Why is beer vocabulary important?
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Remember that really delicious beer that you drank with so many complex flavours in it? But you just didn't know how to describe it to other people. That's because you need to develop your beer vocabulary.
I want to tell you a little story about when I was learning about beer. I really like interesting sours, stouts and beers with really complex, interesting flavours. So when I go into a beer bar, and there's a couple of really interesting things like that on the menu, I have a really difficult time deciding which one I want. Often, I'll ask the beer tender ‘Which do you recommend out of this fruited lambic with Brettanomyces or this peanut butter cup stout?’ and they'll just look at me and say, ‘Well, they're two really different beers.’… I know they're two really different beers. But I can't decide between the two of them!
When you are trying to talk to people about what you want from beer, or the beers that you enjoy; when you're trying to explain what's in your glass, it's really important that you have good beer vocabulary and that you've got good beer terms in your arsenal, to better explain to them what you really want.
Where to begin with beer vocabulary?
Describing beer can be a bit of a tricky business. Often, if you want to find out about a beer there may not be that much information about the beer at the place that you are buying it or on the can or the bottle. There are some bottles and cans that have got so much amazing information about the beers on them. And then some that have zero information other than the legally required ABV, etc.
If you're trying to find out information, often a good place to go would be Untapped or RateBeer where people have put in what they think about beers. But how many times have you done that and it just says ‘This was really tasty’ or ‘Really hoppy!’ “Really malty!’. What do hoppy or malty mean? There are a plethora of hops out there that can have anything from citrusy, stone fruit, tropical notes, all the way to minty, spicy notes. One person's hop is very different from the next and one brewer’s use of hop is very different from the next. Saying it's hoppy isn't a universal language.
Equally saying it's malty doesn't mean the same to everybody. Some malt is very pale and is going to give you doughy, bready, crackery tastes and aromas. Some beer is going to have highly roasted malt in that's going to give you coffee and chocolate. They're very different animals, saying it's malty doesn't help anybody either.
To find out more about beer ingredients, check out these blog posts.
Beer vocabulary starts with tasting
So how can you make sure that you are able to describe what you love in a beer? You've got to begin by tasting beer. When you are tasting beer, you have to take in various different elements of it. First, look at the appearance - what colour is it? What clarity does it have? Is it very bright and clear? Is it hazy or soupy? What does the head look like? The head is really important on beer as it captures the aroma. Is it a thick foamy head? Is there no head at all? Is it fizzy and disappears very quickly. And what about carbonation? Are there lots of lovely streaming bubbles or is it just a little carbonation tiz?
Next, consider aroma. A lot of what we consider flavour is actually aroma. When you take in the aroma, are you getting lots of citrus, fruity notes? Are you getting more cracker? Bread, coffee or chocolate? Are there some unexpected things in there like tobacco, dried fruits, or toffee? There's lots of things that you can find out about a bit in the aroma. And then finally we get to taste it. There can be complex flavours, or it can just be very simple and refreshing. That is the beauty of beer.
Want to learn more about tasting beer? Check out these blog posts here.
Standard descriptors can boost your beer vocabulary
So we've considered how we're going to taste beer, but what standard descriptors can we use that everyone will understand? For the appearance of beer, it can be very simple. We can all describe colour, carbonation and head quite easily because we see it and we can put that across to other people. It's when we start getting into aroma and taste that it gets more difficult because sometimes beer can evoke some really interesting emotions and memories.
One of my favourite examples is you might have a beer, and it might remind you of your grandma's perfume. That might be because it brings back some form of comfort. It might be from the situation you're in or the aroma or flavour might bring back a good memory. But if you said to someone ‘This beer reminds me of my grandma's perfume’, they don't know what your grandma's perfume smells like to you, they probably don't even know your grandma. They don't know what perfume she wears. You have to pick that apart and be able to say the elements of that perfume. Does that in fact mean that the beer is floral, maybe it's got notes of lilies, or something like that. By having more universal descriptors, for flavour and aroma, we can put across what we're getting from our beer.
Use food descriptors as part of your beer vocabulary
The best way to find universal descriptors is to equate the flavour and aroma to food or things that we can eat and smell. We still all have different experiences with food and different cuisines. Some people have tried all sorts of different worldwide foods, some people are only very aware of what is local to them or within their country. But generally, food descriptors will be able to help you when you're describing beer.
Hops we can equate to citrus and tropical fruits. We can also have them related to flowers because you have got to remember that a hop is a flower. Some have herbal notes – consider sage and rosemary. They can also have a light, spiciness to them depending on the region that they're from.
For malts there are a wide range of foods that we can use for descriptors. For the lightest malts look at crackers, bread, dough or toast. In the middle, where you've got your more amber beers, you can try toffee, caramel, or various different types of nuts. As we get darker, we're going into chocolate, coffee, maybe even some burnt flavours.
Let's not forget yeast in beer. Yeast will provide some interesting characteristics depending on the strain that is used. If the beer uses a lager yeast, it will be very clean and you won't pick up much. But when we get into ales, we can have spiciness from phenols and fruitiness from esters. You can use bananas, pears, or green apples to help you describe esters. For phenols, you can look at things like cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. We might also get some dried fruits from yeast so try raisins, plums, and cherries.
Develop your beer vocabulary through sensory exercises
A really good way to work out these descriptors is to do what I call a sensory exercise. Gather yourself together some of the foods that these descriptors can come from. If you like your hoppy beers, then gather yourself some citrus fruits and tropical fruits. Smell and taste them so that you know what mango really smells like to you because we all smell and taste things differently. What does lemon juice smell like to you? What does the peel smell like? What's the outside of a pineapple like compared to the inside? Is the juice of the fruit different from the pulp or the flesh of the fruit? Take all of these in so that you understand how you pick these aromas and flavours up. You'd be surprised how easy it is to confuse lemon and lime and mango and pineapple. The next time you drink something that is citrusy try to pick out exactly which citrus fruit it is so you can describe it better to somebody the next time.
Similarly, with malt, you want to gather yourself some bread, bread crust, nuts, maybe some toast, chocolate and coffee, and take in those aromas, so that you know how you pick those up. Yeast is a little bit more difficult, we're going to look at things like pear, green apple, and banana. But gather yourself all of the spices in the spice rack. Smell all of these and see how you pick them up. Yeast characteristics are the most interesting and sometimes the most difficult to pick out. My top tip is to smell coriander, cardamom, clove and pepper. These are really interesting. And you can find them in Belgian beers, sometimes in German wheat beer. Being able to recognize these is really good for when you're getting into your yeast driven beers. I still go to the kitchen and grab the coriander every now and then to recalibrate my senses on to what it really smells like to me.
Once you've calibrated your senses to these foods, then you can start using those descriptors in your beer reviews. And when you're trying to talk about beer to other people, this is going to help you feel more confident in your beer tasting and help you to find the next beer that you really enjoy. Because you'll be able to talk to people about exactly what it is in those beers that made you go ‘Oh! That is delicious!’
If that all sounds like a bit much to you though. I've got you! I've got some support I can give you to help you develop that beer vocabulary with my course Build Your Beer Vocabulary. We will do the sensory exercises together and then through a live tasting, we'll practice your newfound beer vocabulary and help you to be able to describe exactly what it is in your glass. Find out more about Build Your Beer Vocabulary and when the next session starts here.
