Steve,
Your original information is correct: FMBs are not beer. I think your
question is akin to asking whether Kraft non-fat cheese slices could be
considered cheddar or colby. If you look at the label carefully, you'll
find that they aren't even allowed to call it cheese! Same deal here.
FMBs are made from a beer base only for tax purposes since the tax on beer
is lower than for other bevs. As the product is all about profit and not
flavor or culture, you can rest assured that they are produced from whatever
sort of fermentation the producing plant can conduct quickly and cheaply. I
doubt seriously that there is a common approach to producing the base that
would be common to all producers.
That said: I believe they carbon filter whatever the base is to remove the
color and distinctive flavors anyway, so any consideration of flavor from
the original ingredients or fermentation is moot.
Personally, I think we all have a vested interest in distancing these things
from beer to the greatest extent possible.
R
Ray Daniels
Director of Publications
Brewers Association
ray(a)brewersassociation.org
773-769-1300 or 312-203-8383 (cell)
See
www.beertown.org to check out our newest titles:
"How to Brew" (Third Edition) by John Palmer and
"The Brewers Association's Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery."
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-----Original Message-----
From: Chicago Beer Society Home Brewer List
[mailto:CBS-HB@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU] On Behalf Of Steve Mastny
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 1:19 PM
To: CBS-HB(a)LISTSERV.UIC.EDU
Subject: is the base beer of flavored malt beverages an ale or a lager
On a whim I've been looking into whether flavored malt beverages
(FMB's) would properly be considered ales or lagers. I
understand from a bit of internet research that this very
question might be offensive to some of the beer drinkers on
this list, since a number of Beer Advocate members seem to
passionately deny that FMB's are beers at all.
That being said, the base of FMB's is some sort of beer,
brewed to be a flavorless as possible so as to be a sort of
"blank slate" for the flavors that a later added. I would
assume that the beer base is an ale since ales are generally
cheaper to produce (less time in production/storage), but on
the other hand ale yeasts tend to be more flavorful,
hindering the creation of a "blank slate".
I figure if an hour of internet research on this subject
can't provide a definitive answer, then my only hope at this
point may be the CBS email list, where I probably should have
looked for the answer in the first place. Does anyone have
any input, speculative or otherwise?
Thanks,
Steve Mastny