Latest Fact Sheet

Season 4, Ep 3 - Beer

BEER FUN FACTS

· Beer is the second most popular drink in the world after Tea. Last year we drunk 299 million litres of it! That’s around 206 bottles for every man, woman and child in the country.

· In New Zealand, there is no requirement to label the ingredients of beer. A recent government review has recommended that kilojoules and health warnings are included on labels.

· Unlike wine, beer is best consumed fresh and keep beer in a dark place as it can go off when exposed light. This is known as skunking. Brown glass offers better protection than clear or green glass. Some of the beers we associate with green glass were originally sold in brown glass in their home countries, but a post World War II shortage of brown glass forced exporters to switch to green. Ever since we have associated green glass with export quality beer.

· The traditional ingredients in beer are set out in a very old German law. The Reinheitsgebot of 1516 said that beer can only be made out of malted barley, hops and water. There is some dispute over whether it was intended as a food purity law, or an attempt by a Bavarian nobleman to force brewers to buy grain from him.

· Malted barley is a roasted grain that forms the basis of beer. It gives it a sweet malty flavour. Darker roasts add colour.

· Hops are the spice that flavours beer and gives it its bitter taste. Its nearest living relative is cannabis.

· Sometimes brewers do add additional flavours to beer. Tamarillo, rata honey, rimu and even pineapple lumps have been added to NZ beer.

· Supertasters are people with many taste buds and this makes them more sensitive to bitter tastes. Only about 15% of men are supertasters, compared to 35% of women. This may be a reason that more men seem to like beer than women. In their tongue, supertasters tend to have more than 35 taste buds per square centimetre. Low tasters tend to have less than 15.

· DB and Lion Nathan make nearly 90% of all the beer we in New Zealand.

· Some people say that Steinlager gives them a headache. Lion, the makers of Steinlager say that this is an urban myth that came about because Steinlager Classic was one of the first 5% domestic lagers in New Zealand but when it was first launched, consumers drank it like they did the existing 4% lagers and therefore consumed more alcohol than they normally would have.

· There is a very restricted list of approved additives in beer and almost half of them are types of caramel. It’s used to touch up the colour, which would otherwise vary slightly from batch to batch.

· “Pure” beer is just marketing. No commercial New Zealand beers have preservatives, whether they’re pure or not.

· If you want to cut down on kilojoules, you may be better to choose a low alcohol beer than a low-carb beer. The majority of the kilojoules in beer come from the alcohol, not the carbs. Regular beer is not a high carb drink.

· A component of liners is called Bisphenol A(BPA) and it may leach into the beer. Canadian health authorities have detected it in canned beer but not he identical brands in bottles. Some people are concerned that BPA can mimic the female hormone oestrogen and may affect sperm count. However, studies have shown that you would have to drink a great deal to get any affect from the BPA in Beer. NZ authorities are not concerned about BPA.

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