How to Like Beer

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Some beers are watery and weak, but, learn to order the right ones, and you'll find you can learn to like beer and appreciate all of its complexities.

Warning
Don't drink unless you're of legal age. Drink responsibly, and never drink and drive.

Step 1: Drink at the right temperature
Make sure your beer isn't too cold. Chilling a beer too much makes it more difficult to detect nuances in the flavor as well as making it more difficult to digest.

Tip
Many beers from small breweries and European brewers note the correct drinking temperature on the label.

Step 2: Decant your beer
Pour your beer into a glass. There are nearly as many glass styles as there are beer styles, and each one is designed to enhance the drinking experience.

Step 3: Consider the beer's appearance
Consider the beer's appearance. Beers can vary greatly in their color and clarity, and can range from straw colored and sparkling to opaque and almost black. Also note the head on the beer. Strong head retention often indicates well-crafted beer.

Step 4: Smell the beer
Note the beer's aroma as it goes into your mouth. Olfactory senses are important to opening up your palate and the smell greatly affects the taste. Aroma, like taste, can be delicate or heavy, well-balanced or uneven.

Step 5: Taste the beer
Taste your beer, letting it wash over each section of your tongue. Consider the mouth feel, which is how heavy or light the beer feels in your mouth. Try to separate the hop taste and the malt taste, determining the structure and balance of the beer. Dry beer indicates a lack of sugar and tastes bitter and hoppy. Fruitier beer has had more malt sugar converted into sugar.

Step 6: Think about the finish
Consider the aftertaste, or finish, of the beer. The aftertaste sensation of the beer may be long and lingering or it may leave without a trace.

Step 7: Put it all together
Determine a general impression of the beer with all of the aspects together. If it's a high-quality, well-made beer, you'll like it and you'll want to have another drink. Then have a drink of water or a piece of bread to cleanse your palate and open another bottle.

Did You Know?
According to a recent study, the more beer a scientist drinks, the less likely they are to publish a paper or to have a paper cited by another researcher.