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Structure First — Beer · Sourcing List

What to buy
to run the course

Not "the best beers" — the beers that let you run the flights the course is built on. Each purchase below maps to a specific lesson: the two hop axes, the ale/lager fork, the roast, the freshness clock. Gather the core four, and Session 19 (comparative tasting) does the teaching for you.

Verify before you buy. Specific beers are examples that fit each slot, not the only right answers — availability, seasonality, and freshness shift constantly. The rule that matters most for beer: check the packaged/best-by date and buy the freshest option, especially for anything hop-forward. Any beer that fits the slot's description works.
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1 · The core flights

The four purchases that carry the whole course — buy these first, all fresh
Two-hop-axis flight: a West Coast IPA flight · Sess 5 & 11
The clear, dry, firmly bitter, piney/citrus half of the IPA world. This is the "bitterness" end of the split — high on both hop axes, lean malt, clean finish.
Fits the slotFirestone Walker Union Jack · Sierra Nevada Torpedo · Lagunitas IPA · (splurge/local: Russian River Pliny the Elder, the benchmark, if you can find it fresh)
…paired with a hazy / New England IPA flight · Sess 5 & 11
The soft, juicy, hugely aromatic but gently bitter half. Taste it beside the West Coast to feel bitterness and aroma pull apart — the single most important perception in the course.
Fits the slotSierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing (everywhere) · Firestone Mind Haze · Fieldwork Galaxy Juice (local, very fresh) · any fresh local hazy
The ale/lager fork flight: a clean pilsner + an expressive hefeweizen flight · Sess 6 & 13
The great fork, in two glasses. The pilsner should read crisp and clean (nowhere for a flaw to hide); the hefeweizen loud with banana-and-clove yeast. Same "pale and refreshing" corner, opposite philosophies.
Fits the slotPilsner: Pilsner Urquell (the original) · Firestone Pivo Pils · Trumer Pils (Berkeley)  |  Hefeweizen: Weihenstephaner · Paulaner · Ayinger
The roast anchor: a dry stout (proves dark ≠ strong) flight · Sess 12
A jet-black beer that's light-bodied and only ~4% — the course's favourite myth-buster, in your own glass. Find the coffee/chocolate/char and note how gentle it is.
Fits the slotGuinness Draught (the classic ~4.2% proof) · any dry Irish stout · (contrast splurge: an imperial stout at 9%+ to feel the strength axis)

2 · Widening the map

A few more to fill in the axes you'll have read about
A malt-forward amber, märzen, or brown ale
The bready/caramel/toffee zone where malt leads and hops support — the middle of the colour axis and the balance point most beginners skip past.
Fits the slotAny amber ale, Oktoberfest/märzen, Vienna lager, or English-style brown ale
A Belgian or wild sample — the yeast frontier Sess 14
Meet the far, expressive end of the yeast axis. A saison or witbier to start; if you're brave, a gose or lambic to taste the extra axis — sourness — the six-axis instrument doesn't cover.
Fits the slotSaison (Saison Dupont) · witbier (Allagash White) · sour: a gose, Berliner weisse, or a fruited lambic
A balanced pale ale — the everyday anchor
The sessionable middle of the hop axis: hop character present but balanced against malt. The beer to calibrate "moderate" against on every axis.
Fits the slotSierra Nevada Pale Ale (the reference) · any American pale ale
An adjunct lager, tasted with intent Sess 16
For the purity debate: a well-made rice or corn lager, judged on crispness and cleanliness rather than its ingredient list. Decide the "adjuncts = inferior?" question from your own glass.
Fits the slotA good Mexican lager, a craft cream ale, or a Japanese-style rice lager

3 · The serving kit

The biggest practical lever in the course — cheap, and you'll use it forever
A proper glass (and always use it) Sess 17
Never taste from the can or bottle — a glass releases the aroma. One versatile tulip or a couple of clean shaker/nonic pints is plenty. Shape helps a little; using a glass helps a lot.
Fits the slotA tulip/teku for aromatic beers; a nonic or shaker pint for everyday
The "not too cold" habit (a fridge thermometer helps)
The single most common mistake is serving good beer ice-cold, which numbs aroma and flavour. Match temperature to style — cold for pale lagers, cool for ales/IPAs, cellar for stouts/Belgians — and let it warm in the glass.
Fits the slotA cheap fridge thermometer, or just pull beer out early and let it warm 10–15 min
Cans & cold-dark storage for anything hoppy Sess 9
Beer's three enemies are light, oxygen, and heat. Favour cans (or brown bottles) for hop-forward beer — never clear or green glass off a lit shelf — and store everything cold, dark, and upright.
Fits the slotPrefer cans for IPAs; a dark cupboard or the fridge for storage

4 · Habits that make it stick

Free, and they turn tasting into trained perception
The label-reading routine
Every purchase: find the packaged/best-by date first (freshness is the game for hoppy beer), then note the ABV, and the IBU/SRM if printed. Predict the taste from the numbers, then check yourself against the glass.
A tasting journal
Log each beer on the six axes (malt, bitterness, hop aroma, roast, yeast, body) plus the fork — ale or lager. A month of entries is the fastest route from "it's an IPA I think" to reading coordinates on sight.
If you buy nothing else

Your first shop — the core four

One trip covers the whole spine of the course. Grab these four, all as fresh as you can, plus one glass:

  1. A West Coast IPA + a hazy IPA — the two hop axes (Session 11).
  2. A clean pilsner + a hefeweizen — the ale/lager fork (Session 13).
  3. A dry stout — roast, and proof that dark ≠ strong (Session 12).
  4. One glass you'll actually use, and the discipline not to serve any of it ice-cold (Session 17).

That's three flights and the serving lever from a single visit. Everything else on this list widens the map — buy it as the sessions call for it.

Where to buy (Bay Area / Peninsula & South Bay)

Structure First — Beer · companion sourcing list to the 20-session course.
Examples reflect what's current and widely available as of mid-2026; verify freshness and stock before buying. Please drink responsibly.