BmillaTheBrewzilla
Well-Known Member
So while I was brewing last night, a friend came over and we did a little beer tasting to refine our palates. It was a really great exercise and I learned a lot from it. I was wondering if anyone has done anything similar and also just wanted to share some of the notes from the tasting.
Since I'm working on my own American Pale Ale...
Quest to brew my perfect beer
I decided APA was the style my friend and I would sample. So we went out and bought the following beers: Anchor Liberty Ale, Summit Extra Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada, Great Lakes Burning River, Two Brothers Bitter End, Half Acre Daisy Cutter, and Three Floyds Alpha King. I also tossed a homebrewed APA I made a couple months ago into the lineup. These are all beers that we've each had at least once. The tasting process went like this:
1) My friend poured a little beer into a glass and handed it to me while my eyes were closed. (Oh yeah, we felt if we looked at the beers it would give too much away... for instance, Alpha King looks pretty dark for an APA.) My friend then wrote down #1 and the beer's name on a small piece of paper.
2) I took a couple good sniffs and described what I was smelling. My friend wrote my comments down on the paper.
3) I took a couple sips, keeping the beer in my mouth for a long time to try to capture all the flavors and the mouthfeel. I described the beer and my friend wrote down the comments.
4) I gave overall impressions and rated the beer 1 through 10. Then I guessed which one I had just sampled. My friend wrote it all down.
5) Quick drink of water and a nibble of a cracker to cleanse the palate.
6) My friend rinsed out the glass and poured another sample. With my eyes closed, I took the beer, he wrote down #2 on a new piece of paper and we repeated the whole tasting process for the new beer.
After I had tasted all the beers, he reviewed my comments, ratings, and guesses for each beer. Then we switched roles and he got to taste all the beers.
Besides being a great excuse to drink a whole bunch of beer, I was shocked by several things during the exercise. For one thing, neither one of us correctly guessed a single beer. That's right, not one. And I have had dozens of Sierra Nevadas and Alpha Kings just in the past year or so. I will say that it was tricky because on some beers I was certain I knew what it was, but I had already guessed that beer earlier. And both of us had a few in the lineup that we had only tried once before.
Also interesting was how pronounced the hop aroma was in the Sierra, the Daisy Cutter, the Two Brothers, and the Alpha King in comparison to the other beers. Both of us noted this on our comments for these beers. The Burning River (I thought) was kind of medium in hop aroma... while the Summit, Anchor, and my homebrew were much more subdued.
I rated the Half Acre Daisy Cutter the highest, which was shocking to me. I guessed that it was Sierra Nevada and I gave it a 10. The hops were huge in this one. Yet it was really balanced and clean. My friend had the Daisy Cutter in a tie for first place with the Two Brothers. The Daisy Cutter also came in a can. When I saw my friend take it out for our lineup, I figured it would finish at the bottom of our rankings. For some reason I had this notion that it is impossible to maintain great beer flavor and aroma in a can.
I had the Burning River and Alpha King rated next highest. Followed by Sierra Nevada, Two Brothers, and my homebrew. My friend also had my homebrew ranked pretty high. I'm quite proud that neither was of us was able to distinguish it as, "Oh this must be the homebew because it isn't as good as the others." :rockin: We also both sort of had the Liberty and Summit at the bottom of the bunch. I would actually say that my comments and rating put the Summit quite a bit below the Anchor Liberty. I think the Summit is a decent beer, but it just didn't hold up well in this lineup.
Anyway, this was a great beer learning experience and I plan on doing it again sometime soon. I'm pretty sure now that I've sampled all these beers in such recent memory that I'd at least get a couple right if I were to do the same lineup right now. Maybe this weekend...
Since I'm working on my own American Pale Ale...
Quest to brew my perfect beer
I decided APA was the style my friend and I would sample. So we went out and bought the following beers: Anchor Liberty Ale, Summit Extra Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada, Great Lakes Burning River, Two Brothers Bitter End, Half Acre Daisy Cutter, and Three Floyds Alpha King. I also tossed a homebrewed APA I made a couple months ago into the lineup. These are all beers that we've each had at least once. The tasting process went like this:
1) My friend poured a little beer into a glass and handed it to me while my eyes were closed. (Oh yeah, we felt if we looked at the beers it would give too much away... for instance, Alpha King looks pretty dark for an APA.) My friend then wrote down #1 and the beer's name on a small piece of paper.
2) I took a couple good sniffs and described what I was smelling. My friend wrote my comments down on the paper.
3) I took a couple sips, keeping the beer in my mouth for a long time to try to capture all the flavors and the mouthfeel. I described the beer and my friend wrote down the comments.
4) I gave overall impressions and rated the beer 1 through 10. Then I guessed which one I had just sampled. My friend wrote it all down.
5) Quick drink of water and a nibble of a cracker to cleanse the palate.
6) My friend rinsed out the glass and poured another sample. With my eyes closed, I took the beer, he wrote down #2 on a new piece of paper and we repeated the whole tasting process for the new beer.
After I had tasted all the beers, he reviewed my comments, ratings, and guesses for each beer. Then we switched roles and he got to taste all the beers.
Besides being a great excuse to drink a whole bunch of beer, I was shocked by several things during the exercise. For one thing, neither one of us correctly guessed a single beer. That's right, not one. And I have had dozens of Sierra Nevadas and Alpha Kings just in the past year or so. I will say that it was tricky because on some beers I was certain I knew what it was, but I had already guessed that beer earlier. And both of us had a few in the lineup that we had only tried once before.
Also interesting was how pronounced the hop aroma was in the Sierra, the Daisy Cutter, the Two Brothers, and the Alpha King in comparison to the other beers. Both of us noted this on our comments for these beers. The Burning River (I thought) was kind of medium in hop aroma... while the Summit, Anchor, and my homebrew were much more subdued.
I rated the Half Acre Daisy Cutter the highest, which was shocking to me. I guessed that it was Sierra Nevada and I gave it a 10. The hops were huge in this one. Yet it was really balanced and clean. My friend had the Daisy Cutter in a tie for first place with the Two Brothers. The Daisy Cutter also came in a can. When I saw my friend take it out for our lineup, I figured it would finish at the bottom of our rankings. For some reason I had this notion that it is impossible to maintain great beer flavor and aroma in a can.
I had the Burning River and Alpha King rated next highest. Followed by Sierra Nevada, Two Brothers, and my homebrew. My friend also had my homebrew ranked pretty high. I'm quite proud that neither was of us was able to distinguish it as, "Oh this must be the homebew because it isn't as good as the others." :rockin: We also both sort of had the Liberty and Summit at the bottom of the bunch. I would actually say that my comments and rating put the Summit quite a bit below the Anchor Liberty. I think the Summit is a decent beer, but it just didn't hold up well in this lineup.
Anyway, this was a great beer learning experience and I plan on doing it again sometime soon. I'm pretty sure now that I've sampled all these beers in such recent memory that I'd at least get a couple right if I were to do the same lineup right now. Maybe this weekend...
