What's your beer flight serving preference?

So you both finish a 4 oz. pour in two sips?

 

Yep. If she doesn't like that beer, then I get her sip.

 

Tommyknocker in Idaho Springs used to have the largest flight I've ever seen. It was 16 3oz pours and enough to completely fill up a large serving tray. Me, my wife, and my dad struggled to finish that monster as a team.
At the time they only had that massive flight and a single smaller one of their 6 flagships.
I believe they still offer the monster flight, but they luckily have several smaller ones available.
As far as preferences go, I like when places have 3-4 pre-made options. Ideally with 4-5 mini-pours in the 3oz range. The "customize your own" flights tend to bog down the staff and it's tough to handle a flight that's too large.

 

I don't really do flights but why does everyone always feel bad for the people that have to poor them? They're at work, they're not going anywhere anytime soon . Don't be mad at a customer for spending their money at an establishment. Instead you can blame said establishment for offering flights in the first place if you think it's such an inconvenience for the bartender and the patrons that have to wait.

 

My favorite flight preference? None. Give me a pint or a half-pour at the very least.

 

I enjoy 4 per.

 

Spoken like a true Fat Heads fan I don’t mind flights, and have utilized plenty, but I feel the same way. I want to be able to sample (which are often free in OH) or try a small pour (5oz) of a few to decide which one I want a full pour of.
Obviously, at an established/reputable brewery, I am not as hesitant to spend $5-6+ on a draft that I haven’t had, but there are plenty of newer places that I have regretted it. The only thing that really bothers me about flight pours is the 4oz oversized shot glasses filled to the rim.

 

My ideal "flight" is to try a sample and then have 10 to 16 oz pour of said beer

 

I have started doing this a lot actually

 

Short Fuse brewing near O'Hare options are left or right side of the menu (7 each) or full menu, wasn't driving and flight was grounded so why not

 

Flights are not very common at the local places I visit (Hill Farmstead, Lawson’s, River Roost, Alchemist, etc)

I do like the option when I travel. 6 or so per flight with 7oz pours seems like the most common format I see.

 

Just had a flight, 8x4oz. It was actually two flights that we split. We went light to dark.

Had a little bit of time and wanted to try a bunch of beers from a local place while on holiday. None was worthy of a pint let alone a growler I brought.

$7.50 a flight served in 4oz mason jars to the rim. Bad serving choice.

I was at Suarez last week and they do not do flights but an 8 oz pour is $4 and the abv is quite low. They also have a large water jug to drink from. Great beers, great prices, great time.

Enjoy

 

I would certainly say the "flight was grounded".

Really? I don't think I've ever seen 6 7 oz. pours, or it's rare. That's 42 oz. of beer.

4 4/5 oz. pours are the most common flights I see.

Damn, that's cheap though.

I was at Brewer's Alley at the Greenway in Boston a couple of weeks ago, $15 for a flight of 4 4 oz. pours.

Of course, the cheapest beers there (House Lager/Post Shift) were $9/pint.

Nice, this is what Notch does too. They offer half pours, or šnyts. Or Mlìko pours....



Along with half liter and full liters pours.

 

The missus and I split flights all the time, and yes I get to finish what she doesn't like...

We like the 4 x 4 approach - four pours of four ounces. If we want to try more beers, we can take a break in between to avoid palate fatigue. I think the biggest flight ever in our experience was 10 and that was far too many to enjoy (or not) and keep track.

I don't sit down with a flight with the intent of writing a review. We try and pick across styles to get an idea of what might be worthy of a larger purchase. I believe that trying different styles shows what the brewery is all about or shows what they are "good at" relative to styles. We keep notes, typically, of what we liked and what we didn't but no reviews are written on tasting samples or flights. I'll eventually review what (if anything) we buy based on what we think from the flight. Sometimes we will by a similar style that was not in the flight or a beer from the flight. If all the beers in the flight made us happy, then we figure the brewery is probably pretty good overall and we'll buy whatever appeals to us.

A poor flight experience. We were at one place (pretty popular and pretty highly praised here) last summer where the flight was five beers and the waitperson must have been new - at least two of the beers were mixed up and one was not a beer we asked for...maybe...we never did figure it out. That was not only lousy service, but the beer was pretty bad, too....food was average at best...oh well...

 

For my beer flights, I usually like to do:
1. Stout
2. Stout
3. BA Stout
4. WTF, you only have 3 stouts on the menu? Sorry, I thought this was a reputable craft brewery, my mistake.

 

Everyone's mentioning the poor (or pour) servers that have to pour the flights. Worse, those same people have to CLEAN all that glassware. Flights are a catch-22, breweries have to offer them, especially newer ones, but hate doing so. They suck in that regard so I try to avoid ordering them. That said, it's hard not to at a new brewery to decide what you really want (again, catch-22). I prefer the half pint option one at a time.

 

Wow, they actually had TWO non-barrel aged stouts?

 

I completely agree! You captured what I was formulating. I dislike the smaller serving trays like HUB's Ten 3oz samples. It's just not enough beer to reset the palate and have enough left to get a basic feel for each beer. I'm also put off by the difficulty in getting a good nose-full with those smaller glasses. Wider 4oz pour glasses are a bare minimum for appreciating the aroma.

 

I have no preference between 6 or 8 oz.'s for my flight pours, either size is fine, and the glasses can be of different types too, I don't mind. Four is my ideal number of beers in the flight. I generally taste only one beer at a time from my flight, so I ask them to allow me to get my flight one at a time. When I finish one taster I go back up to get the next one in the flight. Sometimes I like one of the beers so well I ask if I can substitute that beer for the rest of the beers in the flight.

 

Doing it this way works better.