Opening People's Eyes

This past Saturday, I had a tasting at the Hastings Coborn's Liquor. I've had much busier tastings, but I don't think I've had one that was more successful than this one. What I mean by "successful" is this: more people who would normally skip past the beer tasting stopped to try the beer and many of those people found one they enjoyed enough to purchase.

The beers I sampled that day were examples I had asked the manager to take a chance on. In the past, our store had a very minimal array of Belgian imports (Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Wittekerke). I pointed this out and suggested the appeal of some other Belgian brews. Then he allowed me the opportunity to choose 6 new beers that we could put on the shelves. I was also sure to request that we order them in 750ml bottles. Once they arrived, I planned a tasting.

As people walked through the door and past the tasting table, many of them did a double take. Quite a few times I was asked by inquisitive-looking faces, "Are you sampling wine?" When I told them, "No, I'm actually pouring some quality imported Belgian beer," they were very surprised. Some of them said, "Oh, I don't normally like beer," but it wasn't hard for me to convince them to try one. They were usually pleasantly surprised by the first sample; which led to me pouring them some of the others.

One of my favorite things about doing what I do is changing a person's perception of what a beer can be. I was very happy after this last tasting due to that fact. It just goes to show that if you can present a beer to someone in a way that is different than what they're familiar with, there's a chance you can get them to enjoy brews they never knew existed.