Hoppy Christmas!

Christmas is a time for taking it easy, eating large amounts of food, and drinking more than your daily limit of alcohol.

Lots of people are realising that it's just as acceptable to bring beer to the table, as well as wine. But what beer goes best with Christmas food?

Christmas food, especially in Estonia, is particularly heavy. It's more often than not a little fatty too - think goose, pork, turkey and roast potatoes. There are some spices involved, such as black pepper, cloves, caraway and nutmeg. Sauces play a big part, with meat gravy, cherry, apple and orange all served as accompaniments.


That's a lot of flavours. But fortunately, there are plenty of beers to match.

Traditional Christmas beers are dark, and more often than not, contain a combination of spices similar to the ones I've already mentioned. These are great to go with smoked hams, pork and traditional Estonian food. Blood sausages and dark beer are a match made in heaven. You can even cook with dark beer. Sauerkraut slowly simmered in a dark Christmas beer stock, is a real crowd pleaser.

Here's a recipe taken from the excellent Estonian Nami Nami blogspot. www.nami-nami.blogspot.com

BEER BRAISED SAUERKRAUT

Serves 12

1KG Fresh Sauerkraut
100 grams soft brown sugar or honey
1 tsp salt
500ml strong dark Christmas beer
Pinch of caraway seeds
50g butter

Mix all ingredients in a large saucepan and heat on a medium setting. Stir every now and again until the cabbage is golden, soft and caramelised. Should be about an hour.

I'd then pair this with a dark Christmas beer when eating. The caramel, burnt sugar flavours in the cabbage, go absolutely hand in hand with the roasted, caramel malts and spices.

What if you're having duck or goose? I'd go for a fruit beer. Especially a cherry one. The acidity of the beer cuts through the fat of the bird, while the subtle fruit flavours provide a beautiful counterpoint.

Here's a selection of my recommended dark traditional Christmas beers, which will go nicely with a dish of Pork, Saurkraut, blood sausages and all the trimmings

A Le Coq Jouluporter.
A nice traditional Baltic Porter, with some spices, and nice dry bitterness from the roasted malts.
Puls Joulu Legend.
Not as bitter as it's other Estonian counterparts, but a bit more spiced. Some nice juniper taste.
Brewdog Christmas Porter.
Lots of roast malts, chili and chocolate in this one. I think it'd go great with blood sausage.
Mikkeller Fra Til Via.
Super roasty, bitter, dry porter. It's got cloves, cumin and coriander in it. Christmas in a bottle!
Santa's Little Helper 2011 Speyside whisky edition.
Serve this after the meal in a 4cl glass. Super peaty, super whisky, super woody. Super!

Of course, there has to always be an alternative Christmas. Just as we've seen that the trend in beers is moving towards hop forward, refreshing beers, the same has happened with Christmas beers. Danish Brewer To Øl states on it's beer "Snowball":

"Enough heavy dark obnoxious sweet super malty x-mas and winter beers. When you eat heavy duck with fat gravy, the last thing you want is another heavy sweet malt liquor!
NO! you want something that can help you sink the dinner, ease you stomach and cleanse your throat"

I've got to admit I agree with them. Quite often my plate is so crammed with food at Christmas time, that I'm struggling to fit any liquid down my gullet. As I've mentioned before, temperature plays a big part in "drinkability", and for me, I prefer a nice cold beer sliding down my throat as I'm eating my third helping of turkey, than a heavy porter. If we take turkey as an example, it's often served with lemon, or has been basted or stuffed with lemon. Think of some of the modern beers packed with fresh new world hops - citrus, grapefruit and pine. These flavours will absolutely sing with a lemon basted turkey.

Here are some of the beers which should be served chilled at the table, and will provide a nice refreshing zing with your turkey:

To Øl Snowball.
A hopped Saison style beer. Nicely carbonated, it's almost like a sparkling wine. Refreshingly hoppy.
Mikkeller Hoppy Lovin Christmas.
An IPA made with ginger and pine needles. Really refreshing, with a great ginger bite towards the end.
Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale.
Not a Christmas beer as such, but contains cloves, cardomon, cinnamon and other "Xmas" spices.
Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted. 
Again, not a Christmas beer, but it's got so much lemon zest, that it just works so well with white meat and fish.

And now we come to fruit. As I mentioned, a good cherry lambic will provide a little acidity to cut through the fat of a goose, turkey or piece of pork, as well as giving a bit of sweetness which goes nice with the meat. If you are going to serve some sort of sauce - like a cherry compote, or some cowberry jam, why not stir a little fruit beer into it just before serving? A glass of cherry beer with goose, chicken, turkey, duck and even pork is a real treat. You'll find that even those who say they don't like beer, will be totally amazed at what they are drinking. I'm willing to bet money that even Granny will love a Belgian fruit beer!

Ok, here's my recommendations:

Kasteel Rouge. 
The old favourite. I have yet to find someone who doesn't like it.  Hate beer? It's my trump card. Loves duck.
Lindemans kriek. 
Takes the cherry up a notch. Expensive, but worth it. Expensive because it contains so much fruit.
Baltic Frontier. 
Made with sea buckthorn. Super bitter, but this and some fatty meat are a match in heaven. Great paired with lamb.

So there you have it. And as I always say - if it doesn't work, sit back and decide why it didn't and try something else. That's the great thing about beer - there is ALWAYS a beer out there that will go with your food. Christmas time is an occasion to relax and let things come to you - maybe you'll just happen to stumble across a beer which you find a total favourite, and you'll make some food that goes with the beer, not the other way around :)

A big Happy hoppy Christmas from me, and a big thank you for all that read this blog!

Have a good one!
James

Beer and food - not as good as wine surely?

Wining for dining, beering for cheering. That's what we're led to believe, and of course in some cases it's correct. It all depends what type of beer you are drinking.

Craft beer (that's the stuff that is brewed with real ingredients, has a specific style and bags of taste. Can be called real ale in the UK, or traditional ale in the States) is the new star with the international cuisines that we are all eating today. Craft beer can do amazing things with food, and it goes places where wine cannot go. Don't get me wrong - I love wine. I've spent some very pleasurable days of my life in France, sipping Burgundy over four hour lunches. I've even got a minor diploma in wine tasting. I'm not just a beer geek. Wine is wonderful, but lets be honest - it can't do everything.

Craft beer can do everything. Mexican, Thai, Japanese, Indian, Cajun and Middle Eastern food, and barbecue, are far better with real beer than with wine. Even with traditionally wine friendly foods, beer often shows superior versatility and flavour compatibility. The range of flavours and aromas in beer is vast - it's deep and wide and tall, and it easily surpasses that of wine. Beer has bitterness to slice through the fat, carbonation to refresh the palate, caramelised flavours to match those in your food, and sweetness to quench the fire of chilies.

If you've tasted only mass-market beer, I'm afraid that you haven't actually tasted beer at all. Craft beer can be imperial stout, matching your dessert with flavours as bold, chocolatey, and roasty as espresso, or it can be a Belgian wit, matching your fish dish with flavours as light and citrusy as fresh lemons. It can be American pale ale, full of bright grapefruit and smelling of pine needles, or a Belgian Framboise, as fruity and as sharp as a raspberry sorbet. It can be a ten year old British barley wine, as warming and complex as a vintage port, or an Indian pale ale, spritzy and full of the aromas of a tropical fruit orchard.

When paired with food, these flavourful beers can really make the meal sing. No matter how complex or refined the dish, whether it's foie gras or a simple smoked sausage, there is a beer out there that will provide the perfect accompaniment. If you love food, but only know wine, then you are trying to write a song using only half the notes and half the band.

Beer by itself can be wonderful. Food however, is where it all comes together. Most of us, myself included, can clearly remember some of the best meals we've ever had. Those meals stand out as peak moments in our lives. Mine was the De Karmeliet in Brugge about twenty five years ago. It was the first real six course meal in a posh restaurant I'd ever had - I couldn't believe you got free sorbet between each course!

Unfortunately,  not all meals can be Michelin standard. There are times when meals seem rushed and food is little more than fuel. Even when you've had a good meal, there's often something missing. This is where beer can help you.

As I mentioned, if, to you, "beer" means the yellow fizzy stuff sitting in cans on supermarket shelves, I want you to empty your mind of the fact that these beers actually exist.  We're not including them in this little project. We're talking about the real thing here. And this is what real beer can do: it can make every single meal you have an interesting and flavourful experience. It's something that can actually make you pay attention to what's happening on your palate. Paying a little attention to both your food and your beer, is the difference to having an "ok" cooking and eating experience, and having one filled with flavour and lots of it. You'll have to cook or buy nice meals though, beer won't turn a Big Mac into a feast, but it can turn a good chilli into a firework display, or a simple roast chicken into a spectacular meal.

Can't wine do the same thing? Yes and no. I like wine, and frequently enjoy it with my meals. But I don't enjoy wine with all meals. A rack of lamb or some roast beef? Sure, I'd probably crack open a bottle of red. But how about Mexican, Thai, Indian, Chinese? I love this type of food, and I don't want wine with it. I've had the wine that is supposed to match these foods, but in my opinion, they are a poor substitute for beer. The spices in these dishes distorts the delicate wine flavours, turning white wines sickly and red wines bitter. Wine doesn't refresh the palate like beer does. Nor does wine have caramelised flavours to match my Chinese sticky ribs.

Even wine experts admit that there are many foods that are simply no good with wine. They call these "tricky ingredients". Here's a list: Eggs, chili, smoked meat, smoked fish, tomato, ginger, curry, chocolate, avocado, garlic, spinach, artichokes, asparagus, cumin.

You guessed it, beer has no problem with these ingredients. Wheat beers are great with eggs, spicy Saison or Double IPA's are great with chili, cumin, curry and ginger. Imperial stouts are perfectly suited for chocolate desserts. Each beer really has it's own match for all the types of food and flavours we enjoy.

Another food product that people always associate with wine is cheese. I bet you can't believe I'm about to say that cheese doesn't go with wine. The much hidden secret in the world of wine, is that most wine, especially red, is a very poor match for cheese. Ask any honest sommelier. One well respected wine writer says in this book, that he's had to conclude that the idea of matching red wine with cheese "basically doesn't really work most of the time". He goes onto say that the relationship between cheese and wine is more like a "wary relationship than a real marriage". Another writer says that matching cheese and wine is "fraught with confrontations", and yet another goes onto say that even mild cheeses like Brie, can "clash horribly, especially if you let them get too ripe and runny".

Someone once told me an interesting observation. He said that the places you are normally offered wine and cheese together, are weddings, parties and functions opening a new art gallery or something. He went onto say that the reason why many people end up serving wine with cheese, is that the cheese coats the palate, blunting the flavour of the wine. This makes cheap wine taste pretty much ok. It's why quite a lot of wine shops try and push the cheese and wine combination.

Traditional beer and cheese on the other hand, are absolutely perfect together. And it's not very suprising when you think about it. Beer and cheese are both traditionally farmhouse products, and back in the old days, they were made by the same person. They both derive, to some extent from grasses, they are both fermented and aged, and they both have bacteria (although not the same type) doing the fermenting. And they both have similar flavour attributes - sweetness and acidity, fruitiness and yeasty. Many cheese makers have gone on to become brewers and vice versa. As I said, beer was traditionally made on a farm.

Have you ever seen a cow in a vineyard?

Of course we're talking about cheese with serious, complex and for want of a better word, funky flavours. So just as I said disregard the fizzy yellow beer on the supermarket shelves, do the same with those packets of hiirte juust (mouse cheese in English) on the shelves in the next aisle. The key thing to matching beer with cheese is that you can find harmony as well as contrast. If you take one of my favourite cheeses, Cheddar, you'll find nutty, fruit flavours, and a sharp acidity in the cheese. This means you'll look for a beer that has some nice bitterness to work with the cheeses sharpness, and some nice fruit character and maltiness to match the fruit and nuts in the cheese. An India Pale Ale fits the bill perfectly. Think of one of the very first pub meals - the ploughmans lunch (again, the farm connection), and you now start to understand why cheese, cold meat and fresh bread were paired with a traditional ale.

Want some Gruyere? It's easy to match a beer to the cheeses nutty, acidic, milky flavours. Think of a wine that tastes milky with hints of nuts? Neither can I.

I once was part of a dinner event that not only matched cheese and wine, but also beer and wine. There were seven different cheeses, and each had a wine and beer paired with them. Many of the people thought it was crazy that a beer could even sit on the same table as cheese and wine, but as each course finished, more and more of them were siding with the beer. There is just no way a wine can pair better with a strong cheese like Stilton or even Stinking Bishop, like a Barley wine, French Saison, or Belgian   Tripel. The people begrudgingly admitted that the beer had won the battle, and they were all suprised to hear the wine sommelier admit that he knew he would lose the competition. For the record, not one of the wines that were paired with the cheese was red - they were all dry whites.

If you're at a dinner party, the host traditionally wheels out the dessert wine to go with the sweet stuff. Most decline. It's sweetness vs sweetness. Traditional fruit beers open up a whole different set of possibilities, especially with sweet cheeses like mascarpone and goats cheese. Here the sweetness, compared with the tart flavours of fruits such as cherry, raspberry or blackcurrants, work very well.

And as for coffee - why not try an imperial stout or coffee porter instead? Believe me, once you've tried beer with not just cheese, but dessert, roasts, Chinese, Indian, whatever - you just won't go back.

I think the market has advanced so much now, that it's socially acceptable to bring (good) beer to a dinner party. In years gone by, when the only beer available was the aforementioned yellow fizzy stuff in cans, it would have been pretty embarrassing if you turned up and put your four pack down next to all the bottles of wine that the others had brought. Wine was the sophisticated drink, beer was looked down upon.  I think there as now been a bit of a role reversal. When I turn up to a dinner party (it rarely happens to be honest!), I always make sure I choose and interesting beer - most likely in a 75cl bottle. So many people assume it's a wine, and when it's poured into their glass and they taste it, you can see them struggling, trying to work out what sort of wine it is. A bottle of Deus is mistaken for champagne, a bottle of Kasteel Rouge is mistaken for some sort of Italian strawberry sparkling wine, and a merlot barrel aged Mikkeller stout, is mistaken for a good, vintage red.

Think about it next time you are offered wine at that next function you attend, you might want to embarrass them and bring some decent beer with you next time.

Cheers!
James

Ps....for those who don't know (is there really anyone I haven't told yet?!), I like beer and food so much, I've written a book about it. Specifically British pub food and what beer to drink with it. Let me know if you're interested in the book if you're not in Estonia.....

The perfect pint.

I did a blog a couple of months ago about how to spot a dirty glass from a clean one when in a pub. Lots of people thought it was useful, and it occurred to me, that there isn't really a manual you can refer to when you are in a bar to see if everything is being done in the correct way.  One indication of course are the amount of people in the place. An empty pub, with bored staff is usually a good guideline that something is wrong. A closed pub, or one with "remont" in the window is another.

                                                   Remont.


When I was living in the UK, I used to work for a large brewery. This brewery invested in a training programme for all the pubs which served it's beer, making sure that it's beer was perfect from "grain to glass". Because after all, it's normally the beer that gets the bad reputation if you have had a bad one in a bar. I used to teach the people who served the beer what beer is, how it's made, what it tastes of, and most importantly - how to present it correctly.

The worse people to train were those who had been working in a bar for years. They think that they know it all and that the stupid customer would be happy with any beer that made them drunk. It was these people that I used to pick on, and ask them to pour the "perfect pint" in front of the group. Nine times out of ten they'd do it completely wrong. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. The best people to teach are actually those who haven't worked in a bar before, or are just learning the art. They haven't had the chance to pick up any bad habits yet.

                                           Not a classic English pint.


Maybe it's best not to know any habits at all. When I'm on the other side of the bar in a pub and waiting for my pint, it's sometimes a very painful experience. Estonia has the dubious honour, of being the first country I visited where I saw a teaspoon being used to help serve me my beer. I guess we've all seen it:

Walk up to the bar, and Svetlana (and they're all called Svetlana) is perched on a chair reading a magazine or trying to work out how to play Sudoku. "Hello" I beam in my best Hugh Grant accent, "I'd like a Krusovice please". "Ei Ole", she replies in her best pissed off accent. Umm ok. "How about a Budvar then thanks?" Shake of head by Svetlana with one eye on the Sudoku.  (It's worth pointing out that I wasn't just choosing random beers - these beers were all on the beer taps in front of me). "So what have you got then?" Saku she replied while starting to pour it. I guess I'll be having Saku then.  She then went through an incredible exercise of holding the glass upright and pouring the beer into it very fast. What happened then, was as the glass half filled with foam, she crossed over to the sink, got a teaspoon from it, and started to scoop all the foam out into the sink. She then returned to the pump, shot another load of foam and beer into the glass and repeated the trip to the sink and spoon again. This happened about five times, before she was finally happy (or bored - I don't think Svetlana's are ever happy) that there was enough beer in the glass for her to be able to charge me 40 kroon. Her only smile came when I gave her a 50 kroon note and she told me that she didn't have any change.

Svetlana doesn't even need to speak to customers anymore

This may have been seven years ago, but I bet if I walk into that bar today, the very same teaspoon will be sitting by the edge of the sink. The really sad thing is, that it's not just this bar. There's a Svetlana working in pubs all over town.

So how should the bartender pour the perfect pint? It's easy isn't it - pick up the glass, pull back the tap, fill it with beer and hand it to the customer. Job done. Where's my tip?  Not so fast Tom Cruise....

Here's a 10 step guide of what should happen when you ask for a beer:

1) You should get a smile and a hello. There should be a short amount of time for you to choose your beer, and then if you still haven't, the person behind the bar should ask if you need a help in deciding what you want. Please try and be a helpful customer and don't just say "a beer". You wouldn't walk into a bar/restaurant and order "a wine" would you? If you know what you want, proceed to Step 3.

2) Once you've specified what type of beer you'd like (light, dark, strong, sweet, local, import etc), then hopefully the bar tender should be able to help you out and offer you some suggestions. A great idea from the bartender would be to allow you some samples from their draught selection to help you make the right choice.

3) Once you've decided, then the bartender should select the correct, clean, dry, glass (see the previous blog about glassware) and begin the pour.

4) Holding the bottom half of the glass (Mantra: Top half customer, bottom half bartender. You don't want fingers that have been handling money, beer kegs and bar flies all over the part that you put your lips on do you?), at an angle of 45 degrees, the glass is placed UNDER the spout but not touching it. The reason for this is that beer dries quite quickly and can form a crust on the outside of the spout when it's not being used. If the spout is put into the beer, then this crust can end up in your pint. And what about the story of the man who liked to drink out of the same glass for each beer without changing it? This man had nice cold sores on his lips. The bar tender liked to put the spout into the beer when pouring. The next day - everyone in the bar also had cold sores.

5) Treating the tap gently, the bar tender pulls back in one motion. It's not a slot machine and you don't get any more beer out for pulling it back quickly. Pulling it back slowly is just as bad too. Think about when you have a hosepipe and you put your thumb over it when there is water coming out. This is exactly what happens when the tap is opened too slowly. So in a fluid motion, the tap is opened and the beer comes out. The best method is to have the glass in the right hand facing towards the body. The beer should be hitting the top half of the glass and building up a small amount of head by the time the liquid reaches the top edge. This is when it should be straight up and almost full. Leaving a couple of cm short of the rim is the trick here.

6) The bartender should then "cream" the beer. This is a process of pushing back on the tap, which lets the beer come through a very narrow space in the spout. The effect is that there is more foam than liquid coming through the hole, leaving a nice head of a centimetre on top of the beer. Of course, if the beer is a Guinness, then there will be the mandatory 119.5 seconds settling time (inside knowledge - any good bar tender should be able to pour a Guinness in one go. It's all marketing).

7) If any beer has dripped down the sides, the bar tender should use some clean kitchen paper and wipe the sides of the glass. A teaspoon or dirty towel are not recommended!

8) Once again, holding the bottom half of the glass with the right hand, the bar tender should place a drip mat on the counter with the left hand, and put the glass down on top of it. If the glass is branded or has a handle, a nice touch is to rotate the glass around so that handle/logo are facing the customer.

9) The bartender should then ask if there is anything else, and if not, work out how much you owe them and tell the customer the amount in a pleasant undemanding (but authoritative) manner.

10) When all money transactions are done, then the bartender will say thank you and will tell you to enjoy your beer.

               The perfect pint. Saves the pub money too. Win Win.

Easy isn't it?  Unfortunately, I know that nearly everyone who reads this will be thinking that this is a "perfect world" scenario, and will be thinking back to the last pint of beer they were served. The only way that beer service can be improved is by the customer knowing what should be done, and acting on it if it isn't. I find that if the bar tender or owner isn't interested, then a good way is to write a quick email to whichever local brewers beer they are selling. A Le Coq give out "beer stars" to places with good service, but they are equally quick to take it away (along with any discounts) if they aren't happy with the condition of the beer or service.

So next time you walk into a bar, and interrupt Svetlana from her Sudoku, explain to her that you'd like your beer poured in a single number of attempts without the use of a teaspoon, or she might be puzzling why she's lost her job.

Opening a new can of worms.

Today I got a new delivery of beers which I'm pretty excited about. They have come all the way from Maui, Hawaii. I've got an American IPA called "Big Swell" and a porter with toasted coconut called "CoConut Porter" (the weather is probably too hot to be creative). I got them via Mikkeller in Denmark, and felt I had to bring them to Estonia - 1) because they are pretty great beers, and 2) because there really couldn't be two opposing climates to drink beer in. It's currently raining in Tallinn, but lets hope these tropical beers let a bit of sunshine into our Baltic summer.

I almost didn't order them. In truth, I'm still a bit nervous that I did. Ok, I've only got 15 cases of each, but what makes me nervous is that I might not even be able to sell this small amount. "Why?" I hear you ask. "But you said they were great beers?" I hear you cry.  "Because they are in cans" I mutter in a casual back handed, slightly sheepish sort of way.

Beer in cans - that's cheap beer to you and me isn't it? We've all been conditioned into thinking that cans are commodity and glass is premium. I mean - you don't look as cool drinking a Corona out of the can at the local "venue" bar do you? And I've got to admit, when I saw that the Maui beers were available, and then looked at the packaging column on the excel spreadsheet and saw "355ml Can", my heart sank. I really wanted this beer. Estonia really wanted this beer. But does Estonia know anything about quality beers in cans? I thought back to the last beers I had in cans, and fortunately, they were from the Oliver Twist bar in Stockholm - the leading supplier/stockist of craft American beer. Dales Pale ale, Ska Brewing Modus Hoperandi, New Belgium to name but a few. When I was in the UK, I was very partial to Bass pale ale in cans - which was specially brewed with more hops for the canned version.  So I took the plunge and ordered some. After all, I had the same feelings when I placed my first order for Brewdog....


Revolution is a word Brewdog are fond of. They are revolutionising the beer market as we know it with "out there" beers, and styles that differ from the norm. On the cans by Maui Brewing, they use the word revolution too. Here's what's written for you to read.....


WHY CANS? WELCOME TO THE MICROCANNING REVOLUTION...
Cans eliminate light damage and help reduce the risk of oxidation, keeping this craft brew fresher than in bottles!
Cans are lighter, chill quicker, and can be enjoyed on beaches and in sensitive environments. Aluminium is the most re-cycled and eco-friendly material.


The "Metallic" Myth.

Bottles are fine, I guess, if only because so many beers I love come only in bottles. But the thing that matters most—taste—doesn't change a bit in a can.

The next time someone says canned beer tastes "metallic", cut a can in half and ask him to show you where the metal ever actually touches the beer. Then he'll point at the inside of the gleaming can and say, "Right there geek. I'm guessing all the metal."

What your friend is missing is the epoxy lining that is sprayed on the inside of every can, the same stuff that has been used for about 40 years.

Keg beer.

Think about the new wave of craft draught beer. That comes in a keg, right? A big, metal keg that is lined with the same type of coating as your humble little can. In fact, back in the '30s American brewers started selling beers in cans they advertised it as "keg-lined."  It took a little longer in the UK, as the market was still dominated by cask, but in the late 70's early80's, Watneys brought out a 7 pint keg, and it was swiftly followed by a glut of canned beer.

Is it possible that canned beer tastes better than bottled beer? Well, sure, depending on circumstances.  But that's often because of the way beer is transported from the brewery to the store. Light will accelerate the oxidation of beer—that's why most brewers use brown bottles, not green—but it's not the only way a beer develops off flavors like that of the aldehyde trans-2-nonenal, which can make light-colored beers off - a little skunky, and in some cases a bit like lipstick (don't tell your wife/girlfriend/partner that she tastes like stale beer next time you are in the throws of passion. I don't think she'll see the geeky side).

Heat's actually just as big a factor. If your beer stays refrigerated from the brewery to the bar or shop, without sitting on a shelf somewhere at room temperature, everything should be great. But of course that is in the make believe world. It rarely happens in real life. This is all worth bearing in mind that a canned beer won't be subject to light oxidation like a bottle beer would.

Of course it doesn't really matter if it's a generic lager, or lesser hopped ale. But those who have read my previous blogs, know that hops don't like sunlight once they are in the beer. This is why IPA's - especially heavily dry hopped beers, are in dark bottles. The sun makes the essential oils in the hops break up and give off bad aromas. Fine for a beer like Corona or Sol with very little hops (think about the colour of these bottles), but very bad for an IPA, especially an American IPA which is packed full of the plant.

Green - but not green glass.

Canned beer's benefits don't stop at freshness. Cans are easier on the environment. They are nearly 50 percent lighter to ship than bottles, which greatly reduces their carbon footprint.  Aluminum is infinitely recyclable, and recycled cans can be back on the shelf with new product within eight weeks. 

It's easier to store and transport.

Got some friends coming over for a bbq? They'll be drinking beer of course. Lots of it. Better stock the fridge to the max. How many times have you played Jenga with your beer bottles? Trying to stack them in the fridge without them rolling around, is a skill in itself. With cans, you don't have that problem. 6 pack or 4 pack, you just slide them in. Being in aluminium chills them down faster than glass too. And although I don't advocate ice cold beer, the quicker it is to cool an IPA down to 12 degrees the better.

Going into the forest with some mates? Don't fancy glass rolling around the boot of your car or backpack? Cans are safer. Going down the beach with the guys and girls - don't want to run the risk of dropping some glass bottles on the rocks? Take some cans. At least, if you drop them - you can probably salvage a few drops, or at the very lowest, enjoy spraying beer over everyone.

So I've got to admit, I have a changed viewpoint. As I said right at the beginning, I thought of the great beers I tried in can, and used these to sway my decision to bring them to Estonia. But up until then - those beers have always been "novelty beers". Beers that are "great beers but in a can".  I spoke to one of the guys at Oliver Twist and they told me that they tried New Belgium Fat Tire amber, side by side in both bottle and can. The can won hands down. It tasted fresher, more creamier and had a much more roasted pallet than it's bottle counterpart. Punk IPA is available in cans. Who knows - if I get good feedback about these beers, then I can really join the "microcanning" revolution and bring Brewdog in metal over to Estonia.

So put the thought about canned craft beer being blasphemous to one side and try these two new beers that are available to you. You'll also have to leave the "canned beer is cheaper" mindset behind too, as these beers are the same price as craft beer in bottles. Buy them with an open mind - thinking about how much fresher they may be. How quicker you'll be able to drink them at the right temperature, and how they won't smash into a million pieces when you drop the bag onto the road on the way home. Maybe even find the geek in you, and serve them to someone in a glass without telling them that the beer came from a can. (Important note - just because these beers are in a can, doesn't mean that you can drink it from the can. These beers are full of wonderful aromas and freshness - you absolutely must pour them into a glass).

Whatever you do, this is about breaking new ground in beer drinking, and it's nice to be a part of it isn't it? Now that's something I CAN relate to. (I'll get my coat. And my backpack complete with 6 pack).

The glass is always cleaner on the other side...

I went to a pub the other day, ordered a draught beer and it was served to me in a Weston's cider glass.  Now, there's two things wrong with this. The cider glass has something called an "activator" on the bottom of it which enhances the gas in the liquid (more on this later). Basically, it makes it more fizzy. Unfortunately, I'd ordered a pint of Abbot ale - which isn't meant to be fizzy. The second thing wrong, is that it just didn't look right. I like my beer to be served in it's own branded glass.

Its a bit like sticking a Citroen badge on VW. You know it's a VW, but it doesn't look right, and the car would perform so much better with its correct badge on the bonnet.

Glasses are designed to increase or enhance the performance of your drink. Take a wheat beer glass for example. Tall, 50cl, narrow at the bottom widening at the top. It looks nice, but this design has a purpose. The width allows for the aroma to be channelled towards the drinkers nose, and also accommodates the thick fluffy head that wheat beers have.

In the UK, until the end of the Victorian era, pub-goers mostly drank out of pewter tankards, which hid the bits of sediment that used to float around in their beer. Then two things happened: dark pubs began to be better lit, and modern filtration methods started to produce a clearer drink. As newly enlightened drinkers took more notice of the clarity of their pint, the modern beer glass was born.

The first mass-produced beer glass – the 10-sided, handled pint mug – arrived in the 1920s.

                         An advert showing a typical 10 sided handled glass
                                 

After the war, it was replaced by the dimpled beer mug which was cheaper to make, made of thick glass patterned with indentations, oddly resembling a hand grenade. This design change fitted in with changing drinking habits: dark beer had acquired an unfashionable image as an old working-class man's drink, and its substitute, amber bitter, looked lovely in the refracted light of a dimpled glass.


Then, in the 1960s, the dimpled mug went into a long, terminal decline because (or so the brewers told us) drinkers preferred a lighter, straighter glass. The invention of a new type of glass, with a bulge about an inch from the top, also solved the perennial problem of straight glasses – their tendency to chip near the rim when being washed together. The bulge prevented this from happening, and the glass was called a "Nonik" (no nick) glass.

The UK only really produces two types of beer: Lager and ale. These can be served in the same type of glass. It's when you go to continental Europe, that you'll see the different types of glasses really coming into play. Belgium is a great example.

I was in Bruges a couple of years ago and walked into a tiny little bar. This bar boasted over 200 different beers - I've no idea where they put them all. I ordered a beer, and is customary in Belgium, it arrived in it's correct branded glass. That got me thinking about their storage problem. Not only do they need space to store the beer, but also (if they have glasses for each beer) all the glassware too. So I did a test. The first beer I ordered was pretty mainstream - big brewers have money to spend on glasses. The second beer I ordered, I chose a much smaller brewery from the list, and sat back to see what glass it arrived in. Lo and behold, the glass matched the beer (it was a "De Graal Tripel in case you are wondering). The next beer I had, was a "Satan Red", which also arrived in it's own glass. I was suprised about this, not because I didn't think that the glass would be available, but suprised because THEY had any available. The problem with interesting glasses, is that they get stolen.

The iconic glass from Kwak is the worlds most stolen beer glass. The glass is distinctive because it stands upright in its own wooden holder. Legend has it, that this glass was used by a 19th century coach house, and that the wooden holder was designed to fit into the stirrups of the drinkers horse so that he could drink on the move. No such thing as drink driving laws back then.

The second most stolen glass in the world is also produced by the same brewery - the Tripel Karmeliet glass is a wonderful looking item, but once again it's designed with practical intentions. It's tapered at the top to allow a big creamy head. The only thing unpractical about it, is trying to sneek it into your wife's handbag when no one is looking (although seeing as it's a very popular glass to steal - it can't be that difficult).

I actually don't serve either of these beers at Drink Bar. While they are very good beers, whoever drinks them always wants the correct glass. As I've said, these are the two most stolen glasses in the world, so I think that if I did start stocking both the beer, and the glasses, in a short space of time I'd only have the beer. And there's nothing more disappointing than if you ordered a Kwak and it came in just a regular glass. The glasses are pretty hard to come by, and although I'd get some for free on my first order, after that I'd have to start paying for them. In Belgium, is a tradition that if you want a Kwak in a Kwak glass, you hand over your shoe as a deposit. I don't want to do that either - we're a small bar and the smell of ripe feet might put people off their drink!

Beer glasses aren't always beautiful. In many traditional pubs in the UK, you'll find an unusual item hanging up behind the bar - the "Yard of Ale". A yard of ale or yard glass is a very tall glass used for drinking around 2.5 imperial pints (1.4 l) of beer, depending upon the diameter. The glass is approximately 1 yard long, shaped with a bulb at the bottom, and a widening shaft which constitutes most of the height.^[The glass most likely originated in 17th-century England where the glass was known also as a "Long Glass". It is associated by legend with stagecoach drivers, though was mainly used for drinking feats and special toasts.Drinking a yard glass full of beer is a traditional pub game. The fastest drinking of a yard of ale in the Guinness Book of Records is 5 seconds. You wouldn't want to be in a round with him.

There's also a boot you can drink out of.  Beer boots, or Bierstiefel, have over a century of history and culture behind them. It is commonly believed that a general promised his troops to drink beer from his boot if they were successful in battle. When the troops prevailed, the general had a glass maker fashion a boot from glass to fulfill his promise without tasting his own feet and to avoid spoiling the beer in his leather boot. Since then, soldiers have enjoyed toasting to their victories with a beer boot. At gatherings in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, beer boots are often passed among the guests for a festive drinking challenge. 

.
It is an old joke to hand the boot to a young novice drinker with the tip pointing away from his person, which will result in beer pouring over the drinker's face uncontrollably when air enters the tip Experienced drinkers always point the tip towards their body until the glass is sufficiently drained. It's the same with a yard - an experienced drinker will rotate the glass, to prevent the beer coming up from the bottom of the bubble and drenching them.

The general rule is that if it's a lager, then a regular nonic glass can be used. If it's a Pilsner, then it's best to use a Pilsner style glass which gradually taper outwards to let all those aromas out. Weiss beer is the same. If you're going to be drinking an ale, again a nonic or straight sided tulip glass can be used. No need for a stemmed glass - because the ale isn't going to be cold. The darker the beer, the more aroma you want to get from it. You might want to think about using a glass similar to what Chimay use. This allows for maximum air to get into the glass, and maximum aroma to come out. And if it's a very strong beer, you might want to think about using a smaller glass. Quite often, the stronger beers come in 33cl or even 25cl bottles. Something to sip and not gulp down is the order of the day here.

While lots of glassware dates back to tradition, there has been lots of new modern technology to help enhance your drinking experience. It is increasingly common to find pint glasses which contain markings on the base; very often these glasses are branded to one particular beer. The markings themselves are formed from small etchings which aid in allowing the gas within it to more readily release and thus preserve the head. Without the aid of these pits a regular pint glass will keep a head for only 3 or 4 minutes before appearing 'flat'.The markings come in a variety of styles ranging from a simple circular or square hatched pattern to more complicated branding messages.

                                                  An activated glass for Harp Lager.

I'm actually carrying out a consumer survey with Saku on this topic. The glass etching technology was new to them, and even though nearly every lager glass in the UK uses this system, Saku were still unsure of it's benefits.  I got some of their glasses mocked up with the Saku logo, and we're currently testing how drinkers think of the glasses compared to normal ones (go into Dubliner or Karja Kelder in Tallinn's old town and ask to take part - you'll get a free pint!). If the results are positive, then Saku will look to use activated glasses across their range. I must point out, that it's only for lager. There's no need for bubbles in ale. Here's a short video I made in my shed, proving how geeky you can get about glasses.

And keeping on the geeky theme - do you know how to spot a dirty glass in the bar? There's the obvious glass handed to you with lipstick smudges on it, but the less obvious can still mean the glass is dirty. In the video I explained about rising bubbles from the bottom of the glass showing the sign of a quality beer, but if you see bubbles on the side of the glass - then you should really hand that beer back and ask for a fresh one. The bubbles clinging to the inside of the glass, are actually trapped on particles of dirt. Yuk. You might sometimes see it on your glasses at home, because home dishwashers aren't as good as industrial glass cleaners. 

                                                 DISCLAIMER: That is not me.

Something else that ruins your beer inside the glass is milk. You should never wash a beer glass and a coffee cup in the same machine. The lactose in the milk makes the glass oily, and will kill head retention.  Same with fabric conditioner - let your glasses air dry, don't towel dry them if you want to keep the foam on your beer

A good way to identify a clean glass, is by "lacing". Lacing is the definition of the latticework of foam left on the glass after a drink has been taken. This is normally found when drinking ale, as ale is much more creamy and less carbonated than lager.  It's said you can tell how good the beer is , by counting the amount of sips (or gulps) to finish the beer.

                                    I finished this pint in 9 sips. I must have been tired.

So armed with this information - you're now going to send back any dirty glass you get served with aren't you? No, I didn't think so. Unfortunately, it's still a problem area in most bars. Many bar staff don't know the signs of a dirty glass, so will just shrug their shoulders and say that it's not their problem. Just as bar staff should be educated on which beer goes into which type of glass, they should also be taught how to correctly clean, dry and store glasses.  The main problem is, that many people still consider beer to be a cheap drink that gets you drunk. A dirty glass isn't going to prevent this from happening, so what does it matter if the glass is dirty, chipped or the wrong size? Quite a lot to my overall beer experience thank you very much. Cheers for the beer, but I won't be coming back to your bar again. 

Beer is a food. To serve it, you need a food licence and a health and safety certificate. I don't think many (although I am sure some do) serve food on dirty plates.

As Stella Artois say in their adverts "You wouldn't serve champagne in a teacup", and the more people who start to understand what they mean by this, the better. Demand more from your beer and it's glass!

I'll raise my glass to whoever starts the glass fightback!

Gourmet beer comes (back) to Estonia.

Right, after much complaining to Viru that they are ignoring their home market, they have done a u-turn and decided to make the beers available in Estonia. I got some samples last week from the sales rep. As far as  I am aware, they will be on general release from May. The price he quoted me was under a Euro a bottle. Alarm bells.

For those who don't know, Viru Olu recently revealed that they are brewing "gourmet beer" for the Danish market, and the Danish market only. They said that Estonians don't like ale and aren't ready for gourmet beers. I chuckled at this quote, because at that time of writing, I had just struck a deal with Mikkeller of Denmark, to bring their "gourmet" beers to Estonia for ale thirsty Estonians.

Doing a bit of research shows that the brewery where this is made is the Gourmetbryggeriet in Roskilde, some 60 or so km West of Copenhagen. This brewery produces quite a few beers, and has even been used by Mikkeller to brew their Christmas beer "Santa's little helper" in 2006.

I have to admit, I am still a bit confused where Viru come in. Do GB brew it under licence for them?

They are planning to release 4 different beers. 3 under the GB name, and 1 other under the Puls brand.

Here they are:



Puls "ale" (and in very small print "pale ale"). 5.2% abv

It's the same packaging as the other Puls beers - which I kind of like in an Art Deco way. I have to admit that my concerns were immediately alerted when I read that the word ale, was in inverted commas. On the back, (in Estonian) while saying that it is top fermented, it goes on to say that it's an ale style beer. The fact that it's top fermented means that it uses ale yeast, so that means that it's an ale. Ale is not a style, pale ale is a style, brown ale is a style, lambic, stout, scotch and Burton are all styles.

And a pale ale it is not. It's actually quite a deep, caramel red. A reasonable sized head, sits proudly on the liquid. And this caramel carries onto the nose. There is no smell of hops, but quite a nice sweet, toffee aroma. Not the sort of smells you'd associate with a pale ale - modern or traditional. It's almost like smelling the beer from Sillamae "Munchen". Which incidentally, is a lager. I find that this sweetness soon becomes quite irritating. If I am smelling a pale ale, I want to smell fresh hops - spicy one if its a classic pale ale, or more floral tropical fruit ones if it's a more modern style.

By the time I am ready to taste it, the head has rapidly disappeared. Another sign that there is little hops used. The taste is similar to the smell - pretty sweet, with lots of caramel flavours. Perhaps this is where the colour is from - caramel or candy sugar? Very little bitterness, and overall pretty one dimensional because of the sweetness. It's very very similar to Saku Manchester.  Mouth feel is slightly cloying and chewy. I served this at about 12c. I don't think serving it any warmer or colder would have any difference on the taste.

I'd just taken a second sip, when the wife called me from upstairs to tell me it was time to put the kids to bed, starting with changing the littlest ones nappy. I went upstairs without a second thought.  Came back downstairs half an hour later, saw the beer and poured it away.  Kind of sums it up.

Verdict: Drainpour.



Next up is "Piney".5.2% abv.

This is part of their "GB" range. Someone said that it sounds like a toilet cleaner brand. On the label it explains that Cascade and Amarillo hops are used. Brilliant! The same hops that are used in Brewdogs 5AM Saint. So it was with some excitement that I opened the bottle.

Not much aroma comes from the bottle, but it does pour a decent straw golden colour with a pretty strong head. A big sniff into the glass to get all those lovely American hops aromas (some of which should be pine - hence the name of the beer I guess), leaves you disappointed. Its that same sweet caramel aroma again. The beer is the same abv, and a pretty similar colour - is it the same as the Puls beer?

Once again the head has gone. The taste does have a little fragrance, but is lost amongst the caramel which dominates the beer. There is a suggestion of a finish, but that, like the head on the beer quickly disappears.

If you are going to do an American style beer, you have to be able to a) smell the hops and b) taste the hops. Two things that are missing in this beer. They also recommend to serve it at 6c. Odd.

Verdict: It's not bad, but those who know what Amarillo and Cascade taste and smell like will immediately disregard this beer as being not true to the style. Those who don't, will wonder what the difference between this and the Puls beer is, and also might think that American hops used in this beer are probably used in Bud too.

It's a lager next. "Bock" . 7% abv.

Gourmet strong beer on the label. Pours very thin (even in my specialist bock glass). Struggled to keep a head even for the picture. A nice amber colour. (uh oh - please, not more caramel).

Aroma is almost non existent. The taste is ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME as the previous two! The only difference is that there is more fizz on the tongue. I'm getting bored of saying it now: caramel sweetness, toffee and very little hops.  Here's the weird thing. Recommended serving temperature 7c. Higher than the ale?

Here's a picture, 4 minutes after I poured it.

Bock beer is traditionally served on special occasions. I suggest that April fools might be a good time to drink this. Or my funeral wake.

Verdict: You think I was going to continue drinking it when it looked like that after 4 mins? Woudn't raise an eyebrow if someone told me that this came from a 2L plastic bottle.  Drainpour.

And last, and hopefully not least is FinAle. Is that a play on words. Finale, meaning last? Or is this an ale for Fins? Lets find out. 6.5%

Pours a deep burnt orange, amber colour. Decent size head. Looks pretty nice in the glass.

Serve at 7c it says on the label, so I did. The result is no aroma at all. Despite being promised as described on the label, as having West Coast flavours from the Cascade hops.

I don't even need to say what it tastes like. Except this is the worst of the lot. Apart from the sickly sweet caramel flavours, there is a metallic finish. It's actually diffiicult to drink because it's so heavy and chewy. It's a sort of beer where you struggle to finish the whole glass. Again, as you can see below, intital good looks quickly disapear. GB should supply free beer goggles for all of these beers.

Verdict: What's the difference between this and the others? The name. Which actually is quite apt. It's the FinAle nail in the coffin for this particular group of beers. Felt guilty about pouring YET ANOTHER beer down the sink. So I left it on the worktop unfinished, for the Mrs to pour it down the sink in the morning. Wife drainpour.


As much as I totally commend what they are doing, I just wished that they had done their research a bit more fuller. I completely buy in to the fact that 99% of Estonia is a lager market, and that means that many of  the people drinking this beer will be trying ale for the first time. I am sure most will enjoy it - because this type of ale is more amber lager, than pale ale. Saku Tume and Sillamae Munchen drinkers will probably like this. Ale geeks like me won't like it. My main fear are those people who have seen these funny named brands on the shelf "Punk IPA, Trashy Blonde, Bishops Finger etc etc" and have wanted to try them, but have been put off by the price, name of style, so decide to try a GB beer instead. After drinking one of them, they are bound to wonder what the fuss is all about over Brewdog and Mikkeller, and go back to drinking lager instead.

If you are only aiming at a small segment of the market who like quality ales - then make one for them. Spend a bit of  money. We don't mind if the beer is more than 4€ a bottle if it's worth it. If that means using hops by the bagful instead of sprinkling them on like saffron, then so be it. If it means adding some aromatic American hops towards the end of the boil, or dry hopping for aroma - then do it. It's only going to be 1% of Estonians who don't like it, but if done properly - you never know how many new craft beer converts you might get.

But of course for every craft beer drinker who dislikes this, there is a lager drinker who will like it. And this in turn will hopefully make them feel more confident about ale, and will give them the courage to try some of the more "out there" beers currently available in Estonia. We all have to start somewhere I guess.

Still, it's early days and things can only improve. Lets hope they forgot to add the hops or something. Or that the head brewer decides to leave.

Ah well, lets all sit back and wait for A Le Coq and Saku to release their version of "ales". At least it makes the beers in Drink Bar and Shop taste even better.

EDIT: After sleeping on it (and I think I've found the cure for a hangover - drink bad beer! The more you pour down the sink, the less chance of a headache in the morning), I decided that I'd been a little harsh and possibly cruel. I don't want to be seen as the Englishman living in Estonia who shoots down Estonian beer because its....Estonian. Maybe Estonian ale is different from British ale and this is how it's meant to taste. Not everyone enjoys the uber hoppy beers such as Punk IPA, Hardcore IPA or the new style American/NZ hops which are currently en vogue. But then I thought, they've got "West Coast" and lists of American hops used in the brew in their marketing on the bottles. So I'm not being harsh. These beers are not a true reflection of the style that they are supposed to represent.  


So I'm still sticking to my original reviews. I will however look out for further reviews with an open mind. As I mentioned in a previous tweet, You are bound to think Ferrari's are great cars if you've only ever driven Fords before. I suspect that these beers will receive much acclaim from the local press, simply because they will be comparing it to the generic lagers and "ale types" that are currently on their radar. In this case, they probably think Fords are Ferraris too.