A Beerhive beer profile is a compact visual representation of the flavour characteristics of a beer. It describes the taste (sweet, sour, bitter), mouthfeel (intensity, body, dryness) and aroma (malty, fruity, hoppy) aspects of a beer. To add enough granularity, specific aroma icons (raspberry, chocolate, wild yeast, etc) are listed.

You can define your own profile of a beer in ‘my analysis’ (how ? see FAQ below). Or consult the Beerhive ‘group analysis’.

The ‘group analysis’ profile of a beer is a ‘smart’ average of the analysis of : 1) the brewer AND/OR 2) affiliated expert tasters AND/OR 3) “regular” beer lovers in the Beerhive community. All have their weight in this average.

Currently our database contains 6000+ (mainly Belgian beers) from 1000+ breweries and beer companies. Not all might have a detailed visual Beerhive profile yet though because users (brewer, experts, regular users) have not provided enough analysis yet.

Beerhive takes a 3-step approach to analysing the characteristics of a beer. Under the ‘my analysis’ tab you can describe the ‘colour and flavour’ (step 1) and the ‘mouthfeel & aromas’ (step 2) of a beer, and add your ‘rating & notes’ (step 3).

You can complete as many steps as you like, in the order of your preference (e.g. only the colour and basic flavours, or only a rating of your general appreciation). Off course, the more detailed your own personal analysis, the more useful it becomes in calculating an accurate ‘group analysis’ beer profile.

In the ‘colour & flavour’ step you can indicate the colour of the beer (by way of a colour chart containing 9 colour categories), describe the basic tastes (sweet, sour, bitter) and some general flavour parameters: malty (caramel, roasted, bread etc), fruity (citrus, dried fruit etc), hoppy (fresh hops, grassy etc).

The ‘mouthfeel & aromas’ step allows you to add more detail to your analysis. We have selected five mouthfeel parameters, each of them to be judged on a five point scale (absent / mild / moderate / heavy / dominant):

• intensity: duration of the sensory perception
• body: perceived thickness, ranging from thin (light-bodied) to oily (full-bodied)
• dryness: the mouth-drying effect of a beer (like a dry or ‘sec’ wine)
• alcohol: perceived mouth-warming feel
• carbonation: perceived tingle caused by the amount of carbon dioxide in a beer

You can add as many specific aromas to your beer analysis as you like. For ease of use we have grouped the aromas into seven categories:

• malty: aromas caused by the use of different types of malt/grains, e.g. caramel, biscuit, roasted, coffee, smoked, etc
• fruity: all kinds of fruity aromas, without distinction as to their origin in the brewing process, e.g. fruity esters created during fermentation, fruity aromas due to dry-hopping or maceration on real fruit, …
• hoppy: fresh/old hops, grassy/straw (fruity aromas rendered by aroma hops are to be indicated in the ‘fruity’ category)
• spices: nutty, herbal, floral and other spices, but also salt (and yes, we are aware that this is actually a taste and not an aroma, but given the rare presence of this parameter in beer, we decided to include it here)
• animal: (wild) yeast, leather, butter, …
• wood: oak, pine, various types of barrels used for barrel-aging
• misc: mostly ‘off flavours’ like paper, cooked corn (DMS), vinegar, …

A list of all your personal analyses is available via the menu option ‘my analyses’. Beers are listed by default alphabetically but you can also sort on alcohol % (ABV) or ‘most recent’ analyzed.

We use a specific mathematical algorithm to calculate the similarity between any two ‘group analysis’ beer profiles. All parameters that can be analysed in the Beerhive app are taken into account. The more parameters are shared between any two beers, the more similar they will be.

In the search page you can do a text search on beer and/or brewery name or use a hashtag.

Alternatively, you can search a beer based on its characteristics: colour, flavour (sweet, sour, bitter, hoppy, fruity, malty), mouthfeel (intensity, body, dryness, alcohol, carbonation) or specific aromas. This way you can search for example a blond beer with heavy bitterness, moderate intensity and aromas of grapefruit and fresh hops.

The number of beers corresponding to your selected search criteria are shown at the bottom of the screen. If you want to remove a selected characteristic from your search criteria, you can do so by tapping on the corresponding icon. If you want to start a new search from scratch, you can delete all selected criteria by tapping on the leftmost ‘X’ icon.

Yes you can ! Search for a beer clicking the search icon at the top of the app. Type in the beer name and if the beer is not found a “Beer not found” icon pops up. Here you can add your missing beer. Since data quality is of great importance to us, we will do a check on duplicates in our database and might correct your new entry. Typos are easily made right ?