Whether a beer has more flavor or is less filling is just the start of deliberations as people belly up to the bar.
Beers are being brewed with exotic ingredients such as chili peppers, wasabi and ginger. They’re being aged in used wine barrels. They’re being inoculated with a strain of yeast that gives them a pungent horsy or barnyard character, repulsive to some, savored by others. There are gluten-free beers and smoke-flavored beers.
If the new beers share anything in common, it’s an acquired taste for their extreme characteristics, such as the intense floral bitterness of more hops than usual, the pronounced notes of chocolate from an additional measure of roasted malts, or the fruit, berry, spice, bean or herb with which brews are being made.
“People are being adventuresome,” says Brian Ford, the former longtime brewmaster at California’s Beermann’s Beerwerks Brewery of Lincoln and Roseville and now the owner of the new Auburn Alehouse Brewery and Restaurant in Auburn. “They are looking for a new style.”
A wannabe beer geek’s guide
In beer circles, references to “pilsner,” “lager” and “ale” are sooo yesterday. While such designations still have currency, today’s beer drinker needs to be familiar with several other fashionable terms if he or she hopes to keep up with brewpub chatter.
* Extra-special bitter, or ESB: An ale of British origin with typically medium to strong hop aroma, flavor and bitterness.
* American-style India pale ale, or IPA: An ale of North American origin, these beers tend to have an intense hop bitterness. The American hops customarily used to brew the beer give it fruity, floral and citrus-like characteristics.
* Double India pale ale, also imperial: Deep golden to amber in color, these ales have intense hop bitterness, flavor and aroma. Hop attributes generally are balanced with complex alcohol flavors, moderate fruitiness and medium to high malt character.
* Golden or blond ale: In addition to living up to their golden blond color, these ales are crisp and dry, with a light to medium body, a light malt sweetness and a somewhat hoppy floral aroma.
* Kolsch: A beer of German origin, kolsch-style brews are light to medium-light in body, with a gold or straw color, and a slightly dry to subtly sweet flavor.
* Belgian-style lambic: Dry and light bodied, lambics are naturally and spontaneously fermented beers that tend to taste sour, often with horsy, goaty and leathery undertones. Fruit lambics are characterized by the color of the fruit used in their production, as well as fruit aromas and flavors.
* Wood- and barrel-aged beer: The field is wide open and evolving. Any lager, ale or hybrid beer qualifies as long as it has been aged in a wooden barrel or otherwise exposed to wood; the aging adds complexity and uniqueness.
BY THE NUMBERS
1,370: Specialty breweries in the country, including 958 brewpubs.
17.8%: Increase in sales of handcrafted beers in 2006.
33: Number of brewpubs, microbreweries and regional specialty breweries that have opened so far this year.
