I had some preconceived notions that I’d be trying exotic brews with fancy flavors. My dreams were slowly brought back to reality as soon as I left the airport; my first sighting of anything beer related was a Heineken billboard. The second sighting was for Castle lager. Brewed by SABMiller, Castle is South Africa’s very own pilsner style lager and it actually tastes mass-produced if you can imagine.

The typical restaurant will have pages of fine wines available, differing at every establishment you visit. However, the beer menu seemed to be the same just about everywhere. I would find Heineken, Castle, Hansa, and a Namibian brew called Windhoek.

While talking to waiters and bartenders, I did not have gain much hope for the future of fine brewing in South Africa. For the bartender, everything was about the wine. Mixed drinks were a close second. Beer was a distant third priority, almost treated as an afterthought. Hansa was the bright spot for me because I found Hansa Marzen Gold to be surprisingly complex when compared to the other offerings.

In Cape Town’s defense, they are a city with a large tourist population. So maybe they are catering to the masses? I have heard rumors and whispers about the growing popularity of a brewing culture. If that is true, it has not yet reached the restaurant and nightlife scene.

To end with a practical note: In South Africa, like some other foreign countries, light beer means low alcohol content not low calories, so when traveling don’t assume light beers are made to keep you skinny.

This discovery was equal parts glorious and terrible. Glorious, because after removing most gluten-containing foods from my diet, my stomach went back to being happy. Terrible, because gluten is a key ingredient in pretty much every product containing wheat or barley. And you don’t have to be a genius to know this long list includes beer.

I was saved by a few things. First, the fact that gluten intolerance occurs in varying degrees of severity. My intolerance just so happens to be on the milder side (for some it can be a full-fledged intestinal Armageddon), so I can still enjoy small doses of gluten without discomfort. And second, that beer, while not a gluten-free beverage, is thankfully not a gluten saturated beverage. Oh happy day!

Anyway, on to the challenge. As the PHM’s resident (or token) “gluten-free expert,” I wanted to provide at least a little insight for our gluten intolerant readers out there. Namely by addressing the question: “Is there ANY good gluten-free beer out there?” While this challenge is certainly not exhaustive, I think it will at least provide a good platform for discussion and a good starting point for those looking for something to replace their (formerly) favorite brew.

The set-up: I did a little bit of initial research (mostly on glutenfreebeerfestival.com), but in the end it didn’t really matter. Between Whole Foods, Binny’s, Trader Joe’s, Jewel…and pretty much every other food or grocery store near me, I was only able to find four gluten-free beers. By default, these became my test subjects. Also, I decided against grading them on a letter scale, and opted instead to rank them against each other to see who would end up “king” of the bunch, so to speak. Without further ado, then…the results:

Lakefront New Grist

ABV: 5.75%

The only gluten-free beer (that I know of) that is being widely distributed by an American craft brewery. This stuff pours light…and I mean light. It looks more like a glass of champagne than beer, really. Highly carbonated and transparent. The only give away when looking at it is the small layer of froth that stays on the surface. A distinctly rice-filled scent. The taste is crisp and refreshing, yes…but that could be because it’s so watery. There’s a bit of rice flavor, and a weird sour tinge at the end. But seriously, I couldn’t pick up on any sort of malt or hop flavors. It’s a strange concoction, this one, and although I have to give it some grace for being unable to use regular malt, it still is fairly bland as beers go. Not the best start.

Rank: 3rd place

St. Peter’s Sorgham Beer

ABV: Unknown…I’d guess 4-5%

Not sure why St. Peter’s opted to name their beer “Sorgham Beer” and then describe it as “Beer made from sorghum”. Perhaps it’s a British thing. In any case, this beer is also on the lighter side, but has just enough of a reddish tinge to make me believe it’s beer and not wine. And thankfully, although there’s not much of a nose, I smell hops! Amarillo, to be exact. Also a slight buttery scent. After a few sips, I can safely say this is one of the better options out there. The mouthfeel is still fairly watery, but the slight bitterness from the hops is welcome indeed, and it actually pairs pretty well with the lightly toasted sorghum malt (I suppose that’s what that taste has to be). The little sour tinge is still there in the aftertaste…it must be a sorghum thing as well. Still, if you’re gluten intolerant, it’s sessionable.

Rank: 2nd place

Anheuser-Busch Redbridge

ABV: 4.8%

Leave it to the largest brewing company in the United States to get in on the action…and actually produce a “quality” product! Redbridge is touted as an American amber lager, and it actually looks the part. It smells the part, too…light toasted caramel and a distinct alcohol presence, actually. To be honest, if the bottle didn’t say “gluten-free beer”, you might never guess it. There’s a subtle metallic tinge in the taste, but it’s pretty well balanced and has a slight toasty maltiness. Tastes like regular beer! Which, I’m learning, is a good thing in the realm of the gluten-free. Some sourness from the sorghum at the end…but not much. All in all, an enjoyable offering. Note: like most of Anheuser-Busch’s beers, enjoy this one ice cold. Warmer does NOT mean better.

Rank: 1st place

Green’s Endeavour

ABV: 7%

The darkest of the brews, Green’s Endeavour poured a sort of murky red with a lot of froth. Apparently this is a “Dubbel Dark Ale”, but one whiff of the nose…and I was unsure whether I’d be tasting a beer or a glass of wine that was going bad. Scents of strong dark fruit and alcohol; not much else. Taste was the same…sweet, alcoholic, and intense. I literally felt like I was drinking a glass of grape juice concentrate that had sat uncovered for a week or two. No telltale “beer” characteristics to speak of (except for the alcohol). And the stuff is so pungent that you feel it in your nose as well as your throat when you swallow. Mouthfeel is syrupy and coating, and a strange tartness at the end made me grimace more than once. You might be gluten intolerant, but you still have pride. You’d be better off with a glass of port or madeira.

Rank: 4th place

So there you have it, hopheads; comments and suggestions welcome! Also, if anyone knows where I can get my hands on Ramapo Valley Brewery’s Passover Honey Beer, I would be forever in their debt.

Flavor Wheel courtesy of www.beerflavorwheel.com

When it comes to describing how beer tastes, adjectives are a dime a dozen. Has there ever been a defined vocabulary of taste from which to draw when considering beer? Well, sure. Recently I ran across this nifty flavor wheel over at the uber-accessible www.beerflavorwheel.com. It’s as good a breaker-downer of beer flavors as I’ve seen.

Feel free to click and download the image at right, or if you care about web chivalry, go visit the above link and download it from the source. Hopefully this will help any or all of you who are curious about beer flavors and want to increase your palate’s IQ.

Highlights include: piquant, meaty, beany, jam-like, and more…

Here is what I would like to do. If you have any questions, comments, or personal preferences about these flowers please submit your thoughts. It could be simple questions like, “what are hops” or “which hops have a grapefruit aroma/flavor?” You could also post a comment about the process of isomerization that takes place in during the boiling stage. I would just like to have some dialogue regarding this ingredient used in beer.

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I’ll kick things off by saying that tonight I sampled a Pale Ale that used 100% Ahtanum hops. I had never drunk a beer utilizing this variety before so naturally I had to give it a try.

It was rather interesting. The hop profile was light and floral with citrus and minor piney notes. The scent was close to tangerines (which I read in the beer’s bio and finally smelled for myself). They gave a lasting aftertaste, but did so in a mellow fashion. Ahtanum came across as a mildly bitter hop to the taste. Thank you Tim Marshall for that delightful experience!

Personally, I love Amarillo hops! I have found that they lend a wonderful grapefruit character to beers while giving a pleasant bitterness. I also enjoy Northern Brewer for their piney, woody quality and Saaz for the spicy, earthy notes they add.

I thought it would be interesting to explore some different beers that might go with Guinness. Below are the more commonly known mixtures:

• Guinness + Bass Ale = Black & Tan
• Guinness + Harp Lager = Half & Half
• Guinness + Blue Moon = Black & Blue
• Guinness + Smithwicks = Blacksmith
• Guinness + Newcastle = Black Castle
• Guinness + Strongbow Cider = Black Velvet

Feel free to come up with your own tasty combination and name it … then post your creation!

1. Brewpubs and Microbreweries trump all. Visiting a local restaurant that brews its own beer or a microbrewery with a taphouse will provide you with fresh, great tasting beer.
2. Read the label of a bottle before sampling. You don’t go into battle without taking into account your surroundings. Why would sampling beer be any different? Get the know the brew you are about to enjoy. Maybe even do some research on it. Sometimes the ingredients are on the label which will give your taste buds a point of reference.
3. Find a style you like and try all the breweries that offer that style. Once you find a style you enjoy, it’s time to hone your taste for that partiular style. I love Oatmeal Stouts, so I’ve sampled just about every one I could get my hands on. This way you know which brewery makes the best rendition of that style.
4. Get familiar with the brewery. Not all breweries are the same, believe it or not. Some brew a great range of beers, while others might be good at brewing a certain style. An example of this would be Capital Brewery, which brews great German style beers but is not known for its Pale Ale, unlike Sierra Nevada which brews hoppier beers.
5. Don’t be afraid to try something once. In trying different styles your tongue and palate learn to accept new flavors and pick out certain aspects in a beer. There are styles that I dislike, but will still try because my tastes evolve over time and I can still judge the beer according to its quality and whether it is true to style.
6. Realize that beer is a hobby: not your whole life. While drinking beer may be a social endeavor or even a serious hobby, it is important to keep a balanced perspective on life. When beer becomes more important than investing in the lives of those around you or becomes borderline addictive, it is probably time to take a break. Beer will always be around, so make sure you don’t let it become a controlling factor in your life. I’ve been guilty in the past of spending too much time and money on a hobby that literally ends up down the drain.
7. Home brewing helps to refine your tastes. Nothing beats creating a recipe, steeping the grain, smelling the hops during the boil and pitching the yeast and watching it work. You get a very intimate and gratifying feeling creating something with your own hands and then trying to prefect your craft. This has allowed me to be able to break a beer down into the four basic ingredients: hops, barley, yeast, and water while sampling and appreciating how they all come together.
8. Reviewing can ruin a good beer. I found if I wasn’t careful, the process of tasting, smelling, and writing/reviewing could rob me of the enjoyment of experiencing a good brew.
9. Beer exploration is a whole new world. The first time I went into a serious beer store I was overwhelmed with the variety of choices. I felt like a kid who went into a candy store for the first time.
10. Beer drinking has a dark underworld. I would have never imagined that “elite” beer drinkers (if I can use “elite” to describe beer) trade, stash and horde beer like drug dealers. When one guy described his beer “finds” I thought I was talking to a diamond smuggler!
11. Beer is a brotherhood. 2009 has been the first time I have truly delved into the world of beer. Naive in my approach, I have been pleasantly surprised by the community that surrounds and envelopes this drink. It is a culture, one of camaraderie, generosity and desire to see others enjoy life. Perhaps it sounds cheesy, but having a common interest, a shared passion, has brought me closer to those I knew and brought me into conversations with those I didn’t.
12. There is no better hobby than beer. Drinking it, writing about it, brewing it, sharing it, talking about it, buying it, photographing it. There is nothing so inclusive of so many aspects of life. My path into this hobby, stemmed truly more for my love for writing than for drinking, and yet with each beer I drink I realize how much more of a world there is. It’s as though the more I learn, understand and experience, the more I realize just how extensive this pastime can be.
13. Miller Lite is not the only beer out there. I know that sounds like a ridiculous statement but for most of my adult life that is the only beer I’ve reached for. Thanks to the introduction to homebrewing in 2009, my taste buds have uncovered an entire world of different beers: with flavor, texture, character, and aroma. The many intricacies of the combination of water, malted barley, hops and yeast is something I never imagined would interest me so much, or bring me so much enjoyment. It’s like eating spaghetti your whole life only to find out there are a million other cuisines that you’ve been missing out on. And to put it gently, its like I’ve been at the buffet of beer and there is no jerk manager telling me that “all you can eat” (or drink) is not supposed to be taken as a challenge.
14. Good tasting and satisfying beer CAN be made at home. All it takes is some basic equipment, a heating element, some ingredients, and in my case, a loving wife who actually enjoys the wonderful smell that flows throughout the house as the beer is being made on the stove. I specifically remember one evening when I opened my fridge to make a beer selection and waded through the variety of different brews only to happily decide on a bottle of pale ale that I myself had created. That is when this lesson hit home: I can do this, and I can do it well enough to prefer something I’ve made over something mass produced and paid for!
15. Patience. Since most of my beer experiences have a lot to do with making beer I must address this point. Beer is not something that can be rushed. About the only aspect of making a drinkable beer at home that can be expedited is the carbonation process. You can either dose the fermented beer with additional sugar and wait for the yeast to eat it thus creating carbonation, or as is my case many of the times, you can force carbonate the beer with a CO2 tank and keg. But even in that case, beer sometimes can suffer under this environment because often you will drink beer that has not had time to properly mature and round out flavors. My point? Nothing before its time. Beer has taught me patience. A different kind of patience than my almost five-year-old is constantly teaching me, but patience nonetheless. You can’t rush a good thing. Let it have its time. The rewards are great. Oh, and while you’re waiting for the first batch to ferment and or carbonate, brew another!
16. It takes a village. From conception to completion, this website has been a team endeavor. If there’s one thing to echo about 2009, it’s that a handful of dedicated, energetic individuals can really make things happen in a short amount of time. This, in my opinion, is some of the best the beer community has to offer: people that love beer but aren’t under its power, who want to help educate others, write reviews, and carry on like there’s no tomorrow. It’s hasn’t even been three full weeks yet, and the site has really grown!
17. Don’t judge a beer by its label. If you walk through the aisles of your local liquor or grocery store, you’ll see just how much of a variety there is in the beer world. I think at the heart of it, every brewer (besides the corporate giants) is looking to make something unique. Every brew has a reason behind it. This doesn’t mean you will enjoy every brew you taste, it just means that every brew has value to someone, somewhere. And probably multiple people. So, despite what it’s called, how it was brewed, what the ABV is, or what the label art looks like, be sure to ask yourself if you’re really out to stretch your horizons and expand your palette. If you’re serious about it, you’ll be courageous.

I think it’s pretty obvious that beer has been around a long time. It is more than a substance. It is more than a beverage option. It is a past time, an important variable in cultural and historical stories. Beer has been the cause of great trouble, helped starving masses endure hunger, caused people to make extremely rash decisions, benefited culinary pursuits, and progressed in form and function over hundreds of years. Today, beer plays an enormous role in Western life (that’s our immediate context, but it obviously plays a similar role in other parts of the world as well). “Mammoths” of the industry like Miller-Coors and Anheuser-Busch control a lot of the market share, and have all the money for sponsorship, advertising, etc. But there’s more to beer than marketing and money making.

At the root of beer reviewing, I think, is a desire for both preservation and revolution. People want to preserve time-honored traditions and also revolutionize the technology and process around beer and brewing. Essentially: we like to take the best that the past has to offer, and use it to change the future. This is a worldview that’s alive in niches all over the world. There are thousands upon thousands of craft breweries across the globe, where ordinary men and women are getting creative in their own unique cultures and contexts, brewing up concoctions and hoping to one day give the world a beer for the ages. Not every craft brewery or home brewer has it out for the big companies, most simply long to expand the beer horizons of the general public. After all, there is more taste out there than High Life. Or Milwaukee’s Best.

Here at The Perfectly Happy Man, we’re reviewing beer a) because it’s something we already think about, b) we’re extremely interested in building up the existing community around beer, and c) we recognize beer as a unique tradition and want to do our part to make that tradition accessible to people who may be on the fence, or may have the curiosity but not the direction. Some of us have been tasting and reviewing beer longer than others: that shows in the reviews, and our diversity is something we’re proud of and will continue to showcase. After all, the best way to expand your knowledge of a thing is to make intentional steps to evaluate and discuss it.

Another reason we’re reviewing beer is because we want to support responsibility. A lot of people drink beer poorly. Many people have dangerous dispositions towards the stuff. When abused, beer is vile. The Perfectly Happy Man isn’t about “beer at all costs.” Rather, it’s about treating people sensibly, and enjoying a thing within the context of responsible living.

So I guess that’s a little bit about why we’re reviewing beer. We love the people, we love the variety, we love the innovation.

Cheers, hopheads!