Tasting Beer
Although the name may lead you to believe otherwise, tasting a beer involves a little more than just taking a sip!
Tasting beer like a beer professional is actually a 4-step process: we want to think about what our beer looks like, smells like, tastes like and feels like.
Why? Each of these steps can tell us more about the beer in front of us.
Step 1: Appearance
The first step of the beer tasting process is to assess our beer’s appearance, as it can help to set some expectations for the flavours and textures we might find.
When we think about a beer’s appearance, we want to think about the 3 C’s: colour, clarity and carbonation.
Colour: Beer colour can range from gold, to amber, to black. In gold-coloured beers, we might expect to find flavours of white bread or water biscuit. Whereas in dark beers, we might expect to find flavours of coffee or chocolate.
Clarity: Most beers are clear or bright, meaning we can see right through them. But some beer styles, like the German wheat beer or New England IPA, are intentionally cloudy or hazy, meaning we can’t see through them. We’d expect these beers to have a fuller body and creamier texture compared to clear beers.
Carbonation: Also setting some texture expectations, the amount of foam on top of a beer can potentially indicate the level of carbonation within the liquid. More foam means more fizz.
But, just like the old saying goes – “we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover” – we shouldn’t judge our beer by its appearance alone. Appearance simply sets some expectations for the flavours and textures we might find as we continue with our tasting.
That said though, before we move on to flavour, it’s probably helpful for us to define it!
Flavour is actually a combination of aroma and taste. We only have 5 basic tastes, but we can detect thousands of different aromas. Together, they give us flavour.
So let’s move on to step 2 to start assessing it.
Step 2: Aroma
For this step, simply swirl your glass, bring it to your nose and take a sniff.
Aroma molecules are detected in air, hence why we give our glass a swirl. As we swirl the glass, the bubbles will rise up out of the liquid, bringing the aroma molecules with them and right to our nose.
If you’re having a hard time picking up on any of the aromas in your beer, try warming the beer slightly by cupping the glass in your hand. As the liquid warms, more aroma will be released.
If that’s still not doing the trick, it’s worth mentioning that we all have individual levels of flavour perception – not only based on our biology, but also based on the ingredients and cuisines we’re regularly exposed to.
Think back to the things that you eat and drink regularly – perhaps you had a cup of coffee this morning, are you finding any roasted aromas in your beer? Maybe you had a sandwich for lunch, are you finding any aromas of freshly baked bread? Thinking through our everyday flavour experiences is a really helpful place to start when we’re first getting into beer tasting.
Maybe it’s that you’re picking up on the aromas, but can’t quite find the words to describe them?
Don’t worry, that’s totally normal. The way the brain works, aroma signals are actually processed by the emotion and memory centres of the brain, not the higher thinking centres of the brain responsible for vocabulary. So don’t be afraid to say whatever words are coming to mind, as it may be that you’re calling on a memory that will help you then describe the flavour.
When you’re first getting started, a tool like a flavour wheel can be helpful, as it provides a bank of words to choose from as you’re building your own flavour vocabulary.
Step 3: Taste
Now, it’s time to taste our beer. (Finally!) We’ve got 5 basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami or savoury. And we’ve got taste receptors for all of them across the tongue.
When tasting a beer, take a big enough sip and give the liquid a slight swish once it’s in your mouth to coat your whole palate. Then, be sure to swallow your beer, as flavour perception continues after swallowing, particularly for bitterness, which is an important component in most beers.
Again, think back to your morning coffee or morning tea – both of those beverages are quite bitter. Are you picking up on any bitterness in your beer? Perhaps you added sugar to sweeten your coffee or tea. Are you finding any sweetness in the beer? Thinking back to our everyday flavour experiences can help make us better beer tasters.
Before we move on to texture, we’ve got one last thing to say on flavour.
Interestingly, tasting our beer actually gives us a new way to assess its aroma.
Up until now, we’ve been using a process called orthonasal breathing: that simply means breathing in through the nose. But, when we taste our beer, we can give retronasal breathing a go – simply breathe out through your nose after swallowing and you’ll pick up on some slightly different aromatics.
Why? Not only has the liquid warmed slightly in our mouth, but enzymes in our saliva have helped to release even more aromatic compounds.
To give it a go, simply take a sip, swallow, keep your mouth closed, and breathe out through your nose. What new aromas are you picking up?
Step 4: Texture
Out last step is to assess our beer’s mouthfeel or the texture of our beer on our palate:
Is the body thin, like water, or full, like milk?
Do you pick up on any prickly carbonation, like you’ve just had a sip of soda?
What about any alcohol warmth, like you’ve just taken a sip of a strong cocktail?
It’s also a good time to reflect on the aftertaste or the finish of the beer. What flavours are still present and how long did they stick around for?
Now that we’ve assessed what our beer looks, smells, tastes, and feels like, take a moment to think about it.
Did the flavours and textures meet the expectations set by the beer’s appearance? What were some of the prominent aromas and tastes? What about the body? Was it light and crisp or full and creamy? And finally, did you enjoy it?
In Summery
Even without knowing much about beer’s ingredients or the brewing process, we can all be better beer tasters simply by relying on our everyday flavour experiences.
You don’t need to use this approach for every sip, but as you’re first getting into beer or trying a new beer, it’s a really helpful framework to use to make sure that you describe all aspects of the beer in front of you. (Not just how it tastes!)
Want to Know More?
You can find Nat’s full breakdown of Tasting Beer on her YouTube channel
