How to Choose a Beer
Beer used to be a simple commodity to order years ago. There were a few brands in bottles and on draft. Then came aluminum cans and a few more names to choose from. Now there are beers from all over the world to choose from, in many kinds of styles and flavors. If you can understand the types of beers, you can learn to choose a beer that you like to fit every mood and occasion. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Know the three categories of beer. There is Lager or Pilsner beer, what most American beer drinkers prefer. Think of Miller, Budweiser, and Coors. These are generally light beers with a yellow gold color with a high degree of carbonation. They have a light and mild flavor and they usually have between 3.4 and 4.2 percent alcohol content.
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Lager beer has many varieties. It can be light (it's less filling and fewer calories) like Miller Lite, or dark like Michelob American Dark Lager, which is much sweeter. This is made when the barley is roasted when it's brewed. It has a sweeter taste and a slightly higher alcohol content. Bock beers like Michelob's Amber Bock is a heavier even darker beer with a strong malt taste. Steam beer, such as Anchor Steam, is made in California and is a full-bodied beer with a strongly sharp taste.
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Ale comes in stock, cream, brown and stout varieties. The Stock ale, also called common ale, (Samuel Adams and Molson's), has a flat taste and a four to five percent alcohol content. Cream ale, such as Genesee's Cream Ale, is very light with a five to six percent alcohol content and a rather bitter taste. It can have a high degree of carbonation. Stout is a bitter dark beer with a five to six percent alcohol content. Not appreciated and thus not generally brewed in the U.S., Storm Castle is a popular Irish stout ale. Brown ale like Heineken's Newcastle is sweeter than the rest with an alcohol content of up to ten percent.
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Know that malt liquor is a light beer and it tastes much like the lager beers. This beer is technically defined as being any beer that has an alcohol content over five percent. Carling Black Label and Lowenbrau Malt Liquors are popular brands. People still tend to think of malt liquor as the lighter lager-type beers.
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Avoid buying beer that has been on the shelf longer than eight weeks. This shouldn't happen unless you buy it somewhere that sells almost no beer. Store it in the refrigerator if you have the beer for a while, as it keeps longer when it's kept cold. Although canned beers are generally easier to take places, most people tend to feel that bottled beer has a better taste.
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Pair your beer with your food. This is a new idea. As the choice and type of beers has increased, so has the interest in putting them with the foods that would be the best match. The general rule of thumb is that heavy beers go with heavy foods and lights go with light foods. A beer should never overpower the food but enhance it just as wine does. For example, Bock beer goes will with German foods that are heavy and pungent. Brown ale is great with beef dishes, as both are heavy and without a strong sweet or pungent taste. Pilsners and lagers go well with a firm white fish or any kind of shellfish because they have a light and clear rather clean taste. Strong sweet ales go well with desserts. Light ales pair well with spicy foods as they don't hide the spiciness or compete with it. Brew Monkey.com has wonderful list of foods and what beers they go well with. See the URL below.
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Tips & Warnings
Learn more about beer at AllAboutBeer.com. The URL is listed below.
