Okay so you're ready to throw the party of a lifetime so how do you do it? That's why you I'm here, to guide you along! So let's start here: You're going to need some essential things in order to make this thing work. Good news is, they aren't hard to come by and aren't very expensive.

First you're going to need a venue. By venue I mean a place that will hold 10 to 12 people at any given time. Is this your house? Is this your apartment? A friend's place? Doesn't matter as long as you have space. You want to be sure you have a fridge (needs to have room) for holding your beer and a table or counter top (think kitchen here) to have opened beers readily available for tasting. The key is space. If you're going to have this at a house, get rid of unwanted/needed furniture. A dining room table isn't needed if you want people to move around and you have a counter top that will hold open bottles of beer.

Let's take a moment and talk about glassware. Preferably you'll want glassware that fits the styles of beer you will be tasting. However since we're probably new to tasting beer and this is your first beer tasting party a few basics will work. Here's what not to put your beer in: RED PLASTIC CUPS! Or any other color plastic cups. That's the first order of business.

You want to see the beer and take in the color. The beer looks the way it does because of the time the brewers put into it; NO PLASTIC CUPS. You'll want goblets (chalices) or tulips for your first round of glassware. Both are used to bring out the aromatic qualities of the beer, good head on the beer, and a healthy eight ounce pour. Other glassware to get down the road: pilsner glasses (for your lagers), snifters (great for stouts and barely wines- truly sipping styles of beer), mugs/steins, pint glasses, stange (Tom Collins glass), weizen (for your wheat beers), and burgundy glasses (wine glasses that are fat and more rotund than a standard red glass). Goblets/chalices and tulips however are perfect and be purchased online, large liquor/spirit shops, or best yet: breweries!

Since you're throwing a party people will expect to be fed. This works in your favor. You'll want to pair beer up with certain foods to see how they work together! You'll want cheese; get different styles to see what works and what doesn't with what beer. For protein you'll want meats, don't go overboard. Each party, pick new meats to use: steak, pork, brisket, sausage, chicken; charcuterie (meat) plates work really well if you want to keep your cooking down to a minimum. Some beers go even better with desert rather than appetizers or entree meats so have some chocolate, cheesecake, cupcakes or whatever sweetens your disposition.

Now, how will you open these bottles? For 750ml's that are corked and caged you'll need a towel for grip on the cork. For capped bottles you'll need a bottle opener or wine key, both can be found at liquor stores and spirit shops. It's imperative that you have a wine key. Some bottles have caps and corks that will require a corkscrew to remove the cork. With corked and caged beer the corks can be very tight and hard to pull so you might need the corkscrew to pull out the cork.