What’s malted barley?

An important raw ingredient in alcoholic beverages such as beer and scotch, it is alarming how often people (well, mainly those that I have encountered) do not understand what exactly is malted barley.

The malting process consists of two parts - germination, followed by heat treatment to stop the germination. The first part is best described as creating the right environment to encourage the barley seed to start growing. While it starts to sprout its roots, internally it also begins to convert its stored energy from starch to sugar, as food for the new plant.

Now, basically the goal is to get that conversion of all that starch into sugar, after which the process is stopped with heat. This completes what is known as malted barley, which offers the optimum yield of fermentable sugars.

To continue the story a little further, alcohol is then collected as a result (by-product actually) of the yeast consuming the sugar (in a process known as fermentation, which is the basic process behind the preparation of alcoholic beverages).

Hope this explanation, though somewhat simplistic, helps to clear the picture.

Why lime wedge in Mexican (Corona) beer?

Many have the opinions that it is unique to the way of consuming this popular brand of Mexican beer. Incidentally, this practice is uncommon among the locals in its native Mexico. Rather, it is usually seen among the tourists there, and in the export markets.

Plausible background behind the practice of inserting the lime wedge into the bottle neck range from it being a cleaner of rust stains around the bottle mouth (due to an early practice of metal caps without the rubber liner/seal); to it being used to keep the flies away (probably by the early tourist drinkers).

Another contender for the inspiration of the practice could perhaps be the Michelada, a popular beer cocktail made with the addition of lime juice and hot sauces. Though in this light, perhaps Corona with a lime wedge might actually be considered a sort of semi-cocktail?

Inspiration for Gaia

The choice of pecans as part of a cocktail presented some challenges due to its light flavor; but the “buttery” element offered a wonderful opportunity – a fuller mouth-feel to accompany an uplifting citrus flavor, which usually comes with a lighter body, especially in drinks.

This month’s theme, Pumpkins & Pecans, shared common Native American roots, which brought to mind cultures that revered Mother Nature. Inspired by Greek mythology, Provocachic™ selected “Gaia” (Mother Earth) as the title for the cocktail recipe and concept.

Gaia’s light facade was built with an eclectic mix of lemongrass, Heogaarden white beer, Rhum Agricole Blanc and Blue Curaçao liqueur. The choice of the blue version for the last liqueur was aimed at achieving a misty green hue, evocative of lemongrass (or bamboo) and nature, while the type of rum used added to a natural, “grassy” (sugarcane) tone. Using one of the most thirst-quenching (and floral) types of beer together with lemongrass helped to create a most refreshing concoction.

Butterscotch schnapps was used to fatten the pecan’s “buttery” feel, though with only a dash so as not to overpower the recipe. Together with the intense sweetness of natural fructose sugar, the full sensory palate was concentrated in a slim shot glass.

Gaia, like a sprout of green bursting forth from the hardest rocks…

Money Down The (Beer) Tap

Came across a situation recently where a bartender was swiftly alternating the beer tap between open and close to collect a pint of beer foam (head). Apparently he had just run out of beer at his other bar, and was in the middle of preparing some of it for a current order. However, the method used to top up his half-ready beer pints had resulted in an extra 2/3 pint of beer. It was a quiet night.

Naturally, one of the owners who was present at that time, was visibly upset with the wastage. Perhaps this is a good example to showcase the lack of strong bar inventory control systems throughout the industry (safe for some)? For clear accountability would definitely influence how barmen in general are willing to prepare the drinks in a more optimum manner.

And it also reflects how most bar owners are quite concerned with bar inventory, though most systems being used are relatively simplistic. Of course, this situation is probably compounded by the astronomical (in comparison) prices of computerized control systems. However, a meticulous and disciplined manual inventory control can also be quite effective.

So perhaps the key is a significant on-going investment in staff training and motivation, with rewards & remuneration pegged clearly to tangible performance measures; and maintaining an effective inventory system.

In the long run, this would likely help to stem out money loss behind the bar (including the intentional and planned occasions), not to mention the other resources, especially time.

Easily up to one-third or more of potential revenues could be loss as a result of these problems in the industry. Even solely looking at the financial aspect, that is a lot of money down the tap...