Beer tasting on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Beer tasting is the experience of sampling beer. Depending on how the tasting is designed, it can be a way to learn more about the history, ingredients and production of
Blindprovning är ingen lätt lek
''SvD.se''. Accessed on 3 April 2017.
Beer tasting is the experience of sampling beer. Depending on how the tasting is designed, it can be a way to learn more about the history, ingredients and production of beer
Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...
as well as different beer styles, hops
Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant ''Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to whic ...
, yeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom (biology), kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are est ...
and beer presentation. A common way is to analyze the appearance, smell and taste of the beer. Most tastings, include a final judgement of the beer's quality.
There are many scales for rating beer among beer journalists and beer sommelier
A beer sommelier, also known as a cicerone in the United States, is a trained professional, working in the hospitality and alcoholic beverage industry, who specializes in the service and knowledge of beer, similar to a traditional wine sommelier. ...
s. Different magazines and experts often use their own scale, for example the famous British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
sommelier Jancis Robinson
Jancis Mary Robinson OBE, ComMA, MW (born 22 April 1950) is a British wine critic, journalist and wine writer. She currently writes a weekly column for the ''Financial Times'', and writes for her website JancisRobinson.com, updated daily. She ...
uses a scale between 1 and 20 and the famous American sommelier Joshua M. Bernstein uses a scale between 1 and 100. However it is common for professional organisations such as the Wine & Spirit Education Trust to rate beer with verbal grades: faulty - poor - acceptable - good - very good - outstanding, corresponding to a scale from 1 to 5.
Themes
First, a selection of beers is chosen for the tasting. A theme can be for example Belgian beers or a selection of beers of varying bitterness. Beers are often tasted in an order from lightest to heaviest, driest to sweetest and cheapest to most expensive. This forms a basic structure of the tasting, but it is more important to organise the tasting according to how the human tastebuds work. As tasting progresses, the tastebuds become less sensitive and can even be anaesthesised. Some tasting menus will focus on themes: for example, different types of beer such asstout
Stout is a type of dark beer that is generally warm fermented, such as dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout and imperial stout. Stout is a type of ale.
The first known use of the word "stout" for beer is in a document dated 1677 in the E ...
, wheat beer
Wheat beer is a top-fermented beer which is brewed with a large proportion of wheat relative to the amount of malted barley. The two main varieties are German and Belgian ; other types include Lambic (made with wild yeast), Berliner Weisse (a c ...
or India pale ale, different countries such as Belgian beers or American pale ales, or different pairings of food with the tasting, such as a tasting of beers and cheese
Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...
s.
Glass
Choosing a glass for beer tasting is more important than one might think. An ISO standard tasting glass is often used in professional tastings, which is the standard for tasting different beverages. This type of glass is used by many tasters throughout the world to ensure the glass does not affect their judgement. The glass should be large enough to capture the aroma of the beer when it is twisted around on the bottom of the glass. The glass should have a foot so that the container part is not stained or warmed by the hands.Blind tasting
A common form of beer tasting is so-calledblind tasting
In marketing, a blind taste test is often used as a tool for companies to compare their brand to another brand. For example, the Pepsi Challenge is a famous taste test that has been run by Pepsi since 1975. Additionally, taste tests are sometimes ...
. In this type of tasting the taster does not know which beer is in which glass, for example by shrouding the bottle in an opaque container as it is poured. An experienced taster can have an idea of what the beer is by clues in the beer's appearance, smell and taste. This is however becoming more difficult as the number of different beer brands and styles is growing.Mölstad, MikaelBlindprovning är ingen lätt lek
''SvD.se''. Accessed on 3 April 2017.
See also
{{Portal, Beer * Beer flight *Beer sommelier
A beer sommelier, also known as a cicerone in the United States, is a trained professional, working in the hospitality and alcoholic beverage industry, who specializes in the service and knowledge of beer, similar to a traditional wine sommelier. ...
References