Beer

Childhood memories. . . I remember the excitement of seeing beautifully groomed Clydesdale horses pulling the Kronenbrau 1308 beer wagon at the local agricultural show in Dundee. Their horse brasses jangled, their huge hooves clopped. At the reins of this wagon laden with barrels, a man in lederhosen! And it takes just one twang of a guitar string for me to sing the radio jingle: "Icy cold, rich and gold, down a Lion - feel satisfied!" I grew up in KwaZulu-Natal where Lion Ale was the popular brew of choice. My dad was a Lion man and hence, when I was deemed old enough to enjoy a very weak beer shandy, it was the first brew I tried.

I've since had all manner of beers - Italian, French, American, Mexican, Portuguese, Spanish, Australian, Mozambican (aaah, Dos M. . .), Dutch, Belgian and German.

The 2006 edition of Hotel & Restaurant magazine's Alcoholic Beverage Review notes that the first six spots of the top 40 alcoholic beverage brands in SA all belong to beer - South African Breweries products specifically. SAB sells more than 80% of all the alcoholic beverages consumed locally every year - and their sales run to billions of rands annually ($300 million according to Marketingweb figures). So what are the top six? Carling Black Label, Hansa Pilsener, Castle Lager, Amstel Lager, Castle Lite and Castle Milk Stout.

Other beers on the Top 40 list are Windhoek Lager in 15th spot, Heineken in 22nd and Windhoek Light in 34th. The first wine on the list is Original Paarl Perlé (27th), followed by Nederburg (37th), with Drostdy-Hof and Autumn Harvest Crackling in 39th and 40th spot respectively.

Some 2 450 million litres of beer were consumed in 2005/6, with Miller Genuine Draft, Pilsner Urquell and Castle Lite all growing by 30% year on year.

In March, Heineken announced that it was withdrawing SAB's licence to brew Amstel for them in South Africa - perhaps because the stats showed that Amstel had demonstrated significant growth and loyalty ahead of certain SAB brands (four in 10 beer drinkers preferred Amstel according to figures on the Marketingweb site). Nett result was that Amstel has been in short

supply, but Heineken has since let on that it will be brewing Amstel in its own South African plant within two years...

This set us to thinking: how about doing a blind beer tasting and applying a wine tasting methodology? So we roped in two beer fundis - Atholl Mitchell of Mitchell's Brewery in the V&A Waterfront and Astrid Bredenkamp, brewing technical trainee of SAB in Newlands. Assisting them were Boela Gerber, Groot Constantia winemaker, and Donald Keys, MD of JP Bredell Wines in Stellenbosch, who also enjoy a frosty now and again. And chairing the crew was WINE's deputy editor, Christian Eedes, known in his advertising copywriting days as Captain Carling. "What can I say? The company pub had it for free, they were one of our clients, and I was a thirsty boy!"

 

The tasting

Regrettably, one of the beers not included in this exercise was the one which caused the stir - because no Amstel was commercially available when the line-up was assembled!

"I find wine people tend to pick up beer tasting quite quickly and easily because of their familiarity with isolating flavours and describing them," said Mitchell. "A lager is like a white wine - light in body, colour and aroma - while the ales and bitters are very much like red wines - fuller, richer, more aroma and flavour."

Mitchell was outspoken about lager being "a weak excuse for a beer…" adding that "if you walk into a pub in Europe or the United Kingdom and ask for the best local beer, it'll invariably be an ale or a bitter".

Bredenkamp was a little hesitant to rate 20 beers.

"We usually do between five and 10 at the most when doing a technical tasting." Even the other panellists, who wouldn't hesitate to taste 50 wines in one sitting, were a tad apprehensive - they'd been briefed that swallowing and not spitting was involved!

"It's important to swallow because that's where the perception of a beer's bitterness comes from," Bredenkamp pointed out.

"But I'm really looking forward to this," Gerber admitted. "Beer is something we drink without thinking about it too much. I'm keen to learn a bit more and to compare how the different beers taste."

Chirp of the evening belonged to Keys: "People shouldn't think I drink a lot of beer just because I'm fat!" He asked about chill-filtering and the Rheinheitsgebot, but it turned out he knew a fair amount about beer, and expressed a preference for Dutch and Belgian brews.

Their insights after tasting - and swallowing - the range of lager, light and draught beers? "Flavour is not irrelevant," said Eedes. "I'm really impressed by this exercise," said Gerber. "I had no idea that these beers tasted as different as they do. We all tend to think that 'beer is beer is beer' - but this proves that's not the case."

The only 4 Star rating was awarded to Pilsner Urquell, on the basis of both its flavour and body.

The newly launched Marzen Gold which appears under the Hansa label was popular, impressing with its bold flavour. Cobra alcohol-free provided the biggest surprise - again on the basis of its flavour. Bredenkamp's comment: "This tastes exactly like the Newlands brewery smells - malty!"

The draught beers suffered from being in bottle rather than on tap, so their poor performance was excused. The consensus on light beers was: "Why bother?" Bredenkamp shared the inside information that Castle Lite is not some alternative spelling dreamed up by a marketing guru, but actually stands for "Low In Total Energy". It's not the alcohol that is the issue with this beer (because it clocks in at 4% versus the other light beers at 2.4% and 2.5% respectively) but in calorie count… so it's better for the waistline, not the hangover!

Lager

Marzen Gold
Approximate Retail Price:
R31.40 (6 Pack) Alcohol: 5.2%
Floral fruity nose. A rich and malty beer with some smoky, nutty character. Nice bitterness. Delicious.
Dk 16 Bg 14 Am 17 Ab 14 Ce 16

Cobra
Alcohol Free
Approximate Retail Price: R29 (4 Pack)

Beck's
Approximate Retail Price:
R36.90 (6 Pack) Alcohol: 5%

Stella Artois
Approximate Retail Price: R53.94 (6 Pack)
Alcohol: 5.2%

Castle
Approximate Retail Price:
R28.99 (6 Pack) Alcohol: 5%

Cobra
Approximate Retail Price:
R32.99 (4 Pack) Alcohol: 5%

Peroni
Approximate Retail Price:
R22 (4 Pack) Alcohol: 5,1%

Windhoek
Approximate Retail Price:
R29.90 (6 Pack) Alcohol: 4%

Heineken
Approximate Retail Price:
R37.80 (6 Pack) Alcohol: 5%

Corona
Approximate Retail Price:
R69.99 (6 Pack) Alcohol: 4.6%

Also Tasted

Carling
Black Label
Approximate Retail Price: R26.50 (6 Pack)
Alcohol: 5,5%

Tafel
Approximate Retail Price:
R29 (6 Pack) Alcohol: 4%

Bavaria
Approximate Retail Price:
R31.90 (6 Pack) Alcohol: 5%

Light Lager

Windhoek Light
Approximate Retail Price: R29.90 (6 Pack)
Alcohol: 2.4%

Also Tasted

Sterling
Light
Approximate Retail Price: R27.99 (6 Pack)
Alcohol Level: 2.5%

Castle Lite
Approximate Retail Price:
R31.99 (6 Pack) Alcohol: 4%

Pilsner

Pilsner Urquell
Approximate Retail Price: R37.50 (6 Pack)
Alcohol: 4.4%
Bold hop nose. Palate is strong, rich and full bodied, but dry and refreshing. Good strong bitterness and a caramelized malt character. Complex and pleasing.
Dk 16 Bg 18 Am 15 Ab 15 Ce 16

Hansa Pilsener
Approximate Retail Price: R26.40 (6 Pack)
Alcohol: 4.5%

Draught

Miller
Approximate Retail Price:
R31.90 (6 Pack) Alcohol: 4.7%

Mitchell's Forrester's
Approximate Retail Price: R47.96 (4 Pack)
Alcohol: 4.3%

Prices: beers in each star category listed in order of ascending price per pack of 6 or 4 bottles.

Beer Tasters: managing director of JP Bredell Wines Donald Keys (Dk), Groot Constantia winemaker Boela Gerber (Bg), brewmaster Atholl Mitchell of Mitchell's Brewery (Am), Sab brewing technical trainee Astrid Bredenkamp (Ab), with WINE magazine deputy editor Christian Eedes (Ce).

WHAT'S WHAT
Rheinheitsgebot
Literally translated this means "purity requirement"and in brewing terms means the use of traditional beer-making ingredients such as water, hops, yeast and malt made from barley, rather than other types of grain.

Chill-filtering
Filtering beer at 0 degrees Centigrade to remove any yeast cells or particulate matter that could cause a haze or cloudiness.

Hop or Saaz hop
The particular kind of hop that is used as a flavour-ing agent to add the distinctive bitterness to beer.