This weekend is the Great American Beer Fest, a great way to wrap up an excellent beer festival season! The California Craft Beer Summit had to be one of the toppers this year, and it was exciting to taste the special beers brewed specifically for the event.
To me, one of the best parts of a beer fest is getting to taste a lot of different beers, including many types I may not want a whole bottle of (I’m looking at you, chili porter and coconut stout). So to carry the beer fest feeling back home, and convince some friends to help absorb the cost, I’ve complied list of some unique beer tasting party games to help keep our palates in shape!
Mystery Beer Party from Draft Magazine
I found this party game in Draft Magazine, and it actually inspired this week’s blog. For this game, have guests a few large bottles of beer for sharing. When they arrive, wrap the bottles to disguise the beer and give everyone stickers for voting. As the guests taste the beers, ask them to vote for their favorites by placing a sticker on the bottle. Reveal the beers at the end of the night.
Check out the Draft article for more detailed instructions and ideas.
Triple Picks Party
This tasting party style is a good way to compare different types of beer without having too much of one type. For this party, the guests bring a selection of three beers of the same style, but every guest brings a different style. So you may have one person bring three IPAs, another bring three stouts, and so on.
Vary the number of beers brought as you need, depending on how many guests you invite.
German Bock Bier
Beers of the World
We recently got a big new bottle shop in town, and they have a nice selection of international beers—a good reason to get our friends to pick their favorite country and bring something over. Assign each friend a country to avoid duplicates, or let them choose on their own to encourage a more personal touch. Or do both, and have them bring two bottles!
Palate-Building Party
A palate-building party goes beyond tasting beers to learning how to taste them better. To detect nuances in similar beers, facilitate a similar pair tasting. Choose two different beers of a similar style and taste them both, trying to detect and describe the differences. Single-hop beers are particularly fun to taste in this way, because tasting the hops side by side makes it easier to detect the different characteristics.
A few other palate-building exercises include the triangle tasting and a Food and Wine exercise that uses foods, like pecans and pine needles, to simulate beer flavors and aromas.
Judging Beers
Name that Flavor
My friend and I played this game when we were trying to become better wine drinkers, and it applies to beer just as well. You’ll need a pencil and paper—or the willingness to be honest. Everyone tastes the same kind of beer, then takes a moment to write down a few adjectives or flavor words that describe the beer. The serious drinkers at craftbeer.com urge players to get a bit more competitive, assigning points for overlapping words.
How was your beer-fest summer? Did you discover any new fests or favorite beers? Let us know in the comments below.