3 Tips for Hosting a Beer Tasting Party

A beer tasting party is a great alternative to wine tastings. This is especially true if you love beer even more than wine! These days, there are so many types of beers and beer gifts on the market that it may seem impossible to try them all. Beer tastings allow you to sample different beers with some of your closest friends. Here are some tips that will help you host a great beer tasting.

Decide on a Beer Theme

Since there are so many types of beers out there, choosing a theme for your beer tasting party can help narrow things down. You can focus on the beers from a particular country, a certain style of beer, a particular brewery, or even select all the beers that you like as a way to introduce them to your friends. For instance, if you decide to taste a certain style of beer, you might want to choose beers from different countries and different breweries. If you decide to focus on the beers from a certain country, you’ll want to sample several different styles within that country or focus on a particular brewery from that country.

Choose Your Party Foods

The Beer Advocate's Gift Basket — The Beer Advocate’s Gift Basket

Food is almost as important to your beer tasting party as the beer itself! There’s an art to pairing beer with food and the goal is to choose snacks that will make the beer taste amazing. Traditional beer foods such as pub snacks, soft pretzels, pizza (best when cooked on a pizza stone) and chips and salsa are always great choices. You can also serve foods that were made from beer, such as beer bread, beef stew with beer, and even beer and cheese dip. If you’ve chosen a theme, such as serving beers from a certain country, it can be fun to serve food from that country. For instance, if you will taste beers from Germany at your party, research the types of foods that you will typically find at the traditional beer gardens to serve your guests.

Set Up Your Party

Microbrew Beer Bucket Gift Basket - 6 Beers — Microbrew Beer Bucket Gift Basket – 6 Beers

Once you have the beer and food all planned out, you’ll want to create an ideal party set-up. In order to keep the beer cold and well displayed, you should have one beer bucket filled with ice for each type of beer. For instance, if you will taste six types of wheat beers, you’ll want to have six beer buckets filled with ice to make sure that all the beers stay cold. You’ll also want to plan on serving at least two of every type of beer per guest. It’s better to have some beer leftover than not have enough for each guest. If you’re pairing certain foods with certain beers, you’ll want to display them next to the beers that they will go with.

Beer tastings are a fun way to expose you and your guests to different kinds of beers. In fact, there are so many different types of beers out there, this is a great way to find some new favorites!