Thirsty weather
Some beer can offer full flavour even when consumed very cold on a warm summer’s day.
HOT. VERY hot. Thank god for beer. Cold beer. Quaffable, thirstquenching, very cold beer.
There’s a reason ice-cold lagers are a preferred summer drink.
When you really chill beer, like down to about 0-2°C, it dampens down a lot of the volatile esthers and hop aromas that you’d find in well-made craft ales. Because they’re made with a lighter malty base and fermented differently, lagers have fewer esthers and aromas and therefore having them really, really cold doesn’t obscure characteristics you’re looking for.
It’s also why some internationalstyle lagers are incredibly bland – I’m thinking of your American Budweiser, Corona, and some of the Australian beers (they’d drink them frozen if they could).
But it is possible to find great lagers, that can not only be consumed super-cool but also offer some flavour to make sure you know you’re still drinking beer.
I started thinking about this topic when a bloke at work came up one (hot) Friday evening and tongue in cheek asked to consult the ‘‘beer guru’’ about an economical Kiwi craft alternative to Heineken.
Given we’re in Karangahape Rd, where the bottle stores are a bit like the hookers, the range of craft beer is not at the top end but I was sure he’d be able to find the welldistributed Stoke range and recommended he look for Stoke Gold. After being met with a ‘‘never heard of it’’ look at one establishment, he eventually found some, brought it back and proclaimed it a damn fine drop, with good flavour and crisp bitterness that left a ‘‘give me more’’ aftertaste.
Epic makes its name these days for its strong, hopfuelled beers and while Epic Lager is relatively tame compared with some of its stablemates, it’s a classy example of a flavoursome, snappy lager.
Finally, if you’re looking for a really well-made Kiwi alternative to that mass-produced Mexican lolly water that comes with a lemon shoved down its neck then look out for Three Boys’ Tres Amigos.
Unless you can read Spanish you’ll have no idea what the label says but I reckon it says something about the flavour of Mexico, drinking it cold, shoving a lemon down its neck (so assume drink straight from the bottle), have it on a hot day after chopping the grass and use it to bring a blistering summer day to a happy conclusion.
Actually, I’m making this up but that’s basically how I enjoyed it and it worked.It was crisp and dry but with a nutty malt base that gave it way more flavour than Corona. And it made me feel good at the end of a hot day.