Two ways to go: beer v wine

On tour and can't make up your mind between a pint of liquid gold or a heady drop from a scenic valley? Our experts can help you decide.

By Amy Cooper

Wine or beer? You're asking me to choose between my nearest and dearest, and at my local I'd say plenty of both please, barkeep. But when venturing further afield I prefer measuring my miles in pints, not pinots.

As the late, great Frank Zappa said: "You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline." Beer is your gateway to the whole world. Did you know that just 28 countries produce 85 per cent of the planet's wine? Meanwhile, beer, the world's third-most imbibed beverage after tea and water, is native to almost everywhere, from Mexico City to Milwaukee, Tokyo to Toronto.

Loved by rich and poor, it's the people's drink; a universal pleasure soaked into a multitude of histories. We all speak beer. For immediate cultural immersion, simply dive into a pint, a pilstulpe, stein or schooner.

Wineries demand you schlep out into the sticks, where there's little else but ... wine. Beer is super-accessible, embedded in urban life, built into the bricks, made and enjoyed at the heart of famous towns and cities. Breweries, both micro and mega, are often just a short - ahem - hop from other must-sees. You can tour Amsterdam's giant Heineken flagship and be at the Rijksmuseum 10 minutes later. Over ice in Thailand or cellar temperature in northern England, beer is liquid local tradition. It's a Guinness-fuelled singsong in a Dublin pub, the 4pm ritual of daily-brewed bia hoi from a Hanoi street vendor, or locking gazes according to Czech toasting custom over a Prague Pilsner.

Then there's the fun factor. Wine's about thinking, but beer's for drinking. Instead of nosing notes of sweaty saddle, you could be thigh-slapping at the world's largest folk festival, Munich's Oktoberfest. At this epic two-week Bavarian bash in 34 huge tents, seven million revellers drink as many million litres of beer over two joyous weeks. Prost!

You could book a room with a brew, with in-room beer taps and shower beer fridges, at Brewdog's Doghouse hotels in Edinburgh, Manchester and Columbus; take a Brews Cruise in Portland, Maine; or discover why the other Portland, in Oregon, is known as "beervana" (clue: most breweries per capita).

In Australia, beer entices the imbibing adventurer to all corners of the continent, from Canberra (BentSpoke) and Port Douglas (Hemingway's) to Fremantle (Little Creatures) and even the Red Centre, at Alice Springs Brewing Co. Sydney's "Marrickville triangle" is a widely envied craft beer capital, with 13 breweries, including Young Henry's, Wayward Brewing Co and Willie The Boatman.

Near or far, beer is your transport to every hoppy place. A grape escape is vine, but for a thirsty traveller, it's merely a drop in the ocean.

By Mal Chenu

I love to have a beer with Duncan, or Amy, or whoever's buying, but when it comes to travelling for tipples, it's grape over grain every time.

Full-bodied is better than just a head, so take to the terroir of the great wine-growing regions of Australia - and the world - and you'll discover experiences that linger on the palate like a great Syrah. Wine has a depth (albeit not in my glass for very long) that vignerons and sommeliers spend their lives learning about and trying to perfect. You can study for a Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology, whereas "bachelor of beer" is more likely a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Tours of cellar doors, vineyards and regions are high on peoples' barrel lists, whereas the idea that someone might travel for beer (unless it's up to the local) is a furphy. Wine regions have such lure, significance and cachet that they defend their appellations worldwide. Surry Hills and Lidcombe, on the other hand, are not fighting each other over the chance to call themselves "Tooheys".

Some of these places probably have microbreweries, too, and you are welcome to go there if that's what floats your boat. Or ice cream, as in a beer floater. (But don't get me started on THAT crime against gastronomy.)

And speaking of which, wining and dining and bonhomie are perfect bedfellows. With beer, you just have to make sure you and your mates match your coldie with the right meat pie and sauce.

"Wine and friends are a great blend," said Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway, who drank enough of it to know. And to put a final cork in the argument, let's turn to Martin Luther, the enzyme of the Reformation: "Beer is made by men, wine by God." Amen, brother Martin.