HOW TO REVIEW BEER

There are many opinions out there, some more educated than others. I’m an amateur when it comes to beer reviewing, but don’t mind sharing a few thoughts about the beers I’ve tried with you all. I have tried to learn from websites such as ratebeer.com, beeradvocate.com, craftbeer.com, and so on and have gathered some of the better information on this page for you.

To start, when you are wanting to review beers there’s are a few things you should know about if you don’t already. First is to know that every beer style has specific characteristics that should be present. If the beer doesn’t exhibit these, then it’s what is considered a hybrid, and falls into the dangerous ‘gray’ area of brewing which is also referred to as ‘experimental’. There is nothing wrong with this, it’s just nice to know what you’re supposed to be drinking and how it pushes or falls within the boundaries of that specific type or style of beer.

I have often explained to people that reviewing beer is just like reviewing wine or talking about your favorite cake. The terminology is similar to that of wine reviewing, and the process for producing the kinds of beer can produce a wide variety of styles and the outcomes really do vary based on environmental factors, ingredients, and skill used to create the end product (like baking a cake). Imagine trying to create the exact same cake from scratch multiple times using the same ingredients and the same oven. I guarantee it might turn out close, but not exactly. The same applies to smaller batch beers that are not produced on large scale. Time, measurements of ingredients, the ingredients themselves, exposure to bacteria, slight temperature changes, these all effect production of both cake and beer. 🙂

Also, it is important to note that in the US, you can call or label any beer you make anything you want, there is no law like in Germany which helps govern the production, labeling, and distribution of beer. This is known as Reinheitsgebot The German beer purity law passed in 1516, stating that beer may only contain water, barley and hops. Yeast was later added after its role in fermentation was discovered by Louis Pasteur.

TYPES OF BEER

Beer falls into two categories, ALES and LAGERS. These are singularly defined by how yeast is utilized during the brewing process. Click on the title for examples and additional details for each style.

ALE

Ale’s tend to yield more intense flavor profiles than lagers. Depending on the brewing style, they can be their best when very young (a couple of weeks) to very old (several years). Here’s a list of the types of ALE’s you might encounter, just click the name for additional details:

BELGIUM

Abbey Beers:

A variety of strong ales, similar to the Trappist beers, but not made in monasteries although, in some cases, they have been at one time. The term “Abbey ale” refers more to a relationship with a monastery than it does with a specific beer style. The following sub-categories are just as hard to define clearly. There are considerable conflicting viewpoints about what makes a tripel a tripel and so forth. It should be noted that due to the great variety in abbey ales, some of them would not fall into any of the four sub-categories listed below. That said, here’s our take on the usual suspects:

Single – Also often referred to as a blonde, singles tend to be the lightest in alcohol. They are usually under 6.5% ABV. Often golden, bottle conditioned, and just a bit dry.
Dubbel – Both dubbels and quadruppels tend to be darker in color, but vary in strength and flavor profile. Dubbels are largely malt forward, with roasty qualities. They typically range from 6.5% to 8% ABV.
Tripel – Probably the most pervasive style of these four sub-categories, tripels are lighter in color, yet higher in strength, usually over 8% ABV. It has been written that tripels use three times the normal amount of malt, dubbels twice as much, etc. True or not, tripels are fine examples of a light color/high strength beer style. Tripels can be very dry to very sweet, showing more range within their category than the other sub-styles.
Quadrupel – As one might guess, quads are the darkest and the strongest, with an emphasis on the malt. They tend to be a little harder to find.

Belgian Browns:

This classic style from Flanders Belgium combines malty sweetness with a sourness gained from several months of maturation (usually in metal tanks). The most complex examples have a secondary fermentation in the bottle. Oudenaarde is the most famous producing town, located in East Flanders. Oudenaarde’s water is low in calcium and high in sodium carbonate, which gives a particularly textured character to the beers. Typical examples of Belgian browns come in three ages and strengths.

Golden/Blonde:

Lambics:

Lambics represent the oldest style of beer (and beer making) found in the modern world. Specific to the Brussels area, this style resembles wine and champagne more than any other beer in the world. The name is most likely derived from the small town of Lembeek (“Lime Creek”), southwest of Brussels in the Zenne River valley. This is the heart of the Lambic region. A handful of breweries around Lembeek practice brewing methods which pre-date the culturing of yeasts. They gain their tartness from a content of at least 30% raw wheat in addition to malted barley, but their defining characteristic is the use of wild yeast, or “spontaneous” fermentation. Wild airborne yeasts, indigenous to the region, descend upon open brewing vessels in attics of farmhouse breweries, where nature takes its course. It is not uncommon for Lambics to have a fermentation period of two or three years, and much of that time in wooden casks. Most of these beers have a conventional alcohol content, in the range of 3%-6% ABV.

Fruit Lambic – They are beers, and not wines, because the original fermentation is grain based (the definition for beer). The fruit comes later, and is an excellent compliment to acidity of the lambic beer style. In the traditional method, the fruit is added during the maturation of the beer, causing a further fermentation. The best of Belgian fruit beers have the dryness of pink Champagne, rather than the sweetness of a soda-pop.
Gueuze – A champagne style lambic. The carbonation is achieved by blending young Lambic (typically six months old) with more mature vintages (two to three years). The residual sugars in the young Lambic and the yeasts that have developed in the old cause a new fermentation. The most traditional examples will usually have the endorsement label of the organization De Objectieve Bierproevers. References to “old” (oud, vieux, vieille) on the label indicate a minimum of six months and a genuine Lambic process. Without these legends, a Lambic may have been “diluted” with a more conventional beer.
Straight Lambic – Straight Lambic is very rare (and hard to find). Typically, it is tapped directly from the cask in which it was fermented. With almost no carbonation, unsweetened and unblended, straight lambic can seem less like a beer and more like fine sherry.

Red Beers:

Saisons:

Seasonal beers for the summer, but available all year round. It was once a poor-man’s blend of several beers, designed to be a thirst-quencher for local farm workers. At 5% – 7% ABV, Saisons are regarded as “light” summer specialties (yeah well, compared to the typical strengths of Belgian beers…). They are usually amber to orange in color, and often quite dry, with a citric, peppery, quenching quality. This can be attributed to hard water, heavy hopping, spicing, or deliberate souring. Saisons are largely local to the French-speaking part of the country, especially the western part of the province of Hainaut. Many small breweries in the French-speaking part of Belgium make similar beers, not necessarily identified as Saisons. The style does not exist in the Flemish speaking part of the country.

Trappist Beers:

(also Dutch) This term is properly applied only to a brewery in a monastery of the Trappists, one of the most severe orders of monks. This order was established at La Trappe, in Normandy. There are seven Trappist breweries, six in Belgium and one just across the Dutch border. Trappists who left France after the turbulence of the Napoleonic period established all of them. The Trappists have the only monastic breweries in Belgium, all making strong ales with a re-fermentation in the bottle. Some gain a distinctly rummy character from the use of candy-sugar in the brew-kettle. They do not represent a style, but they are very much a family of beers.

White (Wit) Bier:

Witbier was originally popularized in Hoegaarden, a small town in a wheat-growing region east of Brussels and Leuven. This style is usually made from equal portions of raw wheat and malted barley, spiced with ground coriander seeds and dried orange peels. The fruitiness imparted by the wheat blends well with the orange and coriander. The style is further characterized by the use of noble-type hops. Wheat beers are identified as being “white” in several brewing nations. Wheat beers can be filtered, but less easily than those made from barley malt. They usually tip the scale around 5% ABV.

GERMANY

Alt Bier:

Beliner Weisse:

Dunkel-weizens:

“Dunkel” means dark. “Weizen” means wheat. In addition to clove and banana-like esters, these wheat beers are also famous for raison and caramel flavors. More common in southern Germany, this style of wheat beer is highly carbonated with low hop character and brewed using at least 50% malted wheat. They’re usually unfiltered, and if so would include the prefix “Hefe” on the label. They tend to be of medium strength, but can be as high as 8% ABV.

Hefe-weizen:

“Hefe” means “unfiltered” or “with yeast”. Clove and banana-like esters produced by particular strains of brewing yeast are signatures of this style. German style wheat beers are highly carbonated, have low hop character and are brewed using at least 50% malted wheat. Sometimes they are called “Weissbiers”, or white beer. This is a reference to the light color of the beer and head.

Bocks:

These breweries produce them: Westvleteren, Rochefort, Orval, Westmalle, Achel, Chimay, La Trappe Weizen Bock. All bocks were ales in the beginning. Weizenbock is the only member of the family that is still an ale, although it is usually lagered… yet not a lager. Those are two different things. Lagering a beer that has to do with cold-temperature aging (the German word “lager” means “to store”). Just about any beer can be lagered. But it’s the yeast type that still dictates whether a beer is classified as ale or lager. Whew! Anyway, weizenbocks are amazingly complex beers, with cloves, bananas, raisons, and caramel in the flavor, and often over 6% ABV. As wheat beers go, they are stronger than most in alcohol. They range from buckwheat to toffee in color.

SCOTLAND

Scotch Ale:

Scottish Ales:

Scottish Light Ales:

Scottish Heavy Ales:

Scottish Export Ales:

ENGLAND

Barley Wine:

Often considered the most prized of all ales. With the strength of wine and the complexity of cognac, these beers show extraordinary richness, depth, and alcoholic warmth. Like fine wines, they benefit from aging, which allows their intense flavors to marry and deepen. Barley wines are very similar to English strong ales, but are usually set apart by more assertive hop bitterness and a high residual malty sweetness.

Bitters English:

Ordinary bitter:

The lightest of the style generally having low to medium hop aroma, flavor and bitterness, low to medium malty character. These bitters aren’t really bitter, with IBU’s usually around 20-35. Their strength is typically 3%-4% ABV. Sometimes also called “cream ale”, when nitrogen is used to aerate the beer and create the “cascading effect” popularized by such beers as Boddingtons, Cafferey’s, and Green King Abbott.

Special bitter:

ESB (Extra Special Bitter):

English Browns:

India Pale Ale (IPA):

England: The stars of the hop world. As with a number of brewing styles, IPA was born out of necessity. When the British were colonizing India, the beers they sent down to their troops kept spoiling during the long sea voyage. With an extra healthy dose of hops and alcohol (40-65 IBU and 5% -7.5% ABV respectively), both having great preservative value, their problems were solved, and the world had another distinctive beer style. Today, American craft brewers do more than emulate the style. They continue to push the envelope with strength and bitterness. Curiously, it’s much harder to find a true IPA from England these days, with a few notable exceptions.

Pale Ales:

Porters:

Porters were the first beer style in the world to achieve national distribution, due to the industrial revolution. The style can be dated to the early 1700’s. It has been argued that porter takes its name from the train porters who used to sell their beer throughout the early British rail system. Another notion is that porter was first produced on a commercial scale in London on the River Thames, where it was sent out on ships bound for other port towns. The darkness of the beer covered up cloudiness and the roasty full flavor helped mask flavor defects. These were helpful beer style characteristics during a period when problems with consistency in brewing were commonplace. Today, porters range from 4% -6.5% ABV, and 20-40 IBU.

Oatmeal Stouts:

Sweet Stouts (or Cream Stouts):

Strong Ales:

IRELAND

Dry stouts:

FRANCE

Bier de Garde:

OTHER COUNTRIES

Foreign-style Stout:

Imperial Stouts:

Winter Warmers:

Countries vary: Generally amber to brown in color and are brewed with ale or lager yeast. They are brewed seasonally as a way for the brewerS to express their appreciation and love of beer. Winter warmers often exhibit strong and complex maltiness along with low to assertive hop characters. Spices and other special ingredients are often added to increase complexity. They are typically rather potent.

LAGERS (Bottom Fermentation Yeasts)

Lagers have only been around for several hundred years and were not even fully understood until after the invention of the microscope. The yeast strains that make them were originally propagated on accident. Like white wines, they are fermented and served at cooler (cellar) temperatures. This limits the formation of esters and other fermentation by-products, producing a clean flavor. Lagers are the most popular big-brewery beers in America, although the version most often consumed here is nothing like the European counterparts. Again, just click the name for additional information:

GERMANY

Bock:

Bockbiers are strong beers that can be traced to the town of Einbeck Germany, circa 1250. They were originally spontaneously top-fermented dark beers primarily made of wheat. Einbeck is also one of the areas responsible for the propagation of lager yeasts that have become commonplace in the modern world. They usually have more than 6.25% ABV, and may be golden, tawny or dark brown. Outside Germany, strengths vary, and a bock is usually dark.
Helles bock/ Maibock – Lighter in color (“helles” means light in German), with an average strength of 6% -7.5%. Hop bitterness is low, yet noble hop aroma may be at medium levels. (20-35 IBU).
Traditional Bock – Similar to helles bock, yet a couple shades darker in color, and with an even lower level of bitterness (no higher than 30 IBU). Their alcohol content is the same.

Dortmunder/Export:

German Helles:

Munich-style Dunkels:

Doppelbocks:

Contrary to popular belief, it has been argued that doppelbocks are not really related to bocks, other than by name. They come from a different place and time in history. During the Protestant Reformation (Circa 1517), the Franciscan monks from Paula, Italy settled in Munich. These monks would ritually brew strong beer to carry them through the two holy fasts of Lent and Advent. While the beer style can be dated to the 1500’s (which makes them a few hundred years younger than bocks), it didn’t even get its name “dopplebock” until the early 1900’s, when it became a popular style in Munich. The people, comparing it to the immensely popular bockbiers of the day, noticed the difference in color and strength, subsequently giving it the moniker “doppelbock” (double bock). Originally top-fermented wheat beers, today they are primarily barley-based lagers. Doppelbocks were brewed with more grain than used for bocks, but not fermented as thoroughly. This left a sweet finish. The “noble” hops used in doppelbocks are for balance and slight aroma, nothing more. Despite their strength, they are a study in subtlety (17-30 IBU, 6.5% -8% ABV).

PILSNERS- GERMANY

German style Pilsners:

Ur-Marzen or Oktoberfest:

Germany: A style derived from “Sommerbiere” (Summer beer). Ur-Marzen, meaning “original of March”, are beers that were brewed in March, and made stronger to remain preserved over the summer months, prior to the help of modern refrigeration. A son of the owner of the Spaten Brewery earned of this brewing style while serving as an apprentice in Vienna around 1870. The next year, it was served for the first time at the Oktoberfest in Munich and, due to its popularity, became the official beer style from that point on. Ur-Marzens are full-bodied lagers that are amber in color and usually weigh in at around 6% ABV, with bitterness at about 18-25 IBU.

Rauchbier (smoked):

VARYING COUNTRIES

Czech Pilsners:

Bohemian Pilsners:

BEER TERMINOLOGY

Then there’s a whole bunch of terminology regarding beer that you might want to know about. I would highly recommend becomming familiar with these, and use them at your local brewery or pub when you have questions. Normally bartenders aren’t terribly ‘up’ on what some of the terms are, but a few might. AND on the rare occasion, the brewer might just be nearby and they would be happy to discuss their beer with you. Just click each term below for the definition.

Adjunct

Aeration

Alcohol

Alcohol by Volume (ABV)

Ale

All Extract Beer

All-Malt Beer

Apparent Attenuation

Astringency

Attenuation

Barley

Bitterness

Body

Bottle Conditioning

Bottom Fermentation

Brettanomyces

A type of yeast and more specifically a genus of single-celled yeasts that ferment sugar and are important to the beer and wine industries due to the sensory flavors they produce. Brettanomyces, or “Brett” colloquially, can cause acidity and other sensory notes often perceived as leather, barnyard, horse blanket and just plain funk. These characteristics can be desirable or undesirable. It is common and desirable in styles such as Lambic, Oud Bruin, several similarly acidic American-derived styles, and many barrel-aged styles.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2)

Carbonation

The process of introducing carbon dioxide into a liquid (such as beer) by:

pressurizing a fermentation vessel to capture naturally produced carbon dioxide;

injecting the finished beer with carbon dioxide;
adding young fermenting beer to finished beer for a renewed fermentation (kraeusening);
priming (adding sugar to) fermented wort prior to packaging, creating a secondary fermentation in the bottle, also known as “bottle conditioning.”

Cask

Cask Conditioning

Closed Fermentation

Color

The hue or shade of a beer, primarily derived from grains, sometimes derived from fruit or other ingredients in beer. Beer styles made with caramelized, toasted or roasted malts or grains will exhibit increasingly darker colors. The color of a beer may often, but not always, allow the consumer to anticipate how a beer might taste. It’s important to note that beer color does not equate to alcohol level, mouthfeel or calories in beer.

Degrees Plato

Diacetyl

Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS)

Dry Hopping

Esters

Ethanol

Fermentation

Filtration

Final Gravity (FG) / Terminal Gravity (TG)

Fresh Hopping

Growler

Head Retention

Hops

A perennial climbing vine, also known by the Latin botanical name Humulus lupulus. The female plant yields flowers of soft-leaved pine-like cones (strobile) measuring about an inch in length. Only the female ripened flower is used for flavoring beer. Because hops reproduce through cuttings, the male plants are not cultivated and are even rooted out to prevent them from fertilizing the female plants, as the cones would become weighed-down with seeds. Seedless hops have a much higher bittering power than seeded. There are presently over one hundred varieties of hops cultivated around the world. Some of the best known are Brewer’s Gold, Bullion, Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Cluster, Comet, Eroica, Fuggles, Galena, Goldings, Hallertau, Nugget, Northern Brewer, Perle, Saaz, Syrian Goldings, Tettnang and Willamettes. Apart from contributing bitterness, hops impart aroma and flavor, and inhibit the growth of bacteria in wort and beer. Hops are added at the beginning (bittering hops), middle (flavoring hops), and end (aroma hops) of the boiling stage, or even later in the brewing process (dry hops). The addition of hops to beer dates from 7000-1000 BC; however hops were used to flavor beer in Pharaonic Egypt around 600 BC. They were cultivated in Germany as early as AD 300 and were used extensively in French and German monasteries in medieval times and gradually superseded other herbs and spices around the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Prior to the use of hops, beer was flavored with herbs and spices such as juniper, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, oak leaves, lime blossoms, cloves, rosemary, gentian, gaussia, chamomile, and other herbs or spices.

Hopping

International Bitterness Units (IBU)

Lace

Lactobacillus

Lager

Lagering

Lightstruck (Skunked)

Malt

Malt Extract

Mash

Mash Tun

Mashing

The process of mixing crushed malt (and possibly other grains or adjuncts) with hot water to convert grain starches to fermentable sugars and non-fermentable carbohydrates that will add body, head retention and other characteristics to the beer. Mashing also extracts colors and flavors that will carry through to the finished beer, and also provides for the degradation of haze-forming proteins. Mashing requires several hours and produces a sugar-rich liquid called wort.

Milling

Mouthfeel

Musty

Noble Hops

Original Gravity (OG)

Oxidation

Oxidized

pH

Phenols

A class of chemical compounds perceptible in both aroma and taste. Some phenolic flavors and aromas are desirable in certain beer styles, for example German-style wheat beers in which the phenolic components derived from the yeast used, or Smoke beers in which the phenolic components derived from smoked malt. Higher concentrations in beer are often due to the brewing water, infection of the wort by bacteria or wild yeasts, cleaning agents, or crown and can linings. Phenolic sensory attributes include clovey, herbal, medicinal or pharmaceutical (band-aid).

Pitching

Primary Fermentation

Quaff

Reinheitsgebot

Resin

Saccharomyces

Secondary Fermentation

Sediment

Session Beer

Sour

Specific Gravity

Standard Reference Method (SRM)

Tannins

A group of organic compounds contained in certain cereal grains and other plants. Tannins are present in the hop cone. Also called “hop tannin” to distinguish it from tannins originating from malted barley. The greater part of malt tannin content is derived from malt husks, but malt tannins differ chemically from hop tannins. In extreme examples, tannins from both can be perceived as a taste or sensation similar to sampling black tea that has steeped for a very long time.

Top Fermentation

Turbidity

Water

One of the four ingredients in beer. Some beers are made up by as much as 90% water. Globally, some brewing centers became famous for their particular type of beer, and the individual flavors of their beer were strongly influenced by the brewing water’s pH and mineral content. Burton is renowned for its bitter beers because the water is hard (higher PH), Edinburgh for its pale ales, Dortmund for its pale lager, and Plzen for its Pilsner Urquell (soft water lower PH).

Wet Hopping

Wort

Yeast

CONDUCTING A BEER REVIEW

So finally there’s the reviewing part. Here are some specific things that should be mentioned when performing a beer review. Keep in mind that a lot of external factors can effect your interpretation of the beer. You might want to keep in mind these points: Did you eat something spicy or acid prior to tasting? Is the beer in the right glass? Is the glass chilled or room temp? Did you start with lighter or darker beers?

With those in mind, you can move onto the reviewing. There are a few basic things you use when reviewing, the appearance, smell, taste, and mouthfeel. You should also do an ‘overall’ or ‘summary’ of your take on the beer.

Appearance

Describe the beer’s color and note the SRM. The SRM is the official color scale that goes from light yellow to dark (opaic) black or brown. Here’s a chart to help you know the #’s

Pale, golden, amber, ruby, brown, black
Clear, hazy, cloudy, turbid
Lackluster, lively, inviting, foamy, creamy

FOAM
Remember that you should also note what the beer foam/head retention and lacing are. These range from fluffy to non-existent and the color of the head can vary as well. The way the head behaves is partially due to the carbonation amounts.

DESCRIPTORS TO USE
Here are the descriptors utilized by the BJCP from their scoring sheet. http://www.bjcp.org/docs/SCP_BeerScoreSheet.pdf

Acetaldehyde – Green apple-like aroma and flavor.
Alcoholic – The aroma, flavor, and warming effect of ethanol and higher alcohols. Sometimes described as hot.
Astringent – Puckering, lingering harshness and/or dryness in the finish/aftertaste; harsh graininess; huskiness.
Diacetyl – Artificial butter, butterscotch, or toffee aroma and flavor. Sometimes perceived as a slickness on the tongue.
DMS (dimethyl sulfide) – At low levels a sweet, cooked or canned corn-like aroma and flavor.
Estery – Aroma and/or flavor of any ester (fruits, fruit flavorings, or roses).
Grassy – Aroma/flavor of fresh-cut grass or green leaves.
Light-Struck – Similar to the aroma of a skunk.
Metallic – Tinny, coiny, copper, iron, or blood-like flavor.

Musty – Stale, musty, or moldy aromas/flavors.
Oxidized – Any one or combination of stale, winy/vinous, cardboard, papery, or sherry-like aromas and flavors.
Phenolic – Spicy (clove, pepper), smoky, plastic, plastic adhesive strip, and/or medicinal (chlorophenolic).
Solvent – Aromas and flavors of higher alcohols (fusel alcohols). Similar to acetone or lacquer thinner aromas.
Sour/Acidic – Tartness in aroma and flavor. Can be sharp and clean (lactic acid), or vinegar-like (acetic acid).
Sulfur – The aroma of rotten eggs or burning matches.
Vegetal – Cooked, canned, or rotten vegetable aroma and flavor (cabbage, onion, celery, asparagus, etc.)
Yeasty – A bready, sulfury or yeast-like aroma or flavor.

Smell

Describe what you smell by sticking your nose close to the beer head/foam. Remember that if you are in a busy bar, restaurant or brewery that has a busy kitchen or aromas from various activities, these can and do effect what you smell. When you do smell the beer, do you smell any malt, hops, yeast and other aromatics. I also slightly swirl the beer before I smell it if it’s not completely filled to the top. This helps pop some of the bubbles in the head, and releases more of the aromas of the beer.

Malts: sweet, roasty, smoky, toasty, nutty, chocolate, toffee, caramel, biscuit, bread
Hops: dank, resiny, herbal, perfumy, spicy, leafy, grassy, floral, piny, citrusy, grapefruit, citrus rinds
Alcohol: sharp, boozy, spicy, peppery
Yeast: breaddy like dry aromas

Ales: fruity or flowery esters, spicy or peppery phenols
Lagers: clean, allowing the malt and hop subtleties to pull through
Wild Yeast/Bacteria: funk, barnyard, horse blanket, medicinal, band-aids, diapers

Taste

Sip, let it warm and wander on the palate, swallow, and then breathe out. This process of exhaling is called retro-olfaction and will release retained stimulations at the mucus and mouthfeel level, but at a higher temperature. The nuances will often be the same as those detected during olfaction, but sometimes different and complementary. Note that beers served really cold tend to mask flavors. Try tasting the beer after it warms up a bit, which will allow more flavors to emerge and become more pronounced. Here is an example of a flavor wheel that is commonly used by professional tasters to help you think about the flavor profile:

When you take that sip does it remind you of any food or flavors you recognize? You should describe any malt, hops, fermentation byproducts, balance, finish or aftertaste and other flavor characteristics.

Flavor descriptions will often be similar to smell, which is expected.
How well does it fit the style guidelines?
Is it balanced, or was there a specific dominating ingredient or flavor?

Mouthfeel (Feel)

After that initial sip, you should think about the beer’s body to include: carbonation (sharp foamy bubbles, flat), warmth, creaminess (or lack thereof), astringency (bitter, acidic, rounded) and other palate sensations. Here are some additional descriptors you might want to use:

Flat, seltzer-like, crisp, over-carbonated
Light, heavy, chewy, oily, thin, watery, smooth, raw, coarse

Overall Judgment

Describe your overall impression of the beer. Don’t be afraid to hurt the brewers feelings. Be as honest as you can.

How was the overall drinking experience?
What did you find pleasurable or objectionable about it?
Offer suggestions for improvement.

References

The Dictionary of Beer and Brewing ©1998 Brewers Publications.
The Brewers Association’s Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery ©2006 Brewers Publications.
Designing Great Beers ©1996 Brewers Publications.
Craftbeer.com Beer Glossary
BJCP Score Sheet