A Quest for the Great Pumpkin Beer

Tasting, 1,2


Kir analyzes the flavor.
After having my friends wait in a bedroom for 15 minutes while I got set up, I invited them out to begin the drinking of shot-glass-sized plastic cups of beer. The abundance of small plastic cups made it like the-littlest-frat-party or a trip to a dentist-themed bar.

Each person was given a notecard, on which they created a grid with beer names at the top and beer-attributes down the side. Each beer was sipped, and judged based on the following attributes:

1. Smell: Take a good sniff of it and rate the smell. Does it entice you like the scentacle of a window-sill-pie in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, or revolt you like a French cat-rapist (Pepe LePew)?
2. Sip: Take a quick sip and give your first impression as it hits your tongue.
3. In Mouth: Swish it around and let the flavor fizzle/unfurl/explode.
4. Swallow: How does it taste going down?
5. Aftertaste: After it's in your stomach, does it leave any surprises?
6. Repeat: Does it hold up when you drink more, or is it like Pepsi in a taste test, tasty at first but difficult to keep drinking?
7. Memories: Does it unlock any precious childhood memories of Halloweens-gone-by? Does it make you feel nostalgic?
8. Overall: How did you like it?
9. Pumpkinosity: Is it a PUMPKIN beer, or just a beer?
10. Enjoyment: Um, I forget why this was necessary. Was it an enjoyable drink or a chore? (?)
11. Beerishness: Does it have a strong beer taste or is it like a pumpkin soda?
12. Slugability: Could you slam it while people stood around you chanting "chug! chug! chug!"?

On the back of the notecard, was the essay part of the test, where tasters were encouraged to put any comments they had about the beer.
1. Comments: General things that couldn't be expressed through numbers.
2. Hints of: What subtle (or unsubtle) flavors do you recognize?


Kim records her findings.

Once we had the overly complicated rating process explained, we began the tasting! Yeah!

Please continue on to Part 4: Results by Beer


Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Process and Procedures
Part 3: Tasting Parameters
Part 4: Results by Beer
Part 5: Conclusions