For those new to the idea of judging beers things can get overwhelming fast. After all, when most people taste a beer they put it into two categories, good, and bad. They have no clue what someone means when they talk about estery scents and hints of caramel flavors. So I decided to write a quick rundown.
Why?
I’m personally a big fan of the good beer bad beer categories myself, so why do we need this fancy system? There are several reasons. First it helps with describing the beer to others. Have you ever recommended an IPA to a friend, but not been able to say what makes it different then other IPAs. Also it helps with pairing your food and beer together. As time goes on you’ll pick up hints of flavors that go well together. Lastly it helps you. Tasting the spread of beers is fun, but it should lead somewhere. If you’ve tried hundreds of stouts, but still can’t describe what you look for in a stout, then you should consider going deeper in your tasting.
The Categories
Most people get caught up in the fancy words that are used to describe beers and don’t pay enough attention to the categories. My rule of thumb is you should be able to describe the beer in layman’s terms on category alone, and save the gobbledygook for when your talking to someone who understands it. That’s why it’s important to know these categories and their break downs
Appearance - describe how the beer looks
Color
Carbonation
Clarity
Aroma – describe how the beer smells
Aroma – Good smells
Bouquet – Hop smells
Odors – Bad smells
Taste - How does the beer taste?
Mouthfeel – What does the beer feel like in your mouth?
Flavor - Do you taste something that reminds you of caramel?
Finish - Does the beer have an aftertaste? Describe it.
Using these basic categories you can effectively describe a beer to anyone, even a beer judge. Also as you use these categories to break down beers you’ll find yourself discovering subtle flavors you never noticed before.
I wasn’t planning on doing two posts today, but it’s St. Patty’s so what the heck.
I’m normally not a fan of making deep thoughtful posts about myself so this will probably be neither. For those who don’t know me, or haven’t known me long I figured I’d give a little background about myself and brewing, or as my friend Liz so aptly put it “What is it with you and beer?”
. Shortly after I started making my own soda I noticed a side note with a recipe for a soda made with tomatoes called tomato beer. Since we had a surplus of tomatoes from our garden that year I decided to make some with one notable exception, I was going to purposely let it ferment and produce some alcohol. It didn’t turn out half bad, and tasted like a really light beer. Well now wheels were turning, and after I got back from my trip to London in January I began buying every beer I could think of to taste. By the fall of ’08 the part of my brain that switched from soda to beer had another spark and I decided to make a proper pumpkin ale. I got my list of ingredients and headed on down to Homebrew Heaven.
My brain is completely toast right now. It all started Friday night when I decided to have a couple drinks on an empty stomach. Definitely not a good idea. Anyways, needless to say I was a little tipsy before the night was over, and awoke completely exhausted Saturday. Then combine that with the fact that I was up till after 1:00 am last night bottling my second attempt at a gruit, and the fact that I rode the 10 or so miles out here to Corban in a headwind and you get the idea why my brain and body are going on strike. The gruit turned out barely passable. Next time I will cut back on the roasted barley. Also when I made this batch I just dumped in the herbs rather then measure them out since the bags were almost empty. Needless to say I wont be doing that again. The beer has a medicinal bite that isn’t very appatizing. I’m hoping that with half a year or so of aging it’ll diminish a bit. Another interesting experiment with this batch is that about half the bottles are capped with used caps. About a quarter of the way through capping the bottles my brother informed me that we weren’t going to have enough. Not wanting to waste the other 24 bottles of beer though I decided to grab my container of caps I have set aside for recycling and use root around for some salvageable ones. I’ve never reused caps before, and have heard that they don’t always seal right and can cause infection. To help prevent the infection I soaked them in some corn whiskey. In about three weeks we will find out if the caps worked. Also I know I need to get around to brewing that Reese’s Stout. As soon as I get around to buying the grains and dehydrating the peanut butter. Dehydrating peanut butter is a pain in the butt.
As most everyone knows St Patricks Day is coming up on Tuesday, the revelries though will start today for many people. Don’t be sad if you can’t make it to Ireland for the fun though as there’s plenty to do here in Oregon. So as Al Roker always says, “Here’s what’s going on in your neck of the woods.” I’ve always wanted to use that in a post 
When I first turned 21 I wouldn’t have dreamed of giving organic beer shelf space in the fridge. Don’t get me wrong, I’d tried organic beer shortly after I began drinking, but even if they were green they tasted crappy and cost much more then a normal beer. The reason for this is that organic barleys reacted different to the malting and roasting process. And since you don’t have the chemical concerns with beer like you do fruit they simply weren’t worth even thinking about drinking. It’s 2009 now though and the market for organic beer has grown, and along with it so have the flavorful brews available. The acceptance of some of the more selectively bred crops and the increase in organic material available has helped boost the ability of brewers to produce a high quality organic beer that can compete with non organics.
In case you have a hard time staying up on the news from the front lines here’s a rundown of some interesting beer news.
With St Patrick’s day coming up I felt now would be a good time to pay homage to the unique beers of Ireland. When most people think Irish beer It conjures up images of Guinness and the green Budweiser that we serve in the states. The reality though is that Ireland’s beer culture is far richer then that. Ireland is known for the maltiness of their beers and the roasty flavors they have, rather then the hop flavors of American craft beers. The reason for this is that hops are not native to Ireland and the change to them was slow. Because hops weren’t traditionally used many of their beers get their bitterness from the roasted grains. Ironically Ireland owes much of it’s history in beer to England. The stouts that we attribute to the Irish are actually English in origin. Another misconception is that everyone in Ireland drinks stout. Although stout once was the more common a long time ago it’s been overtaken by lagers. Generally Ireland’s traditional beers are broken down in three groups, Irish reds, stouts, and lagers.
After an amazing lunch at Nana’s, and some tasting at Beir One we crossed the bridge, and landed ourselves at the Rogue Brewery. This was the stop I had been looking forward to all week since this was to be my first time visiting it since my 18th birthday. First thing I noticed when we pulled up was the new paint job that gave everything a fresh look that contrasts with Newport’s other famous buildings which have that rundown feel to them.
