Written By: Peter Evans
Date: December 12, 2009 Being invited over to try out someone's latest brew is an honor that few people get to experience in their lifetime. Inviting someone over to try your latest brew is part of what you work for. The thing is, beyond “it's good” or “wow, did a skunk die in the keg” there are other ways to describe your beer- or someone else's. Maybe, giving you some terms to use when describing and evaluating beer is a good idea.

There are basically five categories that the pros use to describe and evaluate beer.  

Appearance

 Oddly enough, this is how the beer looks. If it don't look good, it can't taste good. What you are looking for is the beer's color, the head level of carbonation and how long the head stays foamy. Is the beer clear or cloudy? Ideally, we'd like a bubbly, busy beer that is uniform in color without any cloudiness. The perfect beer would have a good sized head that really wants to stick around for the party.

Smell

 Yup, we're going to smell some beer now. Can you discern the various ingredients such as malt, hops and yeast?   Malts will sometimes be sweet, smoky, toasty, chocolaty, nutty, or have a deep, lovely roasted smell.  Hops will range from a “green” herbal smell to grassy herbal to a nice florally smell. Yeast can overwhelm the other two components at times, but you will be able to detect this right off.

Taste

Hopefully by now you are not dubious about the beer you are about to sample. Take a mouthful and hold it for a minute then swallow. Hopefully the beer will be as flavorful as it was aromatic. In other words; it will taste as good as it smells.  Does the beer fit the style it was intended for or does it taste like something else? What are the characteristics of the beer? Does it taste yeasty or sweet? Is there a floral taste or is it bitter? Hybrid beers are the hardest to get a handle on, but with some practice you will have the pallet of a beer tasting champion.

Mouth Feel

Mouth feel is important too. Does the beer feel like sparkling water (eww) in your mouth or is it like a super-stout that is thick enough to be on par with poured concrete? Take another mouthful and hold it again and really concentrate on the feel of the brew. It is important that you get a good feel for the body and carbonation level of the beer. Is it a little flat or over carbonated?

Drinkability

What is the overall assessment you have of the beer? Do the components of smell, taste, mouth feel and appearance come together in such a way as to make this beer everything you expect from the style or is it just something you'd rather just finish or something that has helped you to remember you have somewhere else to be?

Being able to break your review down into these five categories will help you to evaluate your own beer as well as that of your friends. Understanding at what point in the brewing process the different elements are established will help you on the way to brewing the perfect beer for you. Just remember, when in doubt, have another.