You thought you knew about tasting…
Renowned brewer Stuart Howe gives us his thoughts on the supposedly simple task of tasting beer:
Tasting beer is a serious business, even if it’s being done for pleasure. I’ve been sampling as a brewer, where to order ativan https://ativanusa.com/ description: Unexplained feeling of anxiety and uneasy panic attacks can significantly destroy the quality of normal lifestyle a judge and a beer lover for 25 years and here are my five recommendations for getting more out of tasting beers:
1. You are fallible
As a beer lover your palate is the gates to heaven, the most important aspect of your being. It’s also connected to one of the most fallible bits of equipment in the world; the human brain. Your mood, your environment, your physiological condition and state of health all influence what you perceive from the beer in your glass. In addition the context of the tasting is also significant. Some food and drink acts on the palate to change how it perceives subsequent drinks for up to a day. Some very dry and bitter beers can ruin the flavour of subsequent drinks. Never write a beer off because it has minor flaws because they may be an artefact of context.
2. It’s not all really about off notes
In the world of brewing science we have to live with the fact that we don’t know very much about beer flavour, although we are very slow to acknowledge it. We know lots of useful things but we are miles away from knowing it all and it goes without saying we don’t know how much we don’t know. When we taste beer we look out for off notes like diacetyl and H2S. These are aroma compounds which have very little influence over how the beer feels in the mouth and finishes. In terms of the enjoyment of the beer how it smells is of a great deal less importance than how it affects the palate. The trouble is we don’t know a lot about what it is in beer which affects palate and how nearly sweet FA about how to measure it. If the beer is nice to drink a small amount of sulphur or diacetyl are not a reason to reject the beer. If it stinks of course that’s another matter.
3. You may not be the expert but you are the judge
You don’t need a PhD from Munich University to taste beer. You just need a functioning palate and nose. The more you research and develop your understanding of beer flavour you more you will get out of your tasting experience but the only person in the universe who knows what great beer is to you is you. Don’t allow yourself to be railroaded into liking particular beers just because they are fashionable. Be fearsomely objective and enjoy beer that you instinctively like don’t try to like beers just because they are supposed to be great.
Which one next…
4. It’s not all really about styles
This point follows on from the last. Styles are invented by boring people who like talking about things too much. They are used and abused by marketing people to make people buy their brands and that’s the extent of their relevance to the taste of beer. It matters not that the IPA in your glass does not fit into the definition contrived for the style. If it’s beautiful it is a great beer. Don’t condemn the brewer s/he has subverted a style or because the marketer has used poetic licence if they are making beer which is lovely to drink.
5. No one benefits from saying nice things about crap beer
The best feedback I get as a brewer is negative feedback. It takes a few hours before the suicidal/homicidal thoughts to wear off but after that hearing of a problem with one of your beers is vital to improve consistency and quality. People who pussyfoot around complaining or condemning a beer are doing everyone who loves beer a disservice. And Brewers who have never made a crap beer are either liars or delusional! Although I encourage good and bad feedback from drinkers and colleagues I caution against proffering explanations of where it went wrong. No one can troubleshoot a brewing process for a bar stool and being told what you are doing wrong by someone however well-meaning is as welcome as a turd in a swimming pool and slightly less useful.
Stuart Howe, director of Brewing at Liberation Group and Butcombe