OnTap Magazine

This urban legend sometimes includes mentions of bathtubs, prohibition and sometimes even explosions. And although the story has a vague basis in truth, the important “facts” are wrong. During fermentation the yeast creates ethanol, which is responsible for drunkenness. Yay for ethanol! While the beer is fermenting, a minute amount of methanol is also created. Methanol has similar effects, but with a few additional drawbacks; like the mother of all hangovers and potential blindness, and/ or death. It’s a common sight at every beer festival in the world: middle-aged men with beer bellies. Surely one can then point to beer and say “Ah! You are the cause!” And the truth is, you would be partly right. Beer of course contains calories, but not as many as you might think. A pint of standard beer has 215 calories: about the same as a large glass of wine or a 330ml wine cooler. So why does beer always get the blame? Well one theory is that it’s not beer that gives you the belly but the food that often goes with it: baskets of fried ABOUT BEER Ever found yourself uttering some supposed truth without checking its veracity? Watching TV in the dark is bad for your eyes, unless you eat a lot of carrots – that sort of thing. Well the same oft-repeated “facts” also haunt the beer industry. We asked BAAA-chus and his trusty sidekick Jaco Hamilton- Attwell to take to look at some of beer’s most common misconceptions – and to Snopes the trub out of them! MYTHS MISCONCEPTIONS AND DOWNRIGHT LIES BREWER'S DOZEN 1 2 M Y T H S 01 BEER GIVES YOU A BELLY 1 2 M Y T H S 02 HOMEBREW/ DARK BEER IS STRONG 1 2 M Y T H S 03 HOME BREW CAN/WILL MAKE YOU BLIND stuff and various versions of “meat on bread”. Alcohol also affects your blood sugar levels, which leads to the late night hunger attacks: also the cause some of themost atrocious culinary crimes ever committed. So yes, alcohol can lead to a booze belly, but the delicious fried food and your now reduced self-control are just as guilty. The statement “homebrew is strong” tends to be true for new brewers, whose goal is often to make something with a lot of kick as cheaply as possible. But for most homebrewers, producing a high ABV beer is not the goal; what we really want a great tasting beer. And if it happens to have a few more ABV points than an average beer, then so be it. “Dark beers are so strong!” “Two pints and I am on the floor!” Sure these comments are true if the dark beer in question is a sturdy Russian imperial stout, but the assertion that dark beer is always strong is a fallacy. Guinness Draught, the most common “culprit”, weighs in at a sessionable 4.2% ABV, making it lighter that Castle Lager (5%) and just 0.2% stronger than Castle Light. 52 | Autumn 2019 | ontapmag.co.za