I knew beforehand some results Brand and Grolsch are way more bitter than say a Hertog Jan. Still, tasting and recognizing the differences between the brands on their bitterness is a nice practice. But it’s harder to taste the difference between a German pilsner and a Czech pilsner, although that’s a thing I dó have to know for the Championships. I mean, sure, I can taste the difference between a pilsner, a stout and an IPA. It’s already hard enough to recognize the differences between beerstyles ?.
So if you give me seven pilsners, I will have a hard time to recognize the brand. But overall I just don’t practice myself that much in the differences between brands in one beerstyle.
And I know from a former experiment I cán blindly recognize a Budels from a Hertog Jan ánd from a Heineken. Well, maybe if you just give me these two, and would ask if it is a Heineken or a Bavaria, I probably could. It’s a thing people ask me a lot: “So now you are biersommelier, you can blindly recognize a Heineken from a Bavaria?” No, I cannot. And I think it’s quite an accomplishment if you really can blindly guess the pilsner brand, especially when you can choose between all brands. Mostly these discussions end in things like: “I can taste the difference between Heineken and Bavaria any day!” By this time they are probably properly wasted. They probably heard some rumours about specialty beers, but the main discussion for these people is still which pilsner is better, Heineken or Bavaria. I notice that a lot of people I meet in bars in Eindhoven still seem to think those are the only kinds of beer on this world. Unfortunately, Dommelsch and Amstel must have had a harsh treatment at the store where we bought them or they were just quite old, so it was also a practice in trying to recognize the original taste through the taste deviations. The pilsners I had to taste were Dommelsch, Hertog Jan, Heineken, Bavaria, Amstel, Brand and Grolsch. This has two advantages: first, it makes me concentrate on one flavour in particular, second, you can use this information (a bit) in recommending beers to pilsner drinkers who want to try something new. This month I started with a small exercise: Putting the most common Dutch pilsners in order of bitterness. They won the Dutch championship last year! And Maurus and I will go to Rimini in september to cheer Pepijn, Dennis en Hubert at the World Championship. We also have a training date planned with the Bierbitches. Any biersommelier who wants to join some time is welcome, no (gender) restrictions. To be properly prepared Judy and I started a training group with Yvonne, Tina, Charlotte and Maurus. And because in 2018 there was no non-male present! While there are a lot of at least female biersommeliers in the Netherlands. Not particularly to win, although that would be nice, but mostly to be there (or be a rectangular thing). I probably mentioned it somewhere already, I plan to participate in the Dutch biersommelier championships in 2020.