Suddenly everything you thought you knew about beer is WRONG.

As entrenched as beer is in our world, it’s amazing how many misconceptions surround beer.

Beer is still misunderstood, despite its growth in recent years. Even though beer is such a part of Australian culture, we happily muse on the lexicon of wine, but fail to appreciate the amazing complexities and diverse styles offered by beer. And the unjust prejudices and stereotypes surrounding this nectar still prevail.

Ask anyone and they will have an opinion. They can tell you how fattening it is, how bloating it can be and how good it is super cold and straight from bottle… “It’s in its own glass, right, why would you want to pour it into another glass?”

Beer is often seen, wrongly, as the domain of overweight, aggressive, bearded, belching, football-loving men. Not an image likely to seduce foodies, sophisticates or women into wider experimentation and adoption – but they’re missing out on so much pleasure. It’s time to tear down these misconceptions, with some truths about beer.

Just as an FYI, you should know that this post is sponsored by Lion. But all opinions expressed by the author are 100 per cent authentic and written in their own words.

1. The myth of the beer belly

That’s right, a bottle of beer has approximately 2/3rds the kilojoules found in a glass of wine. There is no fat in beer and a full strength bottle of beer only contains 10g of carbs, which is less than 2 per cent of an average adult’s daily energy intake. Moderation, moderation, moderation!

2. Beer need not bloat

That feeling of fullness after drinking anything carbonated can become rather uncomfortable but this can easily be eliminated when consuming beer by simply pouring your beer into a glass (I prefer wine and champagne glasses… so much more elegant!). With nowhere for those bubbles to go apart from your belly when drinking from a bottle or can, a glass will allow some of the carbon dioxide to escape.

3. Women were the original brewers

Brewing was seen as one of the household chores in the BC times, along with cooking and cleaning and therefore as the men were busy hunting and gathering, the women were brewing. It wasn’t until around the time of the industrial revolution that beer became a money-making industry and that’s where the men took over. Funny that.

4. Preservatives? Not in beer

Together with the combination of the alcohol and the natural preservative qualities of hops, there is no need to add any of that nasty sulphur dioxide to beer. Beer is classed as a food product, which deteriorates over time, and therefore every beer carries a best before date… just like food.

5. A dark beer is not a strong, bitter beer… necessarily

It’s impossible to judge beer by its colour. Malt (which provides the sweetness in beer) is the only ingredient that determines a beer’s colour. Hops, which add bitterness and aromatics to beer, and yeast, which can offer spice and fruity characters, are unable to be perceived visually in beer. A dark beer simply uses some dark malt, which can provide rich chocolate, liquorice or molasses characters to beer, none of which are strong or bitter!

6.     There are over 100 styles of beer

Simply put, all beers are Ales or Lagers but that’s where the simplicity ends. Just as in the case of wine, which predominantly features red and white varietals, there are many different styles of beer, each with its own flavour profile and characteristics. Brewers have four ingredients (malt, hops, yeast and water) to play with versus winemakers who only have grapes! To say you don’t like beer is like saying you don’t like food. You simply haven’t found the beer style you like yet!

7.     The colder, the worse

Temperature affects the flavour of beer dramatically. The hop bitterness in beer will not alter based on temperature whereas the sweet malty characters in beer, which play the balancing act to hop bitterness, will disappear the colder the beer gets. Lagers, which should be clean, crisp and refreshing, are ideally served at temperatures between 4-6° C and Ales a little warmer to allow the complex, robust flavours to really shine, ideally served between 8-12° C.

There we have it, the biggest beer myths… busted. All we are saying is give beer a chance!

Just to sum things up, here are the myths we have busted today:

What is the most surprising beer myth to you?

Supported by Lion.