A Quest for the Great Pumpkin Beer
Finally, The Tasting Itself is Explained
I held two separate tasting events, one in Philadelphia and one in DC. I had my friends Rob, Kim, Adam and Laura (Philadephlia) and Kir, Brian, and John (DC) sample 5 pumpkin beers to figure out which beer would be 'The Great Pumpkin-Beer'. Actually, I didn't call it that at the time, but it's not a horrible name. It ties in with that whole Charlie-Brown-Linus-Halloween thing. Well done, me.


You can never get everyone looking good in the same picture. I chose the one where I look bad.

The Great-Pumpkin Beer
I wanted the ratings given to the beers to be made fairly and without predjudice. A blind tasting was necessary since some people already felt that they didn't like some and loved others. I also needed as little social interaction during the tasting as possible to prevent peer-pressure or subtle "Ewwws and Mmmmmms" from influencing anyone's opinion. Having a "no talking" rule sortof takes some wind out of a party's sails, but with these small groups we were able to keep discussion at a minimum while the rating was taking place.

The set-up. Process and Procedures The beers were poured into individual plastic cups which, while not the ideal beer-serving-containers, provided uniform drinking conditions and required little between-drink-thorough-glass-washing-effort. It also allowed me to pour the drinks beforehand and hide the bottles before I let someone else select the serving order. I labeled them with letters and assigned each beer a number randomly before I could figure out which was which. Then I had someone else select the order so I really wouldn't know who was what was which. This was done so that noone (not-even-me) knew which beer they were drinking until the end. I think it worked. I was confused but the results were valid.

Rob shows the proper face to make when eating sorbet.

Between beers, pallattes were cleansed with some Mango-Berry Sorbet. This may not be the least-flavour-affecting choice, but it was the only kind we could find and sorbet just seemed like a must-have for a 'tasting' of any kind. We should have had some coffee beans to sniff too, but we didn't.


The beers what got drank.

Please continue on to Part 3: Tasting Parameters



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