A Girls’ Guide to Beer

In honor of Oktoberfest, I recently threw a beer-tasting party for a few friends. I organized the beers into 6 flights of 3 beers each. Much like when you do wine tastings and start off with the lighter whites before the heavy reds, the first flight consisted of Bud Light, Coors Light and Amstel Light. Then came the Vacation beers (a very “technical” beer term, of course): Corona, Sol, Tecate. Another flight contained the Pilsners: Heineken, Stella and Grolsch; the Belgian Whites: Hoegarden, Leffe, Wittekirke; the Pale Ales: Sierra Nevada, Starr Hill, Saranac; and finally, the “darker” beers: Red Stripe, Dos Equis Lager, Negro Modelo. (My friends and I voted to eliminate both the “frat beer” category (Natty Light, Keystone Light & Milwaukee’s Best) as well as the Guinness-type beers.) My goal was two-fold—not only to possibly “show off” one’s beer prowess by blind tasting each beer and trying to guess what it was, but also to figure out which beers we actually like so that we could order the right thing at a bar.

A big thanks to Clinton at the Market Street Wine Shop (go figure, they actually have a lot of great beer) who helped me complete my flights and gave me a five-minute beer lesson that I’ll sum up here:

Beers are broken up into 2 main categories: Lagers and Ales. This is based on the type of yeast used.

German beers are often lagers, and the most common type of lager is a pilsner (think Stella, Heineken, Pilsner Urquell…)

The ales category starts off with Wheat beers (which substitute wheat for barley). It then progresses to Pale Ales, then India Pale Ales, which are “hoppier” (or more bitter) than Pale Ales. When asked how India Pale Ales got its name, I was told, “When the British conquered India, they sent over beer, but it would spoil on the boats. So they added more hops in the hopes that it would last longer; the result was a hoppier beer that became known as the India Pale Ale.” Not bad for a little Beer 101!

Next come Ambers (Dox Equis) and Reds (Red stripe). Lastly are Porters and Stouts (Guinness). In general, beer tastes can range from light bodied to rich bodied; mild to hoppy, and dry to sweet (more malt). And that concludes today’s lesson on beer.

Sadly, I only guessed 5 (out of a possible 18) beers correctly. I guess that just means I need to do this more often? Hoegarden turned out to be my favorite beer (I always knew I liked Belgian Whites, but I thought my favorite was an obscure one by the name of Wittekirke; during the taste test, our “pourer” was delighted when I was sure I had guessed which one that was and professed my love for it, only to denounce the one nearby…the actual Wittekirke! Oh well.) Surprisingly, everyone really liked Heineken. Corona and Stella were not far behind in the runnings. And the majority preferred Coors Light over Bud Light. We were all able to easily guess Amstel Light; Grolsch & Leffe left a lot more to be desired.

The best part about it is, the combinations are endless. What’s your favorite beer? Do you think you could guess it in a blind taste test?

It’s not too late to get in on the Oktoberfest action:

Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton will be serving Humpbock Oktoberfest through October 31^st. The setting is perfect for some yodeling in the mountains. Beer Run started it’s Oktoberfest in September, but that’s not a bad thing. They have at least 3 Oktoberfest beers on tap and numerous “fall” brews by the bottle. South Street Brewery is bound to have some good tasting Germans available (you know what I mean). Starr Hill is offering their Festie German Lager. Devil’s Backbone Brewing Company near Wintergreen isn’t open yet, but you can bet when it is, we’ll have a bona fide beer tasting route in our area! So put on your dirndl or lederhosen & get out there!