hey beer snobs! got a question for ya...

[space6oy]

i'm hoping to do BIG sampler flights at my bar. is 3oz enough to discern & debate a taste? or should i go with 5oz? know it really takes at least two sips.
i was hoping to make it a 10 sample scenario. with 3oz that's just under two pints. 5oz it'd be just over 3.
might be better off going with fewer samples at the 5oz so people will still wanna buy a pint of one they liked after... but that'd be a bummer to me.
i like 10.
hmm...

[bigchiefbc]

i'm hoping to do BIG sampler flights at my bar. is 3oz enough to discern & debate a taste? or should i go with 5oz? know it really takes at least two sips.
i was hoping to make it a 10 sample scenario. with 3oz that's just under two pints. 5oz it'd be just over 3.
might be better off going with fewer samples at the 5oz so people will still wanna buy a pint of one they liked after... but that'd be a bummer to me.
i like 10.
hmm...

3 oz is two shot glasses worth. That is probably enough to get a decent sense of a beer, but I'm not sure it would be enough to get detailed tasting notes. I'd rather have say 6 or 7 beers at 5 oz than 10 at 3 personally.

[Tristan]

Yeah, I'd say go with 5 oz man, 4 oz would be perfectly doable but 3 oz might be a bit too little I think.

[space6oy]

yup, normal shot's 1.5oz.

another thought is that ten 5oz could be shared between a few friends.

also regardless of how many i go with i'm gonna have little notepads printed for people to write down which they want so it's less of a pain for the bartenders pouring.

[Tristan]

That's cool, in a way I think you kinda answered your own question with this statement:
"might be better off going with fewer samples at the 5oz so people will still wanna buy a pint of one they liked after"

That's it I think, in the end people will be happier because they got to try some different beers and they had the reward of treating themselves to a pint of their favourite afterwards and as for the really big beer fans they might do another flight afterwards anyway.
Nobody says you can't do flights of 10 samples at 5 oz for yourself either.

[Rob Fossil]

3 oz is two shot glasses worth. That is probably enough to get a decent sense of a beer, but I'm not sure it would be enough to get detailed tasting notes. I'd rather have say 6 or 7 beers at 5 oz than 10 at 3 personally.

I agree 100% with this statement.

[pelliott]

Yeah I think 6 slots at about 5 oz would make most sense. 10 smaller samples would be a bit of a gauntlet and I might lose certain taste profiles after too many different beers. A beer bar a few blocks away does 5 oz x6 format as their flight and I feel like I can get a good idea of each beer and then pick which one I want a pint of.

[t-rey]

Yep - fewer 5oz makes sense to me. Some of the local spots are actually fond of doing flights of 4 beers (usually 4-5 oz), which is a good way to try a few and still order a couple of pints on top of it.

[space6oy]

4 is boring, 4 - 6 is common. definitely doing more.

might do a single and a group version with glass differences... at least eventually...

[Iommic Pope]

they might do another flight afterwards anyway.

Yeah man, return samplers are the go. Especially if you can divide the flights up to compliment each other.
Also, sometimes too many options at once is overwhelming.

What beers are you doing anyway?

[space6oy]

it'll change frequently, have distributors of everything that comes in a keg. not doing ciders on tap anymore, a bit of that stuff will be in the double fridge though. will only be using half kegs when it's something on demand that only comes in them, everything else will be in sixths so i can fit 20 on tap and have backups ready.

won't be lining up the flights, that'll be customer's choice. know i could set what's in the flight but people will enjoy getting to choose for themselves.

[pelliott]

Get dat Columbus IPA and Bodhi on tap always. ALWAYS.

[space6oy]

i already have bodhi waiting!
sucks they only do it in half kegs.
CBC IPA is a "meh" one in my books.
and i'm an IPA junkie.

[space6oy]

also, see ones like this look boring and too common to me and a risk of one of them being a beer i think sucks and then not bothering with finishing it off. waste...




and then there are ones like these that make me go "ooooh, interesting..."





HUGE PIC

NSFW: show

[t-rey]

it'll change frequently, have distributors of everything that comes in a keg. not doing ciders on tap anymore, a bit of that stuff will be in the double fridge though. will only be using half kegs when it's something on demand that only comes in them, everything else will be in sixths so i can fit 20 on tap and have backups ready.

won't be lining up the flights, that'll be customer's choice. know i could set what's in the flight but people will enjoy getting to choose for themselves.

This. There is one place in town that has a few 'set' flights. I refuse to order them because FUCK YOU I CAN SEE ALL THOSE OTHER GODDAMN TAPS. And plus there is usually one beer in there that I don't like. Having the choice is exciting and fun.