How to host a tasting night with your own spirits

Why a tasting night beats just handing somebody a glass

When you've spent a few weeks getting a batch where you want it, the natural thing is to pour one for whoever walks in and wait for a verdict, and the verdict is always the same, because people say it's lovely and then change the subject. A tasting night fixes that by giving everyone a reason to actually pay attention, and you find out far more about what you've made in one evening than you will in a month of handing out glasses.

Set the table before you set out the bottles

You don't need anything fancy and you definitely don't need to make it feel like a wine show, but a few things make the difference between people tasting and people just drinking. Small tulip-shaped glasses hold the aroma where you can get at it, which a tumbler does not. Plain crackers and a jug of water let people reset between pours. A card and a pen each means the opinions get written down before everyone's had a few and started agreeing with each other.

Keep the lighting warm and the music low enough that people can hear themselves think, and put the bottles somewhere everyone can see them, because half the fun is in the labels you made yourself.

Four to six spirits, lightest first

Palate fatigue is real and it arrives faster than anybody expects, so hold it to 4 spirits if you can and 6 at the absolute outside. Pour them lightest to boldest, which normally means a gin or a vodka first and an oaked or spiced one last, because once somebody has had a mouthful of something heavy they can't taste a delicate one properly for a good while afterwards.

Say a few words about each one before you pour it. Not a lecture, just what you were going for, what you changed from last time, and whether you think you got there. That's the part people remember, and it's the part that turns a drink into a story.

Where the law sits, because it matters at a party

If what you're pouring is a bought neutral spirit you've flavoured or infused yourself, there's nothing to think about. If you've distilled your own base at home, you need an excise manufacturer licence from the ATO first, and that's a federal rule rather than a state one, so it applies wherever you are. Handing your own distillate around is not a loophole and it's worth knowing that before you plan a night around it.

The honest answer for most people is the essence route, which gives you something genuinely yours to pour and leaves the licence question out of it entirely.

Give people something to do

A blind pour is the best fun you'll have all night. Cover the labels, number the glasses, and let everyone guess what they're drinking, and be ready for your favourite batch to come last. A vote at the end works well too, and it settles arguments that have been running since the previous one.

Food that helps rather than competes

Keep the food plain, because anything strongly flavoured will bury what people are meant to be tasting. Dark chocolate and aged cheese work with an oaked spirit, citrus and fresh berries sit well beside a gin, dried fruit and caramelised nuts suit a rum, and pickles and cold meats go with a vodka. Put it out in small amounts and keep it away from the glasses so nobody is tasting cheese through their gin.

Send them home with the recipe

A card with what went into the batch is a better souvenir than a bottle, and it's the thing that gets somebody having a go themselves, which is the whole point of the exercise as far as I'm concerned. Write down the base, the flavouring and how long you left it, and you'll have half your mates on the phone asking what else they need.

Shop related products

• Still Spirits English Dry Gin 50ML Essence. This is a good one to open a line-up with.
• Still Spirits Top Shelf Jamaican Dark Rum Essence 50ml. Pour this one towards the end of the night.
• Still Spirits Mellow Oak Spirit Flavouring 50ml. It softens a spirit that tastes sharper than you wanted.
• Still Spirits Southern Haze 50ML. This is the sweeter option if the rest of your line-up is dry.

Did you know we also hold glass spirit bottles, spirit dispensers, oak soakers and a good part of the Edwards Essences range in the shop that never makes it onto the website. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.

Where to go next

The homebrew range has the rest of what we hold, and Brewhilder will help you work out what to put in front of people if you're stuck on the line-up.

Worth reading next: How to use spirit essences at home and How to infuse a bought spirit at home. If somebody asks you a legal question on the night, Home distilling myths, and where the law actually sits has the plain version.

I'm the one who labels every bottle beautifully and then cannot remember which batch is which by the second pour.