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Different taste in beers satisfies locals, students |
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Monday, 28 July 2008 |
Why would anyone prefer liquor to beer?
I mean don’t get me wrong, liquor has its place in society of course. It’s just incredibly one-sided and boring as a beverage.
Beer, however, makes the drink a personal experience.
Each beer has its own flavors and its own twists. When drinking a cheap beer like Bud Light versus a “high-quality beer” like Samuel Adams, one can clearly experience a difference.
On the other hand, the difference between Aristocrats vodka and Grey
Goose vodka is largely the amount of money left in your wallet after
your purchase.
Liquor’s attempts to add different flavors mostly involve throwing
artificial flavors into the mix. The result is the difference between a
“tasteless drink that kicks too hard to be fun to actually drink” and
“lightly strawberry flavored drink that kicks too hard to be fun to
actually drink.”
It’s similar to Bud Light’s recent attempt to spice things up by adding a lime twist and calling it a new product.
Beer on the other hand is more readily customized.
A beer can be a sweet-bodied ale, or it can be a clean-tasting lager.
It can be brewed with cultivated yeasts or wild. It can be a pale lager
like Budweiser or sweet stout like Mackeson’s XXX.
Different beers are so unique they can almost be attributed
personalities. Every part of the production can be tailored for
specific drinkers.
Even the water used in beer brewing can have a significant effect on the character of regional beers.
For instance, Dublin’s water is relatively high in mineral content, which makes it ideal for brewing stout, such as Guinness.
Similarly, Pilzen’s water is relatively low in mineral content, making
it ideal for brewing pale lagers, such as Pilsner Urquell.
After all of these different amounts and types of ingredients and
brewing techniques, you’ve still got the even more unique additions to
special recipes.
Some brewers add hints of lemon and alter the recipe slightly to make for a more refreshing beer during the summer.
Some brewers add spices and make for a higher alcoholic content in the beer to create “winter warmers” for the winter months.
On the other hand, I’ve never personally heard of a seasonal liquor.
I could go on forever about all the different types of beers and
flavors: English Bitter, Irish Red, Saison, Wee Heavy, Lambics, and so
on.
Call me crazy, but it just seems much more relaxing and enjoyable to
kick back with a favored flavor of beverage than to have your beverage
kick you back while you try to drink something that’s tasted the same
for as long as you can remember.
The bottom line is that your beer can be what you want it to be;
liquor, for the most part, just is what it is, and it doesn’t care what
you want.
Liles Neal, a sophomore political science major from Concord, is an intern news reporter.
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