I have always approached food in a slightly odd way. When I was at school, I would begin by tasting everything on the tray. If that day’s soggy fries or oily cheesy mashed potato was trumped by a fluffy piece of ginger cake, then I’d eat my lunch in the usual manner – main course followed by pudding. If dessert was a soggy sponge doused in lumpy custard, then convention be damned – I’d get that out of the way before tackling my lasagne or whatever stew the kitchen had come up with.
These days I tend not to frequent places where they serve main course and dessert all on the same tray, but it did recently occur to me that I have adopted this strategy when presented with a beer flight.
Sometimes it’s difficult to decide on an order…
I thought this was the obvious way to attack a tasting tray. I first take a sip or two of each beer – in order of intensity – and make a few observations. Then I pick the one I like least and finish that first, leaving the good stuff until last (and should there be anything terrible, then leaving that altogether). Only recently did I notice that other people have different strategies when presented with a tray of beer samples.
So I wanted to know how you drink yours. Do you, like me, sip each and save the best til last? Do you drink the good stuff first and then casually sip on the rest while you’re waiting for your pint to arrive? Do you follow the suggested order or come up with your own? Do you drink the whole of one sample before moving onto the next? Or do you bounce around, sipping this and that in any order that occurs until the samples are empty and it’s time for a proper pint?
I don’t really know why this interests me, but it has come up in conversation a few times lately and now I’m intrigued – so share your thoughts below.
Probably the only order that should be followed is taste in order of increasing flavour intensity. The rest will depend on the situation and the person. If you thirsty and your ordered beer takes a bit longer to arrive then finish all the tasters. If some tasters aren’t that good and another beer arrives then leave the tray and drink the beer. Mix and match could be interesting too so it doesn’t really matter. I usually have 2-3 sips from each taster to form an opinion then move on to the next. With smaller tasting glasses that doesn’t leave much left over. Once I’ve tasted all on the tray then it will depend on how I felt about them as to what happens next.
As an ex SAB taster I always start with the lighter beers first and move through to anything heavier in terms of flavour profile, so a stout always comes last. On the lighter beer side I may take a sip or 2 of each first just to get a sense, and then generally work my way up from the lightest to heaviest.
Anything that doesn’t appeal gets left on the tray. Once I’ve gone through the flight I’ll decide on what to order depending what I feel like on the day.
Lucy, that is a great strategy! I usually go for the lighter beers first, lager or Pilsner. Then heading over to the Weiss, Ales or stouts. But it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish… leaving a sip of my favorite for last. Occasionally leaving a nasty one all together.
Hi Lucy, I used to go from light to heavy, based on wine tasting experience (often how they present the tasters on the plank). Possibly I tasted a bit of each in the beginning, but not anymore.
But just like wine I realised that after tasting a few different beers, my palette is all “miss-calibrated” and I don’t enjoy the tasting anymore , everything gets “fuddled up” and I find it hard to explain & appreciate the differences.
How many boxes of wine have I bought after being enamoured , only to wonder why I bought it later at home.
So these days I actually avoid the taster scenario, and instead I order one full beer and enjoy it. After that I might tackle something else, or the same if it was enjoyable. Then on another day I come back and try something else. Or if I can , buy some take-aways of the others to enjoy at home. Until I find some palette cleansing method for beer, I will stick to this
“How many boxes of wine have I bought after being enamoured , only to wonder why I bought it later at home.”
Benoni boy? 😉
I think more often than not when I’ve had a taster flight I’ve finished each sample (in order of intensity) before moving on to the next one. No real reason for it except that I’m generally inclined to wrap up a task before starting something else…
This is an interesting insight, since I am one of those people who has 27 tabs open on Chrome at any one time and takes five hours to pay an invoice because I get sidetracked by 14 other tasks and keep getting signed out of online banking…maybe I just tackle the tray the same way I tackle my to do list…
I won’t be able to do that… will require me to come back and finish the specific tray a month later