Taste Your Beer has a challenge for oenophiles.  Just because you love wine does not mean that you do not enjoy what some people call "wine's lesser cousin" of beer.  As a beer lover, it is easy to admit that an in-store price of a bottle of beer has a limit.  Wine has a limit in price as well, but how many people in America would balk at spending $25.00 or $30.00 for a bottle of beer?  Probably about 99%, and maybe more, while many wine buyers won't think twice about buying a $75.00 or $100.00 wine bottle just because they read a good review or on a recommendation.  Taste Your Beer has a challenge for oenophiles and fans of wine who are also beer lovers...  We want you to learn one-tenth of your wine knowledge for beer using our Beer Tasting and Hops Appreciation Kit.

• The Brewers Association put the overall U.S. beer market at about $101 billion in 2010, and that was down 1% from 2009 despite that craft beer sales continued to rise at the expense of the mass-brewed market.  Wineinstitute.org gave a retail value figure of about $30 billion for U.S. wine in 2010, up 4% from 2009, based upon 9-liter cases.

Many non-industry consumers in America have spent thousands of dollars to learn about wine, how to identify aromas, flavors, textures, and more about wine.  While there are thousands and thousands of craft beer homebrewers, many beer drinkers consider oenophiles as wine snobs and many oenophiles consider a lager a lager and an ale an ale.  Our aim is entirely different.  We sure enjoy our beer, but we also enjoy wine, spirits, and even sometimes take the effort to enjoy a nice glass or two of water and other beverages.  The preference of wine over beer does not have to be an exclusive choice.

Our Beer Tasting and Hops Appreciation Kit is the perfect gift for wine lovers who also enjoy beer.  Consider the kit a bridge for oenophiles (and others) who want to learn to be able to identify the beers they enjoy.  Perhaps even more important is that you may learn that there are certain hops that just don't agree with your tongue.  It happens, just like some consumers prefer Malbec over Pinot Noir or vice versa.  This is a great beer gift that might be considered a wine gift for the holidays, Christmas, a birthday, a party, or Father's Day.

This kit could even save you hundreds or thousands of dollars (let alone unpleasant tastes) in not wasting your money on beers that have the few hops that are truly unpleasant to your palate.  On a personal note, it was this revelation after trying our kit out against a range of beers and then comparing the results against our hops database that made us even more excited about the kit.  It turns out that some hops loved by others would be a "Not so much..." by others.

So, what does the kit offer you?  For starters, the Beer Appreciation Guide offers a quick-hitting 47 page reference book helping you with each and all of your needs in beer knowledge.  Our online hops database allows you to compare beers and the hops that are in them.  The big hit is the 13 varietals of hops found in many of the craft beers (and in many mass market beers) in America in order to help identify the hops.  You are to smell these hops while sampling your beers.  There is a beer color guide, and then there is a how-to on how to host a beer tasting and other games/events for beer tastings.

We encourage our oenophile friends to take the beer tasting and hops appreciation challenge.  This is a very unique gift that is almost certain to please most drinkers who enjoy both beer and wine.

Here is the Beer Tasting and Hops Appreciation Kit by Taste Your Beer.