[Foam-rangers] Fwd: The Art and Science of the Slow Pour

Thu Jul 25 14:01:18 CDT 2019

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From: Craft Beer & Brewing <support at beerandbrewing.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 12:15 PM
Subject: The Art and Science of the Slow Pour
To: <philip.verdieck at gmail.com>

Plus, Salzburger Vienna Lager Recipe.

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The Art and Science of the Slow Pour
When a thick head of foam rises above the rim of the glass like a cloud
trying to escape its liquid world

It’s said that good things take time. That is true when it comes to certain
beers, especially ones that have been lovingly aged in tanks or barrels
before they are packaged and ready to serve. At that point, though, it’s a
fairly quick affair. Bottles or cans are popped and poured into a glass;
tap handles are opened as the beer slides into a glass. Serve. Drink.

Now, a sprinkling of breweries and bars around the country is asking
customers to wait a few extra minutes for their glass of beer so that
servers can create a sturdy pillowy crown of foam that is not only
endlessly Instagramable but will hold up for the duration of the drinking
experience and change the very flavor of the beer.

The slow pour is nothing new to beer, but a recent rise in popularity,
thanks to those craft breweries that have put it center stage, has
engendered a renewed interest in this well-topped pour. In American craft
beer today, when a slow pour is mentioned, those who have been there will
call to mind Bierstadt Lagerhaus in Denver.
[image: Pastry Stout]

The brewery’s commitment to lagers is well known and documented, and their
Slow Pour Pils is popular both because of the commitment the drinker must
make to waiting a few minutes between an order and the first sip and
because it’s just so darn tasty. The tip, regulars will tell you, is to
order the next round when the current one hits the table.

Charles Bamforth, the celebrated beer educator who is often called the Pope
of Foam, says one of the best-known examples of a slow pour is Guinness.
When pints of the dry Irish stout are poured according to the brewer’s
suggestion, the whole process takes almost 2 minutes (119 seconds, to be
exact), with the first half of that time going to build up a solid base of
foam. (continues below)

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“What happens when you produce a lot of foam is that you’re driving the
proteins and bitter substances into the head, and when they get into the
bubble wall, they interact and begin to stabilize the foam,” says Bamforth.
“If you don’t produce much foam in the first place, you’re not giving the
molecules a chance to interact.”

As the name would suggest, the key to a perfect slow pour and getting that
fantastic dome of foam is to take your time with the pour, but Bamforth
reminds us that you shouldn’t be timid in the process.

With a standard tap, it takes a vigorous pour down to the center of the
bottom of the glass, where the force separates the carbon dioxide, creating
foam. Continuously doing this will keep building upon that foam while the
liquid drops down until you achieve the ratio desired. What you should
avoid is the weak sliding-down-the-side-of-the-glass pour from a standard
tap. That won’t achieve the proper results.

“You want to see the beer splash into the glass,” Bamforth says.

There are other tap-handle options, such as the side handle, which is more
of a ball-valve mechanism that controls the level of foam or liquid that is
allowed into a glass. This is more common in parts of lager-loving Europe
and is often seen around this country attached to a Pilsner Urquell–branded
tower.
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In fact, that brewery often promotes various pours with increasingly dense
levels of foam. Each, tasted side by side by side, winds up tasting
different from the others. Bamforth makes it clear that he hasn’t done
scientific trials to see whether the flavor of a beer is altered if it
receives the slow-pour treatment but notes that “the larger factor in play
here is the foam and the psychology and beauty of it and the storyline the
pour tells. Maybe there is a flavor difference; maybe it has lost a bit of
its fizzy nature, and you get a mellower mouthfeel, depending on how much
of the CO2 has dropped out of the solution. But, I think the visual
triggers are more important than the taste ones.”

Although any style of beer can benefit from the practice, lagers seem to be
enjoying the slow-pour spotlight these days. At the Suarez Family Brewery
in New York’s Hudson Valley, Owner and Brewer Dan Suarez regularly serves
his lager in 25-centiliter glasses and only as a slow pour.

“I think it’s the proper way to do it,” he says. “If your going do
something right, you’re going to want to give it the best presentation and
in its finest form, and I think that pouring a beer with a proper head is
only proper. What I tell people is that it’s not a gimmick. It’s something
super special. It enhances the experience.”

Suarez, like other brewers who swear by the practice, can barely contain
his excitement and reverence when talking about the slow pour.
[image: Pastry Stout 2]

“You drink with your eyes first, so it just looks great when it’s served,
but equal to that is the mouthfeel. When you knock out some of that CO2
from the solution, the body is more supple, and it volatizes the aromatic
compounds, and that provides a pop in the nose.”

>From a nitro pour to traditional CO2 pours to even cask ale poured through
a beer engine outfitted with a sparkler, the slow-poured beer is dominated
by creaminess. For the uninitiated, the idea of having to wait for a beer
to be poured, especially a lager, can be strange; but Suarez, the folks at
Bierstadt, and others are usually ready with a response. And in the case of
Suarez, it really takes only about a minute and a half for the beer to be
poured and ready.

“I think the slow pour speaks to the lizard brain [the most primitive part
of the brain] of most people,” Suarez says. “Waiting a little bit builds
the anticipation, gives them a special experience, and anyone who might
have grumbled in the beginning is usually saying it’s pretty cool
afterwards.” And to help prevent anyone from accusing the brewery of
cheating them out of liquid, their glasses have a fill line to ensure that
the proper ratio is achieved.

Then, of course, come the cell-phone shots and social-media uploads.

While those who have regular access to these pours might swear by the value
of waiting, it’s unlikely that the slow pour will become the default beer
pour.

“Most people are not prepared to do this patience thing,” says Bamforth.

By: John Holl

Salzburger Vienna Lager Recipe
The Vienna lager lands in a place where it’s toastier than pale German
lagers but nowhere near the caramel and melanoidin-heavy richness of
“modern” Oktoberfest. The best examples of Vienna lager are like drinking a
liquid version of dry toast.

Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.013
IBUs: 28
ABV: 5%

MALT/GRAIN BILL
4 lb (1.8 kg) Munich malt
3 lb (1.4 kg) Vienna malt
3 lb (1.4 kg) Maris Otter malt
3 oz ( 85 g) Chocolate malt (350L)

HOPS SCHEDULE
0.5 oz (14 g) Nugget [14% AA] at 60 minutes
0.75 oz (21 g) Hallertau Mittelfuh [4% AA] at 5 minutes

YEAST
Wyeast 2206 (Bavarian Lager) yeast

DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mix with 3.2 gallons (12.1 l) of 163°F (73°C) strike
water to reach a mash temperature of 152°F (67°C). Hold this temperature
for 60 minutes. Vorlauf until your runnings are clear, then run off into
the kettle. Sparge the grains with 4.1 gallons (15.4 l) and top up as
necessary to obtain 6 gallons (23 l) of wort. Boil for 60 minutes,
following the hops schedule.

After the boil, chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature,
about 50°F (10°C). Aerate the wort with pure oxygen or filtered air and
pitch the yeast. Ferment at 50°F (10°C) for 3 days, then allow temperature
to rise to 60°F (16°C) over the next 4 days. Upon completion of
fermentation, crash the beer to 35°F (2°C), then bottle or keg and
carbonate to approximately 2.25 volumes of CO2.

TIPS FOR SUCCESS
Let this beer sit in the fridge for a solid 4–6 weeks before opening it!
Not only will the lagering time allow the beer to clear to a nice
crystalline amber, but it will also round off the bitterness and lingering
hints of roast, leaving behind a dry, toasty, floral delight. That
chocolate malt is the secret ingredient: it keeps the beer nice and dry for
months, and without it, you could easily end up with an overly sweet
melanoidin bomb.

Cheers,
The Craft Beer & Brewing Team

[image: DVDs]
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