BOCK 'N' ALE YA

Reading that will give you a powerful thirst

Randy Mosher's "Tasting Beer" is crisp and refreshing - and maybe the best beer book of the year.

By Patrick Beach
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Usually, books that try to do everything are kind of like hybrid bikes — they're OK but don't truly excel. I am happy to report that is not the case with "Tasting Beer: An Insider's Guide to the World's Greatest Drink" (Storey Publishing, $16.95 paperback, very handsomely illustrated) by Randy Mosher.

Mosher is the author of "Radical Brewing: Recipes, Tales and World-Altering Meditations in a Glass" — a fun treatise on beer history and home brewing — and a formidable all-around beer expert. His latest covers a ton of acreage in fewer than 250 pages: history (we never get tired of the story, right?), styles (including a whole chapter on Belgians, which is as it should be) and what defines them, the joys of cellaring beer and vertical tastings, beer and food, natural versus forced carbonation, how to present beer (temperature, a proper pour and glasses), how to get certified as a beer judge, the state of craft brewing and a whole lot more. Like did you know there are some 900 identified flavors in beer?

Let's talk about the proper pour for just a minute, because I almost never see it done right: Supposed connoisseurs tip the glass at an angle and slowly empty the bottle so that there's precious little foam and less lace, the residual foam that clings to the inside of the glass as the beer is drunk. I admit I'm guilty of this, too, sometimes. The right way is to "pour boldly down the center of the glass," as Mosher puts it, allowing the beer to foam up and then settle, repeating the process until your glass is full. Yes, you'll have to wait a few moments to slake your thirst, but evicting some of the carbonation at the outset gives you a closer approximation of draft beer. Cool, yes? And if you present a properly poured pint to a guest and they complain that it tastes flat, snatch the vessel from their vulgar, offending hand, give them a Budweiser and tell them to stand in the corner.

If I had to guess, I'd say the bulk of my adoring fan base would get the best out of Chapter 5, "Tasting, Judging and Evaluation," where Mosher walks you through what to look for, tasting with your nose, how to sip and the tragic, weep-inducing necessity of dump buckets. If you've ever hosted or attended a beer tasting, he'll point out things that likely never occurred to you — lighting, the limiting of distractions and so on. If you seriously want to geek up, there's even a section on "spiking" beers. That's a way you learn to spot off-flavors or aromas in beer — common chemical culprits include ethyl acetate and diacetyl — by squirting a small amount of the stuff into a perfectly good beer. Education isn't all fun and games, people, even when it involves beer.

Mosher most definitely knows his stuff, but he's also approachable and fesses up when he's mystified. His section on porter begins, "Think you know what a porter is? Me neither."

Ditto that.

The graphics and photos are really helpful, too. I guarantee you'll learn something. "Tasting Beer" is an early frontrunner for best beer book of the year.

For a more academic take, consider the third edition of Charles Bamforth's "Beer: Tap Into the Art and Science of Brewing" (Oxford, $29.95). And don't blame Bamforth for the semi-academic tone, because he is an academic — the very first Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences at the University of California-Davis. Bamforth brings many decades of experience to the bar in discussing malting, water, the mysteries of yeast and fermentation and a whole lot of chemistry. The book is at times dense but never dry; he quotes in the introduction Euripedes: "The man that isn't jolly after drinking/Is just a driveling idiot, to my thinking."

Ditto that, too.

Hey, we're on the Interwebs

You know those "blogs" all the kids are talking about? We have one of those now! Liquid Austin launched at the end of March — I'm sure you recall the parade down Congress Avenue, schools letting out early, aerial ballet and free hot dogs and balloons for the kids. Anyway, the blog covers not just beer but wine and spirits, as well. We're aiming to keep you painfully up-to-date on local events and new offerings, and to that end we're updating it at least daily. (OK, trying to aim to make an effort to update it daily.) That is a godsend, because this column only runs monthly, and sometimes I'm hesitant to report on things in the relatively distant past. Henceforth, this column will be a mix of fresh reporting and the best of the beer-related blog items. So go to austin360.com/blogs, pull down food/drink and check out Liquid Austin. (You can also get to it via statesman.com/blogs.) Then make some unbelievably snarky and nonsensical comment. Everybody else does.

Alamo officially special, bitter

Picking a favorite local brewery is kind of like picking your favorite child, but if I had to choose, Blanco's Real Ale would be right up there — outstanding beers, good people, environmentally responsible, the whole package. And I'm in the habit of writing what amount to serial mash notes about our beloved Alamo Drafthouses, particularly the Lake Creek location because of its outstanding selection and beer-centric programming.

Now Real Ale has brewed Drafthouse ESB for the Alamo Lake Creek. Real owner Brad Farbstein was there last week giving out FREE SAMPLES.

ESB, case you don't know, stands for "extra special bitter" and is of British ancestry. And it's not all that bitter. But hey, as a people, the Brits are easily confused — they drive on the wrong side of the road and call sausages "bangers." Real's version of the style is said to be deep copper in color, medium-bodied with "hints of fruit and spice provided by a special blend of English hops."

Beer and barbecue

The first annual Brew-B-Que begins at 11 a.m. May 9 in Waterloo Park. (Promoter Roadway Productions previously had its eye on the Republic Square area.) Local brewers Independence, Live Oak and (512) are already signed on to provide beer, and Austin Homebrew Supply will have a couple of brewing demonstrations.

Both backyard barbecuers and restaurants will compete, and there will be plenty of food and beer and polka dancing and lumberjacks. This is starting to sound like my birthday last year.

Much more information, including where to buy $10 advance tickets and applications for vendors and such, at www.roadwayevents.com. .

Fear the brewing gods of Delaware

I have to confess, my memory of the early part of this month is a little spotty because the annual Dogfish Head front blew in right on schedule, with founder Sam Calagione and national sales rep and local expat Claus Hagelman running around town doing damage to innocent Austin livers for the better part of a week. The highlight, once again, was the two-night Off-Centered Film Festival at the Alamo Lake Creek. Calagione brought some crazy beers, including Chateau Jiahu, from a 7,000-year-old Chinese recipe that includes honey, grapes, Hawthorne fruit, chrysanthemum flowers and I think old tractor tires (told you about the fuzzy memory). Film-wise, the big news is that a local guy, Christopher Rose, took first prize — and $1,000 cash money — for his film, in which a former child star (played by Rose) triumphs over adversity, in part because of his allegiance to Dogfish Head. Rose said he only heard about the competition a few days before the deadline and wasn't even a huge fan of the brewery, but "I'd say I'm a huge fan now."

And Calagione announced they're brewing a 75 Minute IPA — which some of us claim to have invented at the Ginger Man by ordering a glass of half 60 Minute IPA, half 90 Minute IPA — and the blend might be coming our way next year. Big yea.

pbeach@statesman.com; 445-3603