Craft is a relatively young game, so many brewers who have just discovered their magic ability to create delicious brews have more or less gone off the deep end, devoting their practices to only wacky, esoteric, high-alcohol (also, typically high-sugar) types of the good stuff.So what’s good right now, you might ask? Is there anything I could get my hands on that won’t be too jarring, too bitter, or send me to bed after a pint and a half? Well, firstly, craft is a relatively young game, so many brewers who have just discovered their magic ability to create delicious brews have more or less gone off the deep end, devoting their practices to only wacky, esoteric, high-alcohol (also, typically high-sugar) types of the good stuff. Plenty of these beers can be enjoyable (some only once), but it takes some warming up before you get into your bourbon-barrel aged Russian Imperial Stouts and American farmhouse ales brewed with sage and peppercorn.
If those two high-minded examples made you want to shake your head with condescending disdain, fear not, for the world of craft beer is just now starting to trend back toward simpler styles. The session beer is in these days, named after the low-alcohol English brews that go down easy, allowing all-day “sessions” for pub-goers.
Single-hop beers are a terrific way to build your palette for hop varieties (of which there are many), which is similar to understanding the difference between a Cote du Rhone and a nice Bordeaux.The single-hop beer is also coming to the forefront of style. Hops are the central flavoring ingredient in beer; they are flowering buds that release oils during the brewing process. While American adjunct lagers like Coors and Bud Light use only the lightest hopping, American crafts brewers love to stuff tons of hops into their wort (the term for the liquid created from boiling malt grain in water). Adding a reasonable amount of hops will conjure a delicious pale ale in the vein of the Sierra Nevada variety, while an unreasonable amount will produce a batch of India Pale Ale (or IPA). Single-hop beers are a terrific way to build your palette for hop varieties (of which there are many), which is similar to understanding the difference between a Cote du Rhone and a nice Bordeaux. In addition, it’s good to know that a lager is a cold fermented beer, which gives a clean, crisp taste; Budweiser, Coors, and Corona are all examples of this. Ales are fermented warm (but, at least most of the time, not served that way), and this tends to be the craft beer form of choice since it has a greater propensity for flavor and alcohol.
But along with a more complex beer comes a more complex ritual. The terminology and tasting practices of craft beer can be off-putting, but it’s really just a way to quantify the beer that you’ve chosen to drink. You’ll commonly see the acronyms IBU (International Bitterness Unit: scale of 1-100) and ABV (Alcohol by Volume: a percentage) on craft beer labels, which simply exist to give the drinker a picture of the intensity within. A Widmer Hefeweizen (Bavarian wheat beer) with an IBU of 30 and an ABV of 4.9%? Complete softball. Dogfish Head World Wide Stout with an IBU of 70 and an ABV of 18%? Better grab a bar stool.
A quick rule is that IPAs, Pale Ales, and hop-centered beers tend to be tastier and more floral when they flow from the tap, while the sweeter Belgian styles and Stouts are best from the bottle.And while a lot of craft drinkers are particular with their glassware (with good reason, different styles respond better with different curvatures and warmth from touch), it’s more important to understand how to drink that fine Saison that you’ve gotten your hands on. A quick rule is that IPAs, Pale Ales, and hop-centered beers tend to be tastier and more floral when they flow from the tap, while the sweeter Belgian styles and Stouts are best from the bottle (bonus: the ones with higher ABVs tend to cellar particularly well).
And, of course, it’s important to donate just a split-second more to enjoying your beer. Make sure that if you’re drinking it out of the glass you’ve got a bit of a head on it to enjoy the esters (the marvelous chemicals that are released in the fermentation process, especially in ales), which can range from the light breadiness of a Victory Prima Pilsner to the natural banana scent of a wheat beer. Also, make sure to take a huge sniff the way that you would a fine wine before the first few sips (or gulps—there’s a time for both).
