Nine Steps To Taste A Beer Like A Professional

Drinking beer is an easy task. Tasting and judging it correctly is not so easy as well as finding a fast, quality cheap essay writing service. Therefore, we share with you nine steps to taste a beer like a pro without dying in the attempt.

These steps were originally published by the international judge and examiner of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP).

Ready to go? Let's get started!

1. Prepare your taste buds

Palate preparation is too often neglected in beer tasting. Taste buds and aroma receptors are tricky instruments that must be in top condition to correctly identify beer flavors.

Spicy, acidic, or hot foods and beverages can temporarily damage your taste buds. Smoking too! You should protect your taste buds for a full day before planning to taste.

Similar precautions should be taken to maximize olfactory capabilities. After shaving lotion, the perfume will interfere with your ability to detect subtle aromas. And if you have a cold, forget it. Save the tasting for another day.

2. Examine the bottle

True tasters examine the bottle and its contents with a lamp. The sediment should be in place, but it may have been disturbed during shipping, for example. A ring around the inside of the bottle near the fill line sometimes, but not always, indicates contamination; you'll find out eventually.

Similarly, beer in clear or green bottles may have been affected by light due to improper storage. Both of these beer problems are just things that could happen. Let your taste buds - and not prejudice - be the judge.

3. Serve beer correctly in a clean glass

Pour the beer over the side of a glass held at an angle, taking care not to disturb the foam with the bottle. Gradually rotate the glass to an upright posture, finishing at the middle. These steps will ensure sufficiently, but not excessive, foam, usually one to two fingers.

In addition, the beer must be served with clean glassware. Sanitizer residue can mask or interact with the compounds in the beer and interfere with foam retention.

4. Examine the initial aroma

Smell the beer immediately after serving, as many aromas will dissipate quickly. A couple of normal sniffs will suffice. Too much sniffing can cause olfactory fatigue, which will require about 20 seconds of waiting to adjust.

5. Examine the appearance

Look at the beer's color, foam, and clarity, noting its suitability for the style. Well-conditioned malt beers generally have dense, compact heads with uniformly sized bubbles. The minimum standard for head retention is a half-life of about one minute; it should take no less than one minute for the foam to drop to half its initial height.

6. Check the steady-state aroma of the beer

Smell the beer again, noting any components that have appeared or disappeared. The aroma will generally be less lively, but the background malt and hop character should be noticeable.

7. Taste the beer

Take a small sip and make a mental note of the first, middle, and final flavors. Most beers have an initial malt that carries throughout the flavor until it is attenuated to varying degrees by hop bitterness.

The flavors that result from esters, hops, and aroma compounds will generally be perceived in the middle of the flavor, while the aftertaste will be the sensation that lingers in the mouth.

Be sure to swallow the beer to allow the alpha acids from the hops to flow through the bitterness receptors on the back of the tongue. Take another sip and swish the beer around in your mouth to assess temperature, carbonation, viscosity, and alcoholic heat.

One or more additional sips may be required to identify subtle flavors, but most beers can generally be correctly identified by drinking two to three ounces.

8. Evaluate the style

Reflect on the beer, considering its positive and negative flavors and how well the beer matches the style. In beer and wine tasting, the overall impression is usually greater or less than the sum of the parts, but in any case, a good-tasting experience should make you want another.

9. Cleanse your palate

Water, crackers, or bread are usually available at most tastings to help absorb and rinse off flavors between beers. However, be aware that this introduces different chemicals into the mouth, which in turn can affect the next beer. Solids should be rinsed well with water before moving on to the next beer.