Ales and lagers
Nearly every beer is one or the other, and the difference is the yeast. Lagers ferment cool and slow and taste clean and crisp, and pilsner is the familiar example. Ales ferment warmer and carry more fruit and spice from the yeast. Within ales, a pale ale is balanced and moderately bitter, an India pale ale is heavily hopped and tastes of citrus, pine or tropical fruit, a wheat beer is soft and cloudy, and stouts and porters get their coffee and chocolate notes from roasted grain. Color tells you nothing about strength, since many black stouts are weaker than a golden Belgian ale.
Hop flavor fades within months, so check the packaging date on hoppy beers, and keep all beer cold and out of the light.
Reading strength
This guide is for adults of legal drinking age, and the number that matters most is alcohol by volume. A US standard drink contains 0.6 ounces of pure alcohol. That is 12 ounces of 5 percent beer, five ounces of 12 percent wine, or one and a half ounces of 80-proof spirit. A 16-ounce pour of a 9 percent double IPA is therefore about 2.4 drinks in one glass. Proof in the United States is simply twice the alcohol percentage, so an 80-proof whiskey is 40 percent alcohol.
The six base spirits
- Whiskey is distilled from grain and aged in oak. Bourbon is American, made from at least 51 percent corn and aged in new charred oak, which makes it sweeter, while Scotch is made in Scotland, aged at least three years, and sometimes smoky from peat.
- Vodka is distilled to be as neutral as possible.
- Gin is a neutral spirit flavored with juniper and other botanicals.
- Rum is made from sugarcane juice or molasses.
- Tequila is made in Mexico from blue agave, and is sold unaged as blanco or rested in oak as reposado.
- Brandy is distilled from wine or other fermented fruit.
To taste a spirit, pour a small measure neat, smell it, and sip. A few drops of water soften the alcohol and open up the aroma.
Drinking well
Eat first, alternate with water, count in standard drinks instead of glasses, and decide how you are getting home before the first one. Current health guidance is that less is better, and not drinking is always a respectable choice.
Tip At a bar with a long tap list, ask for a taste before committing to a pint. Most bars will pour a one-ounce sample without fuss.
