Planning a Beer Tasting Night

Good day all,

We have been looking for social functions at our officer’s mess (in Cold lake Alberta Canada) recently and I noticed that there is a lot of BMC drinking going on. I was thinking that a good reason to have a social function would be to have a beer tasting. This will allow other members to try many styles of beer and learn a little bit. I will be sure not to get too beer geeky (like the sommelier at our wine tasting) but give a little education to the beer styles. I would like to have the crowd try 12 styles of beer ranging from similar (pilsner) to the other styles not normally encountered. If anyone has suggestions or comments please let me know. I will be purchasing the brews at the local beer store so I may be limited in my availability.

Pilsner (German or bohemian)

Oktoberfest

Irish Red ale

Steam beer

Wheat Ale

India Pale Ale

Bock

Porter

English Bitter

Stout

Belgian Fruit Lambic

Russian Imperial stout

Looks like a good selection. I'm sure you will convert quite a few BMC drinkers with that list.

Looks good.

• Move from light to dark.
  
• Serve very small samples (leaves em wanting more and preserves full bottles for future enjoyment).
  
• I'd use those small, clear plastic cups so people can see the head, swirl and sniff.
  
• Serve with something neutral to eat. Most comps serve simple saltines and some crusty bread.
  
• Have a spit bucket so people feel welcome to spit if they don't like it.

One other idea is to have a BJCP style guideline printout for each style so people know what to look for after they read about the style. (Prepping a taster with history, ingredients and general back ground will make them more responsive than just a quick swig.

BierMuncher said:

Looks good.

• Move from light to dark.
  
• Serve very small samples (leaves em wanting more and preserves full bottles for future enjoyment).
  
• I'd use those small, clear plastic cups so people can see the head, swirl and sniff.
  
• Serve with something neutral to eat. Most comps serve simple saltines and some crusty bread.
  
• Have a spit bucket so people feel welcome to spit if they don't like it.

One other idea is to have a BJCP style guideline printout for each style so people know what to look for after they read about the style. (Prepping a taster with history, ingredients and general back ground will make them more responsive than just a quick swig.

Click to expand...

I think including tasting profile (eg. Hefe will have clove and banana, etc.) with each beer is good info for someone starting out. Great suggestions.

Eric

Give a printout of all the beers in order of tasting, with information about each one (style, brewery/location, ABV, etc) with room for notes.

Check here for some more tips.

Download the BJCP 2008 Style Guidlines. It will give a background on each style and list some commercial examples of each style. It might be fun to reference this as you taste.

http://www.bjcp.org/2008_stylebook.pdf

Thanks very much, this is all excellent information.

I've had 4 beer tastings at my place. I require everyone bring a 6 pack of commercial craft brew with a list of EXCLUDED BMC type beers. I print up a numbered sheet and assign each beer a number. After we taste each beer we give it a 1, 2 or 3 rating. End of the night whomever's beer had the highest "score" gets something. Usually a bottle of Jagermeister. Good times all around. Oh and I exclude the beers I bring from winning and I normally bring the best ones

Ok here is the final list:

Pilsner Urquell
Anchor Steam Beer
Fullers London Pride
Kilkennys Irish Beer
Paddock Wood London Porter
Youngs Doubble Chocolate Stout
North Coast Old Rasputin Imperial Stout
Guinness Stout
Paddock Wood India Pale Ale
Rickards White
Boon Kriek Cherry
Wychwood Hobgoblin

I am planning on having about 75 people attend and will have a few bottles of each left over if people want more. I will serve about a 3oz taste of each and have some meat and cheese platters as well as pretzels.

I am thinking of running a contest but I am not shure of what to do for the contest. Any ideas?

Cheers,

Wing nut

75 people is bigger than I would have guessed. Are they going to rate the beers? That would be fun, even if it isn't blind.

Whatever the contest is, don't base it on beer knowledge as you're trying to suck in newbies. If you want to break into teams and do a 'pub quiz,' use the geography of the breweries as the guide. I don't know how party-ish you expect it to be, but with 75, I suspect it will be pretty loose.