If you’ve been following me on twitter, you know that this day has been coming for awhile now. I finally launched theBeerean.com. This is my new blog that is focused on the world of beer through the eyes of a Christian.

This is the reason I won’t have the Beer Tip of the Day on this site anymore. But don’t worry, I will continue to write on this blog. GregQualls.com will be where I will share my spiritual/theological/biblical/personal/youtube.comical insights. TheBeerean.com is where I plan so share all my beerical/theological/cultural insights.

I also plan to do a weekly video podcast on theBeerean.com called Beer Tip of the Week. I’ll give a new tip each week to help people enjoy their beer more.

This is a new venture for me and I’m really excited. I would ask you as a friend if you have your own blog, would you give theBeerean.com a little shout out. It’s hard getting a blog started from scratch. You need all the help you can get. For those of you don’t have a blog if you cold please tell everyone you know, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all your love and support, and I hope you to see your shining faces at theBeerean.com soon (I know I can’t really see you…or can I?)

I regret to tell everyone that this will be the last Beer Tip of the Day on GregQualls.com. But don’t worry. I have something special in the works that I’ll reveal to everyone in a week or so. Until then enjoy this final BTotD.

Here is the reality. Most beers are served too cold and this is a bad thing. I remember growing up and seeing signs at the local bars that said, “Coldest beer in town.” The only problem with this is that most beers aren’t meant to be served at super frigged levels. By drinking your beer extremely cold, it does two things.

1. It doesn’t allow the beer to “open up” and reveal all of it’s wonderful aromas.
2. It numbs your tastes buds and inhibits you from being able to experience the full flavor of the beer.

Now certain beer companies serve their beers at extremely low temperatures to disguise the real taste of the beer (which would be categorized as disgusting). I see this as one of Big Business’ greatest conspiracies to dupe the American beer drinker. They want you to think that you need to drink beer really cold. Then they can sell you their crap and have you think that it is good. To use a friends analogy, “It’s like the Wal-Mart greeter. They’re there to make you feel happy about all the crap you’re about to buy.”

Well I’m sorry…I’m not happy.

So what temperature should you drink your beer at? That is a wonderful question, and I’m glad you asked. Each style of beer actually has a different temperature. The general rule is to drink it at the same temperature that it was fermented at. If you’re like me, you’re not going to go out and research to see what temperature your beer was fermented at. So I’ve included a handy chart from herestobeer.com that will give you an idea of what temperature your beer should be served.

So here is your homework for this week. Get a beer with which you are familiar with the flavor. Now take your time drinking it and take note of how the flavor and smell changes as the temperature of the beer changes.

Until next time, enjoy your beer.

Welcome back all my fellow beer drinkers out there. This next one is just a short tip for those who are looking for the full experience here.† If you remember from BTotD #1, your perception of taste is drastically affected by you sense of smell. From some research that I did on the internet (a quick google search), your sense of smell affects the way something tastes by up to 75%. From some other research that I’ve done (listened to a podcast), it is said that your first smell of a beer is the most important. So how do we make that first smell of a new beer count? Use a coaster.

No this isn’t some random way for me to get you to save your furniture from unsightly rings. You actually cover the TOP of the glass with the coaster. While you are doing the four step beer tasting process (Look, Agitate, Smell, Drink), you cover the top of the glass with a coaster while agitating the beer (the cheap paper coasters from bars, applebees, and the sort work real well and keep you from getting in trouble for making all you coaster smell like beer). Then when you go lift the coaster to smell your beer, all those good smells have been trapped for your smelling pleasure.

One other small tip. Unless you are using a really big glass, only fill the glass about 3/4 of the way full. This gives you room to agitate the beer without covering your coaster with beer. This also gives your beer room to breath. After you’ve tasted the beer, then you fill it up the rest of the way.

So here is your homework. Get a beer that you haven’t tried before (or haven’t tried in a glass before) and taste it straight from the bottle. Then try the coaster method and see how much of a difference it makes.

Until next time, enjoy your beer.

‘So I’ve been listening to a lot of what I have learned about beer has come friends, podcasts, and the beeradvocate.com. One of the greatest tips I learned was from the podcast beerschool.com. It is as follows…it takes three drinks of a beer to really know if you like it.

Before you look at the reason for three drinks, go to the beeradvocate.com article on How to Taste Beer. There are certain steps to drinking a beer (Look, Agitate, Smell, Taste).

This one sounded a little weird to me when I first heard it, but I have found it to be so true. Here is the reason why. Drink one cleans your pallet from all the weird tastes that are already in it (for instance I have the coffee taste in my mouth right now). Drink two is for the retro-olfaction process.† This is where you swish the beer around in your mouth and exhale after you drink the beer.

“This process of exhaling is called “retro-olfaction” and will release retained stimulations at the mucus and mouthfeel level, but at a higher temperature.” – beeradvocate.com

Drink Three gives you your final overall taste of the beer giving you a full experience of what the beer really tastes like.

Like I said I thought this was crazy talk. But as I started doing this, I noticed that certain beers that I thought I didn’t like after one drink I started to like after three.† As a side note, this works for any drink: beer, wine, Dr. Pepper.

So here is your homework for this tip. Take a beer that you had discredited before and give it the three drink chance. You never know you might find that you’ve found your new favorite beer.

Until next time, enjoy your beer.

So it has been a little while since I posted my first Beer Tip of the Day. So, I thought I better put up another one. Things have been a little hectic and nobody really responded to my first one. I’m also going to add a new feature to the BTotD…homework. So if you like what you are reading let me know and I’ll try to do these more often. So here is today Beer Tip. There is a certain way that you are suppose to pour beer into a glass.

In the last BToD, I told you why you need to drink you beer from a glass, but how are you suppose to pour your beer into that glass?

Good question!!! Here is how:

1. Hold you glass at a 45° angle.
2. Pour your beer aiming at the middle of the wall of the glass.
3. When the glass is half way full, turn the glass to a 90° angle.
4. Continue to pour the beer until the glass if full.

See a video here.

This will give your beer the right mixture of air and beer releasing all these wonderful smells that come along with great beer. These are some just general steps and each glass and beer are a little different (I don’t turn my glass to a 90° angle until the glass is 3/4 full). It will take a little bit of practice, but you’ll get it down.

Homework: Commit to pouring your next 6 beer’s in a glass and seeing how much the flavor changes.Until next time, enjoy your beer.

For those of you who have been waiting, here is the inaugural Beer Tip of the Day. I know you have been waiting, hoping, and praying for this day. Well it has finally come. For my very first tip, I’m going to give you the tip that changed the world of beer as I know it forever.

When I first started drinking beer, I only knew of one way to drink it…from the bottle (just a side note…if it comes in a can…it’s probable only good for three things…getting drunk, fertilizer, and making beer butt chicken….mmmmm beer butt chicken).

Well through much research, and a little help from the wife, I learned that the best way to experience a nice cold beer is not from the bottle. The true connoisseur drinks their beer from a glass. Chefs have known for years that your sense of smell drastically changes the ways something tastes (that is why you can blindfold someone and plug up their smell they can’t tell the difference between an onion and an apple). Drinking from a glass allows the beer to breath. This also allows you to enjoy the full flavor of the beer as it engages your sense of smell in the beer drinking process.

You will find that this can drastically change the flavor of your beer. When you drink from the bottle (or God forbid can) you’re nose is limited in doing it’s job. I thought it was a bunch of crap until I started trying it. My wife bought me some pilsner glasses as a gift. When I started drinking my beer in them, I noted a remarkable difference in the taste. To the point that I don’t like New Castle except straight from bottle…the glass changes the flavor to much.

There are also certain glasses for certain beers…but I won’t get into it that much. To learn more about different glasses for different beer, check out the Beer Advocate. These guys know their beer.

So that is my first Beer Tip of the Day. Until next time, enjoy your beer.

So I’m trying to get myself to do more blogging. I have a friend who does an occasional blog post called LotD (Link of the Day). The idea is that when he comes across a cool link…he posts it. It isn’t about frequency…but about having a link for that day. So I was thinking I might start doing the same thing. But I don’t come across cool links that often (except for when my friend posts a new one…hint…hint…).

Well for those of you who don’t know, I have recently acquired a taste for the wonderful alcoholic beverage called beer…Yeah I know. A Christian drinking bee. Not only a Christian but a former youth pastor. I’ll give you a few seconds to compose yourself… Ready…Ok… for those of you who think I’ve gone off the deep end and need to repent and ask Jesus to help, let me give you some context.

First, I don’t get drunk (it’s amazing…you can drink and not get drunk…it really is possible). Second, I don’t drink around those you have a problem with alcohol. I understand that there are people out there who have a problem with alcohol. That is completely understandable…and I won’t drink around you. Third, I am of legal age to be drinking beer (and I don’t advocate the drinking of those who aren’t).

Now before you come at with me with comments on how I’m wrong for drinking, read the entire Bible and show me where it says that I’m in the wrong (by the way you’re not going to find anything unless you take things out of context…or just simple make things up…my pastor did a recent blog on this which was really good).

So now that is of the way, lets get back to the topic at hand. Oh yeah…I like beer and I want to blog more. So I came up with the idea of a Beer Tip of the Day. This is where I will post the most recent tip that I’ve learned for beer. The topics will range all over the place from recent beers that I’ve tasted to how to pour your beer (and there is a correct way). I don’t know how consitant they are going to be…but I’m going to try for once a week. Let me know what you think (as long as you follow the rules above).