How often in a high-end restaurant have you been handed a wine list that runs on for pages, while the list of available beers could easily fit on an index card? Yet many brewers say that as a companion to a fine meal, beer is the equal of wine, if not its superior.
What I didn't know they were sending was a fancy wooden crate, and a five-pack (one of the bottles broke in shipping) of Budweiser. That's the goods pictured at right. The CD will be a handy refernece for next week's column. I'm not a big fan of mass-market American lagers, but I'll drink one of the bottles out of courtesy and curiosity. The other four will probably wind up in a grilling recipe for one of the newsroom's frequent outdoor cooking experiments. As for the crate, I'm not sure what to do with it. Any ideas? How about recipe suggestions for the remainder of the Bud?
Say what you will about their beer, but the folks at Anheuser-Busch make what may be the best commercials in the business.
A couple years ago, they ran a classic Bud Light spot about properly pouring beer.
It began with three guys in a bar watching a friend pour his beer from a bottle into a tall pilsner glass in one smooth motion, leaving a perfect, frothy head atop the brew.
"How'd you learn to pour like that?" one buddy asks in awe.
As he gazes into his past, we see the pourer's memories of training, Kung-Fu-Grasshopper-style, with an older Asian man in the art of proper decanting. The master whacks his student mid-pour with a cane.
Pour down side, no good. Pour down center to release carbonation and aroma. Again!"We see the student repeating his lesson suspended between two trees, then while being dragged by a running horse.
Now, AB should get credit for encouraging its customers to drink beer properly, from a glass. And they did a good thing trying to educate folks the best way to pour a brew. But their advice is just a little off.
To get the goods in the glass, one must both ignore the old master's teaching, and apply it.
Zen enough for you?
Yes, pouring your beer straight down the middle of a glass will help develop a head, important in getting the right amount of aroma from a brew. But pour it all down the middle and you risk foaming the head right over the rim.
Instead, start off pouring down the side of a clean, un-chilled glass, held at about a 45-degree angle. When you've got it about half full (or half-empty?), hold the glass straight up and pour right down the middle. For most 12-ounce bottled brews going into a standard 16-ounce pint glass, this will provide just enough head to fill the vessel.
Of course, every beer is different. The brewing process gives some styles and brands more fizzy carbonation, making for more foam when you pour. Hefeweizens and other wheat-based beers are particularly heady, and so there are special, taller glasses designed to hold them. With these, it also can help to swirl a bit of beer around the side of the glass before pouring in the rest.
Pouring faster and holding the bottle higher over the glass will develop more head. Pouring slowly and holding the bottle close makes for less.
Using a British-size 20-ounce pint glass leaves more room for error when you're pouring the typical American-sized bottle. But that's cheating, in my view. If you're going to use a British-sized glass, you might as well pour a full imperial pint, and you'll need just as much skill to do it right.
So for every beer you decant, it helps to know what to expect when you tip a bottle over the rim. And the only way to get a good feel for each brew's foamy tendencies, of course, is practice. Lots, and lots of practice (trees, horse and canings from aged Asian master are optional).
Again!
I consoled myself with a stop by my local craft-beer-friendly convenience store to see if they had anything new. Man, am I glad I stayed home! The Grub Mart at the corner of Mountain & Pelham in Jacksonville had a big new display of craft and import brews. I'd seen none of these brands in the Anniston metro area before. On the shelf was: Anchor Brewing's Steam Beer, Porter and Liberty Ale; Atlanta Brewing Co.'s Red Brick Ale, Blonde and Peachtree Pale Ale; Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout, Nut Brown Ale and Taddy Porter; plus some Hoegaarden, Bitburger and Tsingtao.
Oh, and to assuage any doubt about what had me most excited, the photo at right shows me walking away with what I consider the night's prize ... Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout. Mmm ...
"What's done in a private home often goes undiscovered," says John Richardson, assistant administrator of the alcohol control board. "You can imagine how confusing it is trying to enforce this."
I spotted something new as I took my customary stroll down the beer aisle at Winn Dixie yesterday, two offerings from Cable Car Brewing, an amber ale and a lager (that's the lager in my hand at the store, at right). Having never heard of the label before, I decided to look 'em up before taking the plunge.
There are food fans who turn their noses up at anything that comes from a box, can or jar.
Pre-packaged spaghetti sauce? Give 'em a few ripe tomatoes and fresh basil — plus, for the hardcore, flour and eggs for the pasta — and they'll make you forget Paul Newman's known for anything but Cool Hand Luke.
And there are those who feel the same way when it comes to beer.
Buy it in bottles? Bah. Give 'em some malted grain, a handful of hops and a few weeks for yeast to work magic and you'll wonder why commercial brewers even bother.
Well, naturally, they bother because not everyone shares the passion homebrewers do for crafting it on their own.
Roughly half a million Americans make their own beer, according to the American Homebrewers Association, which itself has about 1,500 members.
While plenty of those folks are here in Alabama, by practicing their hobby they're unfortunately breaking state law. Making beer or any alcohol without a license from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board is banned.
As usual when it comes to alcohol laws, Alabama is in a tiny minority of states that still restrict homebrewing. Congress made it legal in 1978 (it was allowed before Prohibition) and let states take it from there. To date, according to the AHA, you can brew without fear in 45 states.
Of course, plenty of people are brewing here. While most aren't doing it in total, fearful secrecy, many still worry, though the state hasn't enforced the law broadly in decades, according to John Little, founder of the Auburn Brew Club.
"They shouldn't have to worry, because really, we're not doing anything wrong," says Little, whose club claims 25 brewing members and another 40 who are interested in learning the art.
Little and others are advocating for a bill in the Legislature that would allow home beer, wine and cider production for personal use. So far, the Senate Tourism & Marketing Committee hasn't touched the proposal.
Little began brewing just over three years ago. He says he's never brewed the same style twice, and has made his way through nearly 70 of the 80-or-so beer styles recognized by the Beer Judge Certification Program. His goal is to brew them all. (He describes himself as "very compulsive.")
Little says he's drawn to the creative and scientific aspects of making his own. Those points draw lots of professional types to brewing, according to Little. He's an attorney. The Auburn club claims engineers, biologists, pharmacists and others.
Little is hopeful legislators will learn that such folks are the typical homebrewers. Irresponsible drunkards won't invest the money or time most homebrewers put into homemade beer, he says.
"It's not like you're producing cheap beer," he says. "It's a very expensive hobby."
Of course, if you're worried about the cost, there's always the stuff that comes in bottles.
