What can I tell from the smell of beer?

What can I tell from the smell of beer?

Jeff Evans (Freelance beer Writer) gives expert video advice on: Can I get a taster before committing to a beer?; What should I look for on a bottled beers label?; What should I look for on a beer's hand pump? and more...

Aroma is a very important part of the beer tasting process. Most of the flavors that you pick up in a beer are actually detected by the nose. It's the flavor receptors in the nose that do most of the work. That's why, if you've got a cold, you can't taste food very well. When you're tasting a beer, it's always useful to have a good swill of the beer in the glass if you can to start with and allow those aromas to escape, and to take those aromas in, and to pick up the malt flavours. The hop flavours give you a good indication of what's to follow when you actually take a sip from the glass.