On a hot summer’s day there’s nothing better than a refreshing beer to cool us down. But do you often find a trip down the pub with your friends leaves you sticking to the same tipple, purely because you have no idea what the difference is between an ale and a larger and don’t want to risk a bad pint? Or maybe you dismiss it based on the myths around it being bad for your health? When in fact, when drunk in moderation there are several health benefits.

If so you might be one of the millions of Brits missing out on the truly phenomenal range of beers now on the market. So how do you open your mind and palate to what else is on offer?

Just like wine varieties, there’s a staggering array of beer to match anyone’s taste. And what about finding the perfect beer to match the perfect meal?

Well, if you want some help in your quest to find the perfect summer ale then log onto our live WebTV Show where beer flavour expert Kamini Dickie and Dr George Philliskirk from the Beer Academy will let you into the secrets of the perfect pint with a live beer tasting class.

Kamini Dickie and Dr George Philliskirk join us live online at www.webchats.tv on Monday 21^st June at 3pm to give you their top tips for finding the perfect beer.

For more information visit www.beeracademy.co.uk

Beer Academy Webchat

H: Murray Norton, host

A: Dr George Philliskirk, Beer academy

B: Kamini Dickie, beer flavour expert

H: On today’s show we’re looking at a new report that dispels the myth surrounding the beer belly, because science tells us that drinking beer – in moderation – is very good for us. Cheers!

Titles

H: Hello and welcome to Taste Talk, I’m Murray Norton. Now then on a hot, summers’ day there really is nothing better than a refreshing pint to cool us down, but how often do we deviate away from that old beer of choice? Perhaps you feel comfortable sticking with your regular tipple, or perhaps you avoid beers altogether. But you are missing out on a world of ales and lagers to choose from, and that could be a taste sensation for you. Now for many the reputation for beer is blighted by misconceptions that it’s unhealthy, anti-social and even fattening. When in actual fact drinking beer in moderation has many health benefits. Well joining me here today to set the record straight if you like is the man that they call the beer doctor, the doctor of beer, that’s Dr George Philliskirk from the Beer Academy, welcome along, nice to have you with us

A: Thank you

H: And also beer flavour expert Kamini Dickie, great to have you with us, thanks for joining us all

B: Thank you

H: Now we are live today so your questions are very, very welcome, in the little box at the bottom there, and we will be randomly selecting one viewer who sent us a question on beer, so please send us your email addresses with your question and you could be getting a delivery of beer. Coming up on Taste Talk today, everything you ever wanted to know about the wonderful world – and it is a wonderful world – of beer. Also what food goes with which beer, we look at food pairings and all of your beer-related questions will be answered. Well that’s what we’re going to be talking about, great to have you guys with us. Now first of all a Beer Academy, that’s cheered me up no end, I know there’s an academy for arts, an academy for dance an academy for beer, how good is that George?

A: It’s a great – it’s a great subject. About 7 or 8 years ago a group of guys, beer enthusiasts got together and said look actually beer’s got a really great story to tell, but nobody’s actually telling it. Why don’t we set up an organisation which will help people appreciate, understand beer. So the Beer Academy was formed and since then we’ve probably had 7 or 8000 students actually go through the Beer Academy to learn the wonderful world of beer

H: So it’s not just about you telling people about beer, it’s about people learning for themselves and being able to study beer as a subject?

A: Oh very much so, our courses run from an hour to three days, very in-depth, covering a whole range of subjects from different raw materials, how to taste beer, different beer styles, and also about the health benefits of beer

H: We’ll talk about those health benefits and actually we’ll try to break down what a beer really is in a second. Before that Kamini, forgive me for being very stereo-typical, you don’t like your archetypal beer drinker and your beer taster. So how on earth do you get into the beer industry?

B: Ok well Murray I must say that first I didn’t like beer, I preferred wine

H: Right

B: But like a lot of women – but it wasn’t the – the taste of the beer that was putting me off, it was really because it was marketed as a man’s drink, so with the advertising, it was very macho, the way it was served as well in large pint glasses, and in fact they weren’t very appealing and in fact for me they still aren’t. So that’s why I didn’t drink beer earlier on, but it wasn’t until I entered the brewing industry that I discovered the delights of beer, and you know it’s fantastic, there are over 60 styles of beer. Many of which appeal to me – from fruity, golden ales to the fragrant, spicy wheat beers, through to the full, flavoursome, rich stouts and porters, and that was fantastic, that was a great introduction and discovery

H: There’s a whole world out there isn’t there?

B: There is, absolutely. And the great thing, the fantastic thing is because with beer there are so many styles, there are so many flavours, there’s a myriad of colours that you would be absolutely amazed at the colour spectrum of beer as well. And the other great thing is that now it’s not a male drinking domain, you know it’s opened up – brewers are developing the female beer category, there are brewers who are serving their beers in beautifully-shaped glassware now. There’s a wealth of information available as well and I think you know there is a beer out there for anybody and everybody

H: Everybody

B: It’s fantastic

H: We’re going to be tasting some of these in just a second

B: Yes

H: And I take your point, there are so many – we’ve just got a small selection here. Before we get to tasting them though, now Dr Beer, tell me please, please – what is beer because it could be – for everyone it’s something different isn’t it?

A: Well in the simplest terms it’s – it’s a fermented alcoholic beverage but the great thing about beer is there’s such a diversity of beer styles. As Kamini said there are probably 60 plus beer styles, and probably worldwide something like 40,000 different beers. So there’s a great range, great diversity of beers. I’ve actually bought along a few examples of the sort of materials that create this wonderful diversity of beers

H: Take us through, what have we got?

A: Well essentially as you might imagine, the key ingredient, or one of the key ingredient – a major ingredient is water. Now this is fine tap water – tastes very nice but I don’t know if it will make great beer

H: Right

A: But the quality of the water is critical to the quality of the beer

H: Is that why in different regions, different waters, different tastes –

A: Well I live in Burton-upon-Trent and Burton-on-Trent was established as a brewing town because of the quality of the water, and that water is very rich in calcium sulphate gypsum, and that gives some distinctive characteristics to beers brewed to the Burton style. There’s a wonderful term used in brewing worldwide called Burtonisation, because the water is Burtonised, calcium sulphate added to create that effect. But other beers like we’ll be tasting a Pulson beer soon, that’s made with water that’s very soft, it’s very, very low in minerals. So the quality of the water is quite critical in defining the quality and style of beer

H: Ok so we’ve got water

A: Ok

H: What else?

A: Well the other key ingredient of course is barley, and I’ve got some ears of barley from last year’s harvest. Now if I was to try and make beer from that barley as it is it would be very difficult because it’s very hard, pretty tough, but what the brewer does, or indeed the molester is to take that barley and germinate it naturally. Let it grow naturally to produce this wonderful material called malt, on malted barley, and I’ve got three examples of different types of malted barley. In essence the barley is allowed to part germinate and then that germination is arrested by actually drying the malt. And depending on the intensity of the drying or the roasting, we get differences in colour, but also critically differences in flavour from light biscuit-y characters in the very pale one to toffee caramel notes, to sort of smoky, liquorice, coffee-characters in the really dark ones. And again there are about 50 different types of malt to choose from

H: Different variables in water, different variables in barley

A: Ok we’re not finished yet, no

H: There’s more to come!

A: Because we’ve got the spice of the beer is actually this wonderful product called the hop. A wonderful plant, interesting plant. Botanically it’s very close to the cannabis plant, it’s the same family – never tried smoking it but certainly it smells quite delicious

H: Let’s have a smell of that

A: Now hops do two things to a beer – they give beer its bitterness, and we talk of bitter in a beer, but also they give beers a very distinctive aromas and these could be flowery, citrus, herbal. And again there are brewers worldwide probably got two, three hundred different types of barley to choose from. So we’ve got water, we’ve got malted barley, we’ve got hops. But of course one of the key ingredients of beer is actually this wonderful organism, it’s actually a fungus, called the yeast

H: Right

A: And again brewers have probably 4-500 different types of yeast to choose from, and each brewer will jealously guard his own strain of yeast. Because these yeasts impart very distinctive flavour fingerprint on a beer. So natural ingredients water, barley, hops and yeast are the heart of great beers

H: That’s beer. When you’re going through all of that there, the thing that’s occurring to me already is there’s water, there’s barley, there’s some hops, there’s a little bit of yeast – there doesn’t seem to be anything there that immediately stands out as being ooh that’s really bad for your health

A: Oh absolutely there’s nothing in there that is at all – in fact it’s all very positive for your health

H: Right

A: During the process of germination in converting the barley into the malt, this natural, natural germination process liberates a lot of vitamins, and also minerals, and those are carried forward into the finished beer. Darker beers tend to be fairly high in these darker malts, and they are probably fairly high in anti-oxidant properties again which is very good for the health. So again hops have got very positive healthy properties and of course yeast is rich in – well you all know yeast fight tablets and things like that. Very rich particularly in minerals and again vitamins

H: I was going to say that this latest report that came out really – I did look at it and go wow, that’s really good news because there’s the whole thing about everything from the beer belly to oh you shouldn’t drink beer, you should drink wine you should drink this – actually beer’s not too bad for you

A: Yes the industry, the beer industry has been really slow at actually promoting beer. I mean it’s got a great story to tell, it’s got a long, noble history, but we haven’t really been very good about really telling people what the benefits in moderate beer consumption can offer. So what we tried to do in this report is to highlight some of the critical factors associated with drinking moderate quantities of beer

H: Excellent ok well before we just go too far, and we’re going to taste this beer in just a second, very, very briefly, you mentioned the heritage and also the importance if you like of the beer industry – it is huge. British and beer tends to go together quite well and in terms of tourism that’s got to be a huge thing as well hasn’t it?

B: Absolutely

A: Yes it’s a great story. I mean in this country we’ve probably got something like 700 breweries now. A lot of them are fairly small, and they’re also very localised. Over the last 5 years probably the number of small breweries has doubled. And they tend to be very regionalised, often in tourist areas, and that’s great because it creates local interest. A lot of people actually go on beer tours – actually visiting breweries. I certainly know that in East Anglia where they’ve got a great selection of breweries over there, and people go along deliberately to sample different local, regional beers and it’s wonderful

H: It’s a massive industry. Alright well stay with us because not only are we going to find out what beers go with what foods, but we’re actually going to taste some of these beers so get your tasting notes ready. Stay with us, that’s what’s coming next.

Break

H: So we’re back now, welcome back. We’re going to be tasting some of the beers here and a fantastic array of beers. Where do we start with these beers, what do you suggest we start with?

A: Probably if we start off with the - general rule of tasting beer is to start off with the least intense of flavours and then work our way through. So we’re actually going to start off with a fine, German Pilsner beer. Pilsner beers originate from the Czech town of Pilsen, hence the name. As I mentioned earlier they’re characterised particularly by the quality of the water. So brewers worldwide, if they are producing a Pilsner-style beer, will have to use a water which is very soft and very low in minerals

H: Ok

A: They’ll also use a very particular strain, or type of yeast, and these are called bottom fermenting strains, and these are very different to ales and stouts, but also they’ll use different types of hops as well. Again very distinctive. Go on let’s try one, I’ve been looking at this beer

H: Go on I’ve got a thirst on now

A: I can see that Murray

H: You’ve talked me into it

A: I can see that. Ok let’s try one of these. Oh look at that. The noise is wonderful, just as we – I mean the theatre of beer as much as anything else –

H: I’m going to let you pick one of those glasses up there. Tell s about the glasses because there are different types of glasses for different types of beer really aren’t there?

B: Oh yes. I think that’s been the –

H: Thank you

B: Fantastic development in the brewing industry. You know they were already doing this on the continent but we are now – we’re seeing beautifully shaped glassware, branded glassware as well, so it – a particular glass of a particular brand of beer, and it just makes beer drinking that much more sophisticated –

H: It’s more elegant isn’t it?

B: More stylish – it’s very elegant and classy

A: I mean pint glass is very functional. Fine, it’s great, it’s fit for purpose, but in terms of really savouring a beer, something much smaller. And in a general rule in terms of a shape of a beer glass is that the more intense the flavour, the more it’s almost like a brandy glass, you need quite a big head space, a wide mouth to the glass, to really get your nose in and appreciate all the subtleties of the flavour

H: Let’s get tasting – how would we taste? Kamini you’re the flavours and tasting expert here and I’m sure you certainly are as well, so just take us through

B: Well we’ve – the first part of the tasting is with your eyes, so you look at the beer, look at the sparkle in it, the foam, the tightness of the foam, the colour – and it looks good

H: It looks good

A: Yes

B: And then you nose it

H: Very hoppy, reminds me of some of those ingredients we’ve just got there

A: And then just allow a bit like a teaspoon of a sip, and swirl that in your mouth

H: That was more like a dessertspoon, I couldn’t help it!

A: You’re looking a bit thirsty actually Murray. Yes the thing about – about tasting beer is that we’ve got a whole range of sense on our tongues, starting off with sort of a sweet sense in front of the tongue, and the bitterness receptors are right at the back. One of the things we do with beers, we don’t spit it out. If you’ve done a wine tasting you know the technique is to –

H: Yes yes

A: We don’t do that in beer – two good reasons. One is because we’ve got the bitterness receptors right in the back of our tongue and into our throat. And the second reason is it’s too good to waste frankly anyway

H: That’s as good a reason for me as any

B: Yes

H: That is – that’s got quite a sharp taste. I’m finding it very difficult to find – it tastes of beer to me, so I’m trying to find different descriptive beers now

A: Yes well it’s got a nice balance. Brewers talk about having a balance in a beer

H: I can feel the difference –

A: Between a multi-sweetness at the beginning –

H: At the front

B: Yes

A: But then you get the balancing bitterness, so if it’s too sweet it becomes too clawing, but this is quite fresh. It’s got a nice level of bitterness. Makes it nice on a day like today

B: Oh perfect

A: A really great way to drink beer

B: Great thirst quencher

H: It is a thirst quencher. Apart from the thirst quencher, are there foods that you would say well with a Pilsner that’s what you should be eating, or it goes best with...

B: I would say that I personally would have kind of pub grub almost with this. So curries, and fish and chips, you know perfect with that

A: I mean in terms of beer and food matching, there are no sort of hard rules you know it’s not like red wine with meat, white wine with fish, you know but there are certain guidelines, and one of the key ones I find works is actually looking at matching intensity of flavour. So if you’ve got an intensely flavoured food, as a useful guide you can match that with a pretty strong, tasty beer. Often you’ll find it works very well.

H: Right talking of that we’ll move up the list a little bit, otherwise we’ll never get all these –

A: I know it’s a –

H: So what’s next on our list? Where do we –

A: We’re actually going to have a pale ale, and pale ales –

H: Gosh that seems to go back to the mists of time, pale ale

A: Well pale ales have been around probably since the 1700s and they’ve sort of got a big brother called IPAs or India Pale Ales, but again a very long and noble tradition. To look at it in colour terms, there grab one of those

H: Thank you

B: Thank you

H: Thank you very much. This has to be the best job in the world

A: It is without a doubt. In colour terms it’s not too different

H: No

A: To the lager. It’s pale ale, it’s made with a fairly pale malt, it’s got a nice foam, good gas rise, looks nice and bright and clear, and again good foam. Again let’s see what it’s like on the nose. But now can you get more of the sort of – this has got quite a distinctive citrusy character on the nose

H: Oh yes

A: Ok? This is made with a particular American style of hop which has got lots of citrusy aromas there, makes it very, very rich. But then you’ve got this sort of malty background as well so you’ve got malt, citrus character actually coming through

H: I can’t think I’ve drunk a pale ale for probably 20 years

A: Oh there’s some great pales out there. Pale ales out there Murray. That’s a handsome beer. Really is a handsome beer

H: If you don’t mind me saying so, about – when I was a kid it was always a couple of bottles of pale ale that you had to get in at Christmas for your uncle that was coming round because he always drunk a bottle of pale ale in the corner. But it seems to have come into a much more cooler environment now

A: Pale ales have come on enormously really and in truth a lot to do with North Americans. They’ve really taken to our traditional British pale ale and added their own nuances to it, particularly in the area of the hop varieties they use. Produce some great beers. Again beautiful beer with curries, works really nicely with curries

B: Yes

A: Sometimes with a light meal with sort of chicken, pork, something like that. Not too intense in flavour but really, really handsome beer

H: Nice beer. Enjoying that, very nice indeed. So much so that I’m almost reluctant to move onto our next, but I know we have to –

B: Oh we must

H: Otherwise we’re going to run right out of time so –

B: This is – this is one of my –favourites

A: This is Kamini’s favourite beer, she’ll tell you about these

H: Tell me about your favourite beer

B: Ok well it’s one of the favourite styles of beer. This is Hefeweizen, it’s the German style wheat beer, ok

H: So wheat beer by this – you’re actually saying not barley but wheat they’ve used instead or –

B: Yes they – it’s up to 30% wheat that they would add. It’s – they still use barley malt, yes, but in addition there is up to 30%

A: That’s a nice glassful, thank you. Thing about these beers is they’re cloudy, and

H: It is cloudy

A: You might think there’s something wrong with this beer

H: Yes

A: The reason is it’s called Hefeweizen and that means that efe is yeast and it’s German, it’s got yeast and wheat in there, and the combination of the wheat proteins and the yeast tend to give it this sort of opalescent effect. Sometimes the Belgium beers are called Whitbeers, or White beers, but very, very distinctive. They’re actually made with very distinctive strains of yeast, which give – tend to give us – well you tell us Murray

H: I worried that you were going to drink the yeast there –

A: Oh I’ve done that before, believe you me

H: Would you put – could you put fruit in this, would you put fruit in this? I’ve seen people putting slices of lemon and things in it. Would that be wrong

B: Yes that’s – no it’s not

A: It’s perfectly acceptable

B: It’s not wrong it’s – that’s what they want to you can do that. But I just wanted to say that with the addition of wheat what you do get is this cracker like dryness, cracker biscuits ok? But then it’s very refreshing and quite fruity

A: Can you get on the nose Murray, can you get cloves?

H: Yes

A: And bananas in there?

H: Yes I was just about to say there was something almost from the dentist’s chair that was pleasurable, and I know that sounds -

A: Well cloves, from the yeast actually it gives it a very -

H: You know when you go to the dentist they use a clove effect in the anaesthetic – there’s something almost dental chair about it, in the nicest possible way

A: Yes, great beer. This is a German wheat beer, Weissbeer. Very good actually with German food. And one of the hints about beer and food matching is to think local. Think of the national dishes, the national beers and often they work together very well

H: Big, German sausages and a bit of, bit of –

A: Smoked – smoked

H: And some sauerkraut

A: Goes well with smoked fish as well, smoked salmon it works brilliantly

B: Because it’s so refreshing I like wheat beers with salads, I think they work with salads

H: Ok. Questions are coming up in just a little while, don’t forget to put your questions into us, in the little box there, we will be giving some beers away to one random question asker, so make sure you put your email on all of that as well. Couple of beers to try yet, I know one is a fruit beer, so that is next. I’m going to pass this over to you to open because that’s got a cork on it

B: I’m going to pass that over

H: The studio lights could go at any point here. So whilst you’re opening that can we just talk about alcoholic content

A: Yes

B: Right

H: Because with beers it does vary doesn’t it, and I’m guessing that last beer that we had there had a little bit more alcohol in it – was I right to say that or was I wrong?

B: Let me see

H: It just tasted –

B: No it’s about – that was 5.4% so a little bit higher, but when you look at beer in general it’s relatively low alcohol compared to other beverages. So on average it’s about 4.5% on average

H: When you were talking about these much more delicate glasses of beer compared to a glass of wine which would be at 13 /14%

A: Yes

H: You can see how low in alcohol it is really

A: Yes

B: Absolutely. And also in calories

H: Ah well –

B: So if you’re looking at –

H: Even better

B: From a health point of view, lifestyle and diet, then beer is relatively a low calorific drink

A: If we had equivalent volumes of wine, milk or orange juice, or Coca Cola, beer has the lowest calories

H: That’s extraordinary

A: Yes

H: I’m sticking to beer from now on

A: Ok fine, great

B: Are you

H: Fruit beer

B: Now then

H: What fruits would go into a fruit beer – this is looking –

B: Now look at, when I was talking earlier about colour

H: That looks fantastic. Strawberry, ambary colour to it – I’ve got to take a –

A: Ooh lovely. Cracking

H: Raspberries, strawberries, blackberries?

A: This is actually cherries I think

H: Cherries

A: It’s a cherry beer. It’s a Belgian Kriek - Kriek is cherries. These are actually made with whole cherries, so the base beer is what’s called a Belgian brown ale which is quite sour, so it’s got a sour base, so what the Belgian’s very cunningly do is try and disguise some of the sourness by adding cherries, and these are whole cherries. They’re actually a mixture of Belgian and Danish cherries, to give this sort of sweetness to it

H: Do you know my cherry tree is just coming out with bagfuls of cherries right now

A: Great year

H: I got pop a cherry in this, that would be good wouldn’t it?

A: Precisely. You could get the cherries. You could almost get a little almondy character as well on the nose which comes through, but on the palette it’s got sort of a nice sharp acidity, but then it’s got again this balancing sweetness

H: Sweetness towards the centre of the tongue and the back of the tongue but this bitterness along the top

B: It’s the tart taste as well

H: Lovely

A: This is brilliant beer with chicken liver pate, with really pretty raw tuna, but my favourite is actually with really dark – something like Green & Black’s 70% organic chocolate. Just try that, it’s a knockout, it’s an absolute sensation

H: Chocolate and beer

A: Perfect

H: That’s heaven!

B: Yes a rich chocolate pudding

A: Brilliant, absolutely brilliant

H: So fruit beer, cherry fruit beer this one, from Belgium, great beer. Really, really great. Now we’re going to get – I see we’ve gone up in colour as we’ve gone on the way through there, which is your deliberate journey. Our last one for you there to open will be the stout. I’m enjoying the fruit beer far too much

A: Enjoyed that?

H: Yes that really is enjoyable. I could keep going – that’s very summery drinkable isn’t it?

A: Yes

B: Oh yes

H: Warm, summer’s day, sitting outside, nice little beer garden

A: You wouldn’t drink a lot of it, it’s not the sort of beer you want to drink pints of but a beer in modest quantities it’s really very, very refreshing. Brilliant with food

H: Now, stout

A: Now then

H: Really dark. What is stout all about? Because this is – is this where we get that very, very toasted barley?

A: Absolutely right because if I was to sort of put a blob of cream on that, those two would look remarkably similar

H: Yes

A: In fact this is a roasted or a chocolate malt as we call it, and these dark, roasted malts are used to brew stouts, and stouts again have a very long and noble tradition. They started off as Porters in fact in London in the 1700s when Porters were first started. The strong porters became known as stout porters, and eventually the porters was dropped. So strong porters became stout porters and then became stout. And they migrated over the Irish sea to Dublin

H: I’ve been to that brewery as many have. I walked all those stairs

A: But on the nose can you get the nice, smoky roast characters –

H: Yes it is most –

A: You get coffee, liquorice, very intense flavours

H: It tastes like a – it smells like a bit of cold coffee there.

A: Nice, really nice

H: Yes. Yes very coffee

A: But very rich flavours as well, you know you’re getting the dryness from the roasted barley there, roasted malts coming through

H: Very enjoyable. Wouldn’t want pints and pints and pints of it. Would certainly want a glass of it

B: Yes. I think so

H: And with food – what would you do with stout?

A: Well there’s two options really, I mean stouts are very popular with oysters if you like oysters, and particularly anchovies. Anchovies and stout goes together brilliantly

H: I’d never have thought that

B: Yes

A: But also actually it goes, because it’s sort of got chocolaty-coffee characters, it actually goes well with some desserts, particularly if you’ve got a bit of chocolate or coffee in there as well, it actually complements it really nicely.

B: Like a cherry chocolate dessert

A: Yes. Brilliant isn’t it?

H: For me it would be anchovies and black olives on a pizza

A: Yes, good

B: Yes

H: That would work. That would work great. There’s some fantastic beers there, and you’ve just proved in literally five beers, and how many different breweries are there, how many different –

A: Well in this country alone we’ve got over 700 breweries. We’re probably producing 3000 different beers, probably 50 or 60 different styles. You know there are so many beers to try, and a great range of flavours. Flavours for all parts

H: Fantastic. Well if you’ve just joined us, where have you been? We’re tasting beer, I’m Murray Norton, this is Taste Talk and with me is Dr George Philliskirk, and also Kamini is with us as well tasting these fantastic beers. We’ve just tasted some beers now we’re going to go to answer some of your questions, what’s coming up next, so stay with us for all of your questions

Break

H: It’s question time, I haven’t let go of the stout yet. One of the questions – questions coming in from just about everybody. What ale goes best with curry is question in straight away, and I’m sure a lot of people wanted to ask that one

B: What ale?

H: Yes

B: India pale ale is perfect. I would even say some of the lighter, golden ale, you know with more kind of delicate fish curries

A: :Yes we’ve sort of, in the UK in the last 5 or 6 years there’s a style of beer called summer ales and they tend to be paler in colour, served a bit cooler and some quite sort of citrusy characters on the nose

B: Quite –

A: They’d work very well. Quite light, work really well with curry

B: Yes and I think the fruitiness you know –

A: Yes fruit is good as well

B: You’ve got the colours – the mango chutney effect, you know with it

H: You’re making me feel hungry, I was thirsty before and now I’m hungry. There’s a question just coming in, actually it’s from Tom – is organic beer better than non-organic beer?

A: Short answer is no

H: Right

A: In terms of – ok it’s got potentially the same raw materials, the same ingredients, some of the raw materials have been grown in a slightly different way, but in fact it doesn’t affect the final outcome in terms of the quality of the beer. Organic beers are fine, if people like to go the organic route, great, but in truth it doesn’t really make that much difference in terms of overall flavour

H: Ok. Clare has sent us a question, Clare thank you very much indeed for your question. She feels bloated when she’s been drinking beer – is it the bubbles or is it the quantity?

B: It’s one of the misconceptions that – and it tends to be women more so who will say that they feel bloated when they drink beer. You know in terms of carbonation beer is fairly low compared to some other drinks like the accompanied soft drinks

A: Particularly Champagne

B: And Champagne, Champagne has the highest level of carbonation. So I don’t think – you know it is a misconception that you’ll feel bloated and in terms of volume, you know women would generally not drink pints and pints

A: I think one of the problems again it’s about portion size. If you’ve got sort of a half pint of a beer and you have it with food you don’t tend to notice – it’s not as intimating as a pint and of course you tend to drink it at a more modest pace

B: Yes

A: You don’t get that carbonation

H: Another question, going to try and fit in as many questions as we possibly can. A lot of the questions are very similar so we’ve put a few of them together. Here’s one that came from Helen and that is that her daughter is getting married shortly, a lot of the people on the top table are not Champagne and wine drinkers at all, but they’re thinking for the wedding breakfast there should be a beer that they could possibly serve, and that’s a lovely idea. What could they serve?

A: I’ve got the perfect beer

B: Yes

A: You talk about Champagne as the norm for these sort of things and the sort of so-called aperitif beers, I mean at one end there’s a wonderful actually Champagne beer, it’s actually called Deus, great beer

H: Deus?

A: Deus. To look at it you think it’s a bottle of Champagne

H: Right

A: It’s actually a beer, it’s brewed in Belgium, it’s finished in France and it’s genuinely like Champagne, but actually there’s a range of other beers, very pale Kasteel Cru is a great example, about 5%,beautiful beers and aperitif

B: They also do a Rose version for Kasteel Cru, it’s made from Champagne yeast

H: Oh very nice!

B: There’s beers for all taste out there, so please ask, there’s beers for all tastes

A: Yes

H: And for all occasions as well

A: All occasions

H: Had a question come in from Naomi who says “I live in Suffolk, the home of Adnans and Green King”

A: Yes

H: As well, couple of great beers from there. Now is East Anglia, she asks, the region with the world’s finest beers in it? This is going to start a war from the regions

A: Well I’m a Yorkshire man so I couldn’t possibly comment. No actually they produce some brilliant beers in Suffolk and of course one of the great features of Suffolk is it sits on probably the best barley growing area in the UK. There are some wonderful malting barleys in Suffolk and of course those malting barleys go to the local breweries. And in actual fact they’ve actually now got some hop farms growing hops in Suffolk as well, so they’ve got to be pretty much self-sufficient. Great beers

H: Local, local, local all the way along

A: Brilliant

H: Great local produce. Final question for you two which would be the beer of choice if you had your choice of beer?

A: Of these or generally?

H: Generally. Tough question

B: It is

A: I’m an ale man, I suppose I’m a traditional ale man, I’m brought up in Yorkshire, I’m probably a lover of Yorkshire ales if I had to – if it came to my beer on desert island disc to take away with me it would be a good Yorkshire ale

H: I wouldn’t have thought you’d say a Lancashire one that’s for certain

A: I wouldn’t possibly say that

H: Kamini for you?

B: For me – it’s a choice – tough choice between two. Fruit beer or wheat beer

H: Both

B: Both if I could! Yes

A: That’s a cheat

H: That is cheating but that’s the way it is. Well that is all the time that we’ve got here. Thank you so much for watching, thank you very much indeed to my guests for coming in

A: Pleasure

H: It’s been a great –

B: It’s a pleasure

H: Great to find out more about beer. If you want further advice of how you can become a beer connoisseur and you’d like to know more about beer all you’ve got to do is visit the website. It’s www.beeracademy.co.uk, that’s www.beeracademy.co.uk. Finally got it out! Thank you once again and from all of us here, cheers

A: Cheers

H: Cheers

Still got a question or comment?

Name

Your question Question

Enter code