Short sniffs or long draws and the right way to smell a beer

Most of flavour is smell

Your tongue senses five basic tastes. Everything else you call flavour, the citrus in an IPA, the banana in a hefeweizen, the coffee in a stout, arrives through the nose. Some comes in through the nostrils as you sniff. More comes up the back of the throat as you swallow, which tasters call retronasal smell.

That makes technique worth learning. A careless sniff wastes the first and freshest impression of a beer. That impression is often the most informative one you get.

Start at a distance, then move in

Begin with the glass a few centimetres below your nose rather than with your nose buried in it. The lightest, most volatile aromas reach you first: fresh hop oils, delicate esters and some faults such as the rotten egg smell of hydrogen sulphide. Up close, stronger aromas can swamp them.

Then bring the glass closer for a second set of sniffs. Moving in stages gives you a layered picture of the beer instead of one blast.

Short sniffs win most of the time

The best general method is two or three short, sharp sniffs, then lift your head away and think. Short sniffs pull a quick sample of air across the smell receptors high in the nose. They give you a clear first impression before the nose starts to adapt.

Long, deep draws feel thorough but have a cost. Smell adaptation begins within seconds, so the longer you hold the sniff, the more the strongest notes fade. A long draw is useful when you are hunting for a faint aroma you already suspect, such as a hint of DMS or diacetyl. It is a tool for checking, not for first impressions. Our guide to smell adaptation explains what is going on.

Swirl, cover and come back

Swirling coats the inside of the glass and breaks the surface of the beer, releasing a fresh burst of aroma. Give the glass a gentle swirl before each round of sniffs. With a very fizzy beer, swirl lightly or you will knock out too much CO2.

Covering the glass with your hand or a coaster for half a minute, then lifting it and sniffing straight away, concentrates the aroma in the headspace. Judges use this trick to find faint notes. It works especially well with lagers, where the aroma is subtle and easy to miss.

• First pass: glass held back, short sniffs.
• Second pass: closer, after a swirl, short sniffs.
• Third pass: covered for 30 seconds, one sniff on lifting.

Do not forget the retronasal route

After smelling, take a sip, let it sit on your tongue for a moment, swallow and breathe out slowly through your nose with your mouth closed. Aromas that hid in the glass often show clearly this way, because the beer has warmed in your mouth and CO2 is carrying volatiles up the back of the throat.

Some notes are easier to find retronasally than in the glass: the lingering roast of a stout, the alcohol warmth of a strong ale and the stale cardboard note of an old beer. Our guide to retronasal smell covers this second route in more depth.

Where faults show themselves

Good technique matters most when you are looking for faults. Several common ones are clearest on the first, distant sniff: sulphur and rotten egg from young lager, the cooked sweetcorn of DMS, the solvent sharpness of hot fermentation. Others come through best retronasally. Diacetyl often shows as a slick, buttery feel and flavour after swallowing, even when the nose was unsure. Stale, papery oxidation sits at the back of the throat.

So run the full routine on any beer you are judging, not only the one that smells odd at first. A fault you missed in the glass can be obvious on the exhale. Our guide to beer off-flavours lists the common faults and what each smells like.

Temperature and glass shape matter

Aroma compounds escape faster from warmer beer. A lager served at 2 °C straight from a bar fridge gives you very little. Let it warm towards 6 to 8 °C before judging its aroma. Ales and strong beers usually open further at 10 to 13 °C. In Indian heat that happens quickly, so smell early and smell again a few minutes later.

A glass that narrows at the top, such as a tulip or a wine glass, traps aroma above the beer. A straight sided pint glass lets it escape into the room. For any serious tasting, the tulip shape is worth the trouble.

Your first step

Tonight, pour a beer into a wine glass. Smell it once with your nose deep in the glass and write what you get. Then try the three pass routine above and write again. Compare the two lists. Most people find a second list twice as long, from the same beer.

Common questions

Should I take short or long sniffs when smelling beer?

Short sniffs are better for first impressions because your nose adapts within seconds. Use a longer draw only to check for a faint aroma you already suspect.

Why should I swirl beer before smelling it?

Swirling breaks the surface and coats the glass, which releases a fresh burst of aroma. Swirl gently with fizzy beers so you do not knock out too much CO2.

What is retronasal smell?

It is the aroma you notice when you breathe out through your nose after swallowing. Many flavours, especially roast and alcohol, show more clearly this way.