Christina Perozzi - The Naked Pint: An Unadulterated Guide to Craft Beer

Table of Contents

Praise for The Naked Pint

The Naked Pint is a great read for anyone interested in all things beerfrom beer style descriptions to cooking with beer to brewing your own beer at home. Like a Beer 101 textbook to amp up your brew IQ, if only textbooks occasionally made you laugh out loud. The authors know their stuff; they understand and convey the notion that beer can be complex without being overly complicated, and they take beer seriously but dont take themselves too seriously. The Naked Pint is very, um, revealing.

Sam Calagione, president and founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and author of Brewing Up a Business, Extreme Brewing, and He Said Beer, She Said Wine

No one turns people on to beer the way that Christina and Hallie do. Along with their passion and expertise, they bring a wit and levity that exemplify the renegade spirit of craft beer. They possess the skills of a sommelier... yet take you on the even more inspired journey into craft beer. Share a pint with these ladies; they will rock your world. They did mine!

I have always loved beer without knowing much about it. I learned a lot in this factual, enlightening, and funny guide to one of the oldest and most cherished beverages known to man.

Whether you want to brew at home, belly up to the bar with confi dence, or make magical pairings at the dinner table, The Naked Pint makes learning about craft beers as fun as drinking them. Youll be a savvy sipper after reading this educational and engaging book.

Leslie Sbrocco, PBS television host and author of Wine for Women

An incredibly satisfying read! This book gets better-looking on every page. From Pale Ale to Weizen, The Naked Pint covers all of beers finer points in a fun, witty, and approachable manner. Hallie and Christinas great taste and cool, refreshing style is the perfect introduction to the often intimidating world of craft beer.

Rachael Leigh Cook

WED LIKE TO DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO OUR PARENTS,

WHO ARE SO PROUD THAT THEIR DAUGHTERS BECAME

BEER EXPERTS INSTEAD OF LAWYERS OR DOCTORS.

Acknowledgments

Hallie and Christina would like to thank all of the chefs, brewers, and industry experts who generously contributed to this book: Greg Koch, Govind Armstrong, Jacob Wildman, Rob Tod, Brian Thompson, Patrick Rue, Jenn Garbee, Ann Kirk, Larry Caldwell, Josh Loeb, Zoe Nathan, Evan Funke, Samir Mohajer, Chris McCombs, Lucy Saunders, Bryan Simpson, Greg Beron, Andrew Steiner, Matt Accarrino, Michael Saxton, and Randy Thiel.

We would also like to thank the following beer lovers and all-around quality people who helped us along on our own Beer Journey: Mark Jilg, Kevin Kansey, Tomm Carroll, Joe Corona, Mike Smith, Eric Kremer, Ryan Sweeney, Brian Lenzo, Jason Bernstein, Charlie Farrell, Tracey St. Pierre, Grace and Klaus Gabelgaard, Kirill Taranoucht chenko, Emily Wahlund, Jaime Morrell, Nathalie Balandran, Patrick Pinch Merrit, Darren Jazz n Tap Mann, Brian Ransom, Stacey Pic cinati, Mila Becker, Jane and Russell Adams, Kara Slife, the Brewers Association, the National Beer Wholesalers Association, Thunder, and Enzo. Wed also like to thank everyone at F.O. and the Daily Pint.

A special thank-you to the amazingly smart and talented Erin Tarasi, who was an invaluable asset to us.

Christina would especially like to thank her parents, Bill and Claudia, who have always encouraged her to follow her dreams, even when her dream was to drink a lot of beer. Shed also like to thank her brother, Dan, for always believing in her. Shed like to thank Maury, Kasey, Austin, Karen, the Stefanos, and all her friends around the world for helping with the (ahem) research and all the laughs. Mad props to HB.

Hallie would especially like to thank CP; my loving parents, Catherine and Roy, who have given me enormous support in every step of my life; my strong, beautiful sisters, Christine, Holly, and Wendy; sweet little Karter and Kennedy; my loyal and encouraging friends; and Matthew, whose love fills my days with joy.

Last, but absolutely not least, we would like to thank our agent, Michelle Brower, and everyone at Wendy Sherman and Associates, and our editor, Maria Gagliano, and everyone at Perigee and the Penguin Group. We love that you love beer.

Cheers!

Introduction

Beer loves you.

Do you love beer? Of course you do. Its why you picked up this book. Its why you are dying to try that new craft beer bar down the street. Its why you salivate at the sight of a pint. Most people already have a soft spot in their hearts for beer. Our culture has been embracing this beverage for hundreds of years, weaving it into our celebrations, our sports, our commercials, and our identities. But beer is more than you might think it is. Sure, its beer, but its also cultural anthropology. Different beer styles tell different stories: Who made it, where it came from, who drank it, what was happening in the world socially or politically when that beer was first created. Every beer has a story, and for the most part, that story has gone untold. Overshadowed by its mega-brewery cousins, craft and artisanal beer has been underappreciated and undiscovered by the majority of Americans. Until now (cue choir of angels).

People seem to love craft beer more and more each day but at the same time are perplexed by its mysteries. If you are not a craft beer believer, we would like to strip away any misconceptions you may have about our favorite drink. Get ready to know beer as it was always meant to be: made from quality ingredients and free from all the bullshit. Cast aside the pasteurized lager for the local Pale Ale. If you do, you can count yourself among a quickly growing group of the public that buys craft beer at the specialty store instead of the twelve-pack of the cheap stuff at the gas station. You know, those people with the huge smiles on their faces, the ones who seem to have found fulfillment in beer. Embrace craft beer, and you can join the devotees who support their local beer makers and who revel in the pride of having the local brewery on tap at the local pub.

Our philosophy of beer has for a long time been one of quality not quantity. As soon as we began to taste different craft beers, we shifted our idea of what beer was all about. No longer would we force ourselves to drink fizzy yellow water or focus on drinking just one kind of beer. No longer would we order only wine with fine food. Hell no! We found wed rather have a balanced Belgian Ale at the end of a hard day than several mediocre or crappy brews. Like anything in life, once your eyes and taste buds are opened to the best, its nearly impossible to go backward. Your palate wants more. Try as you might, you cant forget how great that Bavarian Hefeweizen tasted, that special tart and refreshing marriage of bananas and cloves. Its a question of the quality of the moment, and drinking a fine beer allows us to celebrate, to partake in a brewers vision, and to experience what a great beer should be.

We go where the funny goes, and luckily, so does beer. From the hilarious names on the labels (our favorite is Tea-Bagged Furious) to the jokes made between friends in a small pub in Belgium, beer seems to pair best with laughter (loud laughter). We dont like the beer talk to get too serious. Wine has sometimes been accused of this, and we would hate for craft beer to lose its levity. This doesnt mean craft beer deserves any less respect than any other food or beverage. The inspired creations of brewers are to be revered for sure; a great beer is an art after all. We just dont want them to end up behind any velvet ropes or bullet-proof glass. We feel that the best way to approach craft beer is by treating it as you would any fine food or drink, tasting and learning and sharing with friends, but never letting go of the wonderfully casual way a group of people can share a bottle of beer. If you find yourself stressing about your beer pairings to the point at which beads of sweat collect over your furrowed brow, you need to pour yourself a nice Tripel and take a breath. And, we hope, when you let out that breath, youll laugh at your silliness. How serious about beer can you be when youre pairing cheese with a beer called Big Woody Barley wine or Sexual Chocolate Russian Imperial Stout? See, I bet youre laughing right now. Go ahead, let it out. When we look back over our Beer Journey, we find that our best beer memories are set in a background of laughter.