Friday, April 01, 2005
Nice WSJ Article on Aged Beer
The author quotes several prices that are much higher than you should expect to see, except in a bar.
This is where I think the author goes astray. While it is true that ales generally have more flavors than lagers, lagers can be quite complex. The lagers we associate with Bud/Miller/Coors are purposely dumbed-down taste-wise. "Lager" does not mean "tasteless."
The concept of "aged" beer itself flies in the face of conventional wisdom that beer is meant to be drunk within a few weeks of its production (and almost all beer is). But aged beers -- many of them brewed with lots of hops and high-alcohol levels, both acting as preservatives -- have become a staple of what might be called the high-end beer market.
The author quotes several prices that are much higher than you should expect to see, except in a bar.
To understand how we got to $25 beer in the first place, some background on the '80s microbrew revolution is in order. Back then, a clutch of brewers, weary that virtually all beer made in the U.S. was cold-fermented lager of a style popularized by Budweiser, began bringing back beers fermented at warm temperature -- called ales -- that were like the beers they'd sampled on trips, notably to the ale capitals of England and Belgium. Ale, with its earthy flavors and aromas and sometimes cloudy appearance, was in fact America's founding beer. But by the late 1800s, ale had lost out in the mass-taste test to the clean, crisp flavor of cold lager.
This is where I think the author goes astray. While it is true that ales generally have more flavors than lagers, lagers can be quite complex. The lagers we associate with Bud/Miller/Coors are purposely dumbed-down taste-wise. "Lager" does not mean "tasteless."
