How to taste craft beer, like a pro 🍻

There is a massive difference between drinking a beer, and tasting it. For starters, drinking a beer is what you do at a Maltese summer event, when it's scorching hot. Tasting, however, is a sensory experience. It's about slowing down, unlocking those hidden flavour notes, and understanding exactly what the brewer intended to create. 

Tasting Guide to Master the art of Beer Tasting

1. The Setup: Glassware & Temperature

Before you even think of opening a beer, you need to set the stage. Two rookie mistakes can ruin a premium craft, and thats drinking straight from the can, and serving it ice-cold. 

• The Glass: Pouring your beer into a glass releases carbonation and opens up the aromas. Reach for a proper glass and pour your beer allowing the liquid to breath and drive those aromatic notes straight to your nose with every sip.

• The Temperature: A good beer shouldn't be freezing cold. The extreme cold numbs the tastebuds and masks the flavours. It's recommended that your beer sits out of the fridge for about 5 to 10 minutes before opening. 

2. Look: The First Impression

Beer should be poured to get a solid two finger head of foam. Once poured, evaluate 3 things: colour, clarity, and foam retention. 

• The Breakdown: Is the colour a strong gold, deep amber, jet black? Is it a clear beer, or intentionally hazy? The head (foam) acts as a lid, trapping the volatile aromatic compounds inside the glass. 

• For comparison, our Defrosting (Cold IPA) looks crisp, clean, and brilliantly yellow, from the maize. Our Blue Lagoon (Witbier) on the other hand will show a beautiful unfiltered haze with a fluffy white head of foam, which is exactly what you want from a traditional Belgian style wheat beer.

3. Smell: The Main Event 

Up to 80% of what we perceive as a flavour actually comes from our sense of smell. So actually, if you don't smell your beerm you'rem issing out on most of the experience. Bring the glass to your nose, and take a couple of sharp sniffs

• What to look for: Is it sweet, bready, notes of malt? Beers could also have smells that are vibrant or even tropical. 

• Our Grand Harbour IPA for example instantly hts you with an aromatic punch of bright citrus and tropical fruits, which happens due to the heavy dry hopping process. It's these little things that gives a story and a new appreciation for each beer. 

4. Taste and Mouthfeel: The Grand Finale

Finally, it's time for everyone's favourite part, to take a sip... but don't just swallow the beer. Let the liquid coat your entire tongue for a couple of seconds, and let your tongue detect the different profiles in different zones.

• The Taste: Notice the initial flavours on the front of your tongue (often sweet malts), how it evolves, and the bittereness that hits the back of your throat upon swallowing. Does the bitterness linger, or is it clean and quick? 

• The Mouthfeel: This is the texture. Is it light or spritzy, or heavy and velvety?

The best way to sharpen your palate is comparison. Beer has a lot of complexities, textures and flavours that can only be understood with multiple tastings. If you're really up for the test, our guided Lord Chambray Tasting Experience is available for anyone. This experience offers a variety from IPAs and stouts, to craft lagers and blond ales giving you the perfect variety to explore contrasting flavours. 

Don't worry, if you can't make it to the taproom, we've also got the ultimate at-home tasting setup, where a pack includes two proper Lord Chambray glasses and intesactive tasting sheet so that you and your friends could enjoy and compare the experience. 

Join the experience, follow the steps and you'll be speaking the language of beer in no time!

Cheers!