How to pour beer, beer calories, beer history and more
5. How to pour beer
You know that foamy top that forms on beer when you've poured it into a glass? It's called a head and you should allow at least an inch of head to form. Along with visual appeal, the head helps release the drink's aroma.
Tilt the glass and pour slowly until it's about 2/3 full. Then bring the glass to an upright position and pour straight down the middle. Didn't get it quite right the first time? You'll just have to practise.
6. Beer can be low in calories
There are some good-tasting ales -- like Guinness -- that have as few as eight calories per ounce. A regular cola drink has about 13 calories per ounce. Almost all of the world's best beers have fewer than 100 calories for a 6-ounce serving.
You know that foamy top that forms on beer when you've poured it into a glass? It's called a head and you should allow at least an inch of head to form. Along with visual appeal, the head helps release the drink's aroma.
Tilt the glass and pour slowly until it's about 2/3 full. Then bring the glass to an upright position and pour straight down the middle. Didn't get it quite right the first time? You'll just have to practise.
6. Beer can be low in calories
There are some good-tasting ales -- like Guinness -- that have as few as eight calories per ounce. A regular cola drink has about 13 calories per ounce. Almost all of the world's best beers have fewer than 100 calories for a 6-ounce serving.
7. Fresh beer is best (usually)
A few beers -- usually high-alcohol ones -- get better with age, but freshness is key to enjoying most beer. Want to ensure fresh beer? Drink local beers and patronize a brewpub where they make beer on premises.
8. Beer is great with food
Try an IPA (India Pale Ale) with pizza, an abbey ale with steak, and a crispy wheat beer with a summer salad. The possibilities are endless and great beer costs a lot less than great wine.
9. Beer is history
Beer is the drink of ancient civilizations. Before Greece and Rome, Babylon, Assyria, Sumeria and Egypt were built on beer. Its grains made up the earliest agriculture for those empires and mankind's earliest recipes are for beer. In places that didn't have wine, beer -- which is sanitized as it's made -- represented the only safe drink.
These days, historic craft-beer traditions are being revived, and brewers are creating new ones. Because the recipes still exist, you can taste the beer that Thomas Jefferson drank or the beers that the first immigrants brought with them to North America.
10. You can make your own
Homebrewing beer is fun and economical. It also allows you to have exactly the flavours you want.
Remember that beer is complex, delightful and an interesting companion to good food. Get in on the fun and read more lessons in my book: The Short Course in Beer. Cheers!
Lynn Hoffman is the author of The Short Course in Beer, the book that turns novice beer-drinkers into experts.
Find tasty recipes that go wonderfully with beer under Food & Nutrition.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
-10 things you need to know about wine
-Confessions of an anti-wine snob
-Make-at-home martinis
Page 2 of 2
A few beers -- usually high-alcohol ones -- get better with age, but freshness is key to enjoying most beer. Want to ensure fresh beer? Drink local beers and patronize a brewpub where they make beer on premises.
8. Beer is great with food
Try an IPA (India Pale Ale) with pizza, an abbey ale with steak, and a crispy wheat beer with a summer salad. The possibilities are endless and great beer costs a lot less than great wine.
9. Beer is history
Beer is the drink of ancient civilizations. Before Greece and Rome, Babylon, Assyria, Sumeria and Egypt were built on beer. Its grains made up the earliest agriculture for those empires and mankind's earliest recipes are for beer. In places that didn't have wine, beer -- which is sanitized as it's made -- represented the only safe drink.
These days, historic craft-beer traditions are being revived, and brewers are creating new ones. Because the recipes still exist, you can taste the beer that Thomas Jefferson drank or the beers that the first immigrants brought with them to North America.
10. You can make your own
Homebrewing beer is fun and economical. It also allows you to have exactly the flavours you want.
Remember that beer is complex, delightful and an interesting companion to good food. Get in on the fun and read more lessons in my book: The Short Course in Beer. Cheers!
Lynn Hoffman is the author of The Short Course in Beer, the book that turns novice beer-drinkers into experts.
Find tasty recipes that go wonderfully with beer under Food & Nutrition.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
-10 things you need to know about wine
-Confessions of an anti-wine snob
-Make-at-home martinis
Page 2 of 2
Advertisement
