Editors’ Picks

$15.95, draughtlab.com

Describing flavors in beer can be challenging, and all of us—whether we’re trained beer judges, avid homebrewers, or casual beer drinkers who love to share beers with friends—can use some continuing education in the lexicon department. Thankfully, sensory software maker Draughtlab has put together a series of flavor maps that help articulate the components of taste, aroma, and mouthfeel to help broaden and direct the language we use to describe beer. Four maps make up the series—beer Flavor, Hop Flavor, Base Malt Flavor, and Specialty

Malt Flavor—and the 13" by 19" posters break down the variety of impacts in contextual ways depending on the subject. Hops are all aroma, malts and beer offer taste and mouthfeel components. Beer includes texture elements such as bubble density and astringency, while the hops and malt also include step-by-step instructions for the standard American Society of Brewing Chemists materials preparation methods. The design is not an accident but a thoughtfully considered departure from more common flavor wheels that suggest opposition and adjacency in flavors. The groupings are thoughtful but loose, with big subheadings that pull you into more precise descriptors below. Whether you’re a small brewery ramping up your sensory program, a hombrewer interested in expanding your descriptor game, or a beer lover who needs some utilitarian art for the basement or garage beer cave, these flavor maps have you covered.—jb