Craft is Art: WEEK 171---craft beer entry level Q&A revision

Anyone who do spent some time on craft beer focus/related social media will know that there are many different types of social media groups be it for specific groups of geeks--or a particular beer style or brewery---as well there are also groups where geeks and newbies alike are welcome in a group...

社交媒体有不少craft beer相关团体/群组/讨论群，有只为狂热啤迷而设的，有为了宣扬特定风格类型而设的（比如Lambic，比如stouts, 比如saison等等），也有适合新朋友的群组，比如香港台湾就有融合啤迷与新朋友脸书专页。

在较多新朋友参与的craft beer群组中时常会出现重复的问题，比如会问某地有什么专卖吧或瓶子店值得去（尽管有关某地的上述资讯已出现多次），也有人会问一些已出现多次的基本资讯，这些都说明了两件事，第一是无论相同资讯出现过多少次还是会有没看到或看过但不记得的人，第二是craft beer圈子会有新朋友加入，很多时候难免会问些重复的。

It is quite interesting (or perhaps not so interesting to some) to note that in a group where newbies are welcome---we tend to see some repetitive questions--for examples questions about where to drink or buy when travelling to another city/state or country---also many about some basics of craft beer drinking such as suitable temperature to drink or to store beer---which beer styles best to drink fresh or to age further---so on and so forth....

开始接触craft beer的新朋友会有各种问题或可能对一些情况感觉疑惑是可以理解的，今天来聊聊复习一些入门基本问题：-

Here's a few very basic Q&A pertaining to craft drinking:-

Q1 : best to drink direct from bottle/can OR use a glass?

A: always best to use a glass

This may seems like a silly question since beer drinking has always been perceived as something straight forward--no thanks in big part to the influence of MACRO BEER marketing since the beginning of mankind.

It is true that craft beer is also only beer--so one can choose how he or she wanted to drink---BUT if savouring flavours/deliciousness in a beer is the main aim--then it's best to always use a glass as beer do need a proper container to let it "breath"/"get warm" in order to show it's full potentials/layers/depth of tastiness( *unless stated clearly by brewery to drink from can or bottle)---similar to when glasses(even decanter) always a must when drinking wine.

**in fact if you can or wanted to---try using 2-3 or more different types/shapes of glasses for 1 same beer--you will find some surprises with the same beer showing stronger/weaker/different characteristics with use of glasses

1）直接拿瓶子/罐子喝还是用杯子喝？

答案：尽可能用杯子喝。

听起来好像有点莫名其妙的问题，在craft beer出现之前，啤酒想怎么喝就怎么喝，不就是啤酒嘛？

的确，craft beer也是啤酒，想怎么喝也是个人自由，不过，如果品嚐细味啤酒美味层次是目标的话，那建议还是一定要用杯子。（除非是很少有的酿坊在酒标贴纸特别提醒鼓励拿着瓶子或罐子直接喝）

用杯子喝啤酒的必要性很简单，就像喝葡萄酒讲究让酒在杯中散发香气发挥酒体层次那样，啤酒也需要倒入杯中经过回温来呈现应有味道层次变化。

Q2: to drink real COLD or not so Cold?

A: always give beer time to "warm-up"

It's been ingrained in people's mind that BEER HAS TO BE ICE-COLD through years of MACRO BEER marketing strategy.

Again--if your main objective of drinking craft beer is about tasting deliciousness in a beer--then obviously you need to give that glass of beer some time to warm-up( say anything from 10 mins to half an hour or even longer---depending on beer style/how "thick" or 'heavy" the beer is)---it is never a good idea to drink your craft beer COLD as it is almost like chewing on unripe fruits where the full flavours cannot be had.

As for those who believe in adding ICE to your beer---that's all right since likely what he/she can taste is ice-cold alcoholic water---nothing wrong if that's what you wanted.

2）是冷冷喝还是不那么冷喝？

答案：craft beer是需要时间回温的。

长期以来啤酒一直被视为“冰冷解暑的饮料”，这跟大众认知的大厂啤酒营销宣传手法不无关系。

只是，如果你喝craft beer,的目标是为了品嚐啤酒蕴藏美味层次，那就必须让啤酒有时间逐步回温（可以是10分钟到半小时或更久，视啤酒类型风格而定），只有那样才能真正喝到啤酒美味层次，因为太冷的啤酒就像还没熟的水果，味道没能真正发挥。

至于喝啤酒一定要加冰块的，那基本跟craft beer没关系，因为那只会是在喝冰冷酒精水，想加多少冰请自便。

Q3: what's wrong with using Frosted/Frozen glasses?

A: it's NOT good & NOT necessary

A common scene here in Malaysia's beer bars as well as kopitiam( coffee shop) selling MACRO BEER---you will always see glasses stored at freezing temperature so as to deliver that COLD BEER experience drinkers expected/accustomed to.

But cold glasses is not necessary for craft beer--in fact it is a hindrance to letting beer showing it's full flavours potential. Actually the craft beer bars/shops that knows will only have air dried glasses or 'warm-glasses" ---frozen glasses is not needed in the world of craft beer drinking.

3）冷到结霜杯子有什么不好？

答案：是不好，也不需要。

这是本地很多卖大厂啤酒场所惯见的画面，因为啤酒必须冷冷才喝得下去，所以杯子当然也要越冷越好的。

在craft beer世界中，冷杯子是不需要的，懂的店家都只有风干室温杯子，因为无论是冰柜瓶子罐子或上了啤酒泵桶装版本啤酒都已具备一定冷度，同时室温杯子也有助啤酒回温让啤酒能更好的展现美味全貌。

Q4 what does it mean when a glass is full of sticky little bubbles?

A: more often than not it means the glass is DIRTY!

If you were to ask 10 people---likely all 10 will say BEER is something "gassy"--and that BEER always comes with Big Bubbles--that's how a beer should be and always has been....

True that---but not so true in the world of craft beer since different beer styles will display different level of "gassy" characters--some can be so thick and "deep" it has no carbonation whatsoever.

For a beer with nice carbonation--if you find that the glass is full of "bubbles area/zone" inside after pouring---then it's very likely that it was due to DIRTY glass factor---anything dirty/greasy left in the glass will caused this "bubbly scenario" and it's not a pretty sight.

A clean glass is always needed to let the beer expand it's flavours profile in a conducive condition---it's just like eating food--you would not want your food being served on a dirty plate/bowl.