How to practice tasting/judging?

[mattd2]

So on the back of comments by Grieg/Andrew's on the latest WBC regarding off flavours/tasting your beer/judging I had a question that I have often thought;

How?

Being on a (very) limited budget I do not have much spare cash to spend on $5-10 singles (let alone beer in general) to try. I have family (in laws) that do like a good craft beer but nearly every time they comment on my beer it is good and never really about what faults it. I have tried to get my palate up to par but I do struggle to ID certain flavours myself, and then second guess if that's what I am actually tasting. Example - my latest beer, a Hobgoblin clone fermented with Notty (first time using this yeast), it took me a while but I got the aroma of Fejoa/Pear(?), but not 100% sure - if that makes any sense!

So I guess my question to you guys is how did/do you train your palate, and how to get to a place where I can trust it :-)

I got in on the current NZ case swap, so I am looking forward to trying those beers (and some look bloody good) and seeing how my impression matches with the group's. I have also had a look round the BJCP website and style guides, but that doesn’t help much until I can actually honestly identify what I am smelling/tasting.

What other advice do you have?

Cheers!

[Ralph]

I found the best way to get some idea of off flavours is that if there is a beer comp (homebrew is likely to have more examples of flaws?), see if you can get along as a steward (pouring the beers etc). There is often the chance to listen to what the judges are saying about the beer at the judging table, and to try the beer yourself to identify what the flavour is that they are talking about. 

Most general people will not know what the brewing faults taste like and as long as the beer is reasonably palatable they will say it is good.

You could organise yourself a brew group and get together and taste each others beers... but I would just watch this, unless you have someone with a trained palate along it could be hard to identify what the actual faults and likely causes are. You could get one of the experienced judges to do a couple of training sessions for you?

You could approach SOBA etc and see if they have any BJCP training courses coming up, or who does have anything like this?

[Greig McGill]

Smell and taste EVERYTHING. Build up a flavour/aroma library. Whenever you're tasting beer, think hard about it, refer to that library, and see what you can find. Practice tasting against the style guidelines. If you've got a pilsner in front of you, grab the guidelines and taste against that. Does it match in all areas? If it differs, how? Would you consider that difference a good or a bad thing? Why?

After you get in the habit of that (or while doing so), taste socially. Share whatever you're drinking with as many people as you can. I find coffee people, wine people, and hardcore foodies are great for this as they are used to listening to what their palates are telling them. They often come at things from an entirely different angle.

Agree strongly with Ralph about stewarding. The NHC is coming up in November. If you can handle the awesomeness that is the 'tron, we might need some more stewards... ;)

Finally, I'd say that while this will most definitely make you a better brewer, try to always look to the positives. The more I judge, the more critical I get about beer, and I have to say, I am getting a bit "hatey" on less than perfectly brewed beer (my own included). It sucks to be the guy saying "yeah, but that acetaldehyde note ruins it for me" while all around you are enjoying their pints. Still, maybe if we all get nerdy on sensory analysis, we won't accept bad beer any more and those problems will go away! ;) Oh god, now I sound like Graeme "The Devil" Mahy. Quick, someone get me a pint of something tasty! ;)

[mattd2]

Thanks guys, I know there is the flavour/aroma wheels I guess would be another reference to start building a library from. I guess my real problem is finding others to talk to about what I'm/they are tasting, we have a small group of brewers that get together once a month and do swap beers which has been really good. But I don't have to many regular oportunities to discuss beer other than that at the moment as the wife is pregnant... at least in 10(ish) weeks we'll be able to work through a small backlog of my homebrew together.

I do like the idea of stewarding (and it is good to know when NHC is this year as I want to be organised and actually enter beers this year!), what is involved and hours needed.

Also would reviewing beers against beeradvocate.com reviews be a good idea - I have seen some good reviews on there but also some real shockers (as in completely differnt to the norm for the beer) but I guess those ones are easy to weed out.

Another also, I was looking into off flavours and found some info on how to DIY some of the common ones which could be useful to make sure what I think Diacetylis is actually Diacetyl- http://www.lugwrenchbrewing.com/2010/10/tasting-beer-flaws-with-doc...

I take you point of not focusing exclusively on the bad, and trying to make sure I look at what I do like about each beer too.

Thanks for taking the time with the replies!

[Damon Colbert]

Great question Matt.  I've been thinking this myself for a while now.

[Paul Finney]

The book "Radical Brewing" has a few tips on being able to "create" off flavours so you can identify them when they come up in beers. When i get back from teh weekend i will type it up here for you to have a go at. If you are part of a homebrew group it could be a good exercise to do together?

[mattd2]

Thanks Paul,

There were a few in the link I posted above, but more would be good. Found another link but their approach was not using commonaly available things - i.e. actually buying DMS!

Cheers!

[Greig McGill]

No need to buy DMS, just drink a Corona! ;)

[mattd2]

And a Heiny for skunked?

[Greig McGill]

Ha, been so long since I tried one I can't recall. Just leave an epic pale ale in the sun for 5 minutes. :)

[mattd2]

Noooooooooooo... well maybe only the last few sips would be ok.

I will deffinately be trying the oxidation one - half fill bottle, shake, finish filling and cap. Maybe do a few and try them every couple of months.

[Druid]

If you are near Auckland, there's supposed to be an outfit behind the Fish Market at the new North Wharf development that does a touristy wine tasting tour with specific examples of some of the flaws as they present in wines.

It could help fill out your knowledge by giving a different perspective. I believe that some flaws in beer are required facets for some wine styles eg. buttery, oaky Chardonnay's rely on diacetyl as part of their character. And although I don't know for sure, it's not hard to imagine acetyldehyde as central to Sauvignon blanc's tart, flinty character.

[mattd2]

I have been trying more wine lately, as they seem to be more descriptive of the flavours on the bottle so I have something to go on - only problem is how much of that is marketing hype!

I saw the Brewers Guild now run a 1 day workshop on beer (complete with unit stadards and a nice certificate), but the $300+ price tag could by a fair few beers to conduct my own research. A Night class for Unit Standard 17282 only might be a good offer for those that only want to brush up on tasting beer.

The case swap has been a really good experience, and so far been full of high calibre homebrew. Most of the issues I have had are around carbonation levels. I have been able to really think about what I am tasting and detail specifics to some extent, and these seem to be inline with others so that gives me a bit more confidence in my tastebuds.

I raised stewarding at NHC with the wife, she was all for it but then reminded me that her parents are taking the families over to Sydney in Novemeber... hopefully these two don't clash!

I guess it is a matter of, as Greig said, trying to taste everything I can get my hands on (and really think about what I am tasting). Trying to swap more homebrew and doctor my own for off flavours - got an all NZ Cascade IPA only a couple of weeks away from being tapped, might have to hope for a sunny day in the middle of winter to skunk it!