For a long time, beer was made into a pastiche of wine.
A subspecies, a brew by default.
Because for a long time, it must be said, the idea was conveyed that if certain regions praised the delights of beer, it was because they were unable to grow vines.
And, in countries rich in vineyards and yet fans of this fermented drink, astonishment has often been tinged with contempt.
However, beer is not left out of its gastronomic rites, its ancestral traditions, and above all a whole array of words, expressions and metaphors which thereby signify all the richness of its imagination.
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Also read: Jean Szlamowicz: “Knowing how to talk about wine has become an element of social distinction”
Men of letters themselves never considered beer unsuitable for inclusion in their writings.
Jean Pruvost in his
Dictionary of Wine, Beer and Champagne
(Honoré Champion, 2023) quotes the philosopher Alain, specifying in 1937 that “
on Sundays we each had a jug of cold beer
”.
And how can we not think of Philippe Delerm's delicious evocation of the first sip of beer?
Let him speak: “
How long it seems, the first sip!
We drink it straight away, with a falsely instinctive greed.
In fact, everything is written;
the quantity, it is neither too little which makes the ideal primer;
the immediate well-being punctuated by a sigh, a click of the tongue, or a silence that deserves them;
the deceptive sensation of a pleasure that opens to infinity...
"
We can be amused by the spelling debates that the word has sparked.
Until 1835, in the sixth edition of its
Dictionary
, the French Academy accepted, for example, the spelling “
bierre
”.
This made it possible, among other things, not to confuse the hops and barley beverage with... the wooden mortuary chest!
Diderot, to name just one, vehemently defended spelling duplication.
Whether they have pale gold or amber highlights, whether they are blonde, brown or red, the beers are sure to show you all the colors!
Will you do flawlessly on this test?