Lessons Learned From Beer, or Get To Know Your Blog Author

Just as you would never trust a bald barber, you should never trust a beer columnist who doesn’t understand and appreciate beer. Therefore, I feel you should know a bit about me as a beer lover and about how I learned to love beer as much as I do. Hopefully, my passion and love for beer will affect you, and you’ll find a little bit of that passion and love for beer, too.

First, of course, I should say that I have been drinking beer for ten years legally, and a handful more before that illegally. I bought my first home brewing equipment when in 2000, and brewed a couple of batches of not-so-good pale ale before becoming disheartened and giving it up for a few years. In 2006, I took up brewing again, this time for real. I brew, on average, 2-3 batches of ale per month, and read and study brewing whenever I can. I study beer the way priests study the bible. They are never done learning, and neither am I. It is not uncommon for me to be seen spending my weekends and evenings reading brewing textbooks, and I even have a few stored in my iPhone so I can read them whenever I have a few minutes in a waiting room or while working out. I also listen to brewing podcasts on my iPhone or in my car when I can’t read.

According to my friends, I know way too much about beer for my own good. Fortunately, I like it that way. I like to think they like it about me, too.

Of course, this obsession with beer had to start somewhere. For me, it started when I was 18. I had a roommate in college who, with a six-pack of Blackened Voodoo, taught me that there was more to beer than light American lagers, and I never looked back.

This week’s list is a list of five lessons I have learned about beer, from that first blackened voodoo on up to more recent history. I have omitted Spaten Optimator from this list to make room, as I have already written about that beer in my last post, but this is a list of the five other most important lessons I have learned about beer, and the beers that taught them to me. Note: these beers are included for the lessons they taught me. These are by no means the best examples of these lessons or of the styles these beers represent.

“There is more to beer than light American lagers”

Dixie Blackened Voodoo – Munich Dunkel Lager – 5% ABV
Rating: 3 out of 5 pints
My roommate at Mizzou introduced me to this beer when I was “beered out” one weekend. What has followed since is a long education on the width and depth of the flavors which can be created in beer.

Blackened Voodoo pours dark brown with a slightly reddish hue. The head starts strong, but dissipates quickly after it is poured. The aroma is malty with caramel tones, and just a little bit of coffee. The flavor is very clean and crisp with a malty sweetness balanced with a very little bit of hop bitterness. The carbonation is very mild, but the mouthfeel is smooth and refreshing.

“Don’t fruit the beer”

Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat – Wheat Ale – 4.4% ABV
Rating: 3 out of 5 pints

Yeah, I know, you already know this beer, but many bartenders automatically serve it with fruit. The truth of this beer is that it doesn’t need it. Even without the added lemon, this beer has the citrus notes. Plus, the oils from the peel will cause the head to dissipate faster. Some even believe the fruit steals the beer’s body, too.

Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat pours a hazy golden color with a beautiful white head which lasts a long time. The aroma is of cereal and citrus, with just a little bready yeast in there. This beer is very easy to drink, but unless you have scurvy, don’t add the fruit. As a matter of fact, leave it out even if you do have scurvy. You can always eat the fruit and then drink the beer.

“It’s all about the balance”

Chimay Bleu (Blue) – Belgian Strong Ale – 9% ABV
Rating: 5 out of 5 pints

I include this beer because it is readily available here in Springfield, but I really learned this lesson while traveling through Belgium and Germany. One of the major reasons why Belgians make such amazing beer is because they are always looking to balance the flavors in the beer just right. They strive to balance the hop bitterness with the malt’s sweetness, and not to overpower the complexities of their yeast with any other flavors. It’s hard to make a beer that is both extremely complex and easy to drink at the same time, but many Belgian brewers are masters of the craft. This beer is a great example of that balance.

Chimay Blue pours a dark amber color with a thick, creamy head. When the head dissipates, there will be some lacing left on the glass, which is good. The nose has some dark fruit, including raisins, and also has a bold spiciness. The flavor is complex, but includes dark fruit (from the malt), a lot of spiciness (from the yeast), and a bit of bitterness (from the hops). The finish is the yeast’s spiciness with a lingering sweetness, and a little warmth from the alcohol (it does weigh in at 9% ABV). If it’s served cold, drink it slow. This beer improves as it approaches room temperature.

“Sometimes fruit the beer” or “It’s all about the balance, except when it’s not”

Lindemans Framboise – Lambic with fruit – 2.5% ABV
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 pints

Watch out. This one’s a tart one. My brother brought this beer to Thanksgiving one year and introduced my family to what would become a tradition for several years. This beer, which is extremely tart and fruity, is amazingly off-balance because of the punch-in-the-face that the raspberry delivers. For me, this brought with it a new level of appreciation for what brewers can do with fruit. A far cry from most of the “beers with fruit” out there, this beer’s tartness and fruit flavor will make you question what makes a beer a beer.

Lindemens Framboise pours a deep red raspberry color with a light pink head. The flavor is all raspberry with none of the sweetness. It’s very tart and a little syrupy, but finishes very clean. While technically a lambic, or sour ale, this beer does not have any of the unusual flavors exhibited by those beers. Instead, the raspberry dominates everything, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it makes this beer a good introduction to sour ales. If you try this and the flavor is too overwhelming, try mixing it half and half with Boulevard Wheat or another light wheat ale. I promise not to tell anyone. It’ll cut out a lot of the tartness and make it more palatable.

“It’s cool to try new things, but drink what you like, too.”

Boulevard Pale Ale – Pale Ale – 5.1% ABV
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 pints

I bring this lesson up, because I forget it often. I spend a lot of time brewing beer, trying my own beers, and trying out new beers. Sometimes, though, I just have to go back to what I know and love. This was never more evident than when I was with a friend the other day and we were talking about a new beer we tried. I mentioned that I wished that the bar we were at had Boulevard Pale Ale on tap. When he asked me why, I described the beer to him. He said, “Man, you love that beer. Your face just lit up when you were talking about it.” It reminded me that I hadn’t had one in a long time. I had a few this week. He was right. I love this beer.

Boulevard Pale Ale pours a slightly haze orange-copper color. It has a white head and a nice hop aroma. To me, the aroma is kind of grassy, but with some citrus, too. There’s just a little bit of caramel in there, too. It has a nice, malty flavor that is balanced very well with the natural grassy and citrus hop flavors. It’s light, though, so they don’t linger too long and finish cleanly. It’s pretty carbonated, but has a light feel to it, and it’s easy-to drink and balanced, so you can drink a few of them without being overpowered by hops.