Brewallup: Your 2026 Craft Beer Tasting Myths

There’s a ton of bad information out there about tasting craft beer, especially when you’re trying to figure out the flavors in something like Brewallup’s beers. A lot of drinkers, from die-hards to newbies, hang onto ideas that actually get in the way of enjoying a good brew. Are you sure what you think you know is right, or are common myths costing you a better beer experience?

Myth 1: You Can Judge a Beer by Its Color Alone

It’s a common mistake to think a beer’s color tells you everything about its strength or flavor. People assume dark beers are all heavy and strong, and light beers are all weak and mild. That’s just not true. While color gives you a clue, it’s a terrible final judge. A stout can be surprisingly easy to drink, for example, and a pale ale can knock you over with hops. The beer’s color comes almost entirely from the malt used. Darker, roasted malts give you those deep colors, but that doesn’t automatically mean higher alcohol or a thicker body. Take Brewallup’s “Midnight Sun Porter.” It looks rich and totally opaque, but it has a really smooth, easy-drinking mouthfeel with coffee and dark chocolate notes, not some crazy bitterness. On the other hand, their “Golden Haze IPA” looks bright and sunny but it’s packed with complex tropical fruit and pine flavors and a solid bitterness that you wouldn’t expect from the color. There’s even research in the Journal of Food Science (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17503841) confirming that visual cues like color mess with a taster’s perception of flavor, setting up expectations that don’t match reality. This is exactly why blind tastings are so useful. They strip away those biases so you can just focus on what your nose and palate are telling you.

Myth 2: “Skunked” Beer is Always Old or Badly Stored

That nasty “skunky” or “wet cardboard” smell means the beer is shot, but people usually get the reason wrong. Most figure it’s just old or was stored in a hot garage. While age and heat do ruin beer, the thing that really causes “skunking” is light exposure, specifically UV light. Hops have compounds called isohumulones. When UV light hits them, these compounds break down and react with sulfur to create a chemical called 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol which is the exact same stuff a skunk sprays. It happens fast, too. A few minutes in direct sun or under a fluorescent light can do it. This is why you see so many craft brewers, Brewallup included, using dark brown bottles or cans. Clear and green bottles are basically useless for blocking UV. The American Society of Brewing Chemists (https://www.asbcnet.org/) has published tons of work on these photochemical reactions, proving that even a little bit of light can cause a permanent flavor problem. So if you get a skunked beer, it probably wasn’t a ten-year-old bottle from the back of the cellar. It was more likely one that sat under the bright lights at the store for too long.

Myth 3: You Only Need to Focus on Taste and Aroma

When you hear people talk about tasting beer, it’s always about what they smell or taste: citrus, pine, roasted malt, flowers. Those are obviously important, but if you’re ignoring mouthfeel, you’re missing a huge part of what makes the beer what it is. Mouthfeel is all about the physical sensations in your mouth. It’s the beer’s body (is it light or full?), its carbonation (is it prickly and sharp or soft and creamy?), and other textures like creaminess or dryness. Just think about the massive difference between a snappy, bubbly pilsner and a thick, velvety imperial stout. That’s mouthfeel doing most of the work. Brewallup’s “Cloudburst Hazy IPA,” for instance, is famous for its juicy hop character, but people also love its incredibly smooth, almost pillowy texture. They get that by using a specific grain bill with oats and wheat and brewing techniques that leave more proteins and yeast floating around. The Brewers Association’s own Beer Style Guidelines (https://www.brewersassociation.org/resources/brewers-association-beer-style-guidelines/) list mouthfeel as a defining characteristic for basically every style out there. A complete tasting means using all your senses, and that includes the physical feeling of the beer, which is too often ignored.

Myth 4: All IPAs Taste Bitter and All Stouts Taste Like Coffee

Beer style stereotypes are everywhere, and the two biggest are probably that all IPAs are bitter bombs and all stouts taste like burnt coffee. That kind of thinking just ignores the insane amount of variety brewers like Brewallup are creating. Sure, a classic West Coast IPA is defined by its sharp hop bitterness, but the world of IPAs is so much bigger now. You’ve got New England IPAs (the hazy ones) that are all about juicy, fruity hop flavor with very little bitterness and a soft feel. You’ve got Session IPAs that give you the hop smell without the high alcohol. Brewallup’s “Tropical Vortex IPA,” for example, is a blast of mango and passionfruit, where the bitterness is just a supporting character, not the star. Stouts are just as diverse. The roasted malt can give you coffee notes, but they can also taste like chocolate, caramel, vanilla, or even smoke. An Imperial stout might be thick and boozy, while an Irish dry stout is light and crisp. Brewallup’s “Oatmeal Cookie Stout” is a perfect example, it tastes like cinnamon, brown sugar, and sweet baked goods, a world away from a shot of espresso. You have to look past the style name to see what the brewer was actually trying to do.

Myth 5: Pairing Beer with Food is Only for Wine Snobs

A lot of people seem to think that pairing beer and food is some pretentious activity for wine snobs. That’s just wrong. A good pairing makes both the food and the beer better. It’s not about following a bunch of strict rules. It’s about understanding how flavors and textures work together. The basics are pretty simple: you can go for a complementary pairing, where similar flavors build on each other, or a contrasting one, where different elements balance each other out. For instance, the bubbles and clean finish of a good lager will cut right through the grease of fried food, cleaning your palate for the next bite. A malty brown ale goes great with grilled meat or nutty cheese. Brewallup actually runs pairing nights at their taproom, working with local spots like “The Grain & Grill” on Main Street to show how perfectly their “Red River Amber Ale” goes with a smoky brisket sandwich. Plus, the carbonation in beer scrubs your palate in a way wine just can’t. The Brewers Association even has a bunch of guides on food pairing (https://www.brewersassociation.org/educational-materials/beer-food-pairing/) that show how a beer can improve a meal just as well as any wine. Don’t be afraid to just try stuff. Your taste buds will figure it out. Getting these myths out of your head opens up a much better way to appreciate craft beer and gives you a real connection to what breweries like Brewallup are doing. So next time you pour a beer, forget what you think you know and just let your senses tell you what’s going on.