How to run a blind tasting at home

Hide the labels, number the pours, and score what you actually taste. Blind tasting is the same for beer, wine, or spirits: bags or foil, a private answer key, four scores, then you unwrap. This page is the method. For bottles, themes, and temperatures, start with the beer, wine, or whiskey tasting-party guides.

1. Why go blind

Labels do half the tasting for you. A familiar brewery, a famous château, or a $60 bottle leans the score before anyone has sniffed the glass. Cover the names and people rate the drink, not the story. The $12 bottle beating the trophy pour is usually the story of the night. That's the fun of it.

Blind is a game for friends. Same table, same pours, no brand in the way.

2. What you need

• Four to six drinks: beer, wine, or spirits. Keep them in the same category so the comparison stays honest.
• Bags, foil, or sock covers. Anything that hides the label. Paper bags from the shop work fine.
• Numbers 1 through 6 on the bags, plus a private key only the host sees.
• Water, and a palate reset. Plain crackers or bread help between pours.
• A way to score: the free printable scorecard, or phones in a ClinkRate session.

3. Bag and number: the host keeps the key

Wrap or bag every bottle before guests sit down. Number them 1 to 6. Write the real names on a scrap of paper and put it in your pocket. That scrap is the answer key. Nobody else sees it until the reveal.

If the glass itself would give the drink away (a flute, a snifter, a branded stem), pour out of sight into the same style of glass for everyone. Hide the identity. Keep the pour easy.

4. Pour order (light to bold)

Serve light and delicate first, then the bigger stuff. A loud pour at the start flattens everything after it. Same rule for beer, wine, and spirits: start crisp, finish rich, smoky, or sweet.

How many bottles, serving temperature, and themes live on the party guides. Here you just keep the order honest so pour 4 isn't fighting pour 1.

5. How you score: appearance, aroma, taste, mouthfeel

Four scores, 1 to 5. Half-star steps if you want them. These are the same four ClinkRate and the paper scorecard use.

1. Appearance: colour, clarity, the look in the glass. You drink with your eyes first, even when you don't know the label.
2. Aroma: swirl, sniff, notice. Most of "taste" is smell.
3. Taste: what hits first, what lingers, whether it changes.
4. Mouthfeel: light or heavy, fizzy or silky, clean finish or a coat on the tongue.

A one-line note per drink is enough. "Tastes like Christmas" still counts. You're comparing. Nobody is sitting an exam.

6. Reveal and crown a winner

When the last pour is scored, add up the totals and name a winner before you unwrap anything. Then read the key: number 3 was the cheap one, number 5 was the bottle someone swore by. The gap between "what we thought" and "what it was" is the night.

If you're using ClinkRate, the leaderboard is already live. The reveal is the labels catching up with the scores.

7. Run it in ClinkRate

Paper works until someone has to add twenty scores after the third pour. ClinkRate is for the group at the table tonight. The host starts a session, picks beer, wine, or spirits, and shares an 8-digit PIN (or a link). Guests join on their phones. No sign-up, no app to install. Each person rates appearance, aroma, taste, and mouthfeel. Scores update live and the app crowns the winner.

After the last pour it writes an AI summary of each drink and a recap of the night (Professional, Fun, or Sarcastic). The catalog has 40,000+ beers, wines, and spirits, so you can add what you're pouring without typing every field. The first session is free. After that the host pays a flat $1.99 per session. Guests never pay.

Scoring a wine night? Wine night at home. Need the party setup first? See how to host a beer tasting party, a wine tasting party, or a whiskey tasting party. Pouring small beers and picking a winner? Beer flight at home. Or browse all our tasting party guides.