I am getting a wee bit tired of "tasting" beer. It is getting all too twee. This article in a Toronto rag of some sort or another displays everything that is wrong with the media's new relationship with beer and the concurrent looming over-preciousness of beer appreciation... or the over-wrought appreciation of anything for that matter:
Though it’s hard to imagine diners sniffing and swirling a pint of amber at Canoe, Duizer assures us that these steps are essential to developing the full experience required for successful pairing. When considering a taste combination, Duizer urges judiciousness. “Be analytical,” she says. “We don’t care if you like it or not.” She encourages drinkers to exhale after sipping in order to pick up the scent of complex flavours. For a glass just poured, listen for carbonation to learn about effervescence levels. When pairing, pay attention to temperature and timing, because both affect taste.
Do me a favour, then. Next time you make a ham sandwich, listen to your mustard. Sense its silence. Its quiet passion. The mustard's pain and joy. Feel stupid? You should.
“We don’t care if you like it or not”?!? As if beer can be separated form its consumption, its very destruction by you. The "don’t care if you like it" theory removes you from the equation. It is, in fact, un-you and really anti-you. The beer is objectified and you are negated to make this useful. This is a lie. The beer needs you. It wants you to create the one-seat two or twenty minute theater of taste. It wants you to love it. You should. Don't taste it. Love it.
Comments
Brother Iain - April 2, 2009 10:50 PM
Exhale after sipping?
I prefer simply to pee.
ethan - April 2, 2009 10:53 PM
Stunningly weird. Why would you ever want to separate any food from consumption? Alcohol is half the fun!
Nevermind that taste is a finnicky thing, but this is just a silly way to "enjoy" beer. Alcohol has ever been a social beverage -- what's the incentive to change that?
the rabbi - April 3, 2009 4:36 AM
I agree with Ethan, taste is finnicky. Mine changes with the seasons. And "we don't care if you like it or not" says "we and the beer are better than you, you are shit, and you=money". Disgusting.
Wahoo - April 3, 2009 10:27 AM
Another element of beer tasting is the tendancy to consume small quantities of a large number of beers. Over the past few years with my group of friends, we tend to split 22 oz bottles amongst four, five, or six people... moving from beer to beer without getting the level of comfort with the beer that you get when you consume one or more full pints of it.
I do like tasting, but drinking should not always be in beer-festival format. Maybe I'll pour a liter of dunkel during the final four this weekend.
Ultimately, beer IS about drinking, not about tasting.
birra - April 5, 2009 11:49 PM
"Ultimately, beer IS about drinking, not about tasting". Is drinking and tasting a beer, mutually exclusive?
Greg Clow - April 7, 2009 1:03 PM
Personally, I think that tasting beer (as in: "let's carefully taste and analyse this beer") and drinking beer (as in: "let's throw back a pint or two") both have their place. I enjoy both ways of consuming beer, and both of them are important to me for different reasons.
That said: I think the most ironic thing about the article is that it was written based on a beer tasting event hosted by Molson last week to promote their Rickards Red and White products - i.e. two fairly mainstream beers that are really more of the drinking than tasting sort.
In other words, this was a case of a large brewery of mainstream suds trying to hop on the "beer is the new wine" bandwagon, and getting coverage from a few mainstream press outlets.
And I still can't quite understand what the "We don’t care if you like it or not” quote is supposed to mean...
Alan - April 7, 2009 2:22 PM
Maybe because its Rickards!
Alan - April 7, 2009 2:25 PM
... and I clearly also do like to think about the flavours of beer but, as with ticking, I am also less interested in pairing with food and other gastronomic turns. But there is nothing wrong with those things. Yet if this story were actually what "tasting" is, well, then I want none of it.