The idea behind Labels Off is to get people to drink beer without prejudice whilst learning more about the different beer styles that there are.

We all have our favourite breweries, and whether we’ll admit it or not we all have breweries that we tend to avoid. Reputation and marketing play a large part in the beer we drink. But by doing so are we missing out on some truly superb beers? And are we giving some mediocre ones a free pass because we’re fans of the brewery?

By removing all marketing, by doing blind tastings, Labels Off aims to remove all those previous prejudices and biases.

Each session will focus on one beer style and start with a talk about its background and what defines it, before then presenting drinkers with six different commercial examples, all previously poured out of sight so that no-one knows what they’re drinking. 

Drinkers will be able to discuss the beers openly, both what they think of the beer itself, and whether they think it fits within the definition of that style.

Once all beers have been tasted drinkers will be asked to rank the beers from favourite down, as well as noting if they believe it is true to style. Not until all scores have been collected will everyone learn what they tried.

Will we see some previously overlooked breweries surprise people? Will we see some favourite breweries not do as well as thought? We will see.