Beer goes back to the
very roots of civilisation.
Some anthropologists
suggest that beer was
discovered earlier than
bread. Many cultures
across every continent
brew and enjoy their own
unique style of beer.
World of Hei nelten 37 Winter 2007/2008
of a beer
natural
endless
With such a rich cultural history, you would expect that
beer drinkers are a fussy lot. And they are. Whether
they are casual consumers or connoisseurs, beer
drinkers around the world know what they want, and
what they want is a good beer. But despite the fact that
beer is brewed using only four essential ingredients
(barley malt, hops, water and yeast), the attributes that
determine a beer's individual character, such as colour
and temperature, are as varied as the people who
enjoy drinking beer, and defining what constitutes the
perfect glass of beer is surprisingly difficult.
A good head
A famous example of this is the crucial difference
between a Dutch beer and a British one. "In the
Netherlands, pub-goers expect a two-finger thick head,
and the foam has to be stable," says Lex Ronteltap,
Innovation Manager. "In the UK, on the other hand, a
glass must contain the right beer volume, with a very
thin foam head. Otherwise, the customer will reject it."
In short, British drinkers will think that they're not
getting enough beer if there's a foam head, while
Dutch drinkers will think that the beer is flat if it's
not capped with frothy white bubbles. But even this
well-known fact about the beer world isn't always true;
- :-; 7m
some beers, such as stout, will be required to have a
thick foam head, even in the UK.
Both the British beer and the Dutch beer are modest
compared to the thick, creamy head on a well-served
Austrian beer. "The foam head plays a big role in
Austrian beer culture," says Giinther Seeleitner,
Brewery Manager at Zipfer in Upper Austria. "For the
typical Austrian drinker, a beautiful beer has a foam
head that is three or four centimetres below the
lip of the glass and rises three or four centimetres
above it. In total a good foam head is about six to
eight centimetres high, above and below the lip of the
glass."
It's not just height that counts in Austria, he adds, but
shape and consistency: a good Austrian beer head
has distinct steps in it. "Here, a good beer is poured
in three stages: you tap the beer, let the foam head
subside, tap again, let that subside, and then tap again,
resulting in a step-like formation in the foam," says
Seeleitner. An Austrian "stepped" beer is tapped in
about four minutes.
In Germany, meanwhile, it can sometimes take up to
seven minutes to tap a beer, as bartenders serve the
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