Why brewing beer is more complex than making wine

On the table at the Beerhouse on Long Street, Cape Town, are four glasses of beer. Each looks very different from the other, in colour and in clarity.

These are the four winners of this year's National Beer Trophy awards, which will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Beerhouse on Wednesday.

Even though each of these prize-winning sips belong to separate categories of beer, it's still surprising that they each have such a distinct flavour. Because wine-estate tourism is so popular, we tend to know much more about the making and business of wine than of beer.

To help change this, Jean Vincent Ridon launched the National Beer Trophy awards three years ago - the only independent beer awards in the country.

Ridon is better known for his wine-making, but as a sommelier his ability to taste flavours extends across liquids - wine, beer or coffee.

A few weeks ago the judges met for the final decision-making session at the Beerhouse.

After weeks of tasting the 199 entries, they gathered to select four winners from the last round of 15 beers.

The judges for this year's trophy are winemaker Mary-Lou Nash, beer writer and president of the Home Brewing South Yeasters, Lucy Corne, Beerhouse's Murray Hurst, wine expert, Cathy Marston, and Ridon.

Each beer is judged according to colour, mouthfeel, aroma, taste and overall impression. Also included in the report is each judge's advice on how to improve the quality of the beer. This year's categories are light, dark, amber and speciality.

Over lunch at the Beerhouse, Hurst discussed how much more complex beer-making is than wine-making. There are many ways of showing different flavour profiles. 

"In wine you've got the grape, yeast and wood (of the barrel). There are only so many grape varieties and a limited range of yeasts. You can only harvest grapes once a year."

With beer there are four ingredients, and it's brewed all year round.

The first ingredient is water. The mineral content of water varies depending on its source and, depending on its content, the taste of the water will vary, which affects the flavour of the beer - the brackish water you find in Karoo differs in flavour from that of a mountain spring.

Secondly, there's the wide variety of hops. Hurst says that the bulk of the local crop grows in the George area. "The range of hops is huge," says Hurst.

And then malt, he says, "is the base of the beer", while the fourth ingredient, yeast, "is the magic behind the beer".

Ridon says the difference between wine and beer is akin to the difference between a chef and a pastry chef. Like a wine-maker, a chef can adjust and improvise, while a pastry chef, like a beer-maker, has to follow a recipe. To recreate a beer, there has to be a recipe.

Ridon says the reputation of beer is changing. Slowly it's becoming socially acceptable to order beer rather than wine to accompany food at a restaurant. Soon he hopes to see beer and food pairing occasions like those in Belgium.

• This article was originally published in The Times.