In order to appreciate – and properly evaluate – your beer, here are a few tips. By observing these simple guidelines, you will showcase your beer in its best light and also greatly enhance your craft-beer drinking experience:
• Never serve craft beer icy cold, as such an extreme temperature will dull the flavor. Your beer should always be consumed at an appropriate temperature – around 38–40ºF for lighter beers, and slightly warmer for darker, bolder styles.
• Use a glass. Always drink your craft beer from a clean glass, rather than directly from the bottle. Pour gently into a glass at a 45º angle until a little more than half full. Finish pouring beer into the straightened beer glass to enhance the presentation. Some enthusiasts insist on using certain styles in specific styles of glassware, but that’s really up to you. To me, a pilsner, pint, or tulip glass is always appropriate. No chilled glasses, please!
• Refrain from smoking prior to tasting and avoid stinky, smoke-filled rooms. Strong perfumes or colognes should also be avoided.
• Lipsticks, waxy lip balms, and greasy, oily residue from foods will adversely affect the head on your beer.
• If tasting several different beers, start with the lighter styles, leaving stronger, spiced or very hoppy beers for last. Cleanse your palette with a small piece of bread or a cracker – salt-free versions are best.
It’s a good idea to keep a small notebook to jot down your impressions of the beer’s appearance (color and clarity), aroma, taste, overall impression, and drinkability. If tasting your own beer, include the brewdate and any other pertinent information.
First, raise your glass to the light. Does it appear to be well carbonated or is it flat? Is there a foamy head? How would you describe the color? Is it a pale straw or more of a golden yellow? Is it a bright copper or more amber-hued? A rich brown or midnight black? Is it darker or lighter than what you were aiming for? More importantly, is it pleasing to the eye? Is the beer bright, or does it have a slight haze? Is there any residue floating around?
Next, gently swirl the beer around in the glass, bring it to your nose and inhale. What do you smell? A pleasant hoppy aroma? Is it floral, fruity, piney, or earthy? Is there a malt character in the nose? Is it toasty, roasty, chocolatey or caramel-like? Are there any off-aromas? Is it a beer you’re looking forward to drinking?
At last, take a sip of the beer and swish it gently and slowly around in your mouth before swallowing. What is your first impression? Is it thin-, medium- or full-bodied? Is it slightly, moderately, or highly bitter? Is there a sweetness or is it dry and crisp? Is it overcarbonated or undercarbonated? Is there an aftertaste? Are there any flavors that don’t seem to belong?
Finally, do you like it? Is this a beer you will enjoy drinking?
You’ve spent a good amount of time formulating your recipe, selecting your ingredients, brewing your beer, monitoring its fermentation, and finally, bottling or kegging it, but all your hard work is not quite over yet. Being able to evaluate and critique your own beer is a skill in itself. The more you can learn about recognizing off-flavors and identifying their causes the better, as you will also learn how to correct or prevent them. There are a number of brewing-related dilemmas that home brewers, particularly those new to the hobby, may encounter. The most common are listed below, along with their probable causes and possible remedies:
Buttery or butterscotch flavor An incomplete or hasty fermentation can result in a strong buttery taste and a slick mouthfeel. This is the result of diacetyl, a naturally occurring organic compound. A healthy, complete fermentation serves to reduce diacetyl levels. Although low levels of diacetyl are expected and even desirable in some beer styles (British ales for example), it is considered a defect and off-flavor if it is not part of a beer style’s flavor profile.
Papery-, leathery-tasting beer These are the classic signs of old or oxidized beer. Enjoy your home brew, don’t save it for a rainy day! If you do plan to keep it for a while, make sure it is stored appropriately away from heat and sunlight.
Sweet or worty beer An under-attenuated beer – in other words, an incomplete fermentation, possibly caused by old, ineffective yeast.
Tart or sour beer Unless you are brewing a characteristically sour style, this is not a quality you want in your finished beer. An acidic tartness is most often the result of a bacterial infection due to improper or lackadaisical sanitation procedures. A sour off-flavor may also be the result of a fermentation temperature that was too warm, or storage of kegged or bottled beer in a very warm space. Another possible culprit may be the overuse of sugar, which can result in a cider-like flavor.
Other off-flavors Excessive heat can result in a host of strange flavors. Take care to ferment and store your beer at appropriate temperatures. Fermenting wort and bottled beer, especially if packaged in clear or green glass, should never be exposed to the sun, as “light-struck” beer has a characteristic skunky taste and aroma.
Cloudy or ropy beer This is another common sign of contamination. Unlike the very slight haze you may expect to find in your home-brewed beer, beer will appear murky and may contain visible threadlike or ropy floaters. The inside of the bottle may also have a ring of residue clinging to it.
Poor head retention This may be a simple fix: use a clean glass! Glassware that is improperly cleaned or rinsed, leaving an oily, greasy, or soapy residue behind will kill the head on your beer. Another possible cause is that you haven’t used enough hops in your recipe, or the hops you used are old.
Flat beer Did you give your beer enough time in the bottle? If your beer appears flat and it’s only been in the bottle for a few days or a week, it probably just needs a bit more time. Typically, your bottle-conditioned beer will be ready to drink in two to three weeks. Another likely reason is that you didn’t add sufficient priming sugar, or didn’t mix it well enough. If the latter is the case, you may experience some exploding bottles, as most of the sugar may have ended up in only a few.
Overcarbonated beer Exploding bottles are a worst-case scenario, but trying to pour and enjoy too-foamy beer can be annoying. Gushing that occurs when you open a bottle is also a problem. Overly foamy or gushing beer may be a result of adding too much priming sugar, it could be a sign of contamination, or your beer could simply be too warm. Try chilling it down to a more appropriate temperature, about 40ºF or so.
Stuck fermentation It’s only been a day or two, but your fermentation seems to be “stuck,” or worse, never appears to have begun. The only way to verify this is to take a hydrometer reading. If indeed, your original gravity doesn’t seem to be dropping, you need to get it going again, and quickly. Probable causes are old yeast, lack of aeration upon pitching, and temperature. If your yeast is suspect, add another packet as soon as possible and aerate, but gently. (It’s always a good idea to keep an extra packet of dry yeast in the refrigerator for emergencies.) If the wort temperature is too low, warm up your fermenter by moving it to a different location.