Well, the flavours are a good starting point. Cause that’s what it’s all about.
Maybe you’ve seen it in the world of wine: people trying to put their noses as deep in their glass as possible while trying to look quite smart. Then they take a small sip, try to look even smarter, spit out the wine in a spiton and then use words like ‘wet socks, horse blanket, tobacco and band aids’.
To be honest… we are that snobistic as well, but about beer instead of wine.
It can be difficult to put words on what you smell and/or taste. It’s somethin you can learn though, and for some people, like us, it is even part of our work.
The help you get started, you can use a tastingwheel, as seen here.
In this wheel you will find the most common flavours of beer. Notice that they are not all very positive. Some flavours you don’t want in your beer.
The idea of the tasting wheel is to help you putting words on the things you smell and taste.
By the way: not everyone tastes the same things in the same drink. So there is no wrong and right in tasting.
If you want to get to know more about flavours in beer, visit Taplokaal Gist! We will gladly talk about flavouts with you.
