Beer tastersBeer tasterImage: Beer

Beer tasters


Beer taster

Image: Beer steins at Oktoberfest 2009
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For all you true beer lovers out there, here's a pop quiz: Did you know these key details about professional beer tasting?

—The ideal time of day for beer tasting for the pros is lunchtime, from about 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., before your taste buds — and you yourself — become too fatigued.

—Unlike wine tasters, beer tasters actually have to swallow the beer they drink and rate the entire experience.

—No crackers or snacks are allowed between professional tastings; that would affect the flavor of your next brew. Instead, use water to cleanse your palate.

So, hey! If you're armed with information along these lines, and if you know how to tell hoppiness from maltiness in a cool nanosecond, then who knows? You just might have a future in beer tasting for a major brewing company, a microbrewery, a beer magazine or a pub that has lots of rotating taps. As Homer Simpson once said: "Ah, beer. The cause of, and the solution to, all of life's problems."