George F. Reisch raised the pint glass and took a long drink of the foamy, goldenrod beer. Without wiping away the foam, he looked upward, as if in bliss, and intoned, “This is beautiful, it’s truly the water of life!”

Reisch is not just an ordinary pub-goer waxing romantic after perhaps too happy a happy hour. He is a star brewer, fifth-generation brewer in his family, and senior brew master at Anheuser-Busch, the conglomerate that owns brands such as Budweiser and Stella Artois.

“I always say a brew master is a blend of scientist, mathematician, farmer, teacher and mentor,” he says, chatting with Shanghai Daily over a beer in a restaurant on the Bund.

Reisch, 56, who was in the city to promote pairing food and beer, says beer is often neglected when it comes to fine dining, though at times a particular beer might be the perfect beverage with a particular dish. Wine is still preferred while beer is considered a party drink.

Reisch is out to change that stereotype as he travels around the world, teaching young brewers, and talking to chefs about the “water of life.”

“As a brewer, I have to get involved with food, because good beer will be the bridesmaid to really good food. I need to talk to chefs to make them understand my beer needs to be part of their business so that people can have a wonderful dining experience,” Reisch says.

The latest trend in beer is fruity, less malty flavors, from citrus to raspberries. As a brewer, this was hard to accept at first, but if fruity beer brings more drinkers into the beer fold, that’s a good thing.

Reisch’s love affair with beer started early. He grew up with the aroma of beer in the family brewery that operated from 1849 to 1966 in Springfield, Illinois. That nurtured a lifelong passion to follow in the family footsteps.

At age 12, assisted by his father, Reisch made his first batch of beer, at a time when home brewing was rare.

“I made different kinds of beer, kept them in an open fermenter in the basement. It tasted really good. It had this yeasty, malty taste,” he says.

He went on to apprentice at big breweries on summer breaks and joined Anheuser-Busch after graduating from university in 1979.

Today he is a world-class brew master, with 34 years of experience. He is a judge of the World Beer Cup. He is former president of the Master Brewers Association of the Americas (2008 and 2009) and a member of the Board of Advisers for the North American Brewers Association. He teaches at Anheuser-Busch subsidiaries worldwide.

Eclectic skills, the ability to exploit trends, and humility are important qualities in a good brewer, he said.

“Brew masters are responsible for the quality of the beer from the brewery. To do that, you have to know the raw materials, the barley, malt and hop farmers, and the water company. You have to know the science of brewing and you have to be very good at teaching young brewers,” Reisch says.

Beer from the gods

Beer dates back thousands of years and was once drunk when water was unavailable or contaminated. The advent of science and technology has been a blessing for brewers.

In ancient times, brewers had no concept of the science of fermentation and how yeast works. They concluded that a goddess worked magic on the malt mash while mortals slept.

“So beer was a godsend,” says Reisch.

Fundamentally, brewers today are doing exactly what brewers did thousands of years ago.

Despite all the advanced chemistry, sophisticated fermentation techniques, and monitoring instruments, human error can still spoil the brew.

“Brewers must stay humble all the time, and not make excuses,” Reisch says.

He teaches young brewers to keep an open mind, admit mistakes and acknowledge that something may have been overlooked.”

Reisch vividly remembers the biggest mistake of his own career.

Since rice doesn’t have a lot of enzyme activity, brewers often have to add a little malt into rice mash to help the fermentation. But once, back in 1983 or 84, Reisch forgot to add malt to the rice mash before the rice boiled. As a result, he ended up with a 16-foot-tall (4.8-meter-tall) rice cooker filled with cooked rice, instead of a 16-foot-tall vessel filled with a boiling rice starch liquid.

It was such a disaster that the terror-stricken junior brewer made a point of retaining all the documents and records from that failure to this day, to show young brewers.

Fruity beers

The latest global taste trend in beers, whether in cans, bottles, kegs or on tap, is fruity flavor, not malt.

“As a beer brewer, it’s something I have to get used to. People love citrus, cherries, and raspberries in their beer, not so much fundamentally malt-based beer. I have to say that with food, it really works, but from a traditional brewing standpoint, it’s hard for me as a brewer to adapt.”

That said, Reisch knows fruit pays off, and more beer drinkers are born.

Contrary to popular perceptions that brewers now work from behind computers, the work involves tremendous physical labor and challenges, such as keeping yeast cultures alive and healthy.

“It is really hard to be a brewer, but the most satisfying things I’ve ever done are the hardest things, like an athlete running marathon,” he says.

To his surprise, one of his four sons, Patrick, is being groomed to become the sixth generation brew master in the family. He studied brewing in Munich, Germany, for a year.

When his sons were children, he showed them the fermentation process, but they were frightened by the sight of water moving on its own, as if some supernatural force was at work.

Many years later, on leave from university, Patrick’s sudden declaration of his passion for beer, the childhood bogeyman, came as a surprise,

Reisch wanted to test his resolve, but after a fact-finding visit to a brewery, the young man returned with even more enthusiasm.

“I had to make sure it was real, and he wasn’t doing it because I did it,” Reisch says.

When Patrick, who is now 27, Reisch and Reisch’s own father get together for a beer at the family home in Wildwood, Missouri, “there’s a silent bond that passes” between them. And the thought that just maybe a new grandson would someday become a seventh-generation brewer is an intoxicating possibility.

Beer and hotpot

In his China stay, Reisch has eaten a lot of spicy, steaming hot pot — and drunk a lot of beer.

“One sip of cool beer will explode the spicy taste and allow you to enjoy the spice more,” he says. Beer also enhances the flavors of cheese, salad, meat, and fish, he says.

Reisch demonstrates the correct way to pour beer into a glass and says the common mistake is tilting the glass to reduce foam. That’s wrong because beer contains a high level of CO2 that needs to be released — preferably not all in the stomach. Too much CO2 makes people feel full.

The correct way is to hold the glass upright and pour the beer vertically into it. Beer foams up and often overflows, but the C02 escapes and as a result diners have more space in their stomach for food and beer.

And Reisch says a thick layer of foam is “sexy.”

Like many winemakers and brew masters Reisch does not overindulge in his own product, partly to “stay on top of the game,” partly out of “respect for beer.”

Reisch says he never wants to retire.

“It’s absolutely fulfilling and I love it,” he says. “Everybody should fall in love with their career, so much so that even if you had all the money in the world, you would still do your job.”