How do you organise a beer tasting at home?

Six beers of 10 cl per person comes to 60 cl, slightly less than two bottles of 33 cl.

With six guests you need 60 cl per beer and so two bottles of 33 cl, together 66 cl. For six beers that means twelve bottles. If you want to do seven or eight beers, go to 8 cl per glass: eight times 8 cl is 64 cl per person, roughly the same amount.

If you work with bottles of 75 cl, you pour seven glasses of 10 cl from them. One bottle of 75 cl therefore serves six guests with a little left over.

Start with the lightest beer and work up to the heaviest, and within the same alcohol class put the pale beers before the dark ones.

A build-up that works: witbier from 4 vol%, then pilsener around 5 vol%, then a weizen between 5 and 6 vol%, then a blond beer of 7 to 8 vol%, then a stout or porter, and as a finale a quadrupel or imperial stout above 9 vol%. The percentages for witbier, pilsener, weizen and blond come from Nederlandse Brouwers.

Put the heaviest beer last. Whoever starts heavy has little attention left for the lighter beer afterwards.

One glass per guest, a jug of water for rinsing, bread or crackers, and a list on which everyone writes for themselves.

One glass per guest is enough if you rinse with water in between. A glass that narrows towards the top keeps the aroma together better than a straight glass. Also put out a jug or bucket to pour leftovers into; nobody has to drink six glasses empty.

For each beer, write the name, the style and the alcohol percentage on the list. Let everyone first write down in their own words what they smell and taste, and only then talk about it. Otherwise the first person to say something takes the rest along.

Choose six beers that clearly differ from each other in style, not six variations on the same theme.

A witbier, a pilsner, a weizen, a blond, a stout and a quadrupel give six recognisably different beers. If you prefer to compare within a single style, put six tripels side by side and look at differences in alcohol, colour and origin; do announce that beforehand.

Drinking specialty beer at home has become perfectly normal: according to the Nationaal Bieronderzoek 2025, 42 percent of beer drinkers occasionally drink specialty beer and 71 percent drink beer at home.

Alcoholic drinks may not be supplied to anyone who has not been established to be 18, not even at home.

Artikel 20 van de Alcoholwet verbiedt bedrijfsmatig of anders dan om niet verstrekken aan een persoon van wie niet is vastgesteld dat deze de leeftijd van 18 jaar heeft bereikt. De NIX18-campagne van het ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport vat het samen als: niet kopen, niet krijgen, niet drinken.

Six glasses of 10 cl of beer add up to 60 cl. Agree beforehand who is driving and have alcohol-free beer ready for those guests, with at most 0.1 percent alcohol. According to the Nationaal Bieronderzoek 2025, 66 percent of alcohol-free beer drinkers see that as a full-fledged substitute.