beer party

[Evan]

the girlfriend and i are thinking about having a beer tasting party. we've been to a few friends that have had wine/cheese and one had a wiskey / bourbon party as well. it would be months before we have a party, but the idea of everyone or couple bring a six pack of something craft/micro seems like a good idea, a few want to try my homebrew as well. so what are some ideas of brews to try?

here are mine...
1) a few different styles (IPA, Stout, Wheat...)
2) maybe an americal style pale ale and a english style pale ale
3) 2 batches with the same or similar grain bill but different hops (maybe all cascade and the other all _______)

the thing i keep coming back to is, i love IPA's, i assume not everyone would be all that into it. so what i consider a low IBU beer, others maybe be turned off by.

I really like idea's 2 and 3 the most, but i think if i did idea 1 with maybe a wheat, pale ale, steam that it'd appeal to more. i normally brew what i feel like having not really taking into account what others want, haha.

i normally hate to have people who only drink BMC try my stuff, they probably think Stone sucks and can't figure out why you'd drink something called Dog Fish Head, haha, you know what i mean?

 

[Orfy]

If you want to give them something different that they may like try a mild.
Blind taste it. It seems a lot of people are put of by dark beer but a mild usually goes down well. It's quick to brew as well.
It would be good to brew a porter for comparison and show them how much flavour you can pack in.
English pale Ale.
If you go for a Fuggles maris otter SMaSH brew you can showboat a classic English hop and grain flavour. A really simple recipe and again you don't need to age for ages.

 

[JMD87]

Whenever I'm in the mood for some craft beer, I usually pick something out I've never seen/heard before and try that. It's very exciting and well, wouldn't that be the point of a beer tasting party?

I would ask everyone to bring a handful of different styles so you could try something completely new. Maybe that would spark some interest in your next homebrew.

 

[IrregularPulse]

depends on the general mindset of the crowd I'd say. For a general public beer tasing I'd say idea 1 with completely different styles. A more beer savvy crowd would be more inclined to appreciate the smash recipes and the differences between American pales and English pales.

 

[Evan]

Whenever I'm in the mood for some craft beer, I usually pick something out I've never seen/heard before and try that. It's very exciting and well, wouldn't that be the point of a beer tasting party?

I would ask everyone to bring a handful of different styles so you could try something completely new. Maybe that would spark some interest in your next homebrew.

i think you're right...should be a few different styles. i think i just want to brew the same recipe with different hops for myself, haha

 

[Hagen]

I'd be happy to bring along a selection from my repertoire...

If it's a tasting, regardless of the crowd, I'd go with everything I could get/afford from the lightest american light lager to the heaviest wee heavies and barleywines. I'm imaging the idea is to represent the spectrum, which is only as limited as the number of participants and budget.

 

[tdavisii]

So when do the invites go out??????

 

[MikeG]

Serve in small glasses, not 12oz. For some reason, the less you have the more you seem to want. Give them too much and and they may loose their appreciation for what they have.

 

[A4J]

You could stick to one style from different microbrews. For instance, I recently did a tasting party of American amber ale with my AHS amber ale, Eel River Organic Amber Ale, Ballast Point Calico Amber Ale and Fat Tire. I love doing this kind of comparison, especially with the Fat Tire because a lot of people that have tried my other homebrews always say it taste like Fat Tire even though it might be an IIPA. With the amber ale comparison, they were able to pick up the differences between the selection.

 

[Evan]

thanks everyone, funny i asked this question while being 99% sure i was going to do one thing, end up deciding against that, haha.

probably brew a blonde, west cost style IPA, and maybe a wheat or coffee stout. and the guest can bring whatever as long its not BMC.

 

[bottleopener]

a party? with beer?

by god, we're onto something here!