Blog Tracker
20-10-2016, 13:30
Visit the Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog site (http://boakandbailey.com/2016/10/accessibility-or-why-people-dont-like-beer/)
http://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/georges_bitter_ale_672_detail.jpg?resize=672%2C514 A bit of discussion broke out in the comments on Monday’s post (http://boakandbailey.com/2016/10/alternate-history-pilsner-instead-ipa/) about what is or is not*‘accessible’ beer.When we were first getting into beer as young twenty-somethings it was via Greene King IPA, Leffe, Erdinger and Hoegaarden, all of which are considered bland by modern standards. For us, they were just stimulating enough without being scary. (We still like Hoegaarden, the others less so.) In our experience, then, there is definitely something in the idea of so-called gateway beers.
But we also know people who didn’t show any interest in beer until they’d tried a really hoppy IPA. In their own way, a different way, they are gateway beers too: as well as being extravagant and flowery, they are often also on the sweet side, whatever the raw IBU data might suggest. Balanced, if you like, only with lots on both sides of the scale. If your palate is used to cocktails, spirits, wine, cider, coffee or other strongly-flavoured drinks, they don’t necessarily seem overly intense or alcoholic, while at the same time challenging ideas of what beer has to be.
(Thinner session-strength beers with lots of hops, on the other hand, can be a challenge, with little body or sweetness to protect the tastebuds from sheer sap-sucking dryness — it took us a while to get used to pale’n’hoppy (http://allaboutbeer.com/the-emergence-of-pale-n-hoppy-beers-in-the-uk/), which is now pretty much our favourite thing in the world.)
When people tell you they don’t like beer, what reasons do they give? We tend to hear:
‘It’s too bitter (http://boakandbailey.com/2014/10/i-just-find-it-too-bitter/)!’*Even of quite sweet beers, so we’re not always sure it’s actually bitterness they mean. ‘Brownness’, maybe? Or perhaps just a general nasty staleness.
‘It’s too much — I get bloated and sleepy.’ A matter of volume. People still don’t feel comfortable ordering halves and, when they do, they’re often poorly presented. Counter-intuitive as it might seem, people also seem to find fizzier beers less soporific, and more refreshing.
‘I’m just not a beer person’, or variations thereon.*If you’re trying to portray a glamorous riviera lifestyle on Instagram or Facebook, beer doesn’t seem to quite cut it.
So accessible beer, for many people, might be relatively low in (perceived) bitterness, possibly served in smaller measures, and attractively presented (glassware or packaging). And for others who recoil at*‘fanciness’ it might mean a pint of Doom Bar, which we find utterly boring, but which it turns out has a lot of very sincere, even evangelistic fans.
Which explains a lot about supermarkets and multi-nationals are taking these days (http://www.totalales.co.uk/blog/2016/10/16/discount-culture-craft-beers-race-to-the-bottom)*— not, perhaps, a race to the bottom but a race for the accessible end of the market.
Accessibility, or Why People Don’t Like Beer (http://boakandbailey.com/2016/10/accessibility-or-why-people-dont-like-beer/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (http://boakandbailey.com)
More... (http://boakandbailey.com/2016/10/accessibility-or-why-people-dont-like-beer/)
http://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/georges_bitter_ale_672_detail.jpg?resize=672%2C514 A bit of discussion broke out in the comments on Monday’s post (http://boakandbailey.com/2016/10/alternate-history-pilsner-instead-ipa/) about what is or is not*‘accessible’ beer.When we were first getting into beer as young twenty-somethings it was via Greene King IPA, Leffe, Erdinger and Hoegaarden, all of which are considered bland by modern standards. For us, they were just stimulating enough without being scary. (We still like Hoegaarden, the others less so.) In our experience, then, there is definitely something in the idea of so-called gateway beers.
But we also know people who didn’t show any interest in beer until they’d tried a really hoppy IPA. In their own way, a different way, they are gateway beers too: as well as being extravagant and flowery, they are often also on the sweet side, whatever the raw IBU data might suggest. Balanced, if you like, only with lots on both sides of the scale. If your palate is used to cocktails, spirits, wine, cider, coffee or other strongly-flavoured drinks, they don’t necessarily seem overly intense or alcoholic, while at the same time challenging ideas of what beer has to be.
(Thinner session-strength beers with lots of hops, on the other hand, can be a challenge, with little body or sweetness to protect the tastebuds from sheer sap-sucking dryness — it took us a while to get used to pale’n’hoppy (http://allaboutbeer.com/the-emergence-of-pale-n-hoppy-beers-in-the-uk/), which is now pretty much our favourite thing in the world.)
When people tell you they don’t like beer, what reasons do they give? We tend to hear:
‘It’s too bitter (http://boakandbailey.com/2014/10/i-just-find-it-too-bitter/)!’*Even of quite sweet beers, so we’re not always sure it’s actually bitterness they mean. ‘Brownness’, maybe? Or perhaps just a general nasty staleness.
‘It’s too much — I get bloated and sleepy.’ A matter of volume. People still don’t feel comfortable ordering halves and, when they do, they’re often poorly presented. Counter-intuitive as it might seem, people also seem to find fizzier beers less soporific, and more refreshing.
‘I’m just not a beer person’, or variations thereon.*If you’re trying to portray a glamorous riviera lifestyle on Instagram or Facebook, beer doesn’t seem to quite cut it.
So accessible beer, for many people, might be relatively low in (perceived) bitterness, possibly served in smaller measures, and attractively presented (glassware or packaging). And for others who recoil at*‘fanciness’ it might mean a pint of Doom Bar, which we find utterly boring, but which it turns out has a lot of very sincere, even evangelistic fans.
Which explains a lot about supermarkets and multi-nationals are taking these days (http://www.totalales.co.uk/blog/2016/10/16/discount-culture-craft-beers-race-to-the-bottom)*— not, perhaps, a race to the bottom but a race for the accessible end of the market.
Accessibility, or Why People Don’t Like Beer (http://boakandbailey.com/2016/10/accessibility-or-why-people-dont-like-beer/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (http://boakandbailey.com)
More... (http://boakandbailey.com/2016/10/accessibility-or-why-people-dont-like-beer/)