Yankee Brew News Archive

Book Review: Evaluating Beer

Originally Published: 07/94

By: Brett Peruzzi

Edited by Brewers Publications

238 pages; published by Brewers Publications, Boulder, Colorado

Evaluating Beer is a book for peopIe serious about beer. It features contributions from two well-known New England beer personalities, Jim Koch of The Boston Beer Company and Greg Noonan of the Vermont Pub and Brewery and Seven Barrel Brewery, as well as other nationwide authorities, including Charlie Papazian and George Fix. No lighthearted romp through beer history, no brewpub or microbrewery profiles, no style descriptions, just over two hundred pages on the science (and art) of evaluating beer.

While there is a plethora of books about the above-mentioned subjects, this book delves into how to accurately evaluate a beer, not just identify its style, or basic flavor profile. Borrowing liberally from the homebrew judging world, emphasis is made on not just learning what is good about a beer, but what is wrong with it as well. Many people can say "I like this beer," and for most that may be enough, but for those who ask "Why?" this is the book for them.

The sixteen essays in the book examine the three primary sensory responses to beer: taste (flavor), smell (aroma) and sight (how the beer looks). The majority of the articles examine the various aspects and approaches to evaluating and communicating flavor perceptions, one multi-part section discusses aroma, and finally one lone article addresses appearance, specifically, color. There are enough tables and charts to gladden the heart of any beer geek, and at least one essay with a daunting scientific title to scare off the weenies in the audience ("Sensory Aspects of Zymological Evaluation," authored by a Ph.D of course).

The introductory essay by Charlie Papazian gives a good explanation of why brewers need to know how to evaluate beer, and the book closes with a list of sources for diehards interested in further research, and author biographies to show the weighty credentials of the contributors.

While not a book for the casual beer lover, Evaluating Beer belongs in the bookcase of every beer judge and anyone who wants to learn more about beer evaluation.