Reading, Writing and Drinking Beer…

I originally set out to write a weekly blog about my journey studying for the Cicerone test… unfortunately, I’ve been failing miserably at continuing to write every week like I planned. But I’m back at it and ready to keep studying and writing and drinking!!

This past year since January has been a whirlwind for me: from breaking toes, to starting new jobs, to volunteering at beer events, to interviewing for reality tv shows. I’ve had an amazing year, and as I planned, beer has still been my #1 focus!

Session #3 at FOBAB 2014

In September, I moved on from Grace restaurant (who just received their third Michelin Star) and started bartending at Vistro (Chef Paul Virant’s newest venture) in Hinsdale and I’ve continued to pour beer every Sunday at Imperial Oak (if you still haven’t checked out either place – come visit me!!!).

I’ve also been learning more than I thought I ever would, and not just about beer. Bill Anderson, the bar manager and bad ass mixologist at Vie/Vistro, has gotten me to appreciate bourbon and whiskey (without a pickle back!) AND I can make a pretty decent Manhattan. Yeah!

Keeping it classy at Vistro: Hinsdale Meantime (bourbon, lemon, chamomile and, red wine top).

Being able to learn more about spirits and cocktails has actually helped me to develop my tasting skills. I’ve noticed now that I appreciate heavier spirits like whiskey, my preferences in beer have completely changed! These days I’m going to stouts, brown ales or bourbon barrel aged beers first. Funny how just training yourself to taste and understand liquors can make you completely change your palate.

In the past few months, I’ve also collected a library of beer books (in addition to all those English major classics) and try to read when I get the chance. I even picked up a couple home brewing books to try my hand at making some delicious brews this winter.

My beer book library is continuing to grow!

Now that it’s getting colder and I (might) want to stay indoors more, I’ll definitely be reading all my new books from front to back.  I’m also signing up for an off flavor course (if anyone wants to join, let me know) and will be joining up with bunch of other beer nerds to keep study for the Certified Cicerone test this winter!

My mission to get beer to be as popular as wine will not be ending any time soon. This is still just the beginning…. and what a start it’s been!

Beer Lesson #1 – Know the Bare Beer Basics (so you can impress your friends)

Okay, I’ll admit, when I was younger I would look through the beer list and order whatever had the highest alcohol content, regardless of the type of beer. Thankfully I’ve long grown out of that stage, but unfortunately there are still many people out there who continue to pick their beers based on the highest alcohol percentage for the lowest cost.

Most people do not know the difference between types and styles of beer and as a result when they pick the beer with the highest ABV they don’t always end up liking it. I try the best I can when working at the brewery to find the perfect beer for the guest. Countless times I’ve had someone come up to me at Imperial Oak asking for a light beer, but not knowing whether they really want something fruity (like a Hefeweizen) or crisp and clean (like a Kolsch) or with a little bitterness (like a Blonde Ale).

So many options – why not try them all? Beer flight from Hailstorm Brewing in Tinley Park, IL

Unless you’re a beer nerd, you may not know the difference, so I’m here to enlighten you!

Every beer has a few basic qualities that make it different from another beer:

• SRM (Standard Reference Method)
• IBUs (International Bitterness Units)
• ABV (Alcohol by Volume)
• ABW (Alcohol by Weight)
• OG (Original Gravity- also called Specific Gravity)
• FG (Final Gravity)

The SRM basically clarifies the color of the beer as set by the American Society of Brewing Chemists. It ranges from 1° (pale straw) to 40°+ (black). The Beer Drinkers Guide to Colorado has a cool chart showing the colors and the styles of some beer.

IBUs measure the bitterness of a beer and range from 5-100+.  Humans can generally start tasting a bitterness between 4-9 IBUs. The bitterness in beer is needed to balance the sweetness from the malt.

ABV is the measurement of alcohol content in beer.  To get this number, a brewer will use a hydrometer (that finds the density of liquid in relation to water) to measure the OG. They let the beer ferment and then remeasure (days, weeks, months) later to find the FG, then multiply that number by 131. Basicially: OG – FG x 131 = ABV% (easy enough even for a math inept person like me)

Beer may also show the ABW on the side of the bottle. Between 1933-1990, after Prohibition, brewers wanted to show that the alcohol in the beer was not that high and opted to use the ABW on the side of their bottles instead. The rest of the world continued to use ABV and eventually it became the norm in the US again.  In order to convert ABW in the ABV, another fun math equation: ABW x 1.25 = ABVWhat does all this information actually mean to a customer? A couple weeks ago I had a woman come into Imperial Oak who was looking for something light, not hoppy and had a little sweetness to it. She really had no idea what style of beer she was looking for, so I suggested our Dunkelweizen. Although it looks dark (due to the dark malt used), it is a wheat beer and therefore not bitter, and it’s also low in alcohol content. Needless to say, it was a perfect match for her and she ordered a couple more for her friends when they showed up to the bar.

There is SO much info out there about beer, but if you know some of the basics you can impress your friends next time you’re at the bar… heck, it might even impress me!

True Life: I Work in a Brewery

Good grief – I swear this summer is flying by, but I’m enjoying every minute of it (even if I am working 6 days a week)!

I’m still full time Tuesday-Saturday at Grace and every Sunday I’m now bartending at one of Chicagoland’s newest breweries: Imperial Oak in Willow Springs. Yes, you can be jealous.

I knew in February, after being laid up for three weeks with my broken toes, that I was going to jump head on into this beer scene and it has been a blast! I began studying for the Certified Beer Server exam back in March and after my second attempt, I passed at the end of June. I’m pushing on to take the Certified Cicerone test by the end of this year and literally using every chance I get to study…. which of course involves tasting beers (and I’m always accepting applications for drinking buddies)!

Since I work at a brewery, I am taking advantage of every opportunity I can to be near or around beer. This week I finally got my chance to brew alongside one of Imperial Oak’s brewers, Grant Hamilton. Let me just tell you, although I only got to be there for an hour before I head over to Grace, I saw how much work goes into making a batch of beer.

I don’t think I even have to say how much I love spending every Sunday pouring beer and talking with fellow beer lovers, but if you want to find out for yourself, stop into the brewery! Your first beer is on me!

Move Over Wine, It’s Beer Time

These past few weeks have literally flown by for me. On top of studying for the Beer Server exam (which I’m aiming to take in the next couple weeks), I have been looking for jobs, started a group for beer nerds and finished the BeerSavvy program.

I’m happy to announce I’ve accepted a new job downtown at Grace Restaurant – one of the top restaurants in Chicago! Being the city girl that I am, I’m super excited to finally get my foot into the fine dining scene in the best city in the world. Even better, being the huge beer nerd I am, I’m thrilled that Grace has a decent selection of beer on their drink menu. Yes, there is a God!!

As I’ve increased my beer knowledge over the last month, I’m even more determined to make a name for it as a classic drink to pair with amazing food at a fine dining restaurant, such as Grace.

Chimay Bleue with chicken in spicy Asian zing paired perfectly!

Despite beer being offered at multiple fine dining restaurants these days, it is still not thought of as a classy, sophisticated drink or highlighted for pairings (with the exception of ING that has begun a cool pairing program).

Society still sees someone who has a glass of beer as casual, laid back and unrefined (which, granted, they could be – nothing wrong with that), but beer has so much more depth than being a casual drink! Most of the beer that we drink today has its roots from European styles that began being made  as early as the 1600s and the process to make beer is no easy feat. Its extensive history alone should make it a hot commodity.

Trust me, I still enjoy a great glass of wine (especially a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc), but beer can be just as universal as wine, if not more. I think it’s time for everyone to start enjoying beer as a refined pairing for dinner and make it become a timeless, classy, sophisticated drink…. then I can feel more justified holding my pinkie up when I have a beer.

Salud!

Who Needs to Understand the Opposite Sex? Just Have a Beer.

There are some things in life I may never understand: math, infinity, men… so I can completely relate with people who are overwhelmed by beer and decide to pick a boring beer they know (big name brands), instead of trying to find a craft beer that they enjoy. It’s not fun to make a decision on something you know little about and stress yourself out even more – especially when all you wanted was a drink!

BUT there is hope! I promise you, finding a delicious beer doesn’t have to be impossible, or cost a ton of money. You can start on your own journey towards becoming a beer nerd.

• Ask about the beer. The best thing you can do to narrow down what you like is to first talk to whoever is handing you the beer – the bartender, the sales clerk, the server. Tell them what you like and don’t like and let them give you options based on your preferences.
• Be open to trying new things. I despised dark beers when I was younger, but after trying a couple bourbon barrel stout beers, I opened my eyes to a whole new range of beers. Sure you won’t like some, but you also won’t know you like it until you try!
• Remember the beer was brewed with love. Seriously. The brewers who made this beer put their heart, soul and sweat into making it perfect. When you taste a beer, even if for just a split second, try and envision what the brewer wanted you to get out of the beer.
• Every beer is different. Just because one company makes the same style of beer, it will not taste the exact same! A lot of people don’t may not like one pale ale because it’s too hoppy, but another brewery will make one with less hop and easier to guzzle down.

You might love your wine or hard liquor and don’t want to waste your time finding a beer to drink, or you think that every beer is going to be as tasteless as the beer you drank during Spring Break (it won’t). Take a chance! You’ll be surprised.

Randy Mosher said it best, “practice makes perfect, but nobody ever complains about practice with beer.”

Salud!

Becoming a Beer Nerd

Geeze, now I know I’ve turned into a beer nerd. I can’t even go out for just a beer anymore without dissecting it and explaining to anyone willing to listen exactly what I’m tasting and smelling! No wonder I can’t find friends to go with me to the bar.

HELP WANTED: Looking for someone to be a beer nerd at the local bar. Must be willing to hear me talk about beer. Message me for further details.

Yesterday I received my new book Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher in the mail. 240 pages devoted to beer. The fact that I was so anxious to start reading it just shows you how much nerdier I’ve become!

The first chapter is devoted to the history of beer. Did you know:

• A form of beer is credited with stopping nomads and starting civilization
• Egyptian beer (hekt) was vital to their way of life and helped fuel the construction of the pyramids
• Beer producers put money into research for refrigeration (to keep their beers cold)
• Presidents Washington, Jefferson and Adams were brewers
• Prohibition reduced the number of breweries in the US from about 1300 to only 756
• In 1935, the first canned beer was released by Kruger Brewing

There of course is a lot more in-depth information that you can learn by reading the whole book (and that I will eventually blog about), but you can always buy your own copy and start your way to being a nerd too! Then I won’t feel like too much of a dork.

Beer Me.

Here we go. The basics of beer:

Hops + Malt + Yeast + Water + Time = BEER

If you go to any brewery and take a tour, you will hear the same speech every time about how the malt is boiled with the hops and fermented by the yeast to make beer. Geeze, I wish now I had paid a little more attention instead of trying to get tipsy off the samples!

Basically, the reason beers are so different depends on the kind of hops, malt, yeast or water used in production. There are 100 different varieties of hops alone (which if I have to guess, I’m sure by the time I reach Master Cicerone I will need to know 98.4% of them).

Last night I tried my first round of beers, with my girl friend Noe, just to get an idea of what I’m looking for. Good thing  for BeerAdvocate (the epitome of a beer nerd cheat sheet)! I literally scrolled through the site while drinking each beer. Let’s just say I have a lot of training to do. By the end of this entire program (when you become a Master Cicerone) you should be able to taste a beer and explain exactly what is in it and what type of beer it is…. Lord knows I’m far from that!

Mmmm smells delicious

Each beer has a flavor profile. When you drink a beer you’re supposed to note:

1. Taste (sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami)
2. Aroma (smell while breathing)
3. Mouthfeel (ex: watery, creamy, drying, thick)
4. Aftertaste (flavor after beer swallowed)

Eventually, after training yourself to know what you’re looking for (or cheat and drink while reading reviews) you can pick out different tastes, smells and even feelings (like heaviness or carbonation) from the beer.

Looks like I have a lot of studying yet to get done!

And so it begins….

Today begins my initial attempt at studying for the Certified Beer Server – the first level of the Certified Cicerone Program. From what I’ve heard it’s not very difficult, but being the overly cautious and sometimes forgetful person I am, I decided to opt for the $200 BeerSavvy study course. $200 to take the Certified Beer Server test? Yes, I figure an investment like this will never go to waste (and it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than the $3400 I was paying per class for my graduate degree). Plus they tell me that by the end of the course, I’ll be able to:

• Properly store and pour draft and bottled beer
• Identify and describe popular beer styles
• Describe beer flavors with common food & taste terms
• Understand the levels and titles of the Cicerone Certification Program

(which in all reality if I’m a bartender I should be able to do anyway!)

For me, this course is more than just learning about beer. This is an opportunity to open up my career, also teach others who aren’t so knowledgeable about beer (like my mother) how to truly enjoy it and fall in love with beer all over again!

In order to celebrate (and get my beer fix) I went out to lunch with my girl friend Tina (who has already taken the first course) and enjoyed a delicious brown ale from Lost Coast. Now I know there’s some people (aka my mother) who don’t know what a brown ale is from, well, any kind of other beer, so I will try to simplify:

Lost Coast’s Downtown Brown is a smooth, medium bodied beer that has a slight taste of nuttiness and roasted malts, and only a hint of bitter. Very little head when poured and even less carbonation. To those who don’t understand, it’s a basic beer and goes down easy.

Lost Coast’s Downtown Brown (English Brown Ale 5% ABV)

Here’s to beginning the first round of the Cicerone Program. Salud!