PEGLのオンライン英会話レッスン
One to One Online Lessonsでは、
Ice breakerとしての最初の会話、または
テキスト学習が終わった後の残り時間などで
講師と様々な質問や会話をしていただくことが可能です。
PEGL受講生には「Beer好き
」な人が多くいらっしゃるようで
Curtis講師は頻繁にBeerやBarに関する会話を
皆様と楽しんでいます。
そんなCurtis講師が皆様へ
Beerに関する豆知識と、
お勧めのBarをご案内いたします。
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Mmmm, Beer.
by Curtis Hoffmann
Beer is one of the oldest known beverages, dating back to Mesopotamia and the Zagros mountain region of western Iran, to 3500 to 3100 BC. With this long span of time, it’s not surprising that there are many popular styles of beer today. Early beer was made using cereal grains - like wheat and barley -or vegetables, and yeast that naturally existed in the air. This resulted in a sweet, frothy, warm beverage.
Hops (the bitter flower of the hop plant) were not consistently a part of the beer recipe until closer to the 1600s AD. Hops were used initially to extend the shelf life of beer (fresh beer tended to spoil after 2 or 3 days), but it was difficult to find the best proportions of hops to malt to use. Prior to 1857, and Louis Pasteur’s research on yeast, beer makers did not know how yeast functioned in producing fermentation, so the production of beer was hit-or-miss at best. Afterwards, beer makers understood how to add yeast to the mix, and their success at making tasty beer increased markedly.
The four styles of beer are: ale, lager, spontaneous fermentation, and hybrids. Within these styles, we have porter, stout, pilsner, barley wine, cider, hefeweizen, etc. Ale is made by using yeast that forms at the top of the brew, at around 15 to 23 degrees C. Lager uses bottom-fermenting yeast at 7 to 12 degrees C, and is then stored at 0 to 4 degrees (called the lagering stage). Spontaneous fermentation uses naturally-existing yeasts in the air, leading to variations in flavor from batch to batch. This style is still common in Belgium, where it is referred to as “lambic”. Lambic beers are often flavored with fruits like pear and cherry, to add to the taste. Hybrid beers use a mix of modern and traditional methods (such as with “steam beer”) to deliver all-new flavors.
Different countries have their own favorite styles, such as porter and stout in the UK, lager and pilsner in Germany, and dubbels, trippels and lambics in Belgium. The first brewery in Japan, Sapporo, was directed by Seibei Nakagawa, starting in 1876. Seibei was trained in Germany, so he focused on producing lagers. As a result, lager has become the most popular style in Japan. In fact most Japanese consider Kirin Ichiban and Sapporo to be the definitions of what beer is supposed to taste like. That is, most Japanese beer drinkers dislike the taste of any beer that doesn’t taste like Kirin or Sapporo.
However, as mentioned above, there are many more kinds of beers that can be found around the world, and a large number of them are available in Tokyo. Beers can be sweet, bitter, thick and heavy or light and clear, or anything in between. Additional flavorings can be added, including herbs, chocolate, coffee, strawberry and orange. There is no “right” or “wrong” kind of beer, only beers that you enjoy or don’t enjoy.
To learn more about which kinds of beer that you enjoy, I suggest that you try visiting some of the many bars in Tokyo (or Osaka if you like) that either make their own beer, or import it from other countries.
Suggestions include:
TY Harbor, a brewpub in Tennozu
http://www.tyharborbrewing.co.jp/restaurants/tyh_e.html
Popeye, with 70 beers on tap
http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/~ppy/index2.htm
The below places are advertised in the Metropolis magazine (http://metropolis.co.jp/default.asp
). I don't know if they are any good, though. But they are listed as Irish or British pubs.
Meguro Tavern
www.megurotavern.com
Failte Irish Pub, Shibuya
www.failte.jp
The Dubliners Irish Pub (a chain, with multiple locations)
www.dubliners.jp
If you find some other place that you like, or if you want to publicize your favorite brew, please drop me a note.
＜本日の単語＞
yeast 【名】 酵母（菌）
frothy 【形】 泡状の
initially 【副】 当初は
proportion 【名】 割合
spontaneous fermentation 自然発酵
brewery 【名】 ビール会社
＜本日のイディオム＞
anything in between 中間のもの
drop me a note ご連絡ください。
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おすすめのBarがありましたら
是非Curtis講師にお知らせください
なお、挿絵はMai-lan講師より
いただきました♪
事務局・山口