Instructions
- : Don’t drink unless you’re of legal age. Drink responsibly, and never drink and drive.
- Step 1: Drink at the right temperature Make sure your beer isn’t too cold. Chilling a beer too much makes it more difficult to detect nuances in the flavor as well as making it more difficult to digest.
- TIP: Many beers from small breweries and European brewers note the correct drinking temperature on the label.
- Step 2: Decant your beer Pour your beer into a glass. There are nearly as many glass styles as there are beer styles, and each one is designed to enhance the drinking experience.
- Step 3: Consider the beer’s appearance Consider the beer’s appearance. Beers can vary greatly in their color and clarity, and can range from straw colored and sparkling to opaque and almost black. Also note the head on the beer. Strong head retention often indicates well-crafted beer.
- Step 4: Smell the beer Note the beer’s aroma as it goes into your mouth. Olfactory senses are important to opening up your palate and the smell greatly affects the taste. Aroma, like taste, can be delicate or heavy, well-balanced or uneven.
- Step 5: Taste the beer Taste your beer, letting it wash over each section of your tongue. Consider the mouth feel, which is how heavy or light the beer feels in your mouth. Try to separate the hop taste and the malt taste, determining the structure and balance of the beer. Dry beer indicates a lack of sugar and tastes bitter and hoppy. Fruitier beer has had more malt sugar converted into sugar.
- Step 6: Think about the finish Consider the aftertaste, or finish, of the beer. The aftertaste sensation of the beer may be long and lingering or it may leave without a trace.
- Step 7: Put it all together Determine a general impression of the beer with all of the aspects together. If it’s a high-quality, well-made beer, you’ll like it and you’ll want to have another drink. Then have a drink of water or a piece of bread to cleanse your palate and open another bottle.
- FACT: According to a recent study, the more beer a scientist drinks, the less likely they are to publish a paper or to have a paper cited by another researcher.
You Will Need
- Several bottles of beer
- Correct temperatures
- Beer glasses
- Water or bread
