WEEK 247--What is Craft Beer--a few basics

 

Went to a speciality coffee event recently with a geek friend and chatted on some basics regarding how to appreciate coffee particularly for someone new like myself--in that sense--the same can be said of craft beer--how do a newbie get closer to craft beer & appreciate what's in the glass better? Understanding some basics on where craft beer flavours comes from probably is a good starting point.

不久前和啤迷朋友去了国际知名咖啡师来马亲自手冲的精品咖啡半天限定品尝会，期间和朋友聊起精品咖啡在喝什么的话题，实际上无论是喝咖啡或craft beer，对重点基本概念有所了解是重要的。

The first question here might be--there are so many different beer styles within the craft beer world--so what should we look for in a certain beer? The most simple answer to this is probably similar to enjoying food--all things aside--tasty/delicious shall be the most common thing we look for--same goes for craft beer drinking--overall flavours performance of a beer is what we shall look for.

craft beer世界有好多个不同类型风格（beer style)/名称啤酒，那么多不同类型啤酒到底是在喝什么？答案跟吃东西一样，不管吃什么重要的应该是味道如何？好不好吃？说直接点就是看啤酒的整体风味表现。

So where do all these different styles of beer get their flavours from? 

啤酒风味是从哪来的呢？以下是几个基本概念：-

4 Basic Ingredients 四大原材料:-

Malt

There are many different types of malt/grain which can be used in beer brewing--depending on the choice of malt/grain used--each can bring different influence on the flavour profile of a beer--including the color of a beer.

麦芽

麦芽有不同选择，比如烘烤过或原味的，有小麦大麦裸麦等等都能为啤酒带来不同酒体颜色观感和风味表现。

Water

Sounds very simple but for beer brewing it's not as straight forward as it seems--different level of sof/hard water would have influence on the beer quality--same goes for alkaline level( pH)--perhaps a very good example of why geeks are fond of "well water" from Hillfarmstead brewery says it all about the importance of water quality in a beer(besides brewing skills)

水

听起来很简单，然而酿酒对水质是有要求的，不同软硬程度的水，水的碱度，水中矿物质含量等等都会对啤酒带来不同影响。

美国顶级酿坊Hill Famstead使用自家农场井水是公认的作品特色之一，带有当地风土（Terroir）特质的水质和酵母结合让懂的啤迷一喝就会有熟悉感。

Yeast

A beer goes through a certain process and yeast is another essential part of this--and there are many different types of yeast--apart from cultivated yeast which a brewer can pitch--there's also natural/wild fermentation method where yeast is literally "fall from sky" which is how Belgium Lambic is made.

酵母

啤酒是需要发酵而成的，使用什么类型酵母会带来不同风味表现啤酒，除了人手加持的酵母，也有开放式利用空气中野生菌发酵的做法（Natural Fermentaion）,酸啤迷们推崇备至的比利时天然发酵酸啤(Lambic)就是最有特色代表。

Hops

Probably what most newbies would have come into contact with--be it due to popularity of IPA or somehow the bar/bottle shop has a name with the word Hops.

Indeed Hops has always been associated with IPA( or Hazies/NEIPA) since this beer style is where it show it's strength to the fullest by providing different hops flavour profile depending on which hops were choosen. In fact hops is being used in all beer styles as balancing agent during beer making process.--even Lambic which is known for funky/tartness uses "old/used hops".

啤酒花

可能是新人们刚接触craft beer时会先看到的字眼，一是无所不在的印度淡啤或类果汁印度淡啤 (IPA/Hazy IPA)影响，再来可能是店家名称精彩出现这个单词。

啤酒花是印度淡啤不可或缺的主角，但并不是只出现在IPA，啤酒花是酿造啤酒中必须原材料，以酸味和霉香为啤迷推崇的Lambic也需要啤酒花但不是新鲜而是已使用过，原有特质不张扬的旧啤酒花（old hops)以起到杀菌和中和作用。

 

Adjuncts

This is very straight forward--if a brewer add anything OTHER THAN the above mentioned 4 basic ingredients to a beer during/after the brewing process---that's adding Adjunct/s to a beer--it can be anything edible--from fruits to vegetables/plants/ to spices to coffee tea to chocolate/vanilla so on so forth--list could be endless really.

Of course--to add or not to add is a choice--there are beer styles which are usually not asscociated with adjuncts(such as pilsner/lager/pale ale...) and obviously there are styles which would be heavily associated with adjuncts( such as pastry sour/ fruited sour/ pastry stouts).

Speaking of Stout--there are non-adjunct stouts--though there are also many adjuncted ones.

添加物

意思非常直接了当，就是酿造过程中加入一种或好几种食材（比如水果/蔬菜/草本根茎），香料（比如肉桂/香草）或咖啡/茶/巧克力等等以提升原酒风味层次表现。

当然，添加物只是选项，可加也可以完全不加，取决于啤酒类型风格规范以及酿酒师想法而定，比如传统风格拉格(Lager)，浅啤（Pilsner)  或淡啤（Pale Ale) 就原酒原味表现为特点，一般不玩添加物概念。

再比如黑啤就明确分为添加 (Adjunted)和不添加（Non-Adjunted) 系列，近些年流行的甜点黑啤(Pastry Stout)就是添加物黑啤代表作。

Barrel-Aged(BA)

Also rather straight forward--it means putting beer in a barrel--usually a used barrel which perviously contain other types of alcoholic beverages--it can be whisky/bourbon/brandy/port/cognac/red or white wine--the list goes on---as for why? answer is plain to see--soaking beer in that particular barrel to enhance flavour profile/layering of the beer.

How a brewer do BA process can be quite different--there are a single barrel way, or putting same( or different) beer into different barrel and then blend them into final beer--or a brewer might decide just putting beer into barrel is not enough hence some Adjuncts shall be added.

Of course--to go BA or otherwise is a choice--for examples Stouts do have many BA or even double/triple barrel-aged variants--also many non-BA stouts out there--having said that there are actually many other beer styles which do go through BA process--including the seemingly "lighter" beer such as Saison or a Lambic.

桶陈方式

一如字面意思，指的是把啤酒放置桶内提味，选用的桶可以是烈酒类（比如美国波本，苏格兰威士忌，墨西哥龙舌兰，法国白兰地等等），或红白葡萄酒，或葡萄牙波特酒等等众多之前装过上述酒类的旧桶，用意是想让啤酒吸收旧桶内其他酒类/木桶气息让作品变得更有不同风味层次，用什么桶视乎酿酒师想让作品呈现什么风味而定。

啤酒桶陈方式可以是单一桶也可以是几个不同旧桶陈放/勾兑混酒而成，也可加入添加物如水果/香料等等再静置而成。

桶陈或不桶陈也是选项，比如常见的黑啤就有BA（桶陈）和原酒（不桶陈）之分，当然桶陈也不只是用于黑啤，很多其他类型风格啤酒也通过桶陈方式提味而成。