This series of five articles explores how you can experience your beer with all five of your senses. When you slow down, pour it into a glass, and approach it from different angles, you’ll find it can boost your enjoyment of beer and bring more satisfaction than just throwing it down your throat.

Of course, don’t let anyone tell you that you ‘should’ drink your beer a certain way. Drink it however you enjoy it - that’s the whole point! But if you’d like consider how to explore beer with all five senses, and how to talk about what you’re experiencing, then read on.

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Drink with your eyes

We often rush to experience things we enjoy. But there’s something called the joy of anticipation, which means that a large part of our enjoyment of something comes from looking forward to it. So why not make the most of it?

Beer is beautiful. When you pour a beer into a glass and take a moment to look at it, you’ll find you start to appreciate your drink before it even comes close to your face.

What’s the head like?

What does the head on your beer look like? Is it loose and wispy like a fluffy white cloud? Or is it more like the dense brown foam of a barista-made hot chocolate? (See our article on beer foam here.)

What colour is it?

Brewers have ways of describing beer colour using a standardised number system and set words to describe different parts of the spectrum, ranging from pale straw, through gold and amber, to brown and black.

But you can be as creative as you like when you describe your beer. Does it look like sparkling apple cider? Or is it a deeper orange, like Drop It Like It’s Hops by Nine Fingers Brew, which shines like honey in the sun? It may seem mahogany brown at a glance, but when you hold it up to the light you glimpse a glimmer of ruby around the edges. Or you may get a beer as dark as the depths of the ocean, like Valhalla’s Obsidian Black IPA.

And the colours described above only take into consideration beer that gets its colour from the malt used. Some sour beers will pick up the colour of the fruit added to them, like Aether’s purple-tinged Witching Hour Blackberry Sour.

Is it clear, hazy, or somewhere in between?

It used to be a given that beer was supposed to be as clear as possible. And you can understand why when you find yourself staring at a bright lager like Burnley’s Helles as if it’s a precious gem.

But the assumption has changed in recent times, particularly when it comes to hoppy beers. Plenty of pale ales and IPAs are unfiltered to keep maximum aroma and flavour, and the result is a light cloudiness or natural haze from the hops and the yeast.

Then there are beers that celebrate haze for days - Mash Brewing’s Little NEIPA and Land & Sea’s Juicebox IPA just about block out the light.

Does it have lacing? 

Lacing is aptly-named white residue left inside the glass after the level of your beer has gone down. If your beer had a foamy head, chances are it spiderwebbed its way down the side of the glass as you drank, leaving a lovely pattern waiting for you by the time you finished. Turns out even an empty glass can look good.

(Of course, this one’s for after you drink, not before. But it’s still part of the appearance of your beer.)