MAKING SENSE OF BEER
Amy’s palate is second to none
"I’ve always been interested in food. Mum and Dad enjoyed cooking, and my brother and sister both became chefs, so growing up I was immersed in what flavours go together and the tastes of different cuisines.
When I was four years old, my parents took my siblings and I on a trip to the UK, Europe and the US. Even though I was only four, I still remember trying whelks in Wales and unsalted butter for the first time in Paris. And I’ve always liked beer!
I trained as a teacher and spent four years teaching English in Japan. Living in Kyoto, my weekends were spent cycling around, discovering amazingly peaceful temples. On my rides, I’d often stop in at a tea house where old Japanese ladies in kimonos would prepare a hot bowl of pastel green Matcha (tea) and a small sweet red bean cake, the perfect combination.
At nights, I’d go to karaoke or drink by the canal and let off fireworks.
My brother died when I was in Japan, so I came home and completed my science degree which I had started at uni, majoring in sensory science.
Afterwards, I got a job at Plant and Food where my lecturers became my bosses. I was heavily involved with the hop breeding programme and spent quite a bit of time in Motueka where they breed and grow the hops.
I met my husband Efflam at Plant and Food. I guess we bonded over our taste buds. He’s French, so he’s a wine drinker. I don’t like wine, it’s far too acidic for me, although perhaps it’s just that I can’t afford really good wine! Efflam wasn’t a great fan of beer, but I’ve sort of initiated him and now he loves it, which is a bit unfortunate really. I used to be able to buy something that I thought looked yummy or interesting and pop it in the fridge, knowing it would be there when I felt like drinking it... not any more!
There are definitely beer snobs, but they’re not quite the same as wine snobs – it’s more about consumers getting hung up on a certain brand rather than the brewers, whereas it’s probably the opposite with wine. And yes, there is a stereotypical craft beer drinker. I’m working on the beer belly – I’m not the size I used to be, but then I’ve also had two kids, Charlotte
(7) and five-year-old Olive – although I don’t have the beard! Sadly beer is fattening, especially some of the beers with higher alcohol percentages.
A 500ml bottle of Indian Pale Ale that’s seven per cent is probably more than a meal’s calorie allowance.
When you’re judging beer, you’re looking for freshness, mouth feel, aroma, balance, flavour, appearance – the same things wines are judged on. In fact, the beer and wine wheels have a lot of crossovers; we use similar descriptors such as grassy, lemon, citrus and tropical.
There are all sorts of glasses that are meant to accentuate the flavours and textures of different beers but I don’t think they do necessarily. Tasters use tulip-shaped wine glasses. I’ve had some funny looks from bar people when I ask for beer in a wine glass – you can see them roll their eyes – but they trap the aroma and you get the whole experience.
You don’t spit when you’re tasting beer because the mouth feel and bitterness need to go right down the back of the palate. This year, I tasted somewhere between 110 and 120 beers over two days. I’d generally have around 30 or 40ml of each beer. How do
I feel afterwards? Well, you wouldn’t want to drive. You’re not drunk... it’s just a nice warm feeling.
As for my own beer brewing skills, I made beer during my hop research work, but it’s actually really hard to make a good beer, especially if you’re a home brewer and you’ve just got the basics.
You need exactly the right
‘ I’ve had some funny looks from bar people when I ask for beer in a wine glass’
temperature for fermentation and you need everything to be so clean and absolutely sterilised. Brewing is mostly about cleaning and I’m not a huge fan of that. It’s fun to produce something, but if at the end you can’t drink it, it can be a pretty unsatisfactory experience!
And the next big thing? I think it will be sour beers and barrel-aged beers... Oh, and craft gin.”