A Tasting Question

[newbee(r)]

I have always enjoyed beer but have not explored the taste much in terms of what produces what taste. Now that I am making & drinking my own beer I would like to be able to define what I am tasting a bit better.

Any suggestions on Beer tasting (other than drink alot, it tastes good, doing that) - Can't find any tastings/etc here, we have one micro brewery thats pretty good but...

Maybe some reading? Or a few of you could describe the taste and the flavors (ingredients making those flavors, etc) in some well crafted commercial/micro beers.

The last beer I made to me tastes great but if I had to describe it, I would say - Smooth full flavor w/ a slight bitter finish (this just won't cut it anymore...)

Any help appreciated.

[brewmonkey]

Since you have started making your own I suggest going over to www.bjcp.org and check out the style guidlines. They will tell you about the styles and what you sould expect to find in the beer. They also finish each style description with some classic examples of the beer so you can then compare your palate to the notes.

Ray Daniels "Designing Great Beers" as well as the entire Classic Beer Series all of which can be found through Brewers Publications at www.beertown.org

[sallad]

i'm starting to get an idea of what differnt grains / hops taste like. i always have a little taste -- chew on a few kernels of the different grains i use. you could save a few kernels, and chew on them when you drink your brew, see if you can pick out the flavor. same thing for the hops.. smell them while you drink, see if you can pick out the similarities!

[fretlessman71]

How often do you get to drink commercial brews? When you do, read some tasting notes on them at some of the other websites (beeradvocate.com, ratebeer,com, etc.) and see if you can taste the same things that other people tasted. Interesting exercise!

[steveh]

The Essentials of Beer Style by Fred Eckhardt has a great chapter called Beer Tasting Just for the Fun of it. It has some great instructions on how to taste, and the rest of the book talks about beer characteristics.

S.

[Bruno_78]

Originally posted by fretlessman71
How often do you get to drink commercial brews? When you do, read some tasting notes on them at some of the other websites (beeradvocate.com, ratebeer,com, etc.) and see if you can taste the same things that other people tasted. Interesting exercise!

This is exactly what I do. When I taste a new beer, I look here for the review. If I don't find it here, then I check ratebeer.

I'm happy to say, after using this technique for a while now, I can now distinguish three flavors in beer! I'm getting better!:D

[Beaver]

Originally posted by Bruno_78
I'm happy to say, after using this technique for a while now, I can now distinguish three flavors in beer! I'm getting better!

Is cold one of them? Can you pick out the coldest tasting beer? :D

[davesarman]

Originally posted by Beaver
Is cold one of them? Can you pick out the coldest tasting beer? :D

LOL!!!

[steveh]

Originally posted by davesarman
LOL!!!

Me too!

S.

[chazwicke]

When you were purchasing your brewing ingredients, did you read desriptions of what tastes each item should impart? How did you make your selections?

[HogieWan]

I use the reviews on this site (http://beer.com/beerdotcom/). The reviews just seem a bit more professional than ratebeer and such.

[Bruno_78]

Originally posted by Beaver
Is cold one of them? Can you pick out the coldest tasting beer? :D

The silver bullet, right?

[Beaver]

Originally posted by Bruno_78
The silver bullet, right?

You ARE quick with learning those flavors! ;)

[chazwicke]

That's using the ole human head. ;)

[fretlessman71]

Originally posted by HogieWan
I use the reviews on this site (http://beer.com/beerdotcom/). The reviews just seem a bit more professional than ratebeer and such. Once you get past all the crap, they do have some decent tasting notes. Not a lot of beers listed there, however.

[chazwicke]

It would not let me get past the 1st page.

[fretlessman71]

I clicked on the upper right hand corner where it said "Beer of the Day: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale", and it took me to a review of the beer, with a search function that lets you type in a beer to see if it's been reviewed. Cumbersome, but the reviews are decent.

[chazwicke]

Thanks! The home page looks like it is just some cheesy macro site.

[HogieWan]

Not every beer I've asted has been on there and sometimes they are misspelled making it harder to find them. Also the rest of the site is quite cheesy, but I really enjoy their reviews, so I keep going back.