here's to beer (part 3)

Beer, glorious beer. Beer sommelier, educator, writer and super-cool beer chick Christina Perozzi is here to tell us all — chicks and non-chicks alike — about the finer points of our favorite fizzy lifting drink.

In the last installment of our three-part interview, find out how to get your friends (or your own taste buds) to embrace beer. Also, be sure to read about Christina's take on beer trends and summer favorites and how to host a beer-pairing dinner.

Why do you think women don't seem to be as into beer as men are?
It's all because of advertising! Beer has just been so masculinized with dancing bikini girls and famous dogs and sparks that women don’t want to be associated with those images. Mass-produced and industrialized breweries have really given beer a bad name for women. But it's really a shame because we’re living in a self-imposed exile, not realizing that beer can taste like apricots and cocoa with banana and clove and lemongrass and coriander!

How do you turn a beer-phobic woman into a convert?
I just give her a beer that debunks her misconceptions about beer. I’ll ask her a couple of questions — usually not about beer at all — to get an understanding of what flavor profile I think she’ll like. And then I’ll give her a great beer she’ll love and that according to her “doesn’t taste like beer at all!” But that’s a compliment, I think.

Are there specific beers you recommend particularly for women?
I don’t like the idea of dumbing down beers for women, so I say this with hesitation. But usually the first beer  I’ll give to a non-beer-drinking woman is a beer that has a very small hop presence. Usually I’ll go for a Rogue Hazelnut Brown Ale — which is really dark, but is nutty and delicious — or a Lost Coast Great White Ale, a wheat beer that’s fermented with lemongrass. My last resort will be to go for a total fruit beer. Women usually love it, and at least it’s a step in the right direction.

What about you? How did you get interested in beer?
I started working at this little beer bar in Santa Monica, because I couldn’t stand the 9-6 grind. I wanted to throw myself out of the plate glass window in my office, so I begged my friend (who was the manager of the bar at the time) for a job. She got me a position as a bar back, which meant I was clearing plates and lifting kegs and washing glasses.

The bar was one where there were 36 different beers on tap and none of them were beers you would recognize. In order to become a bartender there (which was where the real money was), you had to learn about each one of those beers, learn how they tasted, learn how beer was made, the whole gamut.

So I started learning, and I just never stopped. It was just so interesting to me, the fact that you could think you were sophisticated and you knew pretty much all that there is to know on a subject — in this instance, beer — and then wham, the door opens and there’s a whole world of flavors and styles and history and folklore and travel. I just totally geeked out.

Do you face any beer prejudice from wine snobs?
Yeah, I do sometimes. Mostly it's from the people selling the wine. I was talking to one wine seller, and he was asking me about my business, and I was saying that I wanted to elevate beer so people would include it in their fine dining experience. And he said to me, “It’ll never happen…. Never happen.” Maybe he felt threatened or something, I don’t know.

And I don’t know why they would because by no means do I say drink beer instead of wine! I love wine. The two are definitely not mutually exclusive. Overall, most people who understand good wine will also appreciate a good beer.

Check out Christina's website and blog.

Comments

I find that beer has a lot to do with how filling it can be. A couple pints can be a lot of liquid a normal guy, and A LOT to a girl. Many of the girls I know who do in fact like beer, drink one then move onto hard alcohol to get more "bang for the buck". I do agree that beer has become a mans drink overall, but just like soda, there are so many varieties of it, I am sure there is a taste for every person.