So this is pretty cool.
Vancouver Cicerone and BJCP-certified beer judge Dave Shea is launching a Kickstarter campaign to bring a pet project of his to life. He’s created this thing called the Palate Deck, and it’s basically a card game to help you conduct beer-tasting sessions and tune your palate. In each deck, you get 108 unique playing cards, each with descriptions and notes to help guide your tasting. The gameplay is tailored to any experience level, so you can quickly go from lager-swilling neophyte to über-nerd (supposedly).
Here’s some details from the press release:
“The Palate Deck is a deck of Tasting Cards that encourage conversation and gameplay while tasting beer. You and up to 4 other people will select cards that best describe what you’re tasting. Many different play styles are supported: run a collaborative tasting session to build consensus, or prove your mettle by pitting your tasting ability against your friends.
The Palate Deck is more than a deck of cards, it’s an in-depth tasting education that gives you tasting hints, and goes into some of the reasons why you’re experiencing a given flavour or sensation in a beer. Using the Palate Deck can help you improve your tasting perception and overall appreciation for the beer you’re drinking — any beer!”
The deadline for Kickstarter funding is Nov. 18, 2016, so if you’re interested, get on it quick. Here’s a link to the Kickstarter site.
Sadly, the cards won’t be ready in time for Christmas, which is a huge bummer. The cards are expected to ship out around March, so you can still go ahead and order them for the beer nerd in your life. Even if that person is you. Treat yo self!
