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THE LAGER AND THE STOUT OF IT – A CRASH COURSE IN ...

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Special BEERWords and pics Andrew HarrisThe lager and the stout of it – acrash course in beer so you sounda bit smarter about your stubbie.114 CAMPERTRAILER AUSTRALIA


question, thegreatest invention inthe history of mankind“Withoutis beer. Oh, I grant youthat the wheel was also a fine invention,but the wheel does not go nearly as wellwith pizza.”– Dave Barry, US humour columnistEver since Captain Cook brought beeracross the high seas on the Endeavourinstead of easily spoiled drinking water,Australia has had a taste for the stuff.Generations of innovative brewers havetaken traditional European recipes andmade them their own.Beer is so important to us that it splits usalong state lines, from Swan to Coopers,VB to Boags and Cascade, from Toohey’sto XXXX. A Victorian can get a rude shockordering a pot in an SA pub. “Mate,”the barman might smirk, “is that aschooner you’re after?” On the other hand,Croweaters might be pleasantly surprisedto find their schooner upsized from the285mL they’re used to, to the 425mLthey’re handed in NSW. (For more aboutdifferent glass sizes, seewww.liquormerchants.org.au/Q&A.htm)But how well do you really know beer?Learn how the magic happens, and howto separate your lagers from your ales andyour stouts from your pilsners, with CTA’scrash course in beer education.<strong>THE</strong> BREW<strong>IN</strong>G PROCESSThe fundamental ingredients of beer, asthey have been for thousands of years,are water, a source of starch, some sortof flavouring and a fermenting agent.In many beers, the source of starch is apartially germinated and then dried (andsometimes roasted) grain known as malt.The flavouring agent is most commonlythe crushed and dried flower of the hopplant, which also helps preserve the brew.Australia’s largest hop fields are in Tas butsome microbreweries grow and harvesttheir own, such as Red Hill Brewery onVic’s Mornington Peninsula, and theCowaramup Brewing Company in theMargaret River region of WA.The fermenting agent is yeast, usuallya lager variety or an ale variety, orLeft to right: Head brewer Dean McLeodat the Colonial Brewing Co; wanderingbeneath the hops at Red Hill Brewery;bottled and ready to go at Red HillBrewery.sometimes a combination of both.For many beer enthusiasts, water is ascrucial an ingredient as any other, becausemalt, yeast and hops can be sourced fromall over the world but the water is generallyfrom the local supply. Tas beers benefitfrom an exceptionally clean, unpollutedsupply that may manifest in a clean lagertaste, just as the hard water in Dublinhelps Guinness brew a fine stout.Brewing begins with “mashing”.Water and the starch source are heatedto a certain temperature and left for atime before cooling down. This activatesenzymes in the mash that break downlong sugar chains into sugars that can befermented by the yeast, which is addedlater.After mashing, the sugary liquid isseparated from the solid component ofthe mash through a filtering processCAMPERTRAILER AUSTRALIA 115


Special BEERBeer, like wine and cheese, can beapproached with the refined sensitivities ofa gourmet. There’s no need to take thingsto extremes, but being able to identify thecharacter of a beer will greatly enhance yourdrinking experience.The main criteria for judging a beer arehow it looks, how it smells and how it tastes.Beyond that, you can think about how muchyou enjoy it and how much you’d like to crackopen another.First, observe the “head retention”, orhow long the foam remains at the top of thebeer. A decent brew shouldn’t decapitatetoo quickly, and should leave a patternedresidue, or “lace”, on the inside of the glassas it runs down. Then look at the colour andclarity of the beer and decide whether it fitsthe style. Is the stout (an ale) somewhat darkand opaque, as it should be? Is the wheatbeer (a lager) relatively transparent andbright?Second, take a whiff of the scent of thebeer after it’s been poured. Many beerdrinkers will notice at this point whetherthe beer is ‘malty’ or ‘hoppy’. Then, oncethe beer’s a bit more relaxed, it will giveoff a secondary scent which is aided by awine-style swirl of the glass. Its propertiesare similar to that of a wine, and could bedescribed, for example, as floral or spicy.Following the secondary scent, a third, evenmore subtle odour is released, which can beslightly unusual, like earthiness in a red wine.Finally, raise the glass and let the beerflow all the way down your tongue, keep itin your mouth for a moment while drawingin air through your nose, and then swallow it– bitterness is tasted at the back of the tongue.Think about the carbonation, whether the beerfeels creamy or not, what its texture is like. Anyaftertaste is also a significant factor.And if all that seems too complicated, justslug it down and enjoy!called “sparging” or “lautering”, with anapparatus called a “lauter tun”. This is abasic filter that collects the grain and allowsthe liquid, called “wort”, to pass through.Water can be used to rinse any wort thatremains in the grain. Sometimes this grainis mashed again, which results in a weakerbeer.The collected wort is then sterilised byboiling, which also increases its sugarconcentration by removing some water,while simultaneously destroying anyleftover enzymes from the mashing stage.It is during boiling that a flavouring agent,such as hops, is added. A beer’s bitterness isdetermined by the length of time the hopsare boiled.With the addition of yeast, the sterilised,sugar-rich wort turns into beer by theprocess of fermentation. The yeast convertsthe sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide,and imparts a flavour determined by howcompletely it consumes the sugar.DEF<strong>IN</strong><strong>IT</strong>IONSIt’s alcoholic, it’s bubbly and it containsmalt, barley and frequently hops. Beyondthat, though, one beer may bear littleresemblance to the next. The thing is, nooneagrees entirely on what to call eachvariety, and there’s no universal way to boxoff every fruit of every brewer’s labour into aneat little category.Below, left to right: Hops buds; malted(i.e., partially germinated and quickly dried)barley; shades of malt from Joe WhiteMaltings at Cowaramup Brewing Company.116 CAMPERTRAILER AUSTRALIA


Brewing is a regionally specific practice,and so each type could be classified by itsnationality, like Czech beer, Finnish beerand Belgian beer. In Australia, that meansales and lagers.Apart from the differing characters ofthe end product, beers differ by the yeastand flavouring used. A yeast that rapidlyferments wort and leaves behind some sugarproduces an ale; a yeast that acts slowly andconsumes almost all the sugar produces alager.In practice, a combination of both yeastscan be used. The lack of sugar in a lagerlends it a dry, clean taste. Ales retain moresugar, and will have a more complex, fruitytaste.ALES“For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.”– William Shakespeare, A Winter’s TaleAles are undeservedly lagging in popularityin Australia. Since they’re fermented at ahigher temperature than lagers (around15°C to 24°C), which encourages theyeast to work quicker and leave moreby-products, ales contain a number ofchemicals that contribute aroma andflavour and combine to make a fullerbodiedbeer. For some beer connoisseurs,picking apart the many facets of such acomplex brew is entirely the point.Pale ales, such as Coopers Pale Ale, arebrewed with a pale malt that lends a lightcolour to the finished product, which ismade bitter with hops. India pale ale, suchas Mountain Goat India Pale Ale, wasoriginally designed to weather sea voyagesfrom Britain to her Asian colonies, andcontains more hops than other pale ales.Red ales, such as Snowy MountainsRazorback Red Ale, are produced withroasted barley as well as malt, can display acitrus sweetness or even a caramel taste, andare mildly hopped.Brown ales, like O’Brien Brown Ale, aremade with a darker malt, with less emphasison hops and a sweet, sometimes nuttyflavour and a deep-brown colour.Dark ales, like Beechworth Dark Ale, areintensely flavoured and are brewed with aheavily roasted barley malt, and can have achocolatey taste.<strong>LAGER</strong>S“Oh, lager beer! It makes good cheer, andproves the poor man’s worth; it cools theAbove: Scotch ale at Red Hill Brewery,a malt-driven beer with a caramelsweetness. Note the “head retention”.body through and through, and regulatesthe health.”– AnonymousIn Australia, the majority of what wedrink is lager beer. The thirst-quenchingproperties are a result of the slow, almostcomplete consumption of sugars bythe fermenting yeast, sometimes attemperatures as low as 0°C to 5°C.High-end, premium lagers can be ascomplex as decent ales, albeit with an entirelydifferent character. Pilsners (or pilseners), suchas James Squire Pilsner and Little CreaturesPilsner, are brewed using the same techniquesfirst developed in the Czech town of Plzen(Pilsen in German). They can be wellbalanced,lightly hopped and spicy beers.Another beer worth mentioning is BeezNeez honey wheat beer, brewed by MatildaBay in Fremantle. It has honey added at theend of the boiling process, which presents anintriguing, smooth sweetness.A popular lager is wheat beer, known inGermany as Weissbier (“white beer” because ofits pale colour) or in Belgium as witbier (samemeaning), of which Matilda Bay’s Redback isa fine, crisp and creamy example. ■The following list is by no meansexhaustive but it’s a starting point forin-depth research…ALES• Red Hill Brewery, 88 Shoreham Road,Red Hill South, Vic 3937, (03) 59892959, www.redhillbrewery.com.au• Coopers, 461 South Road, RegencyPark, SA 5010, (08) 8440 1800,www.coopers.com.au• Mountain Goat Beer, corner North andClark Streets, Richmond, Vic 3121, (03)9428 1180, www.goatbeer.com.au• Snowy Mountains Brewery, PO Box 666,Jindabyne, NSW 2627, 0418 226 027,www.snowymountainsbrewery.com.au• O’Brien Brewery, PO Box 191, AscotVale, Vic 3032, 1300 432 337,www.gfbeer.com.au• Bridge Road Brewers, Tanswells OldCoach House, Ford Street, Beechworth,Vic 3747, (03) 5728 2703,www.bridgeroadbrewers.com.au<strong>LAGER</strong>S• James Squire (Malt ShovelBrewery), 99 Pyrmont Bridge Road,Camperdown, NSW 2050, (02) 85940200, www.maltshovel.com.au• Fosters Group Limited,77 Southbank Boulevard, Southbank,Vic 3006, (03) 9633 2000,www.fosters.com.au• Matilda Bay Brewing Company,130 Stirling Highway, North Fremantle,WA 6159, (08) 9430 0777,www.matildabay.com.au• Little Creatures, 40 Mews Road,Fremantle, WA 6160, (08) 9430 5155,www.littlecreatures.com.auO<strong>THE</strong>RS• Cowaramup Brewing Company,North Treeton Road, Cowaramup,WA 6284, (08) 9755 5822,www.cowaramupbrewing.com.au• Colonial Brewing Company,Osmington Road, Margaret River,WA 6285, (08) 9758 8177,www.colonialbrewingco.com.auCAMPERTRAILER AUSTRALIA 117

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