The so-called craft beer is simply a high-quality and high-concentration beer brewed with more and better raw materials. The key point is that various craft breweries can add different auxiliary materials such as chocolate, coffee, fruit and even wood to flavor it. Therefore, craft beer has various tastes and strong creative meaning.
Believe Benger, after drinking the craft, you only have MMP in your heart for Volkswagen beer.
◆ What is fine brewing?
Craft beer is another kind of high-quality beer compared with industrial beer produced on a large scale. Then what is industrial beer? It is the big-name beers like Budweiser, Heineken, Snowflake, Yanjing, Qingdao and Corona that people usually blow bottles to drink. Industrial beer is like a fast-moving consumer product in beer, with weak taste, low alcohol content and highly uniform packaging, while craft beer is more like an independent designer brand, with full flavor, individual taste and low yield.
According to the requirements of American Brewers Association BA, fine brewing must meet three requirements: 1 small, with an annual output of less than 6 million barrels; 2 independence, the equity of non-craft brewing companies should not exceed 25%, 3 traditionally, 50% of the output does not add auxiliary materials to make wine, even if auxiliary materials are added, it is used to increase flavor. In other words, craft is an independent brand in beer.
Of course, even if the beer produced by any small factory is refined, its taste should not be vague, otherwise the inferior workshop beer will also call itself refined, which will be a mess.
At present, Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Nanjing and other cities all have local specialty craft brands, and often have their own bars for nested sales, such as Jing A, Dayue and Beiping Machines in Beijing, Boxing Cat and Tap House in Shanghai, Master Gao in Nanjing, and 18 Pub in Wuhan, etc. Then some people may ask, why do many fine wines say that they are IPA or Shitao? Shouldn't this be a brand?
Wrong! IPA and Stout, which we often see, are actually beer types subdivided by different brewing methods, just like the difference between Apollo and Scotch.
◆ Several common fine wines
IPA, Stout, White Beer, Monastery and Lager are the most common kinds of fine wines, each with a different taste. Remember that this is a different wine, not a brand. What kind of beer it belongs to, different wineries will mark it in the front label.
▲ IPA is marked in the middle of the famous horn shark 90 wine label.
·? IPA（English Pale Ale）
The full name is Indian Light Ayr Beer, which is mostly amber in color, fresh in flavor but bitter in taste. It is considered as a kind of popular beer now. Americans especially like it. Almost every famous brand will have its own flagship IPA, and the IPA of Greene Kine, an old British brewery, is also very good and worth a try.
In addition, Ben also recommends Punk IPA from BrewDog, a famous American winery, or try Goose Island)IPA, an American winery with strong fruit aroma, which was also recommended by Obama.
▲ Left: Blue Brewing Dog Right: Goose Island IPA
Shi Tao (Stout)
High-concentration beer with dark brown or even black color. The raw material is roasted malt, with a thick body and dense foam. When it is slightly bitter, it will return to sweetness. The famous Guinness stout belongs to Shitao.
You can try the milk Shitao from Lefthand winery, which tastes caramel and has a strong aftertaste. In addition, the coffee milk Shitao from Jushi Winery and the breakfast Shitao wine from Founder's have a creamy coffee flavor, which should be liked by people who like Bailetian and coffee.
▲ Left-handed milk Shitao
▲Founder's breakfast Shitao
▲Stone Coffee Milk Shitao
In fact, Ben likes Shitao very much in private. When he attended the Beijing Craft Beer Festival on weekends, Shitao from many foreign wineries smelled of cream, chocolate and coffee, which was mellow and topped in minutes, but many brands of beer were not easy to buy in China. So as soon as there is such an activity, let's go quickly.
Trappist, monastery beer (Trappist)
Relatively small, but now it is getting hotter and hotter. Its bitterness and hops aroma are not as obvious as most IPA, with brown color, heavy taste and high alcohol content. Authentic monastery beer must be made in the monastery, which is one of the representatives of Belgian beer. You can try Roosevelt and Smart Blue Cover to get started, and they are sold in convenience stores.
White beer
The wine is the lightest in color and refreshing in taste. The "fine brew" 1664 (actually not counted), Fujiabai and White Bear that most people first came into contact with belong to white beer. However, in recent years, the taste of Fujiabai has declined seriously. If you must drink it, it is recommended to try the Belgian brand Blue Moon. The taste is fresh and smooth, and it has an obvious citrus flavor. Adding a slice of orange when drinking will enhance the taste.
Finally, let's talk about Lager. Lager has a light taste, and the typical one is Brooklyn beer. Because the taste is not particularly different from that of popular beer, it is not considered as a strong impact craft.
To sum up, I like to choose white beer or IPA with light taste, and I like to choose Shitao and monastery with mellow taste and high degree. Most popular craft brands can be bought online, but if you are in a big city, try local craft in a bar.