Beer Tasting Guidelines: A Stab in the Dark

Again, as I was preparing for another upcoming post, I realized some explanation is required to describe a new segment.  I'm planning on describing and judging my own and off the shelf beers.  I was thinking about the purpose of my musings and decided it would be a good place to track, record, and develop my sense of a good or quality beer.  I do not assume my beers are good or quality.  I merely mean to find a more accurate representation of my beer tasting experiences, so that I may one day create great beers based on my observations.  Therefore, I have attempted to create a robust format for judging the beers I experience.  Any feedback would be appreciated as this is, and will continue to be, an experiment in beer judging.

First, I need to describe my tasting philosophy and it probably wouldn't hurt to describe my own preferences.  A philosophy is difficult to articulate, but I will do my best.  I will attempt to be quantitative with the physical metrics and unbiased with my qualitative perceptions.  However, what measures as a good or quality beer, may not score highly.  The scores, hopefully, will reflect the amount of under-achievement or over-the-top-ness of each beer.  It may take a few tries, but there will be a sought after middle ground that describes a pleasant, well balanced, and flavorful beer.  Higher scores should reflect an over-done, over-the-top beer and lower scores should reflect an underdeveloped, unpleasant beer.  That being said, I prefer more bitterness than most, complex flavor profiles, and style appropriate mouthfeel.  Unfortunately, I probably have my own ideas about different beer styles and what they should taste, feel, and smell like.  For instance, I prefer a very bitter IPA over and bland pale ale any day, but I still appreciate the delicate balance of a clean and balanced English Bitter.  I also enjoy the complexity of just about any Belgian beer, assuming, what I like to call, the "star" of the beer is the yeast profile.  I tend to shy away from big malty beers such as porters, scotch ales, and brown ales due to their extensive maltiness.  Pale ale types should not be too malty or sweet, stouts should be drier than porters, and lagers should be crisp and clean.  I could go on and on about the different styles and how they "should" be, but I'll leave that for when I taste them.

I think I'll go with eight categories to start: Aroma, Appearance, Bitterness, Maltiness, Head, Style, Mouthfeel, and Balance.  Since flavors, sights, and textures are all subjective, its difficult to assign a linear metric.  The difficulty is finding the way all these metrics interact with each other to define and describe a good or quality beer.  I believe aroma, appearance, and style need to be qualitative, in that, they will be awarded higher scores for more favorable qualities.  The scores will range from 1 to 10 for these metrics.  The remainder of the metrics will be based on a similar scale, 1 to 10, but 5 being the most favorable.  Scores over 5 will reflect an overabundance of a metric and visa versa for below 5.  I think that's it.  All that is left is to try it out and record my findings.  I'll do my best to add tasting notes and flavor experiences as well.  Also, bear in mind, this may change at any time.

UPDATE:  I've decided that those attributes that have a target of 5 points will be added into the total as the absolute value of the difference from 5.  This will more accurately gauge how much I favor a beer.  For example:

Assuming a beer scores perfect in aroma, appearance, and style:
If a beer scores all 9's in the "target 5" attributes, the score would be a 32.
If a beer scores all 1's in the "target 5" attributes, the score would be a 32.
Either way, the number is lower to account for its inaccuracy.

UPDATE:  Here is a sample Google Document that uses the formula.
Metric Sample