Its a long strange trip indeed when your are writing up a Belgian style Boulevard Long Strange Tripel, in preparation of Seattle Beer Week, while your colleagues are comparing Argentinian wines in the next room. But if you spend much time around winemakers and vineyard staff, you know that
“it takes a LOT of beer to make a great wine“.
Beer and wine: Friends or Foe?
Why do so many people, that make their living off of wine, are so passionate about wine, drink beer?
- Beer can be a great palate cleanser when you are tasting wines. A crisp beer can soothe and clear a palate that has become fatigued by tannins.
- There is just something about a cold beer when you are hot, sweaty and tired from working in the vineyards or during crush that is hard to beat.
- Beer tastes really good and there so many different beer styles that there is a beer style to suit the tastes of just about anyone.
But why would a Seattle wine store like Wine World stock beer? It’s not like the wine store is out in the vineyards or next to a wine production facility.
- Wine World wants to be your party place. You can get the food, glassware, cheese, charcuterie, wine, beer, special soft drinks, even your water and ice in one stop.
- For every person that loves beer AND wine there is another person that is adamantly against one or the other. Having both under one roof helps keep everyone happy.
- Beer is the most widely consumed alcoholic beverage in the world and it is mighty popular here in Seattle!
- Many people are seasonal drinkers and change their beverage preference with the seasons. I know a number of red wine drinkers in the winter that reach for a pilsner in the summer.
- Beer and wine can bring out magical elements in food that transform a meal into an experience and we really like to eat well around here.
- Brewing and wine making are crafts, dependent on the quality of the raw materials used as well as the skills employed. Art and science apply to both processes.
- An amazing thing can happen when you give yeast a little bit of sugar; an alcoholic beverage is born! In beer, the malted grains provide the sugar to feed those hungry yeast while grapes do the job in classic wine styles. Wines are also made from fruits and honey, whose sugars fuel the yeast.
- Wine World celebrates the diversity of styles and flavors that exist in both beer and wine.
I was trying to stay focused on my Belgian tripel as I wrote my review but I was distracted by the conversations of the Malbec tasters next door. so I grabbed a random Argentinian Malbec from the other room to contrast with the Belgian ale that I was sampling.
| Belgian Style Tripel | Argentinian Malbec | |
| Boulevard Long Strange Tripel | Pascual Toso Estate Bottled 2009 Malbec | |
| Nose | Distinctive Belgian Banana, with hint of caramel | Smoke, red fruit, lots of caramel |
| Upfront | Banana | Tart cran-raspberry, |
| Middle | caramel and spice | Red fruit, sage |
| Finish | hoppy bitterness | Rough tannins, herbal notes |
| Alcohol | 9% | 14% |
As different as these two beverages were, there were also striking similarities between the beer and the wine.
- Both had fruit and caramel on the nose
- Both start fruity in the mouth but evolve through spice into a slightly bitter lengthy finish
If I had grabbed a different beer and/or a different wine I might have found various other similarities and contrasts but I find those two similarities hold true for a significant number of beers and wines. I personally don’t believe one type of beverage is better than the other but I do find myself choosing one over the other for different moods, groups, seasons and meals.
Wine World hopes to offer you a dizzying assortment of beverages to try from beer to wine to mead to sake to vermouth to …That is why we offer so many types of beers and wines for you to choose from. That is also why Wine World invites you to celebrate American Craft Beer Week and Seattle Beer Week with us.