Commercial Beer tasting for the uninitiated

Backstory: my folks are coming into town for the weekend. I've been talking up homebrewing to my father for a while, and he's coming to help me rack my beer onto peaches and spices. I'd like to get him more involved in homebrewing. But he doesn't really know a lot about the flavors of beer, hoppiness versus maltiness, etc.


Story: I want to have an in-home tasting of several commercial beers with my folks, to show them the differences between hops, malts, etc... Something to demonstrate the range beer can have, with clear examples of classic ideas.

For example, I was planning on using DFH 90 IPA as an extreme hoppiness example, and the DFH IBA as a more muted example of hops.

I'm aiming for between 6 and 9 beers total. Any thoughts on beers that you consider a "must" for tastings like this?


*I'd include some of mine in the tasting, but my pipeline is empty (sadly).

orval for brettanomyces

budwieser/a good crisp am wheat/amber/sierra nevada pale ale/stout/IPA or IIPA

This is what I would do, light lager to big IPA disussing the light crispness/wheat flavor/then moving on to the more malty amber/moving into some hoppiness of the SN/roastiness and choc/vanilla flavor in the stout/then the tooth enamel melting hoppiness of the IPA or IIPA, with plenty of water and pretzels or crackers in between.

Westmalle Dubbel, Pilsener Urquell, Weihenstephaner hefe

qbst said:

Backstory: my folks are coming into town for the weekend. I've been talking up homebrewing to my father for a while, and he's coming to help me rack my beer onto peaches and spices. I'd like to get him more involved in homebrewing. But he doesn't really know a lot about the flavors of beer, hoppiness versus maltiness, etc.


Story: I want to have an in-home tasting of several commercial beers with my folks, to show them the differences between hops, malts, etc... Something to demonstrate the range beer can have, with clear examples of classic ideas.

For example, I was planning on using DFH 90 IPA as an extreme hoppiness example, and the DFH IBA as a more muted example of hops.

I'm aiming for between 6 and 9 beers total. Any thoughts on beers that you consider a "must" for tastings like this?


*I'd include some of mine in the tasting, but my pipeline is empty (sadly).

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I would honestly avoid DFH 90. It is very sweet despite the hop profile, and I think that there are better beers that showcase hops. Additionally, you don't want to scare people away by giving them something extreme. Starting someone with a IIPA can make them not want to drink anything hoppy.

If I were to pick 7 beers for a tasting with someone who was not that into beer yet, I would go:

Some lager - Victory Prima Pils or a helles - I would avoid the American Adjunct lagers, but I would include one just so you had a good example of what a lager brings to the table. Clean profile, malt or hops really showing through.

Belgian Wit - Allagash White or Avery White Rascal - Very accessible beer. Good intro to the Belgian styles

Pale - Sierra Nevada Pale ale. Classic example and a good hop showcase.

English Brown - I don't know what's available near you, but I assume there's a good local brown. Newcastle isn't that great, and while Sam Smith's can be awesome, most of the time it is just old.

Porter - Take your pick. Perfect showcase for a malty beer.

IPA - Again, I like the dry, clean West Coast style IPAs. Something like Green Flash is perfect. Or even Stone, although it isn't my favorite. Both are available.

Imperial Stout - This is a great "wow" beer to start people with. It showcases bitterness, malt, and can really bring people a new appreciation of how complex a beer can be without jumping into sours or brett beers. Again, something like Worldwide Stout is too big. I don't like anything that aggressive for a new drinker. Just get something solid.