How to host a homebrew tasting party worth turning up to

Brewing is a good solo hobby right up until you have four batches sitting in the shed and nobody has tried any of them. Pouring your own beer for people who will tell you the truth is the fastest way to get better at it, and it is a decent night in on its own, so it is worth doing properly rather than just handing somebody a bottle at the door.

Set it up so people can actually talk

You do not need much. Tables and chairs arranged so everybody can hear each other, somewhere to put the glasses down, and a jug of water and a bowl for tipping out what people do not finish, because without that last one everybody feels obliged to drink a full glass of each and the night goes sideways early.

Small glasses rather than full pours. You want people tasting four or five things, not drinking four or five beers.

Pick a theme, because it gives people something to say

A flight with no shape is just drinks. Give it a spine and people have something to compare against. You could run all one style and show how different the same kit comes out with different hops, or go across styles and walk from light to dark, or pour the same beer at two ages and let everybody argue about which is better.

Write the tasting notes down

For each beer, put a card next to it with what it is, what went into it, and roughly what you were going for. Two or three lines is plenty. This does more than it sounds like it should, because most people have no vocabulary for beer and a written note gives them somewhere to start.

If you used a particular hop or a particular yeast, say so on the card. That is the bit brewers in the room will want to know.

Get the order right

Go light to dark and gentle to strong. A stout first will flatten everything that comes after it, and once a palate is gone it is gone for the night.

Start with something crisp and low in bitterness, work through the pale ales, then the hoppy end, and finish on the dark ones. Water and a plain cracker between each does more for the palate than anything fancy.

Put out food that suits the beer

Cheese and smoked meats both work with almost everything, so they carry the table. Past that, a hoppy IPA stands up to spice better than most people expect, a malty brown ale is very good with anything caramel, and a stout with chocolate is worth doing once just to watch people realise it works.

Cooking with your own beer is a nice touch if you have the time, and a beer and cheese board is the version that takes ten minutes.

Get feedback you can use

Put a scoring sheet next to each beer with room for a comment, and ask people to write down one thing they liked and one thing they would change. Keep it light, because the moment it feels like homework people write nothing.

The comments are the valuable part. Scores tell you which beer won and comments tell you why, and only one of those helps with the next batch.

Sort out how everyone gets home

This is the part that decides whether the night was a good idea. Work out the lifts before anybody has a drink rather than at the end, keep the pours small, and have somewhere for somebody to sleep if it comes to that. Strathalbyn is not a town with a taxi on every corner, so it takes a bit of planning.

Shop related products

A light to dark flight, built out of what is on the shelf. Brew them a few weeks apart and you have a night.

• Coopers International Series Canadian Blonde 1.7kg. The opener. Crisp and low in bitterness.
• Coopers International Series Australian Pale Ale 1.7kg. The step up, still easy going.
• Thomas Coopers Brew A IPA 1.7kg. Where the hops arrive.
• Coopers Original Stout 1.7kg. The finisher, and it goes last for a reason.

Did you know we also stock the bottling gear in store that is not on the website, including bottle cappers, crown seals and kegs. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.

The kits are in Coopers and the rest is in homebrew.

Planning the flight

Brewhilder will help you work out an order and a timeline, which matters because four batches take a few weeks to line up.

More on brewing

• Top 5 common homebrewing mistakes and how to fix them
• Brewing on a budget, essential equipment that will not break the bank

The first time I did this the beer everybody liked best was the one I had almost tipped out, so do not decide for them.

Cheers,
Candeece