Want to go on vacation this summer but don’t like to travel? Why not send your taste buds on vacation by simply traveling to some of the local restaurants and microbreweries in our area to enjoy a refreshing beer as well as try something exciting, new, and different?
 Move over wine, beer is the new sheriff in town when it comes to laying down the laws of taste and refreshment.
“People are starting to realize that beer is more complex than wine,” said Teddy Kerpovich, of AuRants, a restaurant in Duryea. “And that’s why I think people are now drinking beer more than wine.”
“Beer has always been a popular beverage,” said Bil Corcoran, co-host of Friday Beer Buzz on WILK 103.1 FM radio station. “Unlike wine and hard alcohol, most beers are not as strong in terms of ABV (alcohol by volume) and easier drinking in terms of flavor and body. Beer is a very social beverage and it’s always been my experience that beer makes people happy.”
Variety, exposure, and availability are what make beer so popular today, according to Candace Travis of Cooper’s Seafood Restaurant, in Scranton.
“You can go to a restaurant and find a good beer you like and go to the distributor and buy it,” she said.
If you don’t like beer then, odds are, you just have not tried the right one, say these beer connoisseurs. AuRants; Arena Bar and Grill, Wilkes-Barre; Cooper’s Seafood, Pittston and Scranton; and Hops and Barleys, Luzerne, stock beers from all around the world, with many different styles and tastes, so it is likely that you will be able to find at least one to please your palate.
“People are starting to realize how diverse beer is, and diversity is what brings in the people,” said Michael Theodore, of Arena Bar and Grill. “There are tens of thousands of styles of beers that involve flavors from chocolate to beets, which means there literally is something out there for everyone.”
The sheer variety available to locals is staggering. Arena has the largest selection, with 50 on draft and 450 bottled; Coopers has 20 drafts and 250 bottled; AuRants has a selection of 150 draft and bottled; and Hops and Barleys carries more than 100 draft and bottled beers.
“We have a numbering system when it comes to managing our beer selection,” Theodore said. “We program our inventory in a computer and it tells us when we are running low on something.”
Start Your Summer Taste-cation
“As far as trying a safe or beginner beer, I always tell people to start with the lower complexity beers and go from there,” Corcoran said. “Beer styles like a Pale Ale, Saison, or Stout can be great starting points.”
“Our staff is very educated in beers,” Theodore said. “If a customer likes Coors Light and wants to try something new, we will pick a similar beer for the customer to try.”
It is important to try a lot of beers to hone in on what styles and flavors you really like.
“Many times your palate needs time to adjust, and a beer that may taste odd on first sip may taste great at sip number seven,” Corcoran said. “Summer beers are typically beers like a Kolsch, or a wheat beer, and are often referred to as a Hefeweizen, Hefe, or Wit. These beers are typically lighter in taste, lower ABV, easy drinking, and thirst quenching.”
If you are going to go “exploring” in the wide world of beer, you first need to know a few terms. Hefeweizen, or Hefe for short, Wit, Dunkles Hefeweiss, Kristallweiss, Weizenbock, and Weizen Eisbock are forms of “Weissbier.”
The term, Weissbier is German for “white beer.” These are also known as wheat beers because a portion of malted barley is replaced with malted wheat. They are characteristically light, moderately hopped, and made with orange peels. These effects make them an ideal beverage for those hot summer days.
Another type of summer beer is Lambic. “We carry Dogfish Head Festina Peche. It is a good, refreshing, summer tart (sour) beer,” Kerpovich said.
A Lambic beer, such as Dogfish Head Festina Peche, is very unique in that it is only brewed with wild yeasts from the Senne Valley in Brussels, Belgium. These beers have a very unique dry and cidery taste, almost like champagne.
Even if you have a favorite among the most popular brands, chances are each will have a summer counterpart.
“We like to take our most popular selling brands and give them a spot for our summer beer selection,” Theodore said. “Brands like Sam Adams, Blue Moon, and local breweries, as well, are what we like to incorporate into our summer selection.”
“Sam Adams, Long Trail Ale, Dundees Summer Wheat, Hoegaarden, Blue Moon, and Dogfish Head are some of the summer brands we carry,” said Travis. “Lighter beers are usually sold more in the summer and darker beers are usually sold more in the winter.”
“We rotate our taps for draft beers and our bottles for each season,”said Scott Snider, of Hops and Barleys. “We try to keep up with all the crazes as well as what’s new and current.”
Not only has beer become a strong competitor of wine over the years, it is being paired with food in a similar manner.
“There are two schools of thought when pairing beer with food: complement and contrast,” Kerpovich said. “For complement, the color and spiciness of the food matches with the color and spiciness of the beer. For example, a Belgian Saison complements a spicy fish, or a dark porter complements a steak.”
With contrasting tastes, you want to find opposite spices and color.
“One example of a contrast is a sweet dish paired with an ancho chili beer,” Kerpovich explained. “Most customers go with the complementary style. You can have four courses and have four totally different beers.”
“Our head chef will plan out the specials every week and recommend a great beer that will go with those dishes,” Theodore said.
“I’m relatively new to beer and food pairings, but some general guidelines are to match a sweet beer with a sweet dish, like pairing a chocolate stout with a sweet desert. Or, you can pair hoppy beers with spicy foods,” Corcoran said. “It’s also safe to say almost any cheese pairs well with almost any beer.”
“I think one of my favorite beer and food pairings is our local Breaker Brewing Co.’s Olde King Coal Stout with a homemade cinnamon ice cream, or perhaps a great hoppy IPA like Weyerbacher Double Simco with spicy Thai noodles,” Corcoran added.
“We offer beer dinners,” said Travis. “A darker beer would go with a steak or veal and a lighter beer would go with a chicken or fish.”
AuRants takes beer tasting to a whole new level. Anyone who orders a generic beer, such as Budweiser or Miller Lite, should be prepared for some friendly ribbing. Your beverage may be labeled with a little green toxic sticker and the word “yuck” on it.
“We try to get our customers to try something new that isn’t insane,” Kerpovich said. “Drinking only Miller Lite is like riding only one ride at Disneyland.”
Want to stay at home to enjoy your summer taste-cation?
“If you are going to have a cookout, I would bring a beer that is different from the rest,” Snider said. “Any of the summer seasonal beers, such as Sunset Wheat, Land Shark Lager, and Blue Moon Belgian White are good choices because they are light and flavorful. Almost every brand has a summer beer and a lime counterpart.”
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