How To Host A Beer Tasting Party

*A beer flight board can help you organise your beers*

If you are part of the craft beer community or the beer drinking community, then you know that beer tasting is the main part of our very enjoyable hobby. And sometimes we want to share that with others. You can do this by hosting a beer tasting party, you may want to do this just to get some people together and share some of those beers that you've been storing. It may be for a celebration, maybe for a festive party or birthday or an event. Or maybe it's a work get together. You can even do this virtually via an online meeting application. But how do you host a beer tasting party? What things do you need to think about and how are you going to organize it? And what do you need to do on the day? Read on to find the answers to these questions and more.

How to plan your beer tasting party

First, you need to decide where are you going to host your beer tasting party, it might be at home, you may need to find a venue or you could do this virtually via a Zoom or Teams link. Hosting a beer tasting party virtually will take different steps. You'll need to plan out parts in advance and send that information to your participants so that they have the same beers and the same information as you do.

What beers to have at your beer tasting party

Once you have decided on a venue, what beers do you want to taste? Are you going to choose some that you just really enjoy? Could it be a selection from one brewery, maybe locally? Or one that you've wanted to try? Could you pick a beer style and find several different versions of that beer? Maybe you're going to pick it by region? Are you going to taste German beers? Or Belgian beers? Or maybe something more exotic that you've not tried before? Could they be a theme to your beers? Could they be Halloween themed? Or perhaps they are relevant to Valentine's Day? What about the ingredients in the beer? Could you do just pumpkin beers, or chocolate beers, or beers made with different fruits. There are many different combinations that you could try. Find something that you think would be really delicious and your guests would enjoy too.

Next, you need to decide how many beers you will need for your beer tasting party. A good number to try is four – with this number you can try a variety but not fatigue your taste buds. But how much beer do you need to buy? it's a good idea to go with roughly a third of a pint of beer per person, then you've got enough to taste, but you can still drink some other things and have an enjoyable time without getting too merry. Once you've decided on your beers, you may want to make these into a list so that you can give them to people if you're doing this virtually.

Where to purchase beers for a beer tasting party

Where you will purchase your beers? For a virtual beer tasting, it may be a good idea to select beers from a supermarket that is also accessible by your other participants wherever they may be. You might want to look at online bottle shops and beer vendors, you could create the list or perhaps share your basket with the participants so that they can order the same bears. If you're going to do this, think about delivery times and how long it's going to take people to be able to order them and get them to their houses before the event. If you're going to do it at home, or at a venue think about using local bottle shops or local breweries to support our independent brewers so that they can continue the great work that they're doing.

What glassware do you need for your beer tasting party

*Small glasses are god for a beer tasting*

If you haven't got dedicated beer glasses at home, a wine glass will do. I would say that you would want it to be clear glass so that you can assess and see the colour of the beer because this also informs our beer tasting. But really, any glass will do. When I'm drinking beer I like a Teku glass. I like stemmed glasses as the heat from your hand doesn’t transfer to the glass and warm the beer. A Teku glass has a nice bowl shape to open up the flavours and aromas. You may have brandy glasses or similar or nice wide wine glasses that will work. Consider whether you need one glass per participant or whether you will have a different glass for each beer. If you can have one glass you may need to include time for people to be able to rinse their glasses before you continue to the next beer. If you would like to have one glass per beer per person, you may want to invest in some flight boards. Something with a wooden handle or paddle with sections in it for smaller glasses. You can search for these on Amazon, Etsy and eBay. You may want some smaller tasting glasses that hold a third of a pint of beer. This is an excellent size for tasting. You can buy several of these, or maybe your beer geek friends have some tasting glasses that they can bring with them if you're doing at your house. At the end of the day, any clear glass will work as long as you've got enough for everybody.

Snacks for a beer tasting party

*You need snacks to keep your guests going at your beer tasting party*

During a beer tasting, you will also want to think about snacks and keeping everybody hydrated. A good snack to have between beers to cleanse the palate is a plain cracker, but you might want something a bit more tasty. While you're actually tasting the beers, don't have anything that is too salty or oily because this will destroy the head retention on your beers. Perhaps have snack breaks between your beer tastings. You are also going to want to make sure you've got water available so that everyone can stay hydrated.

Setting up your beer tasting party

So once you have picked your beers and you've invited your guests you need to set up your beer tasting party ready for them to attend. For set up, you are going to want to chill your beers, make sure you got enough room in the fridge. If you are looking at darker beers, you may want to take them out before the beginning of the event to allow their temperature to rise a little bit. Remember that the flavours in darker beers come through at warmer temperatures. So you might want to get them out at the beginning of the tasting to let them warm up a little bit. Or maybe have them out just before your guests arrive. Make sure you got plenty of snacks and water on hand so that everyone feels comfortable and happy to taste these beers in the beer tasting.

*The Love Beer Learning beer tasting party kit*

Do you need a way for people to record their thoughts on the beers? Possibly a sheet with spaces for the four beers on where they can record the beers name, their thoughts and a score would be a good idea. Beer tasting party printables are excellent for this. And at Love Beer Learning we have a beer tasting party kit available in our Etsy shop. You might also want a flight board that you can print and put the beer name, brewery, beer style and ABV on. The beers are then numbered so that everyone is tasting the same beer at the same time. Finally, in the Love Beer Learning beer tasting party kit, you get a printable guide that everyone can have in front of them while they're completing their tasting. It includes instructions on how to taste the beer and some vocabulary to help them with their beer review.

If you're doing this virtually you could send the printables via email to the people who are participating along with a virtual meeting link and they can print them at home themselves.

How will you run your beer tasting party?

Once your beers are chilling, your snacks and your water are ready and all of your printables are set for your guests to arrive; it's time to think about how you're going to run your tasting. Is everyone going to taste the same beer at the same time? Are you going to give everyone the beers to begin with? Are they just going to sip on them throughout the evening and see what they think at the end? Do you want to discuss the beers while you're tasting them? Or do you want everybody to wait and then talk about them all together. Think about how you'd like your event to run and maybe give a few house rules at the beginning before you start.

But most importantly for how to host a beer tasting party is to make sure that you are having fun. We're just here drinking delicious beer, so make sure that everybody is enjoying themselves and having a great beer tasting party.

If you'd like more information on how to set up a beer tasting party, check out my Etsy shop now with my beer tasting party kit which includes a seven-page guide for how to set up your beer tasting party along with 3 PDF printables that you can use again and again.