive yet deeply refreshing sour fruit beer THE FACTS Brewer Brodie’s Beers Origin London, Britain Strength 3.7% ABV Type Sour Fruit Beer Cost £3.50-£3.90 Web www.brodiesbeers.co.uk Temperature 8-10 °C / 46-50 °F Suppliers Specialist off-licenses and online retailers

rodie’s brewery was established in London in 2008 and it brews a range of pale ales, bitters and IPAs. Its first ever IPA was based on a recipe that the head brewer used to make in his bath tub! Where Brodie’s stands out from most other British brewers, however, is with its range of sour fruit beer. The flavours include apricot, peach, pineapple and raspberry, but they all follow a similar path.

Sharp, fruity and sweet

Goes gr eat with salads an d seafood dis he s

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Sour beers can take a bit of getting used to, but Brodie’s Sours’ low strength and fruit-as-counterbalance make them ideal for overcoming the fear of sourness. London Sour Pineapple pours with a clear, pale gold colour, touched by a slight haze from the bottle conditioning. The aroma is punchy and powerful, with tangy notes of sour sweets and pineapple chunks. This morphs into a rich smell of tart cherries and sugary pastry, like a warm strudel or fruit pie. There’s an initial swell of full-bodied mouthfeel, which simmers down to a light, refreshing body. The taste is bitter and sharp, and a shock to those who haven’t had beer that’s meant to be sour. It takes a tangy turn, before plunging headlong into a tart, sweetand-sour finish. It’s not a session beer, but it is a beer for a session. It has a capacity for resetting the palate, meaning after one of these you’ll be ready for eight more beers.

Goes gr eat with str udel or ch erry pie

guava grove FARMHOUSE ALE Perfect for starting a longer drinking session THE FACTS Brewer Cigar City Brewing Origin Florida USA Strength 8% ABV Type Farmhouse Ale Cost £10.00-£12.50 (75cl bottle) Web http://www.cigarcitybrewing.com Temperature 6-8 °C / 43-46 °F Suppliers Specialist off-licenses, online: www.beersofeurope.co.uk

he city of Tampa, Florida has a few names, one of which this brewery took for itself. The other name is ‘The Big Guava’, owing to a rather odd story about someone who came to the area in search of guava trees, but ended up helping to ensure the city’s future as a cigar manufacturer. Head brewer Wayne Wambles had the idea of brewing a saison and putting it through a secondary fermentation on pink guava

puree. The result is an extremely fruity, crisp and zesty beer with high carbonation, like sparkling wine. It’s a pale, pinkish copper colour, with tight, thin carbonation and a lively, radiant blush. If Guava Grove’s aroma was just guava, we’d all be more than happy. In fact, it’s even fruitier than that, offering peach and pink grapefruit as well as spicy peppery notes from the farmhouse yeast. The high carbonation makes for a wonderfully sharp and crisply tart first taste, with as much lemon and lime as there is guava. Further tastes have a juicy, apricot jam quality, but the finish is all guava and tart raspberry. Guava Grove is particularly impressive for being a saison and fruit beer in equal measure. With more unusual fruit beers, it’s easy to pass them off as gimmicks. Guava Grove is far more than just a fruity saison; it’s an example of brewing brilliance that has a lot to offer. It’s a crowd-pleasing fruit beer.

summer

CANTILLON Gueuze Lambic Cantillon offers up tradition in a bottle THE FACTS Brewer Brasserie Cantillon Origin Brussels, Belgium Strength 5% ABV Type Sour Fruit Beer Cost £8.50-£10.00 (75cl bottle) Web www.cantillon.be Temperature 8-10 °C / 46-50 °F Suppliers Specialist off-licenses, online: www.beersofeurope.co.uk

he real skill of lambic brewing is not just the brewing itself, but also the blending of lambics aged 1, 2 or 3 years to re-ferment into gueuze. (Younger lambics have more residual sugar, providing more fuel for the secondary fermentation.) Cantillon’s Gueuze Lambic is the beer most similar in appearance and character to champagne: a bright, hazy gold, sparkling and effervescent. The curious, musty sourness of lambic is the dominant aroma, similar to the smell

Rounded; sour, yet juicy

in the brewery itself, but there are individual notes of apple, pear, honey, oak and bitter lemon. Much of these same notes are found in the first sip, but the carbonation is very sharp, and if the beer is served too cold, many of these flavours will be lost. Allowing it to sit in the mouth for a second gives it a chance to tell its story – one that is years in the making. Juicy, acidic pear and rhubarb notes zing with flavour, but turn sour almost instantly, blossoming into mouth-puckering cider vinegar, apple skins and lemon rind. The drying, acidic and elastically long finish is tinged with oak, vanilla and honeycomb. It stays fresh, despite all this weirdness, and the palatestripping sourness, which to the unaccustomed seems so abhorrent at first, becomes so normal, desirable in fact, that other kinds of beer drunk seem flabby and clumsy by comparison. Gueuze’s acidic tartness and sharp carbonation make it a wonderfully cutting and cleansing companion to sourdough bread, cured meats and pickles. It’s a timeless classic of the beer world.

Goes gr eat with Came mbert, oily meat, sour doug h br ead

Oude Gueuze Tilquin a L’Ancienne Blend the best lambics and what do you get? THE FACTS Brewer Gueuzerie Tilquin Origin Belgium Strength 6.4% ABV Type Gueuze Cost £8.50-£10.00 (75cl bottle) Web www.gueuzerietilquin.be Temperature 6-8 °C / 43-46 °F Suppliers Specialist off-licenses, online: www.beersofeurope.co.uk

Goes gr eat with Br ie, lig ht blu e ch ees eS

Rounded; sour, yet balanced

ueuzerie Tilquin is the first new gueuzerie in over 15 years, and the only one in the region of Wallonia in Belgium. Tilquin has no brewhouse, instead buying in lambic beer brewed by a variety of lambic brewers and blending the beer for re-fermentation. The Gueuze a L’Ancienne is a blend of 1-, 2- and 3-year-old lambics from Boon, Lindemans, Girardin and Cantillon. In fact, it’s said that Tilquin is the only gueuzerie that Cantillon will sell their wort to.

Gueuze a L’Ancienne is a very pale, golden beer, unfiltered and unpasteurised, giving it an appetising haze beneath a collar of crisp, white bubbles. The sparkling character of the beer extends to its aroma, the tiny bubbles bursting with excitement to get up your nose. The aroma has pronounced cider vinegar, lemon, grape and gooseberry notes, with an unusual freshness and delicacy to its musty, barnyard aroma. Gueuze as a style can be complex and confusingly deep, but Tilquin’s has a remarkable clarity to each of its flavours, starting out with apples and pears, turning from sweet to sour, then ever so softly returning some juiciness to the palate before drying out with woody, bready depth. It’s possibly the easiest gueuze to drink in the world, and a fantastic introduction to the style. If you go to Belgium, you may be able to find the Tilquin Gueuze Draft, a 4.8% ABV version of the beer available on tap. It’s even juicier, rounder and cleaner tasting. Both versions are wonderful summer beers.

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saisons

IV Saison

the beer talking

Alexandre Dumont

head brewer, brasserie de jandrain-jandrenouille

Traditional ale with nothing added

Citrusy, sweet and zesty

What made you want to become a brewer? I come from a family of distillers, but after WWII they closed their distillery because soft drinks were taking the market share of beverages. I’ve always been attracted to fermenting, I like fermentation and the flavours it can develop. I came to the UK to learn English when I was 14, then went back to Belgium with a brewing kit. The next few years were spent poisoning my family with fermenting beverages, from beers to wines and hydromel! Then, when I was 18, I read a book by Michael Jackson and began to elaborate on my beer knowledge; once I had the opportunity, I started a home brewery. What do you most enjoy about brewing? I like the underlying background of brewing: it’s a wonderful mix of tradition, nature, personality, physical work and patience managed by knowledge and rigour. But what I mostly enjoy is seeing the smiling faces of people when they drink my beer!

The Facts Brewer Brasserie de JandrainJandrenouille Origin Walloon Brabant, Belgium Strength 6.5% ABV Type Saison Cost £7.50 (75cl bottle) Web www.brasseriedejandrainjandrenouille.be Temperature 8-10°C / 46-50 °F Suppliers Specialist retailers and online

Goes great with… Cheese and cured meat platter

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What’s the inspiration behind IV Saison? The house is an old farm from the 14th century revamped in the 18th. There has always been a brewery there ‘feeding’ the workers. The beers brewed in farms during the winter for the summer workers were called ‘Saison’, because they were seasonal workers. Most types were light in alcohol and held a long time (more than three months) in maturating tanks. The name ‘Saison’ is a reference to this past. The ‘IV’ refers to the fact that they’re brewed with four basic ingredients (water, barley malt, hops and yeast) so, like the Germans say, it’s a ‘Reinheitsgebot’ beer. There are also four different hops in it. The beer is designed to be a good mix between a modern US beer and a traditional Belgian blond ale.

autumn Sweet, bready and spicy

3 MONTS Flanders ale matured in wooden barrels

The Facts Brewer Brasserie de Saint-Sylvestre Origin Saint-Sylvestre-Cappel, France Strength 8.5% ABV Type Biere de Garde Cost £6.00-£7.50 (75cl bottle) Web www.brasserie-st-sylvestre.com Temperature 8-10 °C / 46-50 °F Suppliers Specialist off-licenses, online

Goes great with… Chicken casserole

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CRAFT BEER

new There’s a whole year of outstanding beer for every season, occasion and taste inside!

There’s never been a more exciting time to love beer. The craft beer revolution is sweeping aside bland mass-produced brews, leaving us with a new world of taste and flavour. Enjoy a hand-picked, expert selection of 365 classic and craft beers that mean you’ll never have to drink a bad pint again…

THE 365 BEST BEERS - IN BOTTLES TO DRINK AT HOME OR IN THE PUB! pale ale

mild, bitter, red & brown ale

spring

autumn

REVIVAL

JARL

5AM SAINT

HONKER’S ALE

The moreish result of Somerset’s refreshing magical alchemy

A modern, citrus twist on the traditional session ale

A finessed offering from the Scottish ale upstarts

A classic British style re-imagined with a bold American twist.

THE BEER TALKING

MALCOLM DOWNIE BREWER AT FYNE ALES

What was the inspiration behind Jarl? The beer initially came about as a summer special - our previous head brewer had sourced a small quantity of Citra from the first batch that came across from the US. Popular demand decided that when the next season’s crop became available, we bought a lot more! The name is a wee nod to our previous summer special Somerled. He was the guy who drove the Vikings out of the West of Scotland. Our subsequent summer special, Rune, also takes a tilt at this line of thought.

The Facts Brewer Moor Beer Company Origin Somerset, UK Strength 4% Type Pale Ale Cost £3.80-£4.50 Web www.moorbeer.co.uk Temperature 8-12 °C / 46-54 °F Suppliers Specialist off-licenses, online: www.beersofeurope.co.uk, www.beerritz. co.uk

Juicy, tropical and sharp

The Facts

Which beer best defines who Fyne Ales are as a brewery? I’d say Jarl – golden, hoppy beers are a massive part of what we brew. It’s got a lot of flavour, but it’s well balanced and easy drinking, which is pretty much what we strive for in all our beers!

Brewer Goose Island Beer Co Origin Chicago, Illinois, USA Strength 4.3% ABV Type English Bitter Cost £1.90-£2.30 Web www.gooseisland.com Temperature 10-12 °C / 50-54 °F Suppliers Large supermarkets, specialist off-licenses and online retailers.

Brewer BrewDog Origin Aberdeenshire, Scotland Strength 5% ABV Type Red Ale Cost £1.70-£2.50 Web www.brewdog.com Temperature 10-13 °C / 50-55 °F Suppliers Specialist off-licenses, online: www.beersofeurope.co.uk

The Facts Brewer Fyne Ales Origin Argyll, Scotland Strength 3.8% Type Golden Ale Cost £2.70-£3.00 Web www.fyneales.com Temperature 8-12 °C / 46-54 °F Suppliers Specialist off-licenses, online: www.alesbymail.co.uk, www.beerritz.co.uk

Soft, citrusy and sessionable

GOES GREAT WITH... A SELECTION OF LIGHT, SOFT CHEESES, OR CRISPY ROAST CHICKEN

Moreish caramel and citrus

GOES GREAT WITH... MILD CHEDDAR AND GRAPES, OR CRISPY-COATED CHICKEN BURGER WITH LIME MAYO

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Christmas spice, biscuit and malt

GOES GREAT WITH... MEATY PIZZAS OR BURGERS WITH BARBECUE SAUCE

GOES GREAT WITH... A SUNDAY ROAST DINNER OR A PLOUGHMAN’S LUNCH

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Discover the greatest beers EVER MADE: FROM SUPERMARKET TO SUPER RARE, GET THE BEST OF EVERY STYLE lager

summer

ipa

spring

winter

Pine, orange and bitterness

“THE BENCHMARK AGAINST WHICH OTHER LAGERS HAVE ASPIRED AND IMITATED”

he craft can revolution is here. Well, it is in the United States at least, where good beer has come in cans since at least 2002 when Oskar Blue’s Brewery first canned Dale’s Pale Ale. British exposure to craft beer in cans is down to US imports and BrewDog, but if there’s ever a more well-constructed argument for the canned craft beer cause than Ska Brewing Modus Hoperandi, we haven’t met it yet. Ska Brewing Modus Hoperandi is so dense in aroma and body it rushes out the can to greet you the moment the seal is popped. The classic US IPA smell is all present and correct, but a lot more laid back and complex than you might expect, with candied orange peel, pineapple, passion fruit and pine softened by malt, toffee and brown sugar – it’s fresh, clean and bracing but never over the top. It’s a brooding amber beer in colour topped with a thick, frothy cappuccino head of foam that leaves plenty of lacing. If ever that head goes away all it takes is a quick swirl of the glass to call it back. From first to last sip the mouth feel is impressive, simultaneously juggling a creamy, satisfyingly smooth body alongside a sharp, refreshing edge. It leans more towards the crisp side and that’s exactly what you would hope for from an IPA. The taste is instantly sharp and bitter. That bitterness rarely goes away, riding throughout the beer and ensuring Modus Hoperandi is perfect for bitter-loving hopheads. Floral and pine notes strike first, followed by pineapple juice and bitter orange flavours. The finish is long and varied, with earthy grain, chewy malt, and a herbal, pine and slightly mint dryness. It may come in a can but it’s best out of the glass, but don’t feel obliged. The can’s advantage over bottles is clear: they pack nice and tight for picnics, barbecues and train journeys, where drinking straight from the can is just fine.

The Facts Brewer Plzensky Prazdroj Origin Plzen, Czech Republic Strength 4.4% ABV Type Pilsner Lager Cost Approximately £5 for a 4 pack Web www.pilsnerurquell.com Temperature 4-8 °C / 39-46 °F Suppliers Supermarkets and regular off-licenses

MODUS HOPERANDI IPA What’s the inspiration behind your Modus Hoperandi IPA? We first made Modus in 2008, and we really wanted to do something that would have a place among the best IPAs out there. Our inspiration is always to make a beer we want to drink. Modus ended up being a pretty fantastic beer. O’Dell IPA was probably the beer that inspired us most during that time period.

This sweet, creamy stout is guaranteed to bring anyone over to the Dark Side

, coffee Sugarcre and am

The Facts

THE BEER TALKING THOMAS LARSEN

oday, Red Bull, Relentless and a thousand other imitators are the energy drinks of the busy worker. In the early 20th century, milk stouts were the original energy drink. These beers were made with added lactose sugar which is naturally found in milk. It soon followed that these stouts took on the name Milk Stout, sometimes also known as Cream Stout. The thinking behind it is that lactose can’t be fermented into alcohol by yeast. The end result is a thick, sweet stout that gives the drinker an extra little bit of energy, assuming they don’t head off for a quick nap after drinking all that heavy beer. The early 1900s was also a time when beer, particularly stout, was believed to have medicinal purposes, so this thick, enriched stout was often recommended to pregnant mothers, the sick and the infirm. Mackesons, the first commercial milk stout to be sold back in 1907, exclaimed that their beer ‘contains the energising carbohydrates of ten ounces of pure dairy milk’. That legacy still lives on – in Trinidad and Tobago, the Carib Brewery brews a stronger version of Mackesons aimed at young male adults, with the bold claim that it “Takes you to the Max”. In the UK, original Mackeson still exists, though sadly as a barely remembered relic. The word milk was stripped from its labelling during World War Two, and the strength dropped from 3% ABV to 2.8% ABV in 2012 so the current owners, AB-InBev, can benefit from the tax break on duty. No effort is made to market it. This is a shame, as milk stouts are one of the best sub-genres of the stout style. There’s never a bad time for a milk stout; it’s also a cunning way of bringing someone over to the Dark Side. Lagerheads are often surprised by the easy-going nature of a good milk stout, and there’s none finer than Bristol Beer Factory’s version. The Bristol Beer Factory set up in 2004 on the site of a much older brewery, the Ashton Gate Brewery, which brewed from 1820 to 1933. In 1908, the Ashton Brewery made their first milk

Brewer Ska Brewing Origin Durango, Colorado, United States Strength 6.8% ABV Type IPA Cost £3.00-£3.30 Web www.skabrewing.com Temperature 6-8 °C / 43-46 °F Suppliers Bars, specialist off-licenses, online: www.beersofeurope.co.uk

Which beer do you wish you’d made? I have a lot of respect for the Belgian brewers. A particular favourite is the Petrus Aged Pale from Brouwerij Bavik. Which of your beers best demonstrates your brewery? That’s tough, because we have a broad range in our line-up. But I guess I’d say our Mexican Logger best defines the character of our brewery. It’s a ‘Mexican-style lager’, which doesn’t even really exist as a style. That shows our irreverence as brewers, and a lot of craft brewers wouldn’t be caught dead brewing what’s essentially an American adjunct lager influenced by the German brewers that settled in Mexico. But we love Mexicanstyle lagers, and so we made ourselves one that’s really good, and people love it. We like to take the trail less blazed, but not just to be different. We make the beer we want to drink, and hope people like it.

CRAFT BEER | 71

stout which went on to win awards. A hundred years later, Bristol Beer Factory went on to do exactly the same, with the Milk Stout claiming the National Champion Stout award. It pours black with a hint of deep, red edging when held to the light and a dense head of mocha coloured foam. Fans of lacing will be pleased to note that Milk Stout coats the inside of the glass with plenty of suds as it goes down. The aroma is a sweet, velvety caress of treacle, red berry jam, fresh meringue and roast coffee. The body is thick and creamy, filling the mouth with all those familiar stout flavours but with the dial turned all the way down to mellow. There’s an initial hit of booziness but this is tempered, more like a shot of brandy in a mug of coffee than a full-on vodka kick to the teeth. Dried banana chips, cranberries and blueberries sweeten the deal until roast coffee and burnt sugar notes ramp up the bitterness to a gentle, lingering finish.

The Facts Brewer Bristol Beer Factory Origin Bristol, Great Britain Strength 4.5% ABV Type Milk stout Cost £2.50-£2.90 Web www.bristolbeerfactory.co.uk Temperature 12-16 °C / 54-61 °F Suppliers Some supermarkets, off-licenses and specialist retailers

GOES GREAT WITH... SALMON IN HOLLANDAISE SAUCE, CHICKEN COATED IN LEMON AND HERB, AND STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE

GOES GREAT WITH… CURRY, BARBECUED MEATS AND CRÈME BRULEE

GOES GREAT WITH… SALMON IN HOLLANDAISE SAUCE AND STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE

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MILK STOUT

A beer in a can that contains more bitterness than a drawn out divorce case

The grandfather of the modern lager style that still leaves its imitators looking like drain cleaner

Smooth, bittersweet and balanced

porter & stout

MODUS HOPERANDI

PILSNER URQUELL

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THE LONDON BEER FLOOD By the 1800s, canals and trains were carrying porter to the furthest reaches of Britain, and ships were conveying it to the most exotic corners of the Empire. Competition was fierce, and the brewery who could supply the most, aged and matured to ensure the highest price, would profit the most. In London, a brewery on the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street, owned by Messrs Meux & Co, had seventy enormous vats of precious porter maturing in its storehouse. On 14th October 1814, a 22-foot-high vat of over a million pints of porter exploded violently, resulting in one of brewing’s most spectacular disasters. One of the vat’s 29 massive wrought-iron hoops snapped, preceding an explosion of beer that caused a chain reaction within the brewery, bursting many other surrounding vessels. Porter burst through the brewery wall into the slum of St Giles in a tide at least 15ft high, killing eight people and causing a fortune in property damage. If you believe some unlikely reports, a ninth person died the next day of alcohol poisoning, supposedly after heroically trying to stem the tide of beer the only way he knew how: drinking it.

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EXPERT TASTING NOTES, DETAILED HISTORIES AND PERFECT FOOD MATCHES FOR HUNDREDS OF EXCEPTIONAL BEERS craft beer

history

craft beer

savour the flavour

craft beer

tasting

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CRAFT BEER craft beer

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beer meets food BEER MEETS FOOD

YOUR CUT-OUT-AND-STICK-TO-THE-FRIDGE GUIDE!

KEY EVENTS IN CRAFT BEER

SAVOUR THE FLAVOURS: WHAT

The craft beer revolution might seem new, yet it champions beer styles that are centuries old - and what exactly is craft beer, anyway?

The craft beer movement has been fermenting on both sides of the Atlantic since the early 1930’s...

Every beer is a mystery waiting to unfold in your mouth, with as many different tastes as there are bottles. Here’s what you should be getting when the brewer succeeds and what happens when beer goes bad…

1933

The 21st Amendment to the US Constitution repeals national prohibition. 800 American brewers do not reopen, and the number of those that do gradually declines as bigger companies force smaller ones out of business.

1930

The Small Brewers Committee, a precursor to the modern Brewing Association, meets for the first time to discuss issues affecting small breweries.

Chancellor Reggie Maudling removes the need for the 1880 UK Brewing License.

1942 An estimated 100,000 beer lovers marched through New York in 1932 to help force the repeal of prohibition.

the dozen. In the US, the Brewing Association represents the interests of its members, who define themselves as ‘craft brewers’ according to certain criteria (see the box on the right), which has been adjusted over the years as founding members’ businesses have expanded. Nevertheless, the members pride themselves on being true to principles that the larger, corporate brewers do not adhere to. In the UK meanwhile, there is a less firm definition. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) champions traditionally made beers that undergo secondary fermentation in cask or bottle, whereas many new brewers in the UK are happy to instead serve their beers from kegs with minimal filtration so as not to affect flavour, assisted by carbon dioxide. The UK therefore tends to have a more ‘artistic’ view of craft beer: you know it when you see it, or rather, when you taste it. Until a definition is decided upon, proponents in both camps will have to agree to disagree, and settle for having one of the world’s richest and most diverse beer cultures. Surely that’s something we can all drink to.

Only 230 breweries remain open in the US, almost all of them making the same type of light-tasting pale lager.

1961

THE BREWER’S ASSOCIATION DEFINES A ‘CRAFT BREWER’ AS:

Fritz Maytag buys the Anchor Brewery after tasting local San Francisco beer oddity Anchor Steam and finding out the brewery was about to close down.

1965

“An American craft brewer is small, independent and traditional. Small: Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less. Beer production is attributed to a brewer according to the rules of alternating proprietorships. Flavoured malt beverages are not considered beer for purposes of this definition.

A new American variety of hop is released, and is first used commercially in 1976 by the New Albion Brewing Company. It defines the flavour of American pale ales. It is called Cascade.

1972

President Jimmy Carter signs into law a bill removing federal restrictions and taxes on homebrewing, effectively kick-starting a grassroots revolution of American brewing. Hundreds of these homebrewers eventually become professional brewers.

1978

Independent: Less than 25% of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member who is not themselves a craft brewer. Traditional: A brewer who has either an all malt flagship (the beer which represents the greatest volume among that brewer’s brands) or has at least 50% of its volume in either all malt beers or in beers which use adjuncts to enhance rather than lighten flavour.”

SOURCE – BREWERS ASSOCIATION

INSET PIC: ISTOCK.COM

hile it can be said with certainty that brewing has existed for more than 4,000 years, it’s quite likely that beer has been made for far longer, possibly for as long as humans have farmed grain. While the traditions of brewing stretch back thousands of years, the beer we drink today has more to do with what has been made in the past 150 years than anything before it. Prior to the 1700s, most of the beer in the world was either brown, or dark brown. Malted grains, which give beers their colour, flavour and strength, could only be clumsily cooked to dark or very dark levels. Eventually new fuels were invented (such as coke) that allowed for a more controllable heat, resulting in lighter kilning of malts and lighter coloured beers: the first pale ales. The industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries led to huge advancements in technology, transport and science, all of which had a big impact on brewing. IPAs, porters, stouts and lagers were all invented in the space of about one hundred and fifty years. Grain shortages during the World Wars slowed brewing advancements down again, and the very different economies and attitudes of people in the Old World and the New World led to very different beer cultures. Broadly speaking, in the second half of the 20th century, beer was being made cheaper and cheaper, and the popularity of pasteurised beer to improve its shelf life resulted in mass-produced, low-flavour rubbish. In the 1970s, on both sides of the Atlantic, cultural movements formed that gradually improved the standard of beer and brewing, starting a craft beer revolution that has continued to today. The term ‘craft beer’ is generally used to denote a beer that has been brewed with an artistic vision and with flavour as the first consideration. It should indicate a beer made to be savoured, not swilled by

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The first Great American Beer Festival is held in Boulder, Colorado.

1982

The number of craft breweries recognised by the American Brewing Association tops 2,300.

2012

London brewer Watney’s trials pasteurised, keg beer. Its popularity sets back British brewing by decades, and quickly sets in motion the decline of traditional ale.

1963

The Campaign for the Revitalisation of Ale (later the Campaign for Real Ale) was founded by four men in Kruger’s Bar, Dunquin in the Dingle Peninsula.

1971

The first edition of the Good Beer Guide is published by CAMRA.

1974

The first Great British Beer Festival is held at Alexandra Palace, London. Michael Jackson publishes The World Guide to Beer, informing a generation about treating beer with the respect it deserves.

1977

The British Guild of Beer Writers is founded, dedicated to improving and promoting everything written about beer and brewing.

1988

Progressive Beer Duty is introduced in the UK, meaning that small brewers pay less tax than larger companies. It inspires a fresh generation of brewers.

2002

The number of breweries in the UK tops 1,000, the highest number in over 70 years.

2012

CRAFT BEER | 7

GOODT PIN THE OF A TASTE STUFF GOOD

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DOES YOUR BEER TASTE OF?

HOW TO TASTE BEER Y our grandma can suck eggs and you can drink beer. I bet you’re drinking one right now, so what more do you need to know? Well, if you are interested in fully

appreciating what beer has to offer then there a few things to consider. Initially, avoid wearing strongly scented aftershave, perfume or hand lotion, as this can interfere with the smell. You should also

begin with a clean palate where possible. Professional beer judges drink water and eat crackers to reset their taste buds between beers. With that in mind, it’s time to get stuck in.

“PART OF WHAT MAKES BEER EXCITING IS THAT A HUNDRED PEOPLE CAN ALL DRINK THE SAME BEER AND COME AWAY WITH A DIFFERENT VIEWPOINT.”

HOW TO POUR

BEER MEETS ITS MATCH

beer style

savoury sweet cheese avoid companions companions companions

Different beer styles not only benefit from different glassware, but different pouring methods too. Here’s how to get the best out of every bottle.

Eating is not cheating. Match the right beer with the right food and the results can be sensational. Here’s how to get started…

LAGER

Salad; Barbecue; tapas; light fish dishes; fried chicken; hot dogs

Light, sweet desserts such as meringue

Mild cheese such as Camembert, Emmentel and Chevre

Anything that’s very strong, sweet or spicy

Salads; cured ham; chicken; shellfish, light fish dishes and sushi; quiche; spinach

Apple and banana based dishes; spiced desserts

Mild cheese such as mozzarella, and goat’s cheese; Bavarian cheese

Chocolate and strong cheese

Seafood, shellfish, chicken, Mexican cuisine

Cheesecake

Light cheeses such as Brie, Camembert, Swiss and mild cheddar

Very spicy curries, game and red meat

BELGIAN BLONDE

Seafood; roast chicken; creamy sauces

White chocolate; fruit tarts

Strong, hard cheese such as Mature Cheddar; Stilton with fruit

Light foods like salads, fish and mild cheese; dark chocolate

IPA

Smoked meat, poultry and fish; curries; burgers

Cheesecake, Pavlova and white chocolate

Goat’s cheese and lighter blue cheeses such as Shropshire Blue

Seafood and chocolate

BITTER

Roast beef dinner; cold meats; dark granary bread; meaty soups; meat pie; Scotch eggs; nuts; crisps

Avoid too much sweetness – think stodgy, British fare like sticky toffee pudding, fruit crumble and spotted dick

Hard cheeses such as Mature Cheddar, Red Leicester, Double Gloucester

Sweet food; lots of spices

LAGER

or too long now wine has enjoyed a reputation as the alcoholic beverage to pair with food. There are lots of reasons for this, but the most enduring is its perceived simplicity. Put bluntly, there’s white and there’s red. We all know white goes with lighter dishes like chicken and fish, and red goes with dark meats. Easy, simple and also boring. With the craft beer boom we have more beers and varieties within reach. The beers we drink can be smoky, fruity, sour, crisp, or outlandishly bizarre. For every dish there’s a perfect beer partner. How can wine keep pace with that? All it takes is a bit of experimentation to find what works best. Due to the great diversity of beer, food and personal preference, there can never be any exact rules when it comes to matching food with beer. It’s not a complete mystery though. Below are some common guidelines to consider when pairing foods. We’ve also included a simple chart – tear it out, pin it to your fridge, and the next time you grab a beer or cook a meal you can look up some ideas for what will work together.

WHEAT BEER

BAD PINT

A TASTE BAD OF THE STUFF

eer is a complex, living product and the true skill of the brewer is not making great beer but making great beer again and again. If proper care isn’t taken then flaws can creep in at any stage of the process and by the time it reaches you that fault can be magnified. Some offflavours are desirable in small doses, or at least tolerable, while others make what should be the world’s best beer taste like something pulled out of a drain. The word pint on the right shows some of the most common offflavours to look out for. Infection is the most common problem. A failure on the brewery’s part to clean their equipment, or a pub landlord not cleaning his lines, can make beer taste sour or vinegary. Stale hops lend a cheesy funk to beer, while a wet cardboard smell is a sign of either oxygen or sunlight getting in. Sherry wine flavours indicate a beer is old but whether it improves or ruins a beer depends on the style – who’d want a lager tasting of sherry? When the yeast isn’t given the right working conditions it will botch the job, leaving loose ends all over the place. If the beer is rushed out before the yeast is finished it’ll impart unpleasant amounts of green apples and cut grass that can taste cidery, or sickly sweet butterscotch flavours that dampen the taste of everything else. In extreme cases, overworked yeast can die a horrible death, causing beer to smell and taste of meat juice or burnt rubber.

Start with the glass at roughly a 45-degree angle, and slowly begin to pour steadily along the inside of the glass so head doesn’t build too quickly.

Try to pour the lager in a single motion, gradually straightening the glass and allowing more head to form as you do so.

ALE

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THE SMELL

THE LOOK

THE TASTE

THE AFTERTASTE

The first bite is with the eye and many people consider the appearance first. However, smell plays a massive part in understanding beer. Olfactory senses affect how you taste food and drink; drink beer when you have a cold and you’ll notice how bland even the most heavily hopped beer can be. Aroma develops over the course of the drink, and the hop oils are particularly volatile in the early stages, so it can be a good idea to quickly sniff from the bottle neck where the smell is condensed and then compare it to when it has been poured into the glass and allowed to open up. The foamy head retains a lot of the hop aroma so the smell is often hop forward at first, then as the hop oils dissipate you can pick up more of the malt.

If you’re not too self-conscious then you should hold your glass up to the light so you can admire your beer. From the crisp, golden clarity of a lager, to the copper brilliance of bitters through to the darkest, brooding, ruby-red edged stouts, beer is beautiful to look at. Just as importantly, though, it’s also a good way to gauge the quality. Cloudiness isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it can come about from disturbing the sediment in bottle conditioned ales, and is characteristic of wheat or unfiltered beers. You definitely should not have any chunks floating around, though.

Now get it down you! Take a sip, and another, and then another... roll it around the tongue, marvel as the taste develops from the opening salvo, through to a midsection, and then toward the finish. Slow down, lean back and start to untangle all the flavours that come rushing at you. Hops, malt, water, yeast and in some cases special ingredients all have a part to play in the flavour and body. By body, or mouthfeel, we mean the texture of the beer – thick, full, thin, crisp, flat and oily are all possible. So how does it taste to you? What do you like about it? What do you dislike? By forming a considered opinion you can chart your path through beer types, allowing you to make better choices at the bar or shop when presented with just the name of the beer, brewery and style.

The finish describes those last sensations when the flavour rides off into the sunset. It’s also a state of mind. How did it make you feel? Did it simply kill a thirst or blow you away? Would you drink it again or seek out similar beers, or board it up and forget about it?

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On a final note, you are always right in what you personally experience. The human senses of smell and taste are uniquely complex and you may perceive certain tastes that your friend can’t detect, and vice versa. Part of what makes beer exciting is that a hundred people can all drink the same beer and come away with a different viewpoint.

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Belgian bartenders might wet the glass to help control the head when pouring these lively, highly-carbonated beers. Whether filtered or unfiltered, pour gently along the side of the glass at first.

When halfway, very gradually straighten the glass, and slow down the pour if it’s getting too foamy. Whether it’s a German hefeweiss or a Belgian wit, it should be nice and cloudy.

STOUTS AND PORTERS

“HEAVY MEATS REQUIRE THE CLOUT OF STOUT OR TRAPPIST ALE.”

Regardless of glass, whether it’s a pint tumbler or a stemmed tulip glass, start at a 45-degree angle and pour slowly and steadily.

It’s especially important with bottleconditioned ales of any variety to pour them smoothly and steadily in one pour, so that little if any yeast sediment makes it into your glass.

As it fills, straighten up the glass and allow a decent head of at least a finger or two to form. Too much head and all the bitterness will hide in the foam, robbing the beer of balance.

Unlike other beers, it’s considered acceptable, if not encouraged, to pour stout or porter in two separate pours. Start out slow and let the head develop at its own pace.

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Coordinate Light dishes, such as salads and fish, fare better with similarly light beers like pilsners and wheats. Dark, heavy meats and desserts require the clout of stout or Trappist ale. Complement Beer is made in more regions of the world than wine, and wherever there’s a native dish or cooking style you

can bet there’s a local beer style that complements it. English bitter and the pub ploughman’s; American IPA and cheeseburgers, or smoked German lager with smoked Bavarian cheese are all classic combinations. Contrast Occasionally the best thing you can do is go against the grain and pick a beer that’s

wildly at odds with the dish, particularly when eating strongly flavoured foods. The beer can wow your taste buds by balancing things out; the rich food lifting up hidden qualities in the beer, and the beer taming runaway flavours so you can savour them. For this sort of thing imagine a solid English bitter paired with sticky toffee pudding or a gooey, super-sweet chocolate dessert alongside a sour cherry beer.

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KNOW MORE ABOUT BEER: EXPLORE STYLES, LEARN HOW TO TASTE AND FIND YOUR FAVOURITE NEW BEERS

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plus The best beer for every season Drink the best beer at the right time, from summer lagers to winter stouts

Beer meets food Learn how to match beer to its perfect food partner, with sensational results

The stories behind the beer Find out more about the history of classic beers and breweries

Everything craft beer Celebrate the passion and innovation behind the craft beer revolution

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WHEAT, WIT AND WEISS

PALE ALE

Cut For rich, fatty, or oily foods such as lamb, duck, and salty cheese, the right beer can cut through the grease and cleanse your palate, readying it to appreciate another mouthful in full Technicolor. A bubbly, sharp saison slices through fatty lamb, while sour beer peels off blue cheese from the roof of your mouth and sets you up for another go.

ALL IMAGES: ISTOCK.COM

THE HISTORY OF CRAFT BEER

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