Celebrating Your Beer Brewing Skills

After you’ve learned a little about beer, have some friends over and do a blind tasting of several beers.  Rate them, talk about them, then see what you liked and what you didn’t.  Different people have very different tastes of course.  We’ve hosted five or six tastings, and have never failed to have a ball.  (Download a scoresheet from bjcp.org to learn a little about what you’re looking for when tasting beer).

Once you’ve brewed a few drinkable beers, include your own brews in the blind tastings with other craft beers and see how your product stands up.  For those who love beer, it’s a great chance to expand your palate and broaden your knowledge a little bit.  For those with little beer experience, it shows that you’ve probably only tasted one or two kinds of beer.  We have helped many people find beers they like to drink.  And we’ve helped wine drinkers diversify their portfolios.

If you or your friends like to cook, do a little research and host a beer and food pairing.  Assign the research to the people involved.  That increases the learning curve for everyone and they can share what they learned when you’re all tasting together.