Beer Knowledge

TL took me to her alumni beer tasting event in Pasadena last weekend. We got to taste six different kinds of beer while the “beer guru”, Trey, gave us some interesting beer knowledge as we drank. Some of his knowledge includes:

• Real beer only has four ingredients: water, malt, barley, and hop. Trey says that lime and orange slices do not belong in beer unless it’s to cover up the taste of ass. I disagree with Trey because a Hef just isn’t a Hef if there isn’t an orange slice.
• Beer can be categorized into two categories: ales and lagers. The categories can be further split into sub-categories, but to KISS, ales = Guiness or New Castle and lagers = Hienes or Bud.
• Don’t pour beer down the side, but rather pour it down the middle to let the beer “breath”. Head is good (get your mind out of the gutter!).
• Drink lagers cold (30-40F) and ales warm (40-50F). Beers like Coors, Bud, Corona need to be consumed as cold as possible to hide their stench.

I can’t quite remember all six beers that we tried, but the one hottie that stood out was ESB which stands for Extra Special Bitter. I tried google-ing the beer but there are way too many variations of the ESBs. The odd thing about an ESB is that it’s not bitter @ all, otherwise I wouldn’t have wanted more because I dislike the taste of bitterness.

TL’s favorite beer was the Gulden Draak. It comes in a fancy while bottle, and if you had too much to drink, you might confuse it with a bottle of Malibu Rum. GD has 10.5% alcohol by volume that you can smell once it’s poured. The beer has a really strong, fruity aroma. I didn’t take to the beer and neither did TL, but then the beer warmed up and TL couldn’t put the bottle down.

I’m not yet a beer snob, but the beer tasting class was a good educational experience. We continued our beer adventures @ BJ’s pizza and beer where I had a Hef with half a piece of orange stuffed into the glass. Cheers to you Trey!