Tasty tips - beer focus

The three main raw materials of beer are water, malt and hops. Malt is made of barley, but nowadays this barley is raised specifically for beer making, and is called beer-barley. Without the hops, beer would be more “chunky” and sweet. Hops are a herb, and, over the centuries, it has become the spice of the beer. There are two main types of hops: bitter and aromatic. The proportion of the two determines the special taste of each different beer. The higher the malt and hop content, the better the beer.

Natural process

There are three main types of beer: pale, half-dark and dark. Ingredients of beers can change also: there are, for example, beers made of wheat malt or rye malt instead of barley malt.
Beer is made by fermentation, with the help of yeast. Centuries ago, this fermentation was a natural process, but nowadays it is triggered artifically, which makes the process faster than if left to nature.
There are two types of fermentation, top and bottom. The classic British ales and German-style wheat beers are top-fermented, and all the others are bottom-fermented.
Beer can be consumed during meals. But that does not mean that it goes with everything. The dish has to fit the beer, just like with drinking wine. But whereas there are many different types of wine, so a wine can usually be found to match whatever you are eating, with beer, it is better to match the meal to the beer.
The special taste of beer means the food needs salt and fat (or oil) in the dish. That is why most traditional Hungarian meals go perfectly with beer: trotters, paprika chicken and many kind of savory, spicy cakes.  – they are spicy and fat.
In Germany and Austria, beer is matched with a special German sausage. The Czech beer-food is a special kind of polony, yet another type of sausage. One thing only is “forbidden” when drinking beer, and that is eating anything sweet. The spicy, bitter taste of beer clashes badly with sweet flavors.
But in the middle of a hot Hungarian summer, nothing is better then a mug of beer with a spicy dinner, so cheers!