There are two main categories of beer, ales and lagers. Ales are generally made with top-fermenting yeast — which means that when the fermentation nears completion, the yeasts rise to the top of the tank — and lagers are made from bottom-fermenting yeast. Top-fermenting yeast often adds flavor to the beer, while bottom-fermenting yeasts don’t add much flavor. The Daily Lobo spoke to breweries near campus in an effort to understand the different kinds of beer and the types of food each beer pairs well with.
IPAs are very aromatic and have a strong hops flavor that gives the beer a bitter flavor. IPAs pair well with spicy food that will not be overpowered by the strong flavor of this beer.
Ales
Local IPAs:
“Year One” from Broken Bottle Brewery
Broken Bottle Brewery co-owner Donovan Lane said the IPA doesn’t have a lot of hops, so it’s not very bitter.
“A lot of people describe IPA as ‘It kicks you in the face,’” Lane said. “We have a ton of people who say it’s one of the easiest drinking IPAs they’ve ever had. We get a lot of people who say they wouldn’t normally drink IPA, but say they really like this one.”
“Hybrid” from Turtle Mountain Brewery
Turtle Mountain Brewery owner Nico Ortiz said the brewery’s IPA has a light, malty body and a significant hops flavor and bitterness. He said the brewery uses Cascade and Amarillo hops, which impart a grapefruit and a tropical mango flavor.
Find it in a grocery store:
Happy Camper IPA by Santa Fe Brewing Company
Stone IPA
Marble IPA
A stout is a rich, dark beer with robust flavors, such as coffee, chocolate and hazelnut. The grains are roasted until they are very dark, which gives the beer a dark color and more robust flavor. Stouts pair well with red meat and can be used for braising and slow-cooking meat.
Local stouts:
“Black Star Stout” from Broken Bottle Brewery
Lane said the beer is made with star anise, which gives the beer a subtle black licorice flavor.
“Milkshake Stout” from Turtle Mountain Brewery
Ortiz said the beer has a rich chocolate flavor.
Find it in a grocery store:
Samuel Smith
Murphy
Boddingtons
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Amber Ale
Amber ales have a reddish color and mild flavors, but can be very bitter. Ambers pair well with almost anything, from pizza to most meats.
Local amber ales:
“AFD Red” from Broken Bottle Brewery
“Reds can vary from very bitter to hardly any bitterness, ours is somewhere in the middle range,” Lane said. “It has more bite to it that some of our lighter beers.”
“Red Rye” from Turtle Mountain Brewery
Oritz said Red Rye is similar to Fat Tire, and that it is as sweet as it is bitter, but still not very bitter.
Find it in a grocery store:
Fat Tire
Amber Bock
Killian’s Irish Red
Porters
A porter is another dark beer that is very similar to a stout. Like a stout, a porter can have complex flavor profiles and taste similar to anything it’s brewed with. Porters pair well with red meat. “The difference between a porter and a stout is minimal,” Ortiz said. “Historically, a stout was a stronger version of a porter. Today the difference seems to be that stouts use roasted barley while porters use chocolate malt.”
Local porters:
“Rosemary’s Baby” from Broken Bottle Brewery
“We use fresh rosemary. Were always experimenting with batches … what can we throw in it and we thought, ‘Let’s try rosemary with beer,’” Lane said. “We try to use an amount of rosemary that isn’t overwhelming to people, but so you can still taste the rosemary in it. It’s a great beer to cook with, I’ll dump it in the crock pot with a roast and let it simmer for a few hours.”
Find it in a grocery store:
Anchor Porter
Mayflower Porter
Stone Smoked Porter
Lagers
Ortiz said most lagers are light and tend to have very malty bodies and very little hops flavor, but most breweries prefer to only brew ales, because lagers take twice as long to make. He said that lagers are diverse beers that can pair well with almost anything, including Mexican and barbecued food. But he said dark, thick lagers, such as Guinness Black Lager, are very bold beers that shouldn’t be paired with mild food that the beer can easily overpower.
Find it in a grocery store:
Heineken
Corona**
Budweiser
Becks
**In the printed version of this story contained a misspelling. Corona was spelled “Carona.” The Daily Lobo regrets the error.
