Some of you may remember the commercial for a leading macro-lager showing someone wincing while drinking a competitive brand, making what was called a “bitter beer face.” This ad is ludicrous on so many levels. First of all, if you lined up all of the macro-lagers on a bar and tasted them, there is about as much difference between them as hamburgers from different McDonald’s locations. Secondly, “bitterness” is not a valid taste descriptor for any of the leading macros; there are barely enough hops in there to give the beer any character at all.

The real problem with this commercial is that it somehow tries to convince you that “bitter” flavor is a bad thing. These guys are trying appeal to your palate as if you were two years old. Yes, bitterness is a “bad thing” for most two year olds. It probably has something to do with our hard-wired “hunter-gatherer” operating systems, keeping the young’ins from eating potentially poisonous bitter berries. I guess if you want to be sure, go ask an anthropologist.

As we grow older and more adventurous, let’s hope we will take our taste buds on the journey. I admit that I have little patience with people that won’t try this or that for fear that it might taste bad… If it does, just spit it out! Grow up already! I am not talking about eating stuff like raw monkey brains or sheep’s eyeballs, I am talking about mainstream stuff, like fish, cheese, greens, nuts, coffee, tea, wine and of course beer. I also know there are many folks who cannot tolerate certain foods due to digestive issues or allergies — that’s different (Though the weak were usually the first ones eaten during a harsh winter).) I am talking about mamby-pamby food whimps! “Eeee-WWW! Does that have mustard on it?” Yeah, get over it!

Getting back to beer… Bitterness is an essential flavor for a majority of beer styles. Bitterness is what provides the refreshment and also is responsible for firing those dendrites and axions, delivering the beery enjoyment to your brain. The bitterness in beer is provided by the isomerized oils from the plant, Humulus Lupulus, commonly called hops. Sounds really technical huh? Not really…

The brewer basically throws in a bunch of hop flowers into the boil and lets them do their thing. Hop flowers really smell great when fresh; with some varieties smelling like citrus, pine, or even spice. If the hop flowers are allowed to boil longer than 15 minutes, the majority of their aromatics and lingering flavor are boiled-off. The resins from the flower remain and are “isomerized” by the heat of the boil. This chemical reaction manifests itself as bitterness, and at this point the varietal character of the hop nearly disappears, leaving only bitterness.

So the next time you are “hunting and gathering” fermented beverages in the grocer’s beer aisle, look for the IBU label. “What? Is that some kind of brewers union?” Actually IBU stands for International Bitterness Units. This number will clue you in on how bitter the beer will be. IBU numbers approaching 40 and above are considered bitter to most folks. Many craft brews proudly label their IBU’s. I have tasted brews well over 100 IBU and they are bitter indeed, but never enough to change my smile into a wince.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.