Suggest some beers for a work beer tasting

[Martin Bridges]

I'm arranging a beer tasting at work in a couple of weeks. This will be the third one that I've done and they all follow roughly the same format - 6 Kiwi craft beers with maybe a couple of ringers (last time it was some of my homebrew, which went down pretty well).

I try to do a range of beers from light to dark, with maybe the odd weird one thrown in (last time it was Smoking Bishop). Anyone got any suggestions of beers to put in? There are a few Kiwi breweries I'm not all that familiar with yet - anyone suggest the best beers to be had from the Harringtons, Townshends and Wigram ranges?

Thinking that my ringers might be American this year, even if only to get me a taste of some of those beasts with someone else paying!

[Ian]

I enjoyed a Founders Fair Maiden (the beer that is) the other evening. I treid it some time back and this time confirmed that it is a nice drop.

[HerrSchnapps]

Sorry to threadjack, but I've organised something similar here at Uni as a Brew club event with Craig Bowen. Does anyone have recommendations for snack/finger food for such an event as we're getting some catering in. Styles are limited to "lighter beer" i.e Lagers, Pilsners, Wheat, IPA's & APA's etc for this, but I've never organised such an event before, and I was actually going to create a thread asking this topic. Sorry Martin if this heavily threadjacks, I'll more if it does. Oh, and here is the preliminary list:

Croucher Hef
Three Boys Wheat
Founders Tall Blond
Emersons Pilsner
Epic Pale Ale
Renaissance APA
Tuatara Ardennes
Pink Elephant - Mammoth / Golden Tusk
Wigram Dunkel
Invercargill Boysenbeery

[vdog]

Since you sound like you've got some experience Martin, I've a question for you (and apologies for the threadjack): How many beers do you usually taste, what's your guide for how much of each you need based on the number of people attending, and what do you generally allow as a beer budget (per person) to do it? I'm organising something similar as well (another beer evangelist converting the masses) with some mates, and just interested in knowing how much I need to hit them up for.

Cheers!

[Martin Bridges]

I usually allow 100ml per beer per person, so if I've got 20 people attending I get 2 litres of each beer.

I normally go for about 6 different beers, although I occasionally add in a couple of 'ringers' such as some of my homebrew.

The tastings are done semi-blind - I decant the beers into numbered jugs then print out tasting notes with a space next to each beer for people to write in the number of the beer they think it is. I waffle on a bit about each beer as we go through them. I'm on my third tasting and no-one has ever got more than 4 beers right!

For my upcoming tasting I'm looking at a budget of around $200-$250 for 20 people, so I guess around $10-$12.50 per head, although my company is paying!

[vdog]

Thanks for the info Martin - looks like I've erred on the side of *awesome*, having told the boys that it'll be $20 each and I'll just buy as much as I can! I'm figuring we'll probably taste 6-8 and may include a couple of my own too, to round out the selection.

At this stage I'm thinking:
Emerson's pilsener
Wigram Vienna Lager
Bookbinder
Renaissance Stonecutter
Epic Pale Ale (or Mayhem if I can still get it)
Monk's Habit (only discovered a couple of weeks ago that they sell this in riggers from the C&B pubs!)
La Chouffe
Little Creatures pale ale
Plus my own porter and my dark ale.

[Martin Bridges]

Sounds like a great line-up. If you're going for the Monk's I'd stick with Epic Pale Ale, rather than going with the Mayhem.

[Martin Bridges]

Well, the final line-up for tonight's tasting is:

Tuatara Pilsner
Moa Blanc
Emersons Bookbinder
Invercargill Boysenbeery
Three Boys Oyster Stout
Russian River Pliny the Elder

plus my own Irish Red and Oatmeal Stout.

That'll challenge their tastebuds. Especially the guy who requested Steinlager Classic for the Friday beer fridge.

[Reviled]

Nice bro! Let me know what the oyster stouts like...

[Sam Possenniskie (TGM)]

Pliny the Elder. You can run my work drinks any time!!

[Stu McKinlay]

the classic ain't bad if the fridge is a kegarator... it's certainly better than "pure".

[Reviled]

I dont even think ive tried steiny classic, tried the pure stuff which everyone raves about and all I could taste was bloody sugar!

Pretty sure im not missing out on anything tho :oP lol

[Martin Bridges]

A pretty damn good night on Friday night, if I say so myself. Star of the tasting was Bookbinder, which got most votes for beer of the night. To me it's not as good as it used to be, but it's certainly very approachable.

For the first time (this was the third such tasting I've done) a couple of people got all 8 beers right in a blind tasting. Maybe their palates are becoming more educated, or maybe I just picked easy-to-spot beers.

Sadly the Boysenbeery was almost-universally panned, with only a couple of the girls tolerating it. It was the first time I'd had it and I have to admit I found it a bit over-fruity and over-sweet.

Pliny didn't shock people as much as I'd expected. Midn you, it was the last beer in the line-up and their palates were probably pretty jaded by then.

My homebrews were easy to spot as they were way less carbonated than the commercial brews. Both beers went down fairly well though, especially the Stout.