The Naked Pint (56 page)

It’s vital that you have something to nosh on during the tasting. The last thing you want is to have your guests tasting beer on an empty stomach. You will also need a dump bucket. This is usually a Champagne chiller or something equivalent that your guests can dump their beer into after they’ve tasted it if they have anything left, are being formal and spitting, or simply don’t like the beer.

Before you start your tasting, make sure you’ve given yourself enough time to chill the beer. If you are using bottles, most styles need about two hours in the refrigerator or about an hour on ice. Make sure you take the beer out of the refrigerator or off the ice for a couple of minutes before you serve it, so the beer flavors are not inhibited by the cold. Again, most beers should be consumed at around 51°F. Also, make sure that you have an opener with you that has a corkscrew as well as a bottle cap opener. You will be embarrassed if you pry off that bottle cap on a highly anticipated Lambic only to see a cork in the neck of the bottle with no way of getting it out, and 20 people are staring at you, salivating. No bueno.

Now is where you get to show off a bit. The first beer that we like to pour at the beginning of any beer tasting is a bit of the mass-produced industrialized fizzy yellow water that has been passing for beer in our country for almost 100 years. Have your guests go through the whole tasting process with it. Show them how to evaluate beer. Teach them to look at the beer and see what the color might say (or not say) about that beer. Tell them how to appreciate the aromatics of their beer and to get their noses way down in the glass and take a big whiff, exploring primary and secondary impressions. Let them swirl the glass and inhale the aromas (or lack of aromas). This is a great frame of reference for any tasting, and a good way to teach them how to taste properly.

As you move along with tasting each beer (from least intense to most intense), make sure to give a little explanation of each beer. Let your guests know the style of the beer, the brewer, where it’s from, and the ABV. During wine tastings, it’s considered bad form to say aloud what flavors you are picking up because flavor and aroma perception is so susceptible to suggestion. But we’ve found that most people are unaccustomed to evaluating beer in the way they evaluate wine, so it’s actually good to go ahead and help novices overcome their shyness by getting the ball rolling, using terms like smoky, buttery, asphalt, leather, and tobacco. Your guests will start chiming in, and eventually you won’t have to lead them at all. Of course, let more advanced tasters come up with their own flavors. Encourage questions. If you can’t answer them all, that’s fine. Have this book at your side for a quick reference; this will be a chance for you to learn as well.

At the end of a successful tasting, guests are happy and astounded. We hope you’ve given them something they’ve never had before and shown them how to appreciate beer. If you want to go that extra mile, you can send your guests home with a little gift. We like to get a couple extra six-packs (or as many bottles as are needed) of one of the beers from our tasting and give one to each guest as a party favor. We also like sending our guests away with a little knowledge. We will type up and print out the beers listed in order of the tasting, with a couple of tasting notes and information on where they can buy the beer. This, of course, is going above and beyond, but once you’ve turned people on to beer, they have a tendency to become pretty enthusiastic about it. So if you don’t feel like getting 13 phone calls the next day asking you the name of “that fantastic beer” from the party, you might consider a handout.

Here’s a checklist for everything you’ll need:

When hosting a beer tasting or beer dinner, you should take on some responsibility for your guests’ safety. They are your friends, and you don’t want to send them home destined for a DUI. We’re used to cutting people off from working at bars and restaurants where this is no joke. The law puts responsibility of inebriation on the establishment and imposes huge fines. This becomes even more important when it involves people you know, though it’s sometimes harder because you don’t want to offend them. You won’t be fined, but you will be horribly worried if you let a guest drive home drunk as a skunk. This can happen at beer dinners and tastings, where people are unfamiliar with the variety of ABVs. People may know when to say when if the drink is wine or a cocktail, but when it comes to beer, they may not realize that the American Wild Ale they’ve been drinking is 10% alcohol. You have to help them along the way.