10 embarrassing questions about beer: beer expert Alexander Savitsky answers

In a new series of articles, experts answer questions that are usually embarrassing to ask: it seems that everyone already knows about it, and the questioner will look stupid.

Let's start with beer. Alexander Savitsky knows everything about him. He told the life hacker about why they don’t get fat from foam, whether the container affects the taste of the drink, and where the bubbles come from. Answers to some questions you can turn into a toast.

1. Why does beer foam?

It's just very happy to see you. But boring scientists say that this is due to the interaction of carbon dioxide and proteins dissolved in the drink. Therefore, by the way, wheat varieties usually foam more: there is more protein in wheat, and its concentration is higher in the final drink.

Many factors influence the beer's foam: the correctness of production processes, the concentration of polyphenols, the amount of bitter substances released by hops, the strength of the drink, the presence of non-standard ingredients in it, and even purity utensils.

Foam is one of the indicators of the quality of beer. However, its absence or rapid disappearance does not mean at all that you have a low-quality drink in front of you.

2. Is it true that beer makes your stomach grow? Or are there varieties that do not make you fat?

Beer in this case is like a mafia boss: everything happens precisely from his supply, but he seems to have nothing to do with it.

I explain: the belly becomes more solid not so much because of the beer, but because of the snack. Beer is the same source of energy and substances as many others. types of food.

The energy value of the most popular variety of modern beer - lager - is about 40-50 kilocalories per 100 milliliters. Some of them are responsible for 3-4 grams of carbohydrates.

It turns out that in a half-liter glass there are only 15–20 grams of carbohydrates and 200–250 kilocalories.

It's not that much compared to a typical beer snack. 100 grams of chips contain approximately 500 kilocalories and 50-70 grams of carbohydrates. A similar serving of french fries is about 250 kilocalories and 30-40 grams of carbohydrates. So the stomach usually grows not from beer, but from excessively high-calorie food to it.

Well, the abuse of any alcohol, in principle, can lead to disruption of important processes in the body, including metabolism. And this is a common reason. weight gain.

Do not abuse beer and snacks, move more, then the weight will be normal.

3. Live beer is called so because it is healthier?

Or because someone manages to talk to him... Actually, no, of course.

The phrase "live beer" means that live yeast has been preserved in the drink. That is, the beer did not go through the processes of pasteurization (short-term heating) and fine filtration, which allegedly "kill" the drink.

There is an opinion that live beer, that is, unpasteurized, is healthier, tastier or better than pasteurized. This is a stereotype partly reinforced by popular beer myths.

Modern pasteurization technologies do not change the flavor of mass-produced varieties of beer to such an extent that the difference is drastic.

Of course, under certain conditions, the presence or absence of active yeast in the beer can affect appearance, aroma and taste of the drink, but the level of its usefulness or harmfulness does not is changing.

In any case, today “live beer” is a fairly hackneyed marketing term like the inscriptions “no cholesterol” or “does not contain GMOs”.

4. Does hot beer help with colds and is it harmful to heat it?

I immediately remembered the phrase from the joke: “maybe it won’t help, but it definitely won’t hurt.” Warm drink, according to doctors, is in principle useful for colds. This drink may well be dark beers: porters, stouts, dunkels and dubbels. You can also take light, but it is better for him to be denser, otherwise it will not be very pleasant to drink it.

I will not argue that heated beer is healthier. tea or another hot drink, but it is unlikely that it will be possible to harm yourself with moderate consumption.

The beer itself will not become more harmful from heating, it will simply change the flavor and aroma characteristics. It will become softer due to the removal of carbon dioxide.

5. Which beer is better: in a can or glass, draft or bottled?

The one that is fresher is better, and the container does not matter much. It is important how the beer was stored.

Beer of the same type in a can, bottle and keg in most cases does not have differences, as it is bottled from the same source.

Although technically the draft version of the variety (packed in plastic and metal kegs) can be pasteurized a little differently than beer in cans and bottles. But there will be no difference between the content for the consumer.

And then it all depends on the conditions of transportation and storage: beer may well change its taste if it has experienced too low or too high temperatures, if it has been under the rays of light for a long time.

For the draft version, it is very important what condition the beer supply system in the bar, restaurant or shop is in: whether the storage temperature is observed, whether the hoses and taps are washed regularly, whether the gas supply is set correctly and etc.

6. Why do they say that in the USSR there was real beer, and now there is only powder? What is powdered beer anyway, is it like "Yuppie"?

Powder beer is a myth. It appeared, perhaps, due to the use of pelleted hops in breweries, which from a distance can look like a powder.

In addition, beer production often contains various powdery substances: for example, a sedimentary rock called diatomaceous earth, which has long been widely used to filter beer.

One way or another, even the cheapest beer is made from grain. It has always been like this: before the USSR, in the Soviet period, and now.

Of course, there are concentrated versions of beer wort in liquid (almost always) or even powdered (very rare) sight.

But to produce beer on an industrial scale exclusively from such raw materials is not an economically viable undertaking. After all, in order to get a wort concentrate, this wort must first be brewed from grain, which means that it is not free resources to spend on this.

Despite numerous attempts, modern science has not yet offered the world a cheap powder, which could be diluted with water and get a drink indistinguishable from brewed and fermented beer.

7. Is beer called craft to sell better? Or is this beer really something different from the usual one?

Both statements are true in their own way. Like “live beer”, the term “kraft” has long been adopted by marketers of many breweries far from experimental brewing, promoting their products with its help.

However, they have every right to do so: the concept of "craft» in our country there is neither an official nor even an informal clear definition.

There is some ephemeral understanding that craft beer is something non-mass, non-standard, focused not only on making money, but also on creative self-realization.

However, any of these points can be easily found a counterexample, once again proving that craft beer is the most subjective concept.

8. What rumbles in the banks? Why is the ball in there?

It's a widget, a nitrogen capsule. It can be found, in particular, in cans of Guinness Draft beer. At first glance, this is very simple, but in reality it is cunning and in its own way ingenious patented invention.

Its task is to make a portion of beer poured from a can look and feel exactly the same as if it was served to you in a bar straight from the tap.

The special design of the ball, coupled with the technology of pouring beer into a can, allows you to get a characteristic foam cap and the famous "avalanche effect", when bubbles cascade from top to bottom along the inner surface glasses.

By the way, some domestic beer producers also tried to master the technology for producing beer with nitrogen capsules, although not very successfully.

9. Is there alcohol in non-alcoholic beer? And how do you remove alcohol from non-alcoholic beer?

A small amount of alcohol in non-alcoholic beer is still present - no more than 0.5%. No longer allowed by law.

Production technologies non-alcoholic beer some. There are those that aim to remove alcohol from the finished drink: this can be done, for example, by evaporating the alcohol under vacuum or subjecting the beer to a membrane filtration process. There is another approach when fermentation is forcibly stopped when a small concentration of alcohol is reached. or even ferment loose beer wort with special strains of yeast that produce almost no alcohol.

In any case, non-alcoholic varieties are, in my opinion, also real beer, just with a very low alcohol content.

10. How to understand the taste of beer from the label: is it bitter, sour or salty?

Usually the label indicates the style in which it is brewed. beer. Often there is some separate information about the flavoring properties of the drink.

Understanding the beer styles and knowing their differences from each other, you can understand what to expect from a particular variety.

For example, a noticeable bitterness can be expected from a pilsner and an IPA; from Weizen and Weissbier - fruity-spicy aromatics; from modern sours and some specific Belgian styles - acidity in taste; from the classic gose - a sour-salty profile with notes of coriander (unless, of course, this is the now popular tomato version of the style).

If experience and "drinking" is not enough, you can always google a list of styles BJCP and learn the key characteristics of almost all varieties of beer.