Beer Tasting Gathering Advice Sought

I think 8 oz is too much. 4 oz per serving tops.
16 beers is too many. In theory it sounds great but that many heavy beers are just too much. I would say 8 beers is the max.
Have something much lighter to break up the heavy beers. I think saisons are awesome for reviving the taste buds after a few heavy beers.
I know you have a great plan. Unless everyone else is as beer geeky, your plan is probably going to fall apart. Just roll with it and have fun.

 

1. First, the math: based on the ABV of the beers you listed, 8oz pours of 16 beers is roughly the same amount of alcohol as 30 oz of 40% liquor. That's nearly a liter bottle of Jack Daniels per person.

2. With your statement that for some people these will all be new, it doesn't sound like everyone is necessarily a beer geek who is into rating and reviewing beers. For them, being forced into rating or reviewing a beer every 15 minutes might seem like a chore. And for you, pouring 11 beer every 15 minutes is also a chore. Sit back, relax, watch some football, and drink some beer.

3. As has been said, drinking stout after stout after stout will lead to palate fatigue, whether it's after 2 or after 12. Break it up with lighter and/or hoppier beers.

4. If you really want to have fun with stouts, come down to the North Brewery on Friday December 16 at noon for Big Bad Leather Daddy (BBLD) release day (11% Russian Imperial Stout). 4 versions will be released in bottles: regular BBLD, Barrel Aged BBLD, Double Barrel Aged BBLD, and Thick BBLD (13% version).

 

Drink in whatever order and pace the group is comfortable with. 4-6 ounce pours plenty big enough. Talk about the beer during commercials. Don't get too geeky. You will be able to use the experience of this first one to plan even better ones.

 

Just pour the beers, watch the game, talk about either, and have a good time. Too many rules and getting too deep into dissecting the beers ruins the vibe.

 

Not sure if fruit in between wrecks the palette but I like to have a bunch on hand to snack on. Light, filling but not too full, hydrating and to me at least, a bit of mango or strawberry before any beer only adds to the flavor profile.

What we usually end up doing when we get together is kind of a bottle share but more just a fun get together. When someone really likes a beer, they will usually be pretty vocal about it so you know when you've got a hit. There's that one that stops everyone to find out what it is, the others just continue to get drank and the night/conversation goes on. You are sort of rating beers but not placing a huge emphasis on it.

Unless you are looking for a certain metric, just pour and enjoy. Let the beers speak for you.

 

I'll give you my two cents even though I'm giving you different advice from others.

A 4 oz glass is too little. Yeah, you get a good sense of the beer, but if you're really interested in preferences, it's just too little. I'm thinking 8-10 oz is the way to go. A 4 oz pour is a good indication if you like the beer as a 4 oz pour.

Split up the stouts. Do coffee stouts and bourbon barrel stouts on a different day. Do stouts with neither of those influences separate! Don't have other beers (saisons, Budweiser) as a part of this. Limit the number of stouts to a number that is sensible. No one should be drinking more than 8 (off the top of my head) 8 oz pours of an imperial stout (at an extreme). I like your idea of two at a time over time.

 

Definitely.

 

I get why you want to schedule the beers, but once the juice starts flowing, the game is on, people start chatting and wander in and out of the room, you may be hard pressed to stick to that schedule.

 

I am just guessing here but are you an engineer? Maybe a scientist?

 

This question leads me to chime in here.

One of the most successful stout tastings I've arranged included only one Brewery's stout, the Weyerbacher Old Heathen, which is no longer bottled, and their Bourbon barrel aged version of the same stout, called Heresy. In addition there were the same 3 different bottling years of each, for a total of six versions of the stout.

We started with most recent bottlinga of the Old Heathen and Heresy so folks could get a sense of effects of the bourbon barrel. We then moved on to the next bottling year so they could get a sense of the effects of a year of bottle aging on each beer and then concluded the tasting with the 2 year old bottles of Old Heathen and Heresey.

What seemed most informative for the folks who were new to aging beers and to the effects of bourbon barrels is that they were able to compare and contrast.

In addition, there was enough beer left from the tastings that once the first six glasses had been finished folks could go back and revisit one or more of the beers that they thought they had enjoyed the most.

For that reason I'd echo @zid's recommendation that you separate the beers along some consistent dimension, e.g., regular, coffee, etc., so your guests have a better chance of understanding what it is that they like about their favorites.

But then I'd disagree with him about the size of the pour and suggest 4 oz is more than enough if you provide your guests with unsalted crackers and lots of water between each beer sample to freshen the palate. This leaves your guests the option of going back for more of their favorite(s).

The other thing we did that evening was to serve the serious food till after the main tasting so that folks could get something to eat but also not "pollute" their palate during and between beers with strong flavors from the foods. It was also helpful to have some spare pencils and paper available if folks wanted to take notes about what they were picking up from each beer.

 

You may want have some light beer on hand (or something like a blonde ale/pils, etc) for those who are just showing up to watch the game and knock a few back. Not that I'm against tastings, but just be sure they know you're not "springing" a beer trap for them that they won't enjoy or appreciate. YMMV.

You know you're guests better than we do, but my experience is I have a group of craft beer drinkers that enjoy sports as well as sports enthusiasts who enjoy drinking beer. Make sure you know which ones you have. They may seem similar, but can be quite different under the surface.

If the games are one sided you may have more opportunity for discussion and tastings. If the games are good, or your guests favorite team(s) are playing, you might be one of the few doing side-by-side comparisons.

Don't open too many at once and not too many rules. I wouldn't open anything in a small format that you don't mind someone "bogarting" in front of the tv because, "it tastes pretty good."