When you have a beer in front of you, you can do two things: drink it quickly (this usually happens in summer when the beer is very cold and you are very thirsty) or savor it slowly, perceiving its sensory characteristics.
Tasting a craft beer is a sensory analysis that allows you to perceive, identify, and appreciate the organoleptic properties of this liquid through your senses.
What are the steps to tasting beer?
Every tasting consists of 3 steps that involve three sensory organs:
- Visual: the beer is opened and served. Take a look at it, gaze at it as if it were the love of your life, from top to bottom. What color is it? Is it yellow, amber, brown, or black? The color already indicates the types of malts that may have been used in brewing the beer. From blonde or golden, which tells us that pale malts have been used, to amber, brown, or black depending on the roast of the malts. The color also indicates the flavors we can expect. Then, look at its head: is it fine or dense? Is it creamy? What color is this head? Does it persist in the glass? A fresh, quality beer has a clean and proper head, rather creamy, and it leaves traces on the glass as you drink, which is called Brussels lace. However, the type of head also varies depending on the type of beer. The persistence of the head in the glass will be less the higher the alcohol content. On the other hand, turbidity is also measured, although in craft beers that do not undergo a filtering process, the beer is always a little cloudy; this turbidity should not be too pronounced and should look good. It should not have excessive sediment or an explosive head, as these are not indicators of quality.
- Olfactory: broadly speaking, you will be able to detect three characteristics: malt, hops, and yeast. The intensity of the aroma is measured, whether it smells a lot or a little. The typical aromas of malts are: cereals, banana, nuts, caramel, coffee, licorice... Hops, on the other hand, usually provide citrus, tropical fruit, floral, spicy, herbaceous aromas... Yeast usually transmits notes of bread, pastry... The most important thing is that the aromas in a craft beer must be clean and fresh.
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Gustatory. The best moment has arrived: tasting the beer. Don't swallow quickly; try to enjoy each sip and let the beer cover every part of your mouth. Observe whether the carbonation is pronounced or the bubble is finer. Lagers, for example, have less body and more pronounced gas; ales have more body and finer, more integrated bubbles. If the beer is sweeter, it is due to a higher presence of malts and is known as "malty" beer; if it is more bitter, it is due to hops and is known as "hoppy" beer. There are also sour beers, like sour types, but if they don't belong to this group, acidity can be a symptom of contamination. Also try to detect sweetness, salty flavors, sourness, or bitterness in general. Explain what they convey to you and what they remind you of. Also try to perceive other characteristics, such as corn, clove, caramel, coffee, fruit, biscuits, or nuts, among many others.
It is also advisable to let the beer warm up a little, as cold hides flavors and even kills them.
The most important thing about a beer is that the person drinking it likes it.