Beer: final frontier
Everything you'll ever need to know about beer and some things you won't
Ben Brown-Steiner
Issue date: 4/21/08 Section: Features
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By far the best source of information for beer styles and beer reviews is BeerAdvocate.com. You have to sign up to use the site, but the amount of information is amazing. The Alström brothers, the site's owners, really know (and love) beer. They also have a pretty sweet magazine of the same name.
Having a beer sampling party is a blast, especially with a good group of people. I recommend choosing a style of beer that you like, or one that you are clueless about, first when shopping for beers to sample. Then go out and find some crazy American form of the beer, along with some good, traditional European versions. Also, be sure to always have a beer that you like on hand, in case the others you are sampling suck.
The people at BeerAdvocate review beers with five major characteristics in mind: appearance, aroma, taste, mouthfeel, and drinkablity. The appearance is definitely something you should start looking at, and that means forget the plastic cups. Glassware can make all the difference. Aroma is awesome, so don't forget to smell your beer. It always tastes better (unless it's a bad beer) if you do. Taste speaks for itself. Mouthfeel and drinkability are very subjective, so do what ever you want with these.
Fruit beers are almost always a failure. I've had only one that I really liked (Ommegang Three Philosophers). The others I've tried taste like a good beer spoiled by the addition of some high-fructose corn syrup fruit flavoring. Blech.
Pilsner Urquell goes good with chicken.
Victory Hop Devil goes good with pizza.
Magic Hat brewery sells everything, including condoms.
Most bottle deposit places do not take bottles from England, Germany, Ireland, Australia, and almost all other foreign nations. Please recycle them anyway.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Terry Brown-Steiner
posted 4/21/08 @ 3:04 PM EST
My son is about to graduate, and I am proud of the knowledge that he has accumulated. This almost justifies the $25,000 year tuition.
p.s. hoppy beers are over-rated. (Continued…)
Cheryl
posted 4/22/08 @ 12:22 PM EST
Ben,
Great Job!! Sad to say this is the first one Dad has shared with us, but it was very informative. Good luck at your next adventure!!
Cheryl
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