Welcome back all my fellow beer drinkers out there. This next one is just a short tip for those who are looking for the full experience here.† If you remember from BTotD #1, your perception of taste is drastically affected by you sense of smell. From some research that I did on the internet (a quick google search), your sense of smell affects the way something tastes by up to 75%. From some other research that I’ve done (listened to a podcast), it is said that your first smell of a beer is the most important. So how do we make that first smell of a new beer count? Use a coaster.

No this isn’t some random way for me to get you to save your furniture from unsightly rings. You actually cover the TOP of the glass with the coaster. While you are doing the four step beer tasting process (Look, Agitate, Smell, Drink), you cover the top of the glass with a coaster while agitating the beer (the cheap paper coasters from bars, applebees, and the sort work real well and keep you from getting in trouble for making all you coaster smell like beer). Then when you go lift the coaster to smell your beer, all those good smells have been trapped for your smelling pleasure.

One other small tip. Unless you are using a really big glass, only fill the glass about 3/4 of the way full. This gives you room to agitate the beer without covering your coaster with beer. This also gives your beer room to breath. After you’ve tasted the beer, then you fill it up the rest of the way.

So here is your homework. Get a beer that you haven’t tried before (or haven’t tried in a glass before) and taste it straight from the bottle. Then try the coaster method and see how much of a difference it makes.

Until next time, enjoy your beer.

For those of you who have been waiting, here is the inaugural Beer Tip of the Day. I know you have been waiting, hoping, and praying for this day. Well it has finally come. For my very first tip, I’m going to give you the tip that changed the world of beer as I know it forever.

When I first started drinking beer, I only knew of one way to drink it…from the bottle (just a side note…if it comes in a can…it’s probable only good for three things…getting drunk, fertilizer, and making beer butt chicken….mmmmm beer butt chicken).

Well through much research, and a little help from the wife, I learned that the best way to experience a nice cold beer is not from the bottle. The true connoisseur drinks their beer from a glass. Chefs have known for years that your sense of smell drastically changes the ways something tastes (that is why you can blindfold someone and plug up their smell they can’t tell the difference between an onion and an apple). Drinking from a glass allows the beer to breath. This also allows you to enjoy the full flavor of the beer as it engages your sense of smell in the beer drinking process.

You will find that this can drastically change the flavor of your beer. When you drink from the bottle (or God forbid can) you’re nose is limited in doing it’s job. I thought it was a bunch of crap until I started trying it. My wife bought me some pilsner glasses as a gift. When I started drinking my beer in them, I noted a remarkable difference in the taste. To the point that I don’t like New Castle except straight from bottle…the glass changes the flavor to much.

There are also certain glasses for certain beers…but I won’t get into it that much. To learn more about different glasses for different beer, check out the Beer Advocate. These guys know their beer.

So that is my first Beer Tip of the Day. Until next time, enjoy your beer.