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The best way to pour beer is to slowly decant the beer into a glass that is tilted to minimize the head, right? Wrong. That is exactly how not to pour a beer according to beer sommelier Max Bakker, AKA the guy with the best job on the planet. And we want to take the valuable advice from Max since he is an Anheuser-Busch InBev Beer Educator as well as the first and only Master Cicerone in New York, which is the highest level of the Cicerone Certification Program and “recognizes an exceptional understanding of brewing, beer, and pairing — combining outstanding tasting abilities with an encyclopedic knowledge of commercial beers.” Yeah, we’re gonna take Max’s guidance on this one and realize that we’ve been pouring beer wrong our entire lives.
The distinguished beer sommelier explained to Business Insider how pouring a cold brew from a bottle or a tap into a glass the wrong way can give you a stomach ache. You’re not only pouring beer into your glass, you’re pouring carbon dioxide into it as well. When you pour beer slowly and carefully, the CO2 gets trapped in the beer. All those bubbles in the beer go to your stomach and can cause you to get bloated, which may cause a stomach ache. The CO2 trapped in the beer is equivalent of 2.5 times the volume of beer as opposed to if the carbon dioxide was released during the pour.
The ideal beer pour is counterintuitive to what we’ve all been taught. The perfect pour is one that allows the CO2 to be released before you ingest it. You should still start with a tilted glass, but don’t be too gentle or slow with your pour. You should have a vigorous pour. There will be a big head, but that is actually beneficial. The foam eventually turns into beer and it contains the “sweetness of the malt and the bitterness of the hops” that enhance the brew. Plus the foam “protects the integrity of the aroma of the beer. So tonight show you have a perfect pour like a beer sommelier and flaunt your that big, foamy head
A 'beer sommelier' explains how pouring a beer the wrong way can give you a stomach ache pic.twitter.com/vxyLogLdqa
— Business Insider (@BusinessInsider) January 1, 2018