Painting of hops on the side of a pub in the Franconian countryside
Our beer tasting ritual has evolved.
It used to be a fairly simple affair, as laid out by Michael Jackson in his 500 beers:
- put on lucky underpants
- turn twice around an oak tree in the midday sun
- cross ourselves
- swirl beer
- sniff beer
- sip beer
- swallow
- rub chin in contemplation.
Now we’ve added “take a proper big gulp” to the itinerary.
Sipping is fine, but some beers just don’t seem to come through when tasted that way. It’s like there’s a hole in the flavour. But take a really big gulp and suddenly, you’ve got nectar.
Unfortunately, it’s not always weak session bitters which benefit from this approach. Strong so-called sipping beers are often no such thing. Seven per cent Westmalle Dubbel tastes better when swigged, for example.
Really the only essential one is the lucky underpants. Oh and the gulp!
I agree. Good session beers – like Czech lagers or English bitters, taste so much better in big gulps.
The perfectly kept Landlords in the Gunmakers come to mind…
We drink beer by the mouthful, not the sip – that’s the only way to taste it properly IMO. Although saying that I had a Stone Double Bastard in the Rake a few days ago and that would’ve caused serious damage had I gulped it throughout, it was a bastard indeed!
Haven’t adopted the Oz Clarke regurgitation method then? What a strange man.
Hmmmm. I can’t say I’ve noticed this. Need to try this out for myself.
I hadn’t considered lucky underpants before. Perhaps beer would taste even better with such a garment. I’m definitely a fan of the gulp for session ales. Westmalle Dubbel is a great beer but I’m not sure I’d gulp it, but I wouldn’t sip it either. I think I prefer something in between. What shall we call it, the gulpette?
The silp.
“the swig”
Oops – that’s already been mentioned. How about “sloop”
I usually have a rather big swig at first when tasting a beer, and then roll it around my mouth for a bit. Then I start taking smaller sips if the beer so tells me.
But sometimes the beer tells me it needs to get out of the glass fast!