I am going to let you in on a secret.
I am a beer nerd. I spend my weekends traveling around Southern California visiting local breweries and planning beer pairings. I am studying to eventually take my Cicerone Exam, essentially the beer equivalent of a wine sommelier. This summer I even took a 3.5 week road trip around the East Coast and South primarily planned around visiting some of the top breweries in the country.
Recently, my partner and I worked together to brew our first beer: A Coffee Cherry Porter called My First Time! We brewed 5 gallons at Zymurgy Brewing in Torrance, choosing everything from what hops we would add to the types of cherries we would add (A mix of frozen dark cherries, cherry preserves, and cherry concentrate).
Adding the grains to the mill!
So once we had 30 bottles of our beer, the question remained: What should we do with it? We flew a few bottles to friends and family around the country, brought them as gifts for dinner parties and wedding gifts, but there were still quite a few scattered throughout our fridge and closet.
Then, M had an idea: A Beer Tasting Party.
Despite the fact that we live in a studio apartment, that didn’t stop us from inviting over 30 of our friends for a beer tasting experience. Here is everything you need to host the perfect Beer Tasting Party.
The Tasting Menu
Pick Your Beers
When we decided to host the tasting, we knew we wanted to have people taste more than just our beer. The people we were inviting had a broad range of experiences. Some people didn’t particularly know much about beer, and others were home brewers. We also decided to come up with a non-alcoholic drink equivalent for anyone who was Designated Driving or didn’t want to drink that night. We settled on 6 classes of Beer: Lager, IPA, Sour, Porter, Stout, and a Specialty Strawberry Rhubarb Beer.
We also wanted to show the different classes within styles of beers, so for a Lager we provided pours of both Bud Light and House Lager, and for the Porter we provided samples of both My First Time and Deschutes Black Butte Porter.
Plan a Menu
No Beer Tasting Party is complete without food. Before guests arrived we set out a charcuterie board and a brie-cheese dish so everyone could snack on food and talk as we waited for everyone to arrive.
Knowing our audience, we designed an entirely vegetarian pairing menu (except the charcuterie board). Everything was made from scratch the day of the party. There are a lot of great resources out there on what food to pair with different beer, so when you host a tasting party make sure to find food which will complement the flavors of the beer you are serving.
#1 The Lager
Beer: Bud Light & House Beer
Food: Vegan Sausage on Roll w/ Garnish
Non-Alcoholic Option: Ginger Ale infused w/ Elderberry Tonic Water
#2 The IPA
Beer: Three Weaver’s Expatriate
Food : Buffalo Cauliflower w/ Bleu Cheese
Non-Alcoholic Option: Lagunitas Hop Water
#3 The Sour
Beer: Victory’s Sour Monkey
Food: Fresh pear & Goat Cheese brushed w/ Hoff’s Cold Brew Hot Sauce
Non-Alcoholic Option: Lime Soda infused w/ Lemon & Simple Syrup
#4 The Porter
Beer: Deschutes’ Black Butte Porter & My First Time
Food: Vegetarian Bacon Brownies
Non-Alcoholic Option: Coffee Soda w/ Luxardo Cherry Liqueur & Garnish
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread compliments the rich taste of a stout
#5 The Stout
Beer: Great Divide’s Yeti
Food Pairing: Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Non-Alcoholic Option: Chocolate Almond Soda
#6 The Specialty
Beer: New Glarus’ Strawberry Rhubarb
Food: Baked Peaches w/ Brown Sugar, Cinnamon, Dark Chocolate shavings, & Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Non-Alcoholic Option: Strawberry Rhubarb Soda
Decorate
Despite living in a studio, we didn’t let that stop us from going all out with decorations for the Tasting. Our friend, Christina Chi, designed the label for the beer, as well as two posters and a set of coasters for the tasting. She took the pairings list we designed and turned it into a gorgeous menu which we propped up using wine corks. We took the brewery growlers we had from around the apartment and used them as flower vases for center pieces.
For an additional touch we set our beers out on a table as goodies for guests to take home and accented the table with tasting glasses full of coffee beans and cherries as an ode to the flavor notes in our beer. Finally, we put up a poster board to have all of our friends sign and draw throughout the evening.
Study Up
We knew we wanted this party to be educational as well as fun, so M read up on the history of different styles of beer and led the audience through each beer one step at a time, including specifics on the style and brewery, as well how to taste the different notes in the beer. If you are hosting a tasting party, I highly recommend studying up so you can take your party to the next level.
Have fun!
Having everyone over for a change to share our first beer was an awesome experience. If you are a beer drinker who is passionate about sharing your passion with others, hosting a tasting party is a great way to have a fun get together with friends.
It was a little cramped, but a great turnout!