Beer guide – Page 2 – BeerCreation.com

Developing your palate so that you can recognize beer flavors and aromas can be useful for many reasons. Not only will you sound like you know what you are talking about you can also discover many more beers to your personal liking. It's a really great skill to have and is very easy to acquire. So, how can you train your palate to become a better beer taster? Developing your palate for beer tasting involves sampling the key ingredients of beer (hops, malts & yeast), as well as learning common 'beer' smells in real life situations, such as at the supermarket, for your vocabulary. Beer spiking kits are a useful way to identify common off-flavors in beer. Training your palate so that you can become better at identifying the complex flavors in modern beer has lots of practical benefits for the average beer enthusiast. This process doesn't have to leave you feeling like a snob or make your friends mock you, it can really help you explore more of what is on offer in the rapidly developing craft beer and home-brewing community. Just remember to enjoy the experience above all else. In this article, I have set out some easy ways that you can develop your palate at your own pace and, for the most part, in the comfort of your own home. We'll start with getting to know the key ingredients of beer, then move on to how to identify more elusive flavors before discussing ways to spot off-flavors in beer so that you don't drink something that's gone off or has been infected. (shop for your brewing ingredients on homebrewing.org). Navigate this article more quickly Building your beer vocabularyPractical reasons to improve your beer palateIdentifying the key ingredients in all beersTesting your bitterness toleranceHere are 25 popular craft beers and their IBU levelsHow sweet can you go?DIY off-flavor beer spiking kitHow to actually taste beer like a pro So, read on for my tips and suggestions for how to develop your beer palate and become a real beer connoisseur Building your beer vocabulary Some people are just better, so it seems, at describing smells and flavors. If you've ever read a review of a beer and thoughts "what the heck are they talking about, pine needles?" then you probably know what I'm talking about. However, training your palate is nothing to do with being better at describing beer in reviews. Firstly, it's to help you pick out more flavors and aromas in a complex brew. Secondly, it's to help you articulate those flavors and aromas to someone when you really need to, at the bar when picking out your next drink. So how can you get better at it? The best way is to go out in the world and taste and smell as much as you can. This will help you better associate smells and tastes to words. The part of the brain which deals with sensory inputs such as flavors and aromas is nowhere near the speech part. They don't communicate that well and this is why you can't explain smell and taste that accurately. So, the more you expose yourself to different scents and tastes the better you will be able to explain it, even if you are using basic ideas such as "it tastes like a Hershey bar" Another important and delicious way to improve your ability to accurately describe and categorize beer is if you taste lots of different types of it. Don't pigeon-hole yourself into only liking one style, try everything from an ale to a lager, to a fruit beer to sour brew. If you don't like it, then you can use that information in the future, if you do like it try and pinpoint why. Also, don't let the names of beer put you off. I went without pumpkin ale for years because I used to think, why do I want to drink a vegetable? Worst perspective ever! My own experience in developing my palate. For most people, when they hear someone describing the taste of beer or wine for that matter, we just think "what a pretentious ******!" But, how can you improve your ability to sample beer without losing your friends and why do it in the first place? There are many practical reasons for taking the time to really training your palate and improving your ability to break down the beer you drink into different flavors and aromas. For me personally, this is an on-going progress and I have traditionally been terrible at identifying tastes and smells. Next to my wife, who I met in Bordeaux while she was sitting her sommelier (Wine snob) exams, I was hopeless. "What can you taste Phil?" She'd ask. "Well, I'm getting strong flavors of red and I'm definitely getting fruit, yep, there are grapes in this!" I'd say. Hopeless. The same thing happened with beer until I took steps and started to train my palate. It can also help you in some really practical ways. Plan your next Beer Creation?