The Beer Tasters Vocabulary (part five)
Greetings,
Now we get to the good part of beer tasting, the actual tasting of the beer. The first thing to do is to “calibrate” your sense of taste and smell. Those who are involved in tasting beers in competition know that this is important because it gives you a baseline of flavors and aromas to judge the beers you will taste. One of the best ways to do this is to start with a mass-produced commercial beer. I would suggest starting with one of what is called a premium beer. In brewers jargon, for those of you in North America, this means Budweiser, Coors Banquet, or Miller High Life. The reason I suggest these beers is because first of all, you don’t expect much flavor from them, and second, it will probably not be your usual brew so you will continue the tasting without any preconceived notions.
Two important things are involved in tasting beer, the first is a clean beer glass, and the temperature of the beer. The best the best way to ensure you have a clean beer glass is to wash it in hot water without soap, let it air dry, and then polish it with a lint free dish towel. This ensures that there are no soap particles or anything else clinging to the side of the glass and ensures that there are no flavors from a glass to confuse your senses during the tasting. The proper temperature to taste of beer is approximately 40°F. Once you have your clean beer glass, and the beer is at the proper temperature, you are ready to begin.
Take your clean beer glass, tip at a 45° angle, and began to pour the beer into the glass. The beer should be poured directly to the bottom of the glass, and as you tip the glass into an upright position, you should allow the head to develop at least two fingers deep. This depth can be determined by extending her hand forward as if you are going to shake hands and using the top two fingers of your hand to measure the depth of the head. Once you’ve done this. You are ready to begin tasting.
As I mentioned before is most helpful to think of beer simply as a carbonated beverage rather than as “beer”. This helps to remove any preconceived notions that you might have. As you bring the glass up to taste it, be aware of what your sense of smell is telling you. It’s helpful not to think about “hops” and exercise your vocabulary to come up with as many different words as you can think of to describe what you are experiencing. This brings us to the “lip and sip” part of the tasting process. As you open your mouth slightly to take the first sip, each of the bursting bubbles in the head of the beer gives your olfactory senses something to think about. The next step is a bit shocking for your taste buds as the cool liquid in your mouth refreshes your taste buds and leaves them with very little time to think about what they’re experiencing. Once you’ve swallowed that first taste of cool liquid, your taste buds and olfactory senses began to get together to discuss what they are experiencing. Your interpretation of this should give your vocabulary a good exercise as well. Using many of vocabulary words that I’ve discussed in the last four blogs, take the time to actually describe what you are experiencing. Once you have swallowed to sip of beer, and experienced the first taste sensations, you are left to search for what is called “aftertaste” the third important step in tasting beer.
Keep in mind the “Rule of three”; after exploring the aroma, and the flavors, for the first time you’re ready to taste the beer a second time, and the third time. The first sip gives you a few names for the flavors and aromas which you are tasting and smelling. The second taste will usually uncover a few more aromas and flavors. Some people who taste beers claim that the third tasting confirms the first two. I am convinced that the third taste is simply for your enjoyment, and that’s what beer tasting is all about.
The next few blogs, I’ll go to the tasting process of Budweiser, and Coors banquet. The notes will be posted on this blog. If there any major differences between what I posted what you experience please don’t hesitate to let me know.
Cheers!
Peter LaFrance.
( peter.lafrance@beerbasics.com )
