Blind Beer Tasting #6: Fall Seasonals
Photo credit: Lindsey Scully
Another month, another Blind Beer Tasting. We let the winner from the last tasting decide what this tasting will be on and they chose Fall Seasonals/Harvest beers.
The rules are (somewhat) simple: Every person showing up had to bring a beer in the specified style and that was wrapped or the label concealed. We asked attendees to bring either a 750 mL or a couple of 12oz bottles so that everyone could get an adequate sample. Since most beers were wrapped in paper bags it was easy to simply write a number on the outside of the bags so we kept all beers in order. Overall we ended up with 17 people and 19 beers (some extras were brought.) We then handed out scorecards that were basic in nature with a rating of 1-10, with 10 being the best and 1 the worst. We did not have any restrictions for this tasting, any Fall seasonal (including Pumpkins, which was the theme last month) was fair game.
There was only one beer opened at a time, this way it alleviated any confusion on people wondering what numbered beer they had. As the bottle(s) made the rounds at the table we all discussed what we thought of the beer (smell, taste, color) and scored it. There was a variety of snacks to help with the various beer samples.
After the final beer we tallied up and averaged out all the scores for each beer and then it was time to crown the winner. We gathered all the (empty) bottles and growlers and started with the last place beer and worked our way down to the winner, taking off the paper bags with each person saying what beer they brought once revealed. There was a tie which is why the rank is thrown off a bit below. We ended up having two of the same beer, Laurelwood’s Sting Jack. I’ll note next to each one since the same beer did place differently (which could be due to an older batch, or even the more we drank the higher the scores got. Many variables to be honest.) There will be a #1 next to the beer that was drank first, and a #2 to the second time the same beer was consumed.
Blind Beer Tasting #1: IPA
A few weeks ago I came across a post on a beer blog ( Beer 47 ) about a Blind Beer Tasting party and thought how neat of an idea that was. Here at Volume by Alcohol we decided we needed to throw a similar style tasting and about a week ago had our first Blind Beer Tasting and featured IPAs.
The rules were (somewhat) simple: Every person showing up had to bring a beer in the specified style and that was wrapped or the label concealed. We asked attendees to bring either a 750 mL or a pack of 12oz bottles so that everyone could get an adequate sample. Since most beers were wrapped in paper bags it was easy to simply write a number on the outside of the bags so we kept all beers in order. Overall we ended up with 12 people and 13 beers (I bought an extra just in case someone forgot theirs.) We then handed out scorecards that were basic in nature with a rating of 1-10, with 10 being the best and 1 the worst.
There was only one beer opened at a time, this way it alleviated any confusion on people wondering what numbered beer they had. As the bottle(s) made the rounds at the table we all discussed what we thought of the beer (smell, taste, color) and scored it. There was a variety of snacks on hand including cocktail meatballs, numerous dips and chips, pretzels, homemade doughnuts and brownies which really helped out after about the seventh beer sampling.
Song Shot: Susy Sundborg’s “I’ll Wait” with Laurelwood’s Cardinal Sin
Image via Susy Sundborg’s Website
There are those moments in your life when you fall in love for someone and you fall hard. There are also those moments in your life where you don’t realize how great someone is until you lose them. Seattle’s up-and-coming artist Susy Sundborg’s “I’ll Wait” is the epitome of these two sides of a relationship; the knowing during and the knowing after of true love. It’s a fantastic and beautiful love song that catches the intimacy of a relationship. “I have loved you all this time/ Oh, I will wait until we give this love a try” is how she opens the chorus and you get mesmerized by Sundborg’s slightly raspy vocals that are almost like she is whispering, but yet belting out her love. The song replicates a love letter to her beau in where she confesses how she might have made them mad, how she should have looked at them the same way they looked at her, how she’s scared to lose them, and other honest and intimate examples.
