{"id":86,"date":"2014-01-06T16:46:54","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T16:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/?p=86"},"modified":"2014-01-06T16:46:54","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T16:46:54","slug":"how-to-become-a-better-beer-drinker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/?p=86","title":{"rendered":"How to Become a Better Beer Drinker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hat tip to John Verive at the LA Times for his article on How to Become a Better Beer Drinker<\/a>.\u00a0 He has excellent suggestions on how to learn more and track your knowledge about beer.\u00a0 Here are his suggestions and some of my own comments, but I definitely recommend you check out his original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

1. Take Notes<\/strong>: As I mentioned in an earlier post, we like to use the Beer Judge Certification scoring system as a guideline for taking notes about beers.\u00a0 The basic scoring elements are below, though the official scoring sheet<\/a> deals with many more flavor\/aroma components.<\/p>\n

Aroma (as appropriate for style) _________\/12
\nComment on malt, hops, esters, and other aromatics<\/p>\n

Appearance (as appropriate for style) _________\/ 3
\nComment on color, clarity, and head (retention, color, and texture)<\/p>\n

Flavor (as appropriate for style) _________\/20
\nComment on malt, hops, fermentation characteristics, balance, finish\/aftertaste, and other flavor characteristics<\/p>\n

Mouthfeel (as appropriate for style) _________\/ 5
\nComment on body, carbonation, warmth, creaminess, astringency, and other palate sensations<\/p>\n

Overall Impression _________\/10
\nComment on overall drinking pleasure associated with entry, give suggestions for improvement<\/p>\n

Total _________\/50<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

2. Book Learning:<\/strong> I’ve met the author of one of the books the LA Times writer recommends: Josh Bernstein’s Complete Beer Course<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 (LA Times needs to fix his name, though.)\u00a0 Josh is a Cleveland native and we ran into him one day while he was signing copies of his previous book,\u00a0Brewed Awakening<\/em> , at Nano Brew<\/a> in Cleveland.\u00a0 I haven’t read his new book yet, but was eying a copy at Founder’s Brewery the other days, so I may have to get it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Josh Bernstein’s first book<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. Take a Class: <\/strong>We joined the Scioto Olentangy Darby Zymurgists (SODZ)<\/a> club, which has regular meetings with workshops and competitions.<\/p>\n

4. Discover New Styles: <\/strong>The LA Times writer likes Belgians.\u00a0 I might try to focus more on local or smaller breweries in the area.\u00a0 There have been a ton opening up these past few months.<\/p>\n

5. Learn to Brew<\/strong>: Check.\u00a0 We’re going to work on trying to brew once a month and developing more consistency in our production methods.\u00a0 We brewed twice in December – a smoked porter and an American pale ale.<\/p>\n

6. Cross Train: <\/strong>Drink other things – Check. We need to throw more parties to spread the wealth on the booze we’ve accumulated over the years.<\/p>\n

7. Get Certified: <\/strong>I’ve been thinking about the Cicerone Certification<\/a> just for fun.\u00a0 The first level’s mostly about how to serve beer appropriately, which may just end up in my buying a bunch of extra glasses we’ll rarely use so that each beer can be served with its matching glass.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hat tip to John Verive at the LA Times for his article on How to Become a Better Beer Drinker.\u00a0 He has excellent suggestions on how to learn more and track your knowledge about beer.\u00a0 Here are his suggestions and some of my own comments, but I definitely recommend you check out his original article. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-mantra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/87"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}