Muggus
Case swap whore
- Joined
- 9/7/07
- Messages
- 2,361
- Reaction score
- 15
G'day folks,
Gonna try and keep this short and sweet - for a change.
I do recall reading a book (name alludes me) from the late, great Michael Jackson (beer connoisseur, not the singing dude), who seemed to like to relate several beers, and beer styles, particularly Belgian, to styles of wine from across the world. Intrigued me a bit at the time, but without prior knowledge to the wines (or beers for that matter) in question I really had no frame of reference.
Now, a few years older, wiser, with a good base in the wine, as well as beer, I do kinda get what he's going on about, and do notice a few parallels between the two beverages...how certain styles of one can be related in some way to others by their characterstics, if not perhaps processes as welll....Eisbeer = eiswien perhaps?
Anyhow, I ponder this whilst randomly uncovering an old bottle of beer from my cellar. A bottle of what I called "Alpha Male Pale Ale". Bottled February 2008, this was undoubtedly the best APA/AAA I brewed to date, despite being an extract brew, and despite trying to replicate my recipe on numerous occasions....got a gold medal in the state comp along the line too.
This beer is STILL drinking quite well, hops are suprisingly fresh after over 3 1/2 years, and the malt character whilst starting to drop out texturely, still has a nice flavour. Whilst this is great, any other beers from that time are terrible, even APA's i've brewed that were decent, seem to be shite within a year!
I found the same thing with a Belgian dubbel that I brewed around the same time. Got a few awards too, and is as good as ever!
So my question is, like a great wine that will taste good young and with age, does beer have the same sort of potential?
And hey, if you wanna discuss what beer styles are like certain wine styles...whyne not! har har!
Cheers
Mugs
Gonna try and keep this short and sweet - for a change.
I do recall reading a book (name alludes me) from the late, great Michael Jackson (beer connoisseur, not the singing dude), who seemed to like to relate several beers, and beer styles, particularly Belgian, to styles of wine from across the world. Intrigued me a bit at the time, but without prior knowledge to the wines (or beers for that matter) in question I really had no frame of reference.
Now, a few years older, wiser, with a good base in the wine, as well as beer, I do kinda get what he's going on about, and do notice a few parallels between the two beverages...how certain styles of one can be related in some way to others by their characterstics, if not perhaps processes as welll....Eisbeer = eiswien perhaps?
Anyhow, I ponder this whilst randomly uncovering an old bottle of beer from my cellar. A bottle of what I called "Alpha Male Pale Ale". Bottled February 2008, this was undoubtedly the best APA/AAA I brewed to date, despite being an extract brew, and despite trying to replicate my recipe on numerous occasions....got a gold medal in the state comp along the line too.
This beer is STILL drinking quite well, hops are suprisingly fresh after over 3 1/2 years, and the malt character whilst starting to drop out texturely, still has a nice flavour. Whilst this is great, any other beers from that time are terrible, even APA's i've brewed that were decent, seem to be shite within a year!
I found the same thing with a Belgian dubbel that I brewed around the same time. Got a few awards too, and is as good as ever!
So my question is, like a great wine that will taste good young and with age, does beer have the same sort of potential?
And hey, if you wanna discuss what beer styles are like certain wine styles...whyne not! har har!
Cheers
Mugs