Real English: Talking about BEER

Hi.

Welcome to engVid.

I'm Adam.

Today's lesson is a very special one, especially here in Canada because we're going to talk

about beer, one of our favourite drinks, one of our favourite pastimes.

In fact, it looks something like this.

This is a beer.

Not a Canadian beer, but that's okay, it's an import.

We're going to talk about the different types of beer, we're going to...

You're going to be drinking here when you come to visit us.

And beer is a very delicious, cold drink, made with a few particular ingredients.

It's alcoholic, so I know not everybody drinks it, but if you come to Canada it's a big part

of our culture; we drink it summer, winter, lunch, dinner, sometimes breakfast but not

usually.

It happens.

But there's a bunch of things you need to know if you're going to come to Canada and

talk about beer.

Of course, in Europe and other places in the world, very common as well.

So, first of all, we have a few nicknames for beer.

We could call it: "a brew", "a brewski", "suds", "a cold one", some people even call it "a

barley sandwich".

"Barley" is like a little grain, it's a cereal that you make beer with, so if anybody offers

you a barley sandwich, they are offering you a beer.

So, first let's talk about the process of making beer.

You begin with...

By making a "malt".

You take the barley, you put it in a container and let it "sprout".

So like little seeds come out and little strips of that come out.

And once you have those sprouts, you put them in a different container and let them "ferment".

In other words, you let the sugar content become alcohol.

Okay?

You..."Fermenting" is used with a lot of different things, but especially in beer.

Once the sprouts have fermented and the alcohol is there, then you add "hops".

"A hop" is a particular type of plant, very green, very bitter that you add, and you also

add "yeast".

"Yeast" is the same thing we put in bread, or in flour and water, in dough to make it rise.

Okay?

So we put it also in beer, that's why you have the white foam on top of the beer.

Okay?

And the hops and the yeast, they add the bitters and the flavours.

That's why your beer tastes a little bit bitter, depending on the type of beer.

Some of them are more sweet, some are less, we're going to talk about that after.

Okay, so next we need to think about the "alcohol content" or "alcohol by volume".

Now, there is such a thing as non-alcoholic beer, but it doesn't really taste that good.

They say it's supposed to taste the same as beer, but I'm not so sure.

I'll let you decide that yourself.

So, every time you get a bottle of beer it will say on it: "alcohol by volume" or "ABV".

Okay?

So, a lite beer-and we generally spell it "l-i-t-e", not "g-h"-is 4% usually, 4.5 maybe.

A regular beer is usually 5, 5.5, and a strong beer is 7 or higher.

And a strong beer will get you drunk pretty quick.

Okay?

And it's a very strong taste to it.

Now, how do we drink beer?

You can drink it from the bottle, you can drink it from a can, or you can drink it from

"a mug".

A mug is usually glass, it's usually pretty big and has a handle.

If you go to a pub or a bar here, they will keep it in the fridge, it's nice in cold,

they put the cold beer inside, you drink it, it's very delicious.

"A stein" looks like a mug, but generally it could be bigger, it could be different

sizes, different shapes.

It's usually very decorative.

It has, like, colours, or it has shapes, or it has emblems, all kinds of things on it.

You will see this especially at Oktoberfest which I'll talk about in a second.

Now, the size of your beer also makes a difference.

You can get "a pint" or "a half pint".

If you want to know measurements, that's 20 ounces or 568 millilitres, give or take.

So, a half pint is not usually half, it's usually about 12 ounces.

You can get a glass or you can get a full pint in a mug.

Now, if you're with a bunch of friends, you can just order "a pitcher".

A pitcher is usually about 3 or 4 almost pints I think.

And I think in Europe, three pints.

So about that.

In Europe I think you can buy by the litre, is usually the case, and that's more personal,

too; it's not to share with your friends.

Or you can go to the store, The Beer Store here or wherever you buy beer, and you can

buy "a 2-4".

A 2-4 is a case of 24 cans or bottles.

So here we just say: "Oh yeah, I'm just going to go to the store and pick up a 2-4."

If you say: "I'm getting a 2-4" to anybody in Canada, they understand you're going to

get beer, nothing else.

Okay?

Now, when you go to a pub and you want to sit in a pub or a bar and you want to drink

your beer, you have options of how to do that as well.

You can get a "draught" or a "draft", different spelling, same word.

This is the technically correct spelling, this is more the Americanized spelling of "draft".

Another way to say it is "on tap".

So, a tap is like the handle that the bartender will pull and the beer comes out of the tap.

Okay?

So if you go to a bar and you want to know what is available in draughts, you can ask

the bartender or the waitress or the waiter: "What do you have on tap?" and they will give

you a list of all the different beers that they have available for you.

Now, you can buy a bottle, you can buy a can.

A can is usually about 360 millilitres.

If you want to get the double-sized can, we call that "a tall boy".

A tall boy is just like a longer can because it's tall-right?-and thin.

Now, what are you going to do with your beer?

You can, you know, drink it slowly, have a little conversation, have some snacks, or

you can just "down" your beer, it means drink it fast.

If you "chug" your beer it means you drink it all in one shot. You don't stop.

You just lift the glass, drink, drink, drink until it's empty.

That's called "chug".

If you're in college you do this every day.

Once you grow up a little bit, no so much.

And "put away".

So: "Let's just go to the bar, we'll put away a couple of beers and we'll go on with our day".

"Put away" means just drink.

Okay?

It's just an expression to beer.

When all this is done, you will likely have a "buzz" if you have one beer.

If you have many beers you will be "drunk".

A buzz means you're just feeling, like: "Buzzzz", that's why it's called a buzz, right?

So it's a light drunkenness, but you will also probably start getting a little beer

belly, like right here, or a spare tire goes all the way around, that happens from beer.

So it's a little bit fattening, because again, the yeast and all the other sugars and stuff

in there, it's fattening but some people just drink it as a meal by itself, so it's not

too bad.

Now, like I said, in Canada beer is a very big part of our culture, so let's look at

a few of these things you need to keep in mind.

Okay, let's look at the types of beer you're going to be choosing from when you get to

your bar or pub.

First of all, you have "domestic", means made in the country you're in.

"Imported", brought in from outside.

So in Canada, Canadian beers are domestic, European beers or American beers are imported,

and then you have "premium".

Technically they're the ones you're just paying more for.

They're not necessarily better, they're just more expensive for whatever reason.

And then you have "craft beer" which are brewed in a particular way and they usually come

in different flavours, like fruit beer, chili beer, coffee beer, all kinds of different

combinations to get different types of flavours.

And then "microbrew", this...

A microbrew basically means...

Comes from the word "micro", which means small.

So it's not a huge beer company.

It's a very small company and they only make a certain amount of beer, and you can buy

that, and they very much specialize in particular flavours or particular hops, barley, water,

different things.

So, the different types of beer. Okay?

"Ale", there's "pale ale", "India pale ale", just regular ale.

These are...

Or "amber ale", I forgot to mention that one.

I'll write that here.

These are the darker beer... Beers.

They're a little bit sweeter, except for the India pale ale.

Now, I know that in Canada India pale is pretty bitter, but in England I think it's a little

bit sweeter, but in England they serve it at room temperature from what I understand.

In Canada only cold beers, we don't have any beers that are room temperature.

So, ale, darker.

"Lager", light.

Okay?

So, the most common type of beer you're going to have is a lager, and not "lagger", not

"lage-er", "lager", okay?

"Stout", that's a very dark beer, like black almost, like Guinness is considered a stout.

Okay?

And then you have "wheat beer", it looks a little bit white and cloudy.

It's made from wheat instead of barley.

It has a very distinct flavour as well.

Now, if you don't like beer but you still want to drink something alcoholic and that's

a little bit easy to digest, "cider".

This is made from apples.

So it's basically apple juice with alcohol.

Okay?

And there's all kinds of different flavours, all kinds of different brew techniques for

that as well.

Now, as I mentioned before, in Canada and I'm sure it's in lots of other countries as

well, beer plays a very important part...

Part in our culture, and especially the beer companies.

So the biggest company in Canada is called "Molson".

They bought the American company, "Coors", and now it's "Molson-Coors".

And if you go to any sporting event, any big sporting event, like professional leagues

in Canada, you will see advertisements for Molson basically everywhere or any of the

other beer companies.

So they spend a lot of money supporting sports especially, but sometimes arts, sometimes

events, summer events, all kinds of things are supported by the beer companies because

people like to buy beer, the beer companies give back to the community.

It's only fair.

For example, "Oktoberfest".

Now, this is a... Excuse me.

This is a German tradition, but in October you celebrate the harvest and you drink a

lot of beer.

So in some places all over the world they celebrate Oktoberfest with big tents and lots

of food, especially sausage and sauerkraut, things like that, and lots of different beers.

You're going to see huge beer steins, like those big mugs that I told you about, but

they're big, very fancy, very decorated.

Everybody gets together.

It's like a...

Just a nice day outside, drinking beer, eating food, listening to some polka, which I'm not

going to pretend to dance for you, but you can find that out.

And all these things basically make up a big part of the culture, especially in the summertime

if you go walk around the streets, you'll see all the restaurants and bars with patios,

people sitting down, having a beer, enjoying the sunshine, etc.

Now, before anything else, before I complete and finish this lesson, I have to be very

careful and I want you to listen very carefully: Don't drink and drive.

I have to say this because it's a very stupid thing to do.

Lots of people do it, lots of people get injured and die every year because of drunk drivers.

If you're going to drink, stay where you are, stay at a friend's house, take a taxi, take

a bus.

Whatever you do, do not get into a car and drive it.

Okay?

Enjoy your beer, stay there, find another way home.

Okay?

Now, also very important, if you have any questions about this, go to www.engvid.com.

You can...

There's a quiz there you can take, and there's also a forum you can ask your questions.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel.

And, of course, don't forget, cheers. Bye.