BEERTALES
Does beer that is brewed in Cebu taste different from the one made in Bacolod? How about beer in regular bottles compared to beer in liter size? Does beer make you fat and make your (beer) belly grow big?
Excuse me for bringing up this subject but there are just so many misconceptions about beer that we might as well settle some of these in this Oktobeerfest month.
You'll be surprised at how these myths spread from one beerhouse to another. Was I glad when the company conducted a "Brewing Orientation for Non-Brewers." Bet you didn't know that San Miguel has its own school of brewing, much like MacDonald's has its school of hamburgers. Well, our resource speaker laid to rest many of the misconceptions about beer.
No, the same brand of beer should taste the same wherever it is brewed regardless of the quality of the local water, he said, because the brewing water is conditioned first so that these have the same mineral content. Pilsen water, for example, is a type of brewing water with low traces of mineral content. It is relatively soft ground water with a moderate amount of chloride present. It was used for the beer first brewed in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia.
There should be no difference between beer packaged in regular and liter size bottles. However, our speaker said, since beer in litro may take time to be consumed, the action of oxygen in the atmosphere will cause the beer to go flat. I noticed the same thing with softdrinks after the fizz of the carbon dioxide escapes into the air when left unattended for long.
Beer is different from wine. Fresh beer is the best there is because the younger the better. [At this point there were a lot of snickers around the room that "it's just like women." "Just like men, too," I quipped. "No Tonette," one of our supervisors, begged to differ, "men are like wine, the older the better." I only had one word for him, "Viagra," and everybody shut up.] But I digress, going back to fresh beer check the computer print out in the crown of your favorite brew. Having been spoiled on fresh beer (as in one-week old beer) I don't imbibe beer that is more than a month old. Beer is good for one year though, except that it tastes much better for me when it's only a few days old.
But what exactly is beer? Michael Jackson, no, not him, but the beer expert author of "The World Guide To Beer" defines it as "liquid bread from the alcoholic fermentation by yeast of the extract obtained from barley malt, hops and brewing water." Other experts define beer along the same lines. The key words are "fermentation by yeast," "malted barley," "hops" and "water."
Malt comes from barley grain. It gives beer flavor, aroma, foam, and alcohol. Hops is a climbing perennial plant that is principally cultivated for the flower of the female plant. Its extract is the ingredient that contributes to the bitterness and aroma to beer. It also contributes to beer flavor and foam. The reason why beer bottles are amber-colored is because the hops are sensitive to ultraviolet rays and this affects its stability and flavor. Thus, it is best to store beer under a shade away from the sun. The beer brands that come in clear glass bottles are different because the hops are desensitized.
More beer trivia: beer is referred to as "liquid bread" because it has the same ingredients and properties as bread. In ancient times, monks who fasted and abstained on solid food subsisted on beer.
Moderate consumption of beer has many health benefits. Professor Anton Piendl wrote in Brauwelt International, that beer can round off diets because beer is "strictly low in sodium, low in proteins, free from fat and cholesterol." The professor from the Institute of Brewery Technology and Microbiology at the Technical University Munich cited several studies conducted in America on the effects of alcohol on health.
"A beer a day keeps the doctor away," our lecturer likes to repeat himself. In Piendl's article, the beneficial effects of moderate consumption revealed a lower risk of coronary heart diseases. Studies noted a U-shaped or J-shaped relationship between no alcohol, moderate consumption, and excessive alcohol consumption. This means that where a U-shaped or J-shaped relationship exists, consumption of two to three glasses of beer daily is even better than abstention. This relationship applies to heart diseases, inflammation of the gastro-intestinal tract, cancer, and blood pressure profile.
The article concludes, "moderate beer consumption reduces hyperexcitability and tension, stimulates release of gastrin and secretion of hydrochloric acid." More than that, beer is a diuretic and is "a valuable beverage for healthy elderly people."
So, does beer really make you fat and make your belly grow big? "Of course not, our speaker laughed, "that's the pulutan (bar chow)."
October 2, 1998