Helpful Tips For Serving Your Beer

Don't go chugging that $20 corked bottle - beer deserves to be savored. The following are some general guidelines for optimum specialty beer enjoyment!

Temperature (Some Like It Too Cold)-
Americans like their beer cold, but frigid temps chill your taste buds and prevent you from appreciating the complex flavors of many ales and lagers. Typically, ales should be served around 50*f and even closer to 60*f for barleywine and strong ale. Let your bottle sit for about a half hour after you pull it out of the fridge, so that it has a little time to warm up. If your beer hasn't been cooled yet, stick it in a bucket with ice water for 15-20 minutes.

Pouring (Foam Is Good)-
Beer was meant to foam! If you pour it all down the side of the glass, its carbonation won't be properly released and you'll end up swallowing all of the gas *buuurp*. Hold the glass at a 45-degree angle and slowly pour down the side. After the glass is 1/3 full, straighten the glass and pour your beer into the middle, rising the bottle smoothly away from the glass.
A Belgian golden ale or saison will often produce a massive, pillowy head. That's part of its character.
Unfiltered beer often has a yeast bed at the bottom of the bottle. It's perfectly fine to drink, but if you want to avoid pouring it into your glass, leave an ounce of beer in the bottle.

Tasting (Just Like A First Date, Ok, Maybe The Third)-
Slow down and enjoy your beer. Use your eyes to examine the color, the body, the head. Use your nose to appreciate the aroma. Remember, much of your sense of taste is enhanced through your sense of smell.
Use your palate to savor the flavor. Sip and let the beer flood every part of your mouth. Consider how it tastes on each section of your tongue (Remember learning about which part of the tongue tastes what flavor? Use that knowledge, make your third-grade teacher proud!), consider how it feels against your cheeks. Breathe out and detect more flavors.
Don't forget to swallow (that'swhatshesaid!) because this is beer after all, not wine.

Adapted from the Serving section of Christmas Beer by Don Russell

So, tell me what you think so far? What is helping you? What is making you cringe? Give me some feedback so I can make this pleasurable for the both of us! *snicker snicker* But really, leave me some comments.