DRINK

Sometimes

I miss the days of my youth out at the ballpark when you would hear that siren call of the beer vendor plying a tray of ice-cold beer up and down the aisles, while the thwack of the ball into the catcher's mitt or the crack of the bat lent a resounding aura of history to the afternoon. Continuing with our summer theme, today I'm writing on a subject that I know almost nothing about - beer.

Don't get me wrong - I don't dislike beer though I admit that I have an extremely short list of beer that I love which for me makes beer shopping extremely fast and simple. It's just that I don't find beer as interesting as wine and while that may seem snooty to some it is more of a matter of preference than anything else.

When it comes to beer my tastes lean toward the cold tem­perature, bottom-fermenting lagers and pilsners because of this refreshing nature and their surprising flexibility when it comes to working with food. Yes - I admit it - beer sometimes pairs better with complex, spicy and herb-laden dishes than many wines. And it's not just the lagers and pilsners that work well with food - ales, with their deeper complexity of flavors and bodies pair magically with many classic dishes (try an Anchor Brewing Company Porter the next time you make a traditional Lasagna for an eye-opener) but I'll save that for a different day. To that end let's take a closer look at beer.

All beer starts with the same basic ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast. The primary difference between lagers/pilsners and ales is whether the yeasts (specifically chosen for the type of beer desired) are floating on top or sunk to the bottom dur­ing fermentation. Top floating yeasts make ale - which is an overly-simplified three-letter word for a vast range of beers - from IPA's to porters to stouts and many more - the world of ale is enormous. Top floating yeast fermentations take place at much higher temperatures (between 59f - 68f though some yeasts ferment up to the extremes of 95f) than bottom yeast fer­mentations (which typically go through fermentation between 40f to 50f). The warmer fermentation and type of yeast for ale- style beers lends more body, fruitiness and layered complex­ity to the finished brew. While not as refreshing as the lagers and pilsners, ales exhibit a much wider range of flavors and bodies that rarely are duplicated in cold temperature, bottom- fermented beers.

Cold-temperature, bottom-fermentation beers like lagers are mild in taste but very clean and refreshing whereas their heavier cousins - pilsners - exhibit more spice and hops charac­ter giving them more of an assertive presence. There are other cold-temperature bottom-fermentation beers as well, some which delve into the heavier characteristics of the ales, though they are made in the lager style. Some carry ancient pedigrees going back hundreds of years such as bock, doppelbock and Oktoberfest. Classic American beers like Weinhards, Hamms and Coors are all American lagers - noted for an even lighter style.

When it comes to lagers, my number one choice is Red Stripe. This beer hails from Jamaica (though it is made all over the world these days) that has been brewed since 1938. Red Stripe is a full-bodied, full-flavored lager with the additional benefit of coming in a brown, rather than green bottle. The reason I say this is that brown glass reflects the UV light range which green glass does not. There are some notable flavor dif­ferences between the two and again, it is just a matter of pref­erence but green glass beers tend to display a notable skunky flavor to them because of photoxidation - an interaction with the UV light spectrum and hops, which produces MBT (3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol.) Corona, from Mexico is no­table for MBT flavor, which is why it's served with lime - lime masks the skunk flavors and aromas. This is not sci­ence fiction but fact.

When it comes to pilsners, I prefer old school! Pilsner Urquell from the Czech Re­public - since 1842 - is a remarkably consistent and re­freshing beer that set the stan­dard for bottom-fermenting beers around the world almost immediately upon its creation way back then. Urquell exhib­its more hops characteristics that I generally prefer but Pilsner Urquell has crafted their beer with a softness to it, attributable to the water source, yeast selection and slower fermentation time that they have used since day one, to mellow the bite of the hops. Strangely, Urquell comes in a green bottle though rarely exhibits the skunky attributes I was talking about earlier.

I hope you enjoy my rec­ommendations above - they are both delicious and refresh­ing and while not the easiest to find they are well worth the hunt. Cheers.