Weekend Cooking...A Nice [Not Too] Cold Beer

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article related to a subject near and dear to my heart...beer. Specifically, the article explores the idea that women, while not the largest consumers of beer, may have a distinct advantage as beer testers.

"...the British company SABMiller PLC decided several years ago to reach deeper into its employee pool to find adept tasters, inviting marketers, secretaries and others to try their hand. The company concluded that women were drinking men under the table.

"We have found that females often are more sensitive about the levels of flavor in beer," says Barry Axcell, SABMiller's chief brewer. Women trained as tasters outshine their male counterparts, he says...

Today, 30% of SABMiller's 1,000 advanced-level tasters are female, Mr. Axcell says. The number of women tasters has roughly quadrupled in 10 years."

One point that I did notice in this article is that it appears many of these companies employing women tasters are brewing what I might call American style beers..and I afraid I do not mean that as a compliment. Of course, most of the major sellers in the US market of these sort of beers and you usually have to go the micro-brewery route to find something more interesting. Miller, Coors, Bud  are light lagers, to my taste, rather watery and flavorless. I totally refuse to even taste Budweiser after I toured one of their breweries and found out, as they proudly tell you, that they use rice in making their beer. Don't get me wrong. I love rice, but not in my beer! A sin...These sorts of beer tend to be light on the hops, which if you watch the video, the one woman claims is the flavor women typically dislike in beer.

Well, speak for yourself dear.

While I actually do not drink much beer {or anything for that matter} when I do, I want a good beer. My history with beer goes way back, or so I was told. When I was just a wee Caite, maybe 3 or 4, my father came home from work on day, poured himself a beer and sat down to read the newspaper. He reached for his full glass, only to find it almost empty. And wee Caite sitting on the floor, next to the empty glass. What can I say. Some kids like peanut butter, some kids like beer.
I like my beer dark and hoppy and full flavored. Maybe a fuller bodied ale, or even a stout or porter, made with roasted malt or barley. Tap or draft beer is almost always to be preferred over bottle or {{shutter}} cans, the exception being a place that just does not sell enough for the beer to be fresh. Beer is alive and it doesn't live forever once tapped.

And then there is the whole issue of temperature. In the US, it is usually the colder the better for most beer drinkers. Might I suggest that the typical, best selling beers in the US are made for people that do not really like the taste of beer. They want something that they can drink very cold..which kills any remaining flavor..and which is 'lite' enough that they can drink a great deal of it. Beer become, as I read somewhere, simply an alcohol delivery system. Quantity over quality. The fast food of beer.
For a more full flavored, aroma filled beer, you really want to go a bit warmer to really appreciate it. That would be above 50 degrees, all the way up to 60 for really dark, strong beers. No storing on ice, no chilled, icy glasses. You want icy cold, may I suggest a nice glass of water. Very refreshing. :-)

I am rather curious exactly where one goes to apply for these beer tasting jobs. Maybe I need a career change!

This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

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