A beginner’s guide to becoming a beer connoisseur
JOBURG – In celebration of South Africa’s National Beer Day, check out this step by step guide on how to taste your beer like a pro.
South Africa has a rich brewing history and long love affair with beer – a love that predates that of wine. Beer lovers indulging in this legendary beverage are spoiled for choice, with more than 100 styles on offer.
“While the professional beer taster undergoes rigorous training to help them identify distinctive flavour profiles in the beer, you can imagine how this myriad of beers might be overwhelming for the beginner beer lover,” said Tshepo Tloubatla, beer culture manager at SAB & AB InBev Africa.
To help celebrate South Africa’s National Beer Day on 1 February, SAB has prepared a step by step guide on how to taste your beer like a pro to help any rookie become a beer connoisseur.
- Cleanse your palate
Anything you consume prior to tasting your beer can influence the taste so cleanse or refresh your mouth. Keep it simple and use water.
- Observe the colour
Observe your beer carefully. The colour will represent what type of brew it is – pilsners are a pale straw while American and English Ales have a golden hue, porters and stouts are amber brown and black. If you are going to taste several different beers, it is better to taste from light to dark. This will help you focus on the developing flavour intensity and characteristics of the beer style.
- Get a quick whiff of the aroma
After observing your beer, move the glass past your nose once or twice – this action is known as “the drive by.” Your nostrils and taste buds work together, so your sense of smell will give you vital clues about the type of beer you are tasting. Always sniff before you take the first sip – once you swallow a sip of beer, your ability to smell it will be slightly diminished.
- Give it a swirl
Swirl the glass gently – this releases the volatiles, which are trapped and concentrated in the glass. Swirling knocks some of the CO2 out of the solution, causing it to foam slightly. Allowing the beer to mix with the air provides the drinker with a stronger scent of the various aromatic components such as hops and malt.
- Take a deep sniff this time
Take another deep sniff – not too deep, to set the stage for you to have that long awaited taste. This whiff should differ from the previous one, as now you’ll be able to get hints of the aroma.
- The long-awaited sip
Take a small sip, enough for it to run across your entire tongue, then let it slowly roll over your tongue for a few seconds before you swallow and breathe out gently. At this point you’ll taste both broad and subtle flavours, the former being what you mainly taste while the latter will be a hint of a flavour.
