How To Describe Beer Taste

When tasting beer, we go through various stages. We want to take in the appearance of our beer. We want to take in the aroma. And then finally we take in the taste. But what is taste? And how do we describe beer taste? As it turns out, taste and flavour are not actually the same thing. And when we're talking about the taste of beer, we also talk about the mouthfeel. But what does that even mean? And finally, some people will talk to you about the finish or the linger. You may not know what that means either. In this blog post about how to describe beer taste, I'll explain all of these areas and give you some taste descriptors for your next beer review.

How to describe beer taste – what is taste?

So to begin with, on how to describe beer taste, what even is taste? It said that there are five tastes. These are bitter, sweet, salty, sour and umami. Umami has that kind of savoury flavour that you can't really put your finger on. Think soy sauce or Marmite. There is also an emerging study, that fat may be added to this list of tastes. But when we talk about taste, we tend to really be thinking about flavour. Flavour is a combination of those sensations that come from taste, and the aroma that passes your olfactory senses. Think about when you've got a cold. When you can't smell, often you get the sensations of bitter and sweet, but you don't get flavours like sweet pineapple, or sour cherry, you just get those sensations. This is why it's really important that we swallow our beer. In wine, they often spit out their samples. But with beer, we want it to go into our throat and past our olfactory senses. So past our nose. The aroma then comes back up our nose and is a combination for our brain to work out the flavours. This is called retronasal action, and it is a major component of how we work out the taste of our beer.

How to describe beer taste – the tongue map

When you were at school, you may also have seen the tongue map showing various different sections of your tongue where those tastes bitter, sweet, salty, sour and umami are picked up. As it turns out, this is not the case. You need to be able to get the beer all around your mouth, you'll be able to pick up those tastes all around your mouth. Certain areas are more sensitive, which is where that artistic impression came from. But don't think that you're only going to get bitterness on the back of your tongue, for example, your whole mouth is involved in your tasting.

How to describe beer taste – mouthfeel and carbonation

When people are talking about the taste of beer, you may have heard the word mouthfeel. This is literally how the beer feels in your mouth. You're going to have thin beers, or thick beers. Some might be oily, some might be soft and pillowy. That mouthfeel is really important because not only is it adding to the taste, it's also adding to the sensations and your enjoyment of the beer. Within that mouthfeel component when we are learning how to describe beer taste, we also want to think about the carbonation of the beer. You can go from effervescent and very fizzy beers all the way down to your smoothest stouts. That carbonation will make a difference to what you're tasting, and how much you enjoy it.

How to describe beer taste - bitterness

*Different combination of beer ingredients will produce different taste sensations*

When thinking about how to describe beer taste, bitterness is going to be an important factor. However, what we actually taste is perceived bitterness. The selection of ingredients by the brewer will combine to create a perceived bitterness. There may be a huge amount of hops in the beer, but sweet malt may have been added to balance that out. Conversely, when you've got lots of sweetness coming from malts in a dark, rich stout, some hops are going to be needed to add a balancing bitterness. So think about how much bitterness you are perceiving in the beer that you're tasting.

How to describe beer taste – acidity and astringency

One of our taste factors is also sour. Think about the acidity or the stringency of your beer. Sour beers will have used bacteria to create acidity within the beer. Fruit may also do this within a beer. And in darker beers where more roasted malts are used, there may be astringency. When we think about astringency, think about a tea bag - if you have that in your mouth, you'd have a really puckering astringent taste. This is from tannins added to the beer from the dark malts.

How to describe beer taste – finish or linger

Continuing our journey through how to describe beer taste, you may hear people talking about the finish, or the linger, of a beer. You may also hear the word attenuation. When a beer is fermenting, the yeast is going to eat the sugars that are produced by the malt. Depending on how much sugar the yeast eats, the beer may be well attenuated. So the yeast will have used up all of the sugars making it dry with very little sweetness. Or the yeast may only eat some of the sugars. Sometimes more sugar may be added also. This makes for an under attenuated beer, so it has more sweetness in it - that can then end up lingering in the final taste of the beer.

When we say a beer is dry, that often means that the taste doesn't linger in your mouth, it cuts off very early, but that makes you want to drink more. Often, dry beers are very tasty and refreshing. However, if you've got a big, chewy, sweet stout, you want that flavour to linger on, it really depends on the beer style that you're drinking, and the situation that you're in.

How to describe beer taste – action!

So what actions should you take to decide how to describe beer taste? You need to taste your beer, take a really good sip. Make sure it gets all around your mouth. And make sure you swallow. You may need to take two or three sips to really get an understanding of the taste and flavour of your beer. There is a technique you can use to get more from the taste of your beer, you need to take a mouthful of beer, hold your nose and swallow and then blow air out of your nose. This takes a lot of practice. And you may spit out the beer when you first try this! But this captures the aromas in your mouth. And then as you blow the air out that retronasal action happens and you pick up more of the flavour from your beer.

You can see how to do this in my video here, or here are the steps to take:

Take a mouthful of my beer
Hold your nose
swallow
Blow air out of your nose hard
Think about what flavours you pick up

You might need to do this a few times to get it right!

How to describe beer taste - descriptors

As part of how to describe beer taste, you're going to need some descriptors. Think about the thickness of the beer body. Is it thin or watery? Is it thick and chewy? Is it pillowy and soft? Or is it oily? These are your body descriptors. Next, think about the carbonation levels, is it highly carbonated or effervescent and prickly on your tongue. With some stouts you will get a carbonation tiz right at the beginning and then it goes nice and smooth. Other stouts will be thick and smooth and velvety. Sometimes it might be lightly carbonated or with some of your real ales, you may find they have very low carbonation. Think about all of these factors when you're writing your reviews.

*This beer had light carbonation and a pillowy mouthfeel*

Descriptors for the finish for when you are considering how to describe beer taste, may include dry, a sweet linger, there may be a bitter linger or roasty linger from dark malts. There may be a resinous linger from American hops, there may be a fruit linger, or something completely different. Maybe at the end of the sip there's some biscuity malt. Really think about the layers of the beer as you're tasting it. This may take several sips before you really build up the picture of the beer that you're tasting.

I hope this blog post has answered your questions about how to describe beer taste. As with the other areas from appearance and aroma, in taste, there's lots of different layers that we can consider. Don't forget to think about the mouthfeel, carbonation and the finish. And finally, the flavours that you're getting from that delicious beer in your glass. If you'd like to learn more about beer tasting my course Build Your Beer Vocabulary includes a lesson on beer tasting, as well as developing your descriptors for describing what's in your glass. You can find out more here.