George Fix - Evaluating Beer

CHARLIE PAPAZIAN

I ts my beer, my taste, my opinion. So what do I care what anyone else thinks about my beer? I like it, it sells, and thats all that matters. What more do I need to know about my beers taste and aroma?

If your thoughts run in this mode, youre about 15 years behind the times. Today, the way we evaluate beer has changed. Never before have so many brewers been so keenly interested in the characteristics of different beer styles and the flavor nuances of their own brews. Hundreds of beer styles are now being brewed. A new breed of educated consumer is tasting and evaluating beer with enthusiasm. Micro-brewed and pubbrewed beers are in the eye of the public and professional evaluator alike giving them products to assess, compare, praise or scorn. But perhaps most important to the commercial brewer, beer evaluation gives information that can be used to maximize quality and minimize problems.

As well, homebrewers are a unique group of beer enthusiasts. Never before has there been such a large group of brewers having an interest in the characteristics of different beer styles and the flavor nuances of their own brews. Hundreds of beer styles are now being brewed. One brewer is more than likely to have a stock of homebrewed pale ale, stout, fruit beer, bock, steam and Munich Helles all at the same time. With a desire to learn and improve their own brews and those of others, homebrewers are learning to taste and evaluate beer with enthusiasm. Homebrewed beer has become the apple of the publics eye.

It has been a very long time since North America has seen such a variety of beer brewed with so many different philosophies and variations in brewing ingredients, processes, equipment systems and handling. Concomitant all of these variations there exists a wide variety of beer tastes, aromas, mouthfeels, sounds, visual qualities and overall impressions we believe are unique. Actually, these sensations are nothing new. Theyve all been experienced before. The difference today is that the scope of our knowledge lends itself to evaluating beers with a wide-angle lens, rather than with the narrow field of telephoto lens. In other words, today, with so many beer styles, were taking a more informed approach to defining beer style characteristics and quality control.

Beer evaluation is a learned skill, which I will discuss later, but first lets consider the reasons why brewers need to know how to evaluate beer.

1. To control quality and consistency. For example, every large brewery in North America has a regular program of evaluating its beer for the sole purpose of ascertaining that its quality is consistent from batch to batch. The breweries are not necessarily trying to detect unusual flavors in order to identify their origins. Instead, beer evaluators are specially trained to evaluate usually just one style of beerthe brewerys own brand.