15 beer myths explored

15 most popular beer myths
Check out our discussion of them as well.

I'll give you the text as well.

Myth #1 – Dark Beer is Heavy

Couldn’t be further from the truth, folks. Colour in beer comes purely from the grain used in its creation, with darker beers containing more toasted or roasted barley malt and paler beers containing less or no darker malts. And roasting malt doesn’t make it heavier or more caloric.

Myth #2 – Ale is Stronger than Lager

The funny thing about this popular North American myth is that Brits think the exact opposite, with the perception in the U.K. being that way because best bitters normally sit around 4% alcohol by volume and lagers generally come in around 5%. The truth is that alcohol comes from the amount of sugars provided for fermentation and has nothing to do with whether that fermentation takes place at warmer (ale) or cooler (lager) temperatures.

Myth #3 – Beer Makes You Fat

Inactivity and bad diet make you fat. Beer, when enjoyed in moderation and as part of balanced lifestyle, doesn’t.

Myth #4 – Stout is a “Meal in a Glass”

Most stouts are no more caloric or filling than the yellow lager many people knock back by the pint on a Saturday night. The reason we think otherwise is because we expect something that has a very dark colour to be richer than something that’s pale. See Myth #1.

Myth #5 – Bock is Brewed Each Spring After the Brewing Tanks are Cleaned

This one is so prevalent that it even made it into the pages of the landmark Time-Life book series, “Foods of the World,” in the “Wine and Spirits” volume. The idea is that the brewer cleans his or her tanks once a year and ferments the gunk scraped off the sides into a beer called bock. Suffice to say that any brewer who did this once wouldn’t be in business long enough to do it again. (Bock is simply a Germanic style of strong lager, likely originating in the town of Einbeck, from which the corruption “bock” was formed.)

Myth #6 – Cold-Filtering

Here’s one from the marketing geniuses behind the big breweries. Simply, all beer is cold-filtered, since only a fool would run their beer through a “hot filter,” even if such a thing did exist in a brewery. What the use of this phrase is really saying, usually, is that the beer is not pasteurized, as are many of the world’s biggest selling brands.

Myth #7 – Draught Gets You Drunk Faster than Bottled Beer (or Vice Versa)

Here’s what gets you drunk: Alcohol. Whether it comes from bottled or draught beer, wine, cocktails or straight spirits doesn’t matter.

Myth #8 – Imported Beer is Better than Domestic Beer

Almost every brewer exporting his or her beer to a foreign destination exploits this myth at one time or another, whether implicitly or explicitly. But that fact remains that beer from any given country is not necessarily going to be better than that from another, as witnessed by some of the great beers I’ve tasted from non-traditional brewing countries like Italy and Brazil, or some of the poor ones I’ve had from brewing powers like England and Belgium.

Myth #9 – Wine is More Complex Than Beer

Give me a break! I enjoy wine as much as the next drinker, and I appreciate the complexities and nuances of a truly fine zinfandel or sauvignon blanc, but how can a drink made from a single ingredient, grapes, be necessarily more complex in flavour than one made from a minimum of water, malt and hops and an almost limitless diversity of other ingredients? Ever find coriander or cumin notes in a wine? No? Well, you can in a beer.

Myth #10 – “That Beer I Had last Night Made Me Sick”

Maybe the scallops you ate at dinner made you sick, or perhaps you picked up a contaminant from somewhere else or simply drank too much. But being a boiled and fermented alcoholic beverage, the chances of a beer causing illness is very, very, very slight.

Myth #11 – Fruit Beers Are “Girly Beers”

Get it straight: Hops only started being used in brewing about 1,000 to 1,200 years ago. Up until then, for at least five millennia, beer was flavoured with a wide variety of spices, herbs and, yes, fruits. In fact, archeological research has shown that King Tut drank fruit beer, and he was one dude you could hardly consider “girly.”

Myth #12 – Ales Are Necessarily Better Than Lagers

This common though misguided beer aficionado myth stems largely from the fact that most major brewery brands are lagers, and the vast majority of those lie low on the flavour meter. But as many excellent lager brewers show, cold-fermented beers like Ontario’s King Pilsner, Live Oak Pilz from Texas and the classic Budweiser Budvar from the Czech Republic, sold in North America as Czechvar, can be every bit as flavourful, complex and rewarding as any ale.

Myth #13 – Canadian Beer is Stronger Than American Beer

A popular perception from the bad old days of major brewery domination, this one stemmed from the fact that, until recently, American breweries measured their alcohol contents by weight while Canadians used volume measures. Since 4% alcohol by weight is equal to 5% by volume, north-of-the-border brews were thought to be more potent than their southern cousins. Today, with 1,400 breweries in the States and another couple of hundred in Canada, this shouldn’t even be remotely considered as valid.

Myth #14 – German Wheat Beers Are Flavoured With Bananas and Cloves

The Bavarian Purity Law of 1516, called the Reinheitsgebot, mandates that beer be made from only malted grain, hops and water, with yeast as a given. So no, there are no fruits or spices in the Bavarian style of wheat beer variously known as hefeweizen, weissbier or hefeweissbier. What causes the banana and clove flavours and aromas normally associated with these brews are the particular yeasts used to ferment them.

Myth #15 – Beer and Fine Dining Don’t Mix

With its wealth of flavours and finely nuanced characters, the world of beer has a style to pair with any food, from the commonplace to the extravagant. (See Myth #9 for more on this.) The reason we tend to place wine at the table rather than beer is because that’s what the French do, and the western world learned much of what it knows about fine dining from the French.

Beer Winners and Losers

For the Winners check out the results of theGreat American Beer Fest

For Losers well you heard the pubcast. Lombard Ale house counts as a loser

Also losing is Chicago because the Goose Island Clayborn is closing. 20 years they have been there but nothing is more powerful than the greed of the all mighty dollar.
We will miss you... but maybe a closer one to me will open up!!!

Goose Island to lose lease Sad times for sure. Well lets hope the get something they deserve... Like Wal-mart for losers

Thanks for checking us out.

New Pubcast Opener!

Thanks again Matt for the opener. I hope you all like it

Ok important news from Boston Beer Co. About the bottle recall. Click on their name and find out what you need to know

New Holland Bottle Cap Poetry Check it out it looks like it could be fun!!

Now go help Phil win with his Quack-a-dillas! On Bobby Flay's Grill it! Its a good video and looks like great food as well!

Not much else is going on in the world for us right now. Just trying to enjoy the few brief moments of sunshine we get this weekend and just being glad that we are off work!

thanks for st oping by!!

Pubcast #27 OOGY WAWA!

Ok so here are some links and what not
Draft Magazine

All about Beer

The Beer Magazine

Find Your State's Laws on Liquor

Flossmoor Station 21st Amendment celebration beers

Here's To Beer



Beer Rainbow!



I'd like to thank all of you who come to listen and read the mayhem that is my pubcast. You guys make it all worth while

I say Cheers and Oogy Wawa to you all and if you like pick one of your own
Cheers Around the World!

Oh yeah the Wife wanted this added



LET ME IN!

6 places you should try! #26

Ok here are the places we talked about on the pub cast

Six featured Breweries
Two Brothers

Three Floyds

New Holland

Capital Brewery

Lake Front

New Glarus

Thanks for coming by and ENJOY!

Oh yeah the LOLcat and Beer link click here



Oh look below for a food pairing list

The food and beer list

This is by no means a complete list or set in stone. These are jsut some of my ideas that I have worked out. Take it with a grain of.. barley and enjoy!

Soups

Beef vegetable
English brown ale or porter

Lobster bisque
Kölsch

Cream soups
Hoppy pilsner

Minestrone
Vienna lager

French onion
Scotch ale

Mulligatawny
British-style pale ale

Fruits and salads
Fruit salad
German-style Hefeweizen

Green salad w/cream dressing
Pilsner

Green salad w/ vinaigrette
Hoppy brown ale

Red Meats
Buffalo
Porter

Roast beef
British-style pale ale

Beef teriyaki
Cream ale

Roast beef w/gravy
Scottish ale

Carbonade of beef
Flemish brown ale

Roast leg of lamb
Scottish ale

Hearty beef stew

Robust brown ale or Scottish ale

Steak
British-style pale ale

Hamburger
Amber ale styles

Chicken Cordon Bleu
Märzen

Pork ribs w/barbecue sauce
Vienna lager

Chicken Kiev
Bohemian pilsner

Roast chicken
Dunkel lager

Fish and Seafood

Barbecued salmon
Dunkel lager or dry bock
Raw oysters
Stout
Cajun-style shellfish
Best bitter

Smoked salmon
Dry stout
Grilled or broiled whitefish
Bohemian or German pilsner

Steamed mussels and clams
The same beer as used for steaming

Lobster or crab
Stout or Bohemian pilsner


Cheese omelets
Weizen or best bitter Farmer’s breakfast
Oatmeal stout
Eggs Benedict
Weizen Scrambled eggs
Belgian-style wheat beer

Deserts

Bananas Foster
Weizen Flourless

chocolate cake
Imperial stout

Cherry pie
Kriek

Lemon meringue pie
American wheat ale or weizen

Chocolate cheesecake
Scotch ale
Plain Belgian chocolate
Belgian abbey ale

Chocolate pudding cake
Sweet stout or barley wine

Raspberries Crumble
Raspberry wheat beer

Chocolate pudding or mousse
Oatmeal stout

Trifle
Strong fruit ale

Christmas pudding
Strong, spiced ale

Cheese

Canadian cheddar
Best bitter

French Brie
Dry stout
Cream cheese w/pepper
German pilsner

Limburger
Doppelbock

Edam
Wheat ale

Smoked Gruyère
Rauchbier

Danish blue cheese
Dry stout

Stilton
Barley wine or old ale

HOPPY EASTER #25

Well Its after Easter but Hoppy Easter any how
Yes I tried the pizza beer and I would say its.. its.. umm..

Did you listen to the podcast? Then I think you know LOL
My Beer Advocate Review

Any way I do not have the food paring list but I will get it up as soon as I get it put together.
We are still looking for people to call us or contact us so we can put you on the air

email us at
murphyspubcast@yahoo.com
You can be part of the madness!