I regret to tell everyone that this will be the last Beer Tip of the Day on GregQualls.com. But don’t worry. I have something special in the works that I’ll reveal to everyone in a week or so. Until then enjoy this final BTotD.

Here is the reality. Most beers are served too cold and this is a bad thing. I remember growing up and seeing signs at the local bars that said, “Coldest beer in town.” The only problem with this is that most beers aren’t meant to be served at super frigged levels. By drinking your beer extremely cold, it does two things.

1. It doesn’t allow the beer to “open up” and reveal all of it’s wonderful aromas.
2. It numbs your tastes buds and inhibits you from being able to experience the full flavor of the beer.

Now certain beer companies serve their beers at extremely low temperatures to disguise the real taste of the beer (which would be categorized as disgusting). I see this as one of Big Business’ greatest conspiracies to dupe the American beer drinker. They want you to think that you need to drink beer really cold. Then they can sell you their crap and have you think that it is good. To use a friends analogy, “It’s like the Wal-Mart greeter. They’re there to make you feel happy about all the crap you’re about to buy.”

Well I’m sorry…I’m not happy.

So what temperature should you drink your beer at? That is a wonderful question, and I’m glad you asked. Each style of beer actually has a different temperature. The general rule is to drink it at the same temperature that it was fermented at. If you’re like me, you’re not going to go out and research to see what temperature your beer was fermented at. So I’ve included a handy chart from herestobeer.com that will give you an idea of what temperature your beer should be served.

So here is your homework for this week. Get a beer with which you are familiar with the flavor. Now take your time drinking it and take note of how the flavor and smell changes as the temperature of the beer changes.

Until next time, enjoy your beer.

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.

‘So I’ve been listening to a lot of what I have learned about beer has come friends, podcasts, and the beeradvocate.com. One of the greatest tips I learned was from the podcast beerschool.com. It is as follows…it takes three drinks of a beer to really know if you like it.

Before you look at the reason for three drinks, go to the beeradvocate.com article on How to Taste Beer. There are certain steps to drinking a beer (Look, Agitate, Smell, Taste).

This one sounded a little weird to me when I first heard it, but I have found it to be so true. Here is the reason why. Drink one cleans your pallet from all the weird tastes that are already in it (for instance I have the coffee taste in my mouth right now). Drink two is for the retro-olfaction process.† This is where you swish the beer around in your mouth and exhale after you drink the beer.

“This process of exhaling is called “retro-olfaction” and will release retained stimulations at the mucus and mouthfeel level, but at a higher temperature.” – beeradvocate.com

Drink Three gives you your final overall taste of the beer giving you a full experience of what the beer really tastes like.

Like I said I thought this was crazy talk. But as I started doing this, I noticed that certain beers that I thought I didn’t like after one drink I started to like after three.† As a side note, this works for any drink: beer, wine, Dr. Pepper.

So here is your homework for this tip. Take a beer that you had discredited before and give it the three drink chance. You never know you might find that you’ve found your new favorite beer.

Until next time, enjoy your beer.