Featuring Hop & Grain Samples at a Tasting

Discussion in 'Beer Talk' started by gigaknight, Feb 23, 2012.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. gigaknight

    gigaknight Initiate (0) Aug 12, 2010 Illinois

    Is this generally worth doing at tastings? I'm directing a stout tasting at my store this weekend, and was considering having dishes of each chocolate and roasted barley grain, then a couple dishes of hop varieties commonly used in stouts (which is my follow-up question, which hop styles should I get?). Having never tried this personally, I'm not sure if the raw ingredients are of a suitable texture or flavor for tasting on their own, or if they'll enhance the tasting experience much. If this is a decent idea, how much of each should I get if I'm expecting between 150-200 people throughout the event? Your thoughts are much appreciated!

    EDIT: Thanks for all the ideas! I suppose I was right to imagine that malt grains would be sort of gross to munch on, even if there was somewhere to spit them. Hop tea or hops for smelling sound great to me, and would probably add a lot to what the novice taster would look for in a beer. Cheers!
     
    #1 gigaknight, Feb 23, 2012
  2. BBThunderbolt

    BBThunderbolt Grand High Pooh-Bah (7,846) Sep 24, 2007 Kiribati
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I don't know about malts, but it might be fun to make some hop "teas". That way folks could taste the differences in various strains of hops. BTW, I don't think this color works very well. Oh well, this is the Beta, we're all working out bugs.
     
    #2 BBThunderbolt, Feb 23, 2012
    Blogjackets and gigaknight like this.
  3. Pahn

    Pahn Initiate (0) Dec 2, 2009 New York

    hops for smelling would be a good idea. grains i think often really change in character, though i guess it depends on the beer. smelling smoked malt at a tasting with smoked beers would be cool.

    as for eating the hops or grain, no reason for that i think.
     
    #3 Pahn, Feb 23, 2012
    Blogjackets, startingatBeer-30 and gigaknight like this.
  4. UCLABrewN84

    UCLABrewN84 Initiate (0) Mar 18, 2010 California

    Make sure to get some yeasts too.
     
    #4 UCLABrewN84, Feb 23, 2012
    Blogjackets and gigaknight like this.
  5. kzoobrew

    kzoobrew Initiate (0) May 8, 2006 Michigan

    Munching on some grain can certainly give you an idea of the flavor which a particular malt may provide, but I do not see many people wanting to munch on some malt. Munching on some hops is a bad idea all the way around, a bowl for smelling could work.

    I am not knocking the idea, I actually like the thought but I would probably never go this route.
     
    #5 kzoobrew, Feb 23, 2012
    Blogjackets and gigaknight like this.
  6. TongoRad

    TongoRad Grand Pooh-Bah (3,884) Jun 3, 2004 New Jersey
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Since this is for a store I think this would definitely have some value. A lot of your customers probably won't have what we here would think of as even a rudimentary knowledge of the beer making process, so actually seeing and even smelling the raw ingredients might make them look at the beer in a different way. Just today over on Serious Eats.com there was one of those 'ask the beer guy' articles asking how black lagers are made- showing somebody who asks a question like that some chocolate malt, roasted barley, etc, might make things click for him. Stuff like 'this dark grain is what gives it that color and flavor, and it doesn't have to be strong or overpowering, depending on how much you use'. And as to hops, well, people just love smelling them, don't they? I mean, it's not just me, right? I wouldn't go crazy with different varieties, you are just trying to get across some basic concepts. And, hey, they might just find the whole thing more memorable because of it.
     
    #6 TongoRad, Feb 23, 2012
    Blogjackets, startingatBeer-30 and gigaknight like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.