MYTH #1: Beer is best served as cold as possible
FACT: Flavor emerges with a bit of warmth

We’ve been duped by the Big Beer’s ad campaigns. Consider the ice-frosted mugs, ubiquitous use of the phrase “ice cold,” or—perhaps most obnoxious—Coors Light’s “cold-activated” bottles and cans. (When the beer is cold enough, the mountains on the label “activate” by morphing from white to blue.) Fellas, this is ruining otherwise good beer.

“You lose aromatics when you serve beer too cold,” says Dave Engbers, co-owner of Founders Brewing Co., adding that beer is best consumed between 46 and 50°F.

“Typically beer is dispensed from the draft line between 38 and 42 degrees,” he says. “So just cup the glass for a couple minutes with your hands and you’ll warm it to the right temperature.”

Then you’ll actually taste beer—not the taste-bud numbing effect of near-frozen liquid.

MYTH #2: Bottled beer is better than canned beer
FACT: Nothing maintains freshness as well as a can

There are two primary concerns with storing beer in bottles: oxygen and light. “Bottles aren’t perfect,” says Charles Bamforth, Ph.D., author and professor of malting and brewing sciences at The University of California-Davis. “With time, oxygen coming in under the cap will make your beer taste like cardboard, and light coming in through the glass will turn it skunky.”

The worst bottles are those with clear glass (like Corona’s) and twist-off caps (like nearly every mass-market American lager). “Sealed aluminum is just better at keeping out oxygen and light,” he says.

Don’t like the feel of the can? Fine—just pour the brew into a glass. That’s the best way to consume good beer anyway.

MYTH #3: Draft beer is better than bottled beer
FACT: It depends on the bar

With properly maintained draft lines, beer from the tap is the freshest you can get. But not all bars keep their lined maintained, which can leave your pint polluted with unwelcome microbes.

“A draft system is not a sterile situation,” says Dave Glor, German-trained brewer and field-quality analyst for New Belgium. Bacteria like pediococcus and lactobacillus produce diecetyl, which makes it taste like somebody shot movie-theater popcorn butter into your beer. And you know that vinegar-like aroma you sometimes smell in dive bars? “That’s acetobacter,” says Glor. “You smell it because it grows on dirty bar mats, but it can grow in dirty tap faucets, too.” And when it does, it spills into your cup and makes your beer taste too acidic.

The lesson here: If you don’t trust the bar—or if you have reason to suspect that it doesn’t maintain its draft lines—order a bottle or can. That will keep you from drinking an orgy of beer-loving bacteria.

Find out what your drink order says about you.

  

MYTH #4: Ales are darker than lagers
FACT: Ales can be pale, and lagers can be dark

The big American lagers like Bud Light and its ilk tend to be pale and watery, but that’s not the case with all lagers, says Oliver. “Until recently, dark lagers accounted for the majority of beer sold in places like Bavaria.”

No, “dark lager” is not an oxymoron. The difference between lagers and ales is a difference of yeast. Lagers rely on bottom-fermenting yeast that thrive in cold temperatures, and they work slowly and produce clean, sharp beers. Ale yeast works in warmer temperatures from the top of the fermentation tank and produces esters responsible for robust, fruity, and complex flavors.

Color has nothing to do with yeast. it comes from the color of the malt. Dark malt makes dark beers and pale malt makes pale beers. So to make a dark lager, a brewer simply pairs dark malt with a lager yeast. It’s that simple. That’s precisely the process that German brewers use to produce dunkels, double bocks, and schwarzbiers. These brews are capable of delivering the deep coffee and chocolate notes of an Irish stout, but they come bound in the refreshing crispness of a lagered beer.

 

MYTH #5: Dark beers have more alcohol than light beers
FACT: Again—no correlation

What’s the darkest beer regularly sold in the US? Guinness Draught. And how much Alcohol does it have? Just 4.2 percent. “Even Budweiser is stronger than Guinness,” says Oliver. “But because Guinness is black, most people think that it’s a very strong beer.” The truth is color provides no clue about bitterness or alcohol content.

MYTH #6: Wine is the healthiest libation
FACT: Wine is likely no healthier than beer

When people talk about the healthy component of wine, they’re talking primarily about a polyphenol called resveretrol.

“Resveretrol is grossly overplayed as a health story,” says Bamforth, who wrote the book Beer: Health and Nutrition. “Compare wine and beer and you find that beer’s polyphenols are every bit as potent as wine’s.”

To back this argument, Bamforth ran beer and wine through a battery of antioxidant tests, and beer displayed some surprising benefits. In the test that looked specifically at the antioxidants that stimulate fat oxidation, beer actually outperformed wine. Take that, wine snobs.

Some other healthy beer benefits might just surprise you.

MYTH #7: Beer causes a beer belly
FACT: Moderate beer consumption poses no serious threat to your belly

It seems that whoever coined the phrase “beer belly” had a vendetta against beer. “Excess calories from beer are no more likely to contribute to weight gain than excess calories from anything else,” says Christian Finn, MS, CSCS.

In a 2011 review of 31 studies, researchers concluded that only binge drinking was associated with weight gain. Moderate alcohol use appeared benign, and some studies even found that moderate drinkers were thinner on average, regardless of preferred beverage.

Still worried about beer’s carbohydrates? Fine, but worry with perspective: A typical 12-ounce beer has a carb load similar to a glass of wine—roughly 10-to-20 grams—and according to a 2009 study, it also contains roughly 2.5 grams of barley-derived fiber. That puts beer on par with a slice of whole-wheat bread. In the world of vices, that’s pretty tame.

For a lean belly without going to the gym, here's how to lose with booze.

MYTH #8: If you buy beer warm, you should store it warm until you’re ready to drink it
FACT: The less time beer spends warm, the better

Oxidation, the slow reaction between oxygen and beer, is the biggest enemy of hop-fresh flavor, and the attack begins the moment the beer leaves the brewery. “As soon as its brewed, beer begins aging,” says Glor. “If you’re going to store it for any time, you want to keep it cold to slow oxidation.”

So why to retailers store beer warm? Probably because they don’t have the cooler space. Don’t repeat their transgression: The ideal temperature for storing beer, according to Glor, is in the high 30s to low 40s.

 

MYTH #9: The US is a second-class beer nation
FACT: That’s not what the pros say

Ask around and you’ll find that most beer experts now consider American beers to be among the best in the world. “Other countries are looking to us when it comes to innovation,” says Oliver. “Most Germans haven’t even heard of IPAs or stouts, so even though they have a great brewing culture, they’re somewhat constricted.”

Martin Biendl heads research and development for the German branch of the hop-distribution company Hopsteiner, and he agrees: “Everybody’s looking at the US. It’s very impressive. I expect that brewmasters here will soon be copying US recipes or developing German interpretations.”

Perhaps the reason is that American brewers are unmoored from the trappings of longtime brewing traditions, which means they’re free to innovate in ways that other counties can’t. That’s probably why, according to the Brewers Association, America now boasts 2,126 breweries, and 97 percent of those qualify as “craft.”