Palate Training

This is not the beer I tasted; this is the beer and the torta I enjoyed after tasting

As part of my never-ending quest to learn more about the magical elixir known as beer I am working to refine my palate. This is a fancy way of saying I want to better understand what I'm drinking.

I've read some books and taken some classes. I regularly perform sensory evaluations on my homebrew and on commercial products, identifying aromas, flavors, and the rest.

Recently I took my exploits to the next level. I visited a local pub that has 20-25 beers on tap and asked the bartender for a five-ounce pour of anything on the board. I did not look at said board first, nor did I watch her pull the tap. She returned with my beer and wrote its name on a piece of paper that she folded and handed to me.

"This is exciting," she said.

I agreed, and she wished me luck as I retreated to an empty table to begin my Very Serious Work™. I tuned out my surroundings and focused on the task at hand, contemplating the mystery beverage before me.

I ran through my mental checklist: aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel. What am I picking up from the hops, the malt, the yeast? What color is the beer? How clear is it? What color is the head, and how well does it hold up over time? Is the beer bitter, sweet, or balanced? How thick is it? What flavors or sensations linger at the end of a sip, and for how long?

In my notes I identified the beer as a "Session IPA, 4.5-5% ABV, maybe higher," conceding that it also "could be APA, but malt is almost nonexistent so probably not." At this point I looked at the board and was able to immediately narrow the possibilities to nine of the beers listed.

Not all of the selections on the board gave the beer's ABV, so I checked Untappd, which allowed me to eliminate five more based on their 7-8% ABV. While on Untappd I cheated a little. Since I hadn't had most of these beers I checked the commercial descriptions for hints regarding their characteristics. From these descriptions I homed in on my two most likely targets.

I sat. I sniffed and swirled. I held the beer up to the light and swirled some more. I tasted and swished it around my mouth. I waved my hands in the air and just didn't care.

It was pretty much a coin toss between those final two candidates, but I went with my gut. I correctly identified the beer as Russian River Happy Hops, which checks in at 5.8% ABV, a tad higher than my initial guess but not too far outside that range. It's also listed as an American Pale Ale, which... I'm not so sure about that.

Now as I'm typing this I've gone and checked Russian River's web site, which presumably is more accurate than Untappd. It puts the beer at 5.5% ABV and says, "Not really a Blonde Ale, not a Pale Ale, not an IPA. Happy Hops is a light colored refreshing ale with a pronounced hop character."

That sounds about right. It was too unbalanced for an APA by my estimation, closer to an IPA. In my notes I called this an "intensely hop forward, straw-colored, easy-drinking beer with sharp pine/resin hop bitterness and a dry, clean finish."

Did I like the beer? I did, although it's not something I'd necessarily seek out again on my own. But what I really liked was learning about the beer, coming to understand it a little. The fact that I guessed right makes me feel smarter than I am and gives me a nice ego boost, but it also encourages me to keep doing this so I can continue to expand my knowledge.

Knowledge is power. Beer is good. Cheers!