I was able to host a beer tasting last Thursday night as a prize I offered for our Ubuntu fundraiser. The winners joined me and I invited another friend to help us drink the beer. I had to do a bit of research for the event as I know there is a particular order which is best to drink. I thought it should be lightest to darkest, but according to most experts we should drink the beer in order of increasing flavour and alcohol strength.We didn't own any small drinking glasses, so I picked a few up. I was quite happy with how they worked. I also did a bit of research on Beer Advocate and printed an information sheet on the beers so we'd learn a bit too.
I printed these little scoring cards on the back of blank recipe cards to make the event a bit more official - or at least to make us feel a bit more pro. I scored the first beer too high not leaving enough room for improvement. Next time, I'll have to score the first beer at about 50% as a baseline.This is my selection in order of tasting:
- Harviestoun's Bitter and Twisted (4.2% IPA from Scotland)
- Weihenstephaner's Hefe Weissbier (5.4% wheat beer from Germany)
- Warsteiner's Premium Dunkel (4.9% dark lager from Germany)
- Brouwerij Verhaeghe's Duchess de Bourgogne (6.2% Flanders red ale from Belgium)
- Raasted's Hindbaer Trippel (8.5% raspberry beer from Denmark)
- Fuller's London Porter (5.4% English porter from England)
- Young's Double Chocolate Stout (5.2% milk stout from England)
- Pike's Monk's Uncle Tripel (9.0% strong pale ale from USA)
- Hebrew's Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A. (10.0% double IPA from USA)
The clear winner was the incredibly tasty Double Chocolate Stout, followed by the Bittersweet, then the London Porter. I really enjoyed all the beers. We lined our stomachs with some of Amber's homemade bread with melted cheese and sprinkled cumin. It was a lovely evening.
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." - Benjamin Franklin
"Water is drank by the four legged beast; man prefers it with hops, malts, and yeast." - German Toast
2 comments:
What a fun thing to do! I've been to wine tasting parties, of course...but there are so many varied types of beers.
I really enjoyed the pumpkin ale you had at Thanksgiving.
Yes, the London Porter is excellent. And I was very skeptical about the Double Chocolate but it's delicious and surprisingly refreshing!
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