Tasting the evolution of beer
“It’s a German style wheat beer that has a banana bubble gum flavour to it,” said the lively vendor for Silversmith Brewing Company.
Ordering something so eccentric is truly a homage to how the taste buds change over time. There is a coming-of-age that students go through. When you show up to university in your freshman year, your fridge is filled with the cheapest beers and the most turpentine of liquors.
However, just like your mind graduates to higher levels of intellectual capacity during your undergrad, your taste buds graduate as well. By your senior year, you find yourself exploring fine European wines and dabbling in local craft beers.
For those with inkling for new tastes, the Brass Taps held their yearly Craft Beer Show, where 12 vendors from all around southern Ontario got to showcase vintage brews as well as new experimental brews on the brew master’s docket.
In all fairness to the Silversmith’s Bavarian Breakfast wheat beer, it wasn’t something I’d normally have ordered – the very idea of a banana bubble gum flavouring to my beer seems, well, sacrilegious – but it was actually quite enjoyable. With a dry, crisp flavour, it was easy to drink and did make the taste buds explode.
Craft beer is unique in that you often get tastes that you’d never find in a mass-produced beer. The entire craft brewing scene can often seem pretentious and intimidating, with words like “full bodied,” “dry,” “carbonation levels,” and “finishes” being thrown around. You’re often left swishing around beer in your mouth and nodding in agreement with the vendor without fully understanding why this beer is a “light bodied beer with medium carbonation, and a smooth yet harsher finish.”
If you get past the lingo and mastery that is craft brewing, you can really find yourself getting lost in an endless world of unique beers. In fact, most towns you visit in Canada now will have a craft brewery – or at the very least, a pub that carries craft brews from the area for you to sample.
Beer is evolving.
Craftbeer.com is an American website that advocates for support of local independent breweries, but also helps users pair craft beers with food.
Does your beer have a hop-filled bitterness with roasted malt carbonation? It will likely pair well with sweet and rich foods. Is your beer sweet with maltiness? It’ll balance spicy foods well then.
Each beer also has a recommended serving temperature and glass style that is meant to bring out maximum taste while complimenting the flavours of the beer.
Admittedly, the pairing techniques can be a bit overwhelming. However, when you drink a beer like Moosehead Brewery’s newest pale ale, Boundary, you just feel as though you ought to be eating it with a 24oz steak, while leaving the Molson Canadian and Coors Light for the more easygoing hamburger and hotdog days.
Ontario Craft Brewers have 37 different microbreweries listed on their website, and many of those breweries have multiple beers. Whether you’re gluten-intolerant, vegan, or eat organic foods, there’s a brewery in Ontario that has your dietary and taste bud needs met. So even though the Craft Beer Show has passed once more, the LCBO and Beer Store are chalk-full of Ontario craft brews to try this summer.