How to taste beer, to love him

1. Engage all your existing experience

The first impression of the beer is rarely pleasant. Beer bitterness - a taste sensation that can only appreciate over time. Having got used to it, you are in their entirety begin to perceive the taste of malt and fruity odors arising in the process of fermentation. You do not remember that a few years ago speaks abjure try beer. All of a sudden you wake up in curiosity.

Rely on context

Any tasting takes place in a certain environment. Fresh Pilsner never seem so good as in the afternoon of a hot summer day. But Imperial Stout in this situation is hardly appropriate.

Beer requires that approached him with a certain mood and to involve all the senses.

If you drink it out of a nice glass surrounded by friends, feeling only intensified. Wine gives different results depending on whether you have a cold or healthy. Bad mood, fatigue, or, conversely, happy feelings also play a role. It should not be discounted, and weather conditions.

Some influence even humidity. If you taste India Pale Ale, in which the cold-hopping enhanced flavor, it is necessary to know what smells better spread in dry air.

Do not forget about the compatibility of products

Of course, the taste of the beer has an impact snack. Primarily, this is due to physiological causes. The amount of saliva produced or change in pH affect the mouthfeel.

Some products emphasize certain properties of the beer, and others open it with a completely different side. Some can be called beer universal and specific products needed for others.

Classical include such combinations:

• Garlic and aromatic herbs (such as basil or parsley) profitable emphasize all kinds of wheat beer.
• Pale Ale can very advantageously combined with cream or sweets such as ice cream.
• India Pale Ale (IPA) is the perfect complement to the cake.
• Belgian beer saison made to combine with chicken.

Sometimes, beer reveals its best qualities only in conjunction with a particular dish. For example, smoked beer reaches its peak palatability if its snack sauerkraut.

There is an unspoken rule: the classic beer varieties of a particular region or country fit perfectly with the traditional dishes of the same country.

2. Look carefully at the beer

Familiarity with beer begins with design and packaging design. In itself, the beer - it is a liquid, hidden from the world in bottles, which come in very different forms: slender long-necked or squat and paunchy, which is typical for Belgian Tripel. Some brewers are betting on the original forms.

But of course, the shape of the bottle on taste Beer does not affect in any way. But the color of the glass is very important. First, the glass is absolutely not react with beer, so the taste of the latter is maintained in its original form. And secondly, the dark brown glass protects the beer against ultraviolet radiation better than green.

Note the color

color of the drink to a certain extent can serve as a reference. If beer is bright and clear, it is very good chance that it lacks grain flavor and emphasis will be placed on the fresh notes. Beer with a more pronounced color - from straw to amber - often demonstrates malt flavor, somewhat reminiscent of caramel, biscuit and dried fruit. The dark beer you can feel the taste of smoke, coffee, chocolate of varying intensity.

Evaluate density

The color of the beer did not tell us about the content of sugar in it, but this can be judged by observing how the beer is poured into glasses. Imperial Stout and some Tripel pouring jet viscous like syrup. It is no coincidence stouts sometimes jokingly referred to as "oil", not only because of the color, but also due to the viscosity. If slightly shake a glass with beer, something on its walls remain oily streaks.

Generally, the higher the density of the beverage, the more intense the flavor, and vice versa.

Pay attention to foam

The foam gives the beer a noble look and allows you to make some conclusions about it. The appearance and properties of the foam is affected by many factors, in particular - the primary raw material for beer.

Inclusion in neproroschennyh malt grains increases the density of the foam due to the fact that the bubbles become smaller. Adding oats enables froth to keep the form. Hops rich resinous substances, playing the role of a surfactant that affects the durability of the bubbles.

Do not forget about the draft

Unfiltered and unpasteurized beer containing residues yeast. This is normal. Bottles with beer are best stored in an upright position so that the precipitate was mixed with the contents. Pouring beer into glasses, leave a small amount in the bottle.

Turbid normal for some beers containing wheat proteins, for example weizen. However, in most other types of beer it is undesirable. Rate the beer up to the light.

3. Feel the smell of beer

Pour the beer into the glass and gently shake it in a circular motion. Do not breathe too deeply. To evaluate the odor is better to make a few short breaths, as if sniffing. Repeat this a few times, trying to discern all the shades of flavor.

The beer can contain thousands of different aromatic molecules that we are able to recognize with the help of the sense of smell or touch. They are naturally released into the air from the liquid surface, especially if the beer foam.

Rate temperature

beer temperature plays an important role during the tasting. As a rule, the ideal temperature for drinking beer - 8-10 degrees. Beer with dark malt (stout, porter) is better to use more warm.

If you taste the stout, then immediately feel the smell of roasted coffee beans. To manifest the aroma of chocolate, a little more is required to increase the temperature of the drink.

Connect your imagination

Odor can cause brain memories. If you drink a light beer, which is warming, lets you feel the herbal nuances, it can easily imagine a field covered with ripe ears.

Beer tasting, tour of his memory, calling it the picture is not very pleasant or memories.

Maybe chocolate notes in the drink will remind you of mom's pie. And the smell of sulfur is not always appropriate in beer, will make you remember the chicken coop in the backyard in the happy days of childhood. Imagination will add excitement to your tasting.

Do not panic!

Do not worry if you can not catch those smells that are so admired by your friends. Perhaps these odors do not associate you with any personal history. If you are not a professional, it is not so much of a chance that the sense of smell - the most advanced of your senses.

The formation of new neural connections in the brain requires constant practice. Gradually, you will learn to distinguish, recognize and classify smells. Analysis of sensations - one of the most difficult tasks, especially if you have to taste a dozen beers.

4. Try the beer tastes

Comes the most important moment of tasting! Initially, the sensory nerves of the oral cavity responsive to the beer temperature. Then takes the baton language. He is dotted with more than 10 thousands of taste buds. For a long time it was thought that they specialize in individual tastes, depending on the location on a particular area of ​​language. It turned out that it is not. Just taste sensations arise one after the other as you move the drink in the mouth.

Determine what feels language

Among the basic tastes are sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami. The latter does not have some particular taste, but enhances all the rest. In fact, we are able to distinguish more subtle shades as part of the basic tastes. For example, the language differs from glucose, sucrose, citric acid, lactic or acetic acid. Everything depends only on experience and training.

The oral beer is heated and begins to emit a plurality of aromatic molecules, which allow to judge its properties. These scents rise through the nasopharynx into the nasal cavity, where the re-exposed to the analysis in the olfactory bulb. Thus mouthfeel actually inseparable from olfactory.

Rate flavoring sequence

The first sensation when placed in the mouth of beer is caused by excitation of the taste buds, which absorb fluids released from the vesicles. This is a very sharp sense of freshness and acidity, causing the activation of salivation.

The second phase takes place already directly on the tongue, where sweetness and bitterness perceived. Simultaneously there retronazalnoe perception of smells emitted and analysis. Also estimated the density of beer.

The final phase - evaluation of aftertaste. Once you have swallowed the beer in the back of the tongue and the beginning of the larynx, which also has the taste buds, it remains a persistent taste. It can persist for a few minutes. As a rule, it is a feeling of bitterness and astringency.

Do not hurry!

Extend perception, concentrating on the sensations. First, you will make a vivid impression of some dominant taste (such as bitter), which will attract all the attention. In the second pharyngeal saliva already alleviate this feeling, brain time to get used to it and you will be able to perceive a kaleidoscope of flavors and smells.

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The book "Beer. Guide for connoisseurs"Which was published by" Potpourri "will open for you the secrets of malt, hops properties, the mystery of fermentation. Guirec Aubert tells in detail about the diversity of species and varieties of beer, and also shares helpful tips that will help easier to carry alcohol and comply with the measure.

After reading the book, you will learn to understand the intricacies of the taste of beer combined with other products and to understand how they fit, contrast and complement each other.

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