Category Archives: Beer

Photo credit: Cathay Pacific

The summer travel season will be upon us again soon and for many that means air travel. Anyone brave enough to face the line at TSA deserves more than just a tiny bag of pretzels and a half cup of soda. They deserve a cold, refreshing beer. But, though airlines often tout the quality of their food (in first class, of course) and wine selection, quality beer is often jettisoned in favor of low flavor national brands.

A quick online search of the major American airlines will provide a look at what is offered in the friendly skies. And, though things are looking better for the craft beer lover than it did several years ago, the choice is still sparse. Take American airlines for instance, a recent flight found four mass produced brews and just two craft brews – Sam Adams Boston Lager and New Belgium Voodoo  Ranger Lager. With the most craft beers is JetBlue. Fliers on that airline can choose from Angry Orchard Hard Cider, Brooklyn Lager, Sam Adams Oktoberfest and Lagunitas Pale Ale. Delta has taken to providing a regional craft beer on some of their flights.

There’s another problem frequent flyers who happen to enjoy good beer have to deal with; the difference in taste. Yes, beer tastes different when you are over six miles up in the sky. The reason for this is the very low humidity and pressurization in the airplane’s cabin.

The very dry air also dries out your sinuses and causes your taste buds to temporarily become less sensitive to salty and sweet flavors. The loss of your ability to sense sweetness tends to cause bitter flavors to become more pronounced.

The altitude also reduces the carbonation in beer. Less atmospheric pressure equates to less carbon dioxide bubbles. Lower carbonation, like dryer air, leads to degradation of flavor.  Beer that feels flat tends to lose a great deal of its mouthfeel and along with that its appeal. The right amount of carbonation in beer leads to its refreshing, crisp flavor. Flat beer tastes dull and lifeless.

One airline, albeit not an American airline, has tried to overcome the short-comings of beer at altitude. Cathay Pacific, a Hong Kong-based airline, has created Betsy, a beer specifically formulated to taste great even at 35,000 feet.

The brew is served on the airline’s flights between Hong Kong and the United Kingdom using ingredients from both countries. Ingredients like dragon’s eye fruit lend sweetness and textural enhancements while honey amps up the sweetness a bit more to fight the bitterness brought out by the dry pressurized air of an airliner’s cabin. The addition of British Fuggles hops rounds out the flavor with a pleasing earthiness.

Other airlines have made forays into making beer better while flying. Danish brewers Mikkeller have teamed up with Scandinavian Air to create a beer that is enjoyable in the air. And Dutch airline KLM struck deal with Heineken to serve draft beer in first class. For this the brewery and airline had to work together to create a new to send beer to the tap since pressurized CO2 is far too dangerous to use on an airplane.

So, as you head out on your travels this year, you may want to check with the airline to see if you can expect to enjoy your flight a bit more or just more of the same ol’ thing.

Photo credit: Dujour.us

Though they were not the originators of beer, the German people embraced the drink with a passion akin to obsession. Because of their love of the stuff, beer and Germany are inextricably intertwined in the collective consciousness of the entire world. Traditions sprang up around the consumption of beer, some commonplace like bier gartens and bier fests and as esoteric as using bierstacheln.

Wait, bierstacheln?

Bierstacheln, or beer spikes, are red hot metal pokers – pubs and taverns often used loggerheads, a common tool for 19^th century shipbuilders – to rapidly warm beer that was too cold. In the process, the sugars in the beer became caramelized and carbonation was decreased leaving a sweeter, smoother beer. The spikes were also used to warm up other drinks such as toddies and a unique beer cocktail known as a flip that contained beer, rum, sugar and sometimes egg and cream. Disturbingly, the spikes were reportedly used to cauterize wounds, too.

According to German beer website, was-mit-bier.de, “Beer spikes were invented by blacksmiths in the Middle Ages. If their after-work beer was too cold for them, they briefly dipped a glowing poker into it. So they could quickly bring their beer to drinking temperature after hard work.”

The best beers to use bierstacheln with are bock beers. First brewed in the northern German town of Einbeck in the 14^th century, bock beer quickly became a favorite in the southern German city of Munich. Because of the differing accent of southern German speech, the origin city of Einbeck was pronounced “ein bock” a phrase that referred to a billy goat. As the heavy, malty and highly alcoholic lager grew in popularity the name stuck and brewers often included a goat on the label as a bit of visual humor.

Bock beer gave rise to several variations; dopplebock, literally double bock, is a stronger version of bock at 7% to 12%; maibock is a lighter, yet still strong version; eisbock is a version that is froen to remove some of the water and raise the alcohol content; and finally weizenbock is a wheat version of the brew.

For the purpose of beer poking, the darker versions of bock are the best as are stouts, browns and porters.

The practice of beer poking – some American breweries call it gustungling, but I could not find a translation for the word – has become something of a novelty in the U.S., particularly at breweries in the colder climates of the country.

Minnesota seems to be the epicenter of American beer poking with both Fitger’s Brewhouse and Lake Superior Brewing poking their beers for several years now. But, it was Strange Land Brewery in Austin, Tx. that made headlines when it held a beer poking in 2017.

While sticking a hot poker in your beer may not sound like something you might want to try here in the warm climate of Florida. The novelty of how it might bring new flavors from beer is appealing. Just be sure to not attempt this technique after too many beers or you may end up cauterizing yourself wound or not.

Minnesota has been ground zero for the phenomenon. Fitger’s Brewhouse and Lake Superior Brewing have been giving bocks the brûlée treatment at their joint Bockfest for some years, and just last month, Northbound Smokehouse offered patrons the chance to warm up their Eisbock with red-hot Rebar.