A Holistic Approach to Sensory for the Practical Brewer Presented - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

A Holistic Approach to Sensory for the Practical Brewer

Presented by: Jordan Kelly and Katie Nasiatka

• 110,000 BBLs annually
• Mid-size Colorado craft brewery
• Sensory/lab team of three

Who are we?

The Proverbial “Rabbit Hole”

• Dedicated sensory lab
• Panel validation
• Triangle, duo-trio, tetrad, ascending method of

limits testing

• Attribute scaling and descriptive analysis
• Statistics and statistics software
• Training or certifications: Siebel, Cicerone, etc.

The Proverbial “Rabbit Hole”

Where do I even start?

Building a Practical Sensory Program

Define Purpose

Set Up Basic Structure Build Quality Toolbox

Collect, Analyze and Prioritize Data

Building a Practical Sensory Program

Define Purpose

Set Up Basic Structure Build Quality Toolbox

Collect, Analyze and Prioritize Data

• Go or no-go
• Overall consistency
• Scoring
• Identification of defects
• Descriptive analysis
• Attribute scaling

Defining a Purpose

For example, our purpose:

• Sensory is the gold standard
• Inclusiveness
• Guide decision making
• Batch consistency and descriptive analysis
• Defect identification

Defining a Purpose

Building a Practical Sensory Program

Define Purpose

Set Up Basic Structure Build Sensory Toolbox

Collect, Analyze and Prioritize Data

1) Established time intervals of tasting, testing and training 2) Process points of taste testing 3) Place to taste 4) People to taste

The Basic Structure

1) Established time intervals for tasting, testing, and training

The Basic Structure

2) Process points of taste testing 1) Place to taste 2) People to taste!

The Basic Structure

23-27 °C

3) Place to taste 1) People to taste!

The Basic Structure

4) People to taste (your sensory “machines”)

The Basic Structure

A budget will realistically set the structure.

The Basic Structure: A Budget

Building a Practical Sensory Program

Define Purpose

Set Up Basic Structure Build Sensory Toolbox

Collect, Analyze and Prioritize Data

Building a Practical Sensory Program

Define Purpose

Set Up Basic Structure Build Sensory Toolbox

Collect, Analyze and Prioritize Data

Leverage your existing resources and materials!

• 1. Space
• 2. Glasses
• 3. Tasters
• 4. Training materials
• 5. Sensory standards
• 6. Data Recording

Leverage Existing Resources and Materials

Leverage Existing Resources and Materials

Building a Practical Sensory Program

Define Purpose

Set Up Basic Structure Build Sensory Toolbox

Collect, Analyze and Prioritize Data

• Training
• Triangle testing
• Blind tasting
• Scoring systems
• Statistical tools
• Panelist profiles
• Holistic grasp on individual strengths and

unique descriptors

Build Your Sensory Toolbox

Build Your Sensory Toolbox

Build Your Sensory Toolbox

Build Your Sensory Toolbox

Building a Practical Sensory Program

Define Purpose

Set Up Basic Structure Build Sensory Toolbox

Collect, Analyze and Prioritize Data

Leverage your strengths!

Leverage Your Strengths

Strengths

• Strong quality foundation
• Long-time employees,

experienced in tasting our beer

• Committed, interested tasters

(3-5 daily panelists)

• A budget
• Culture

– Resourceful, “let’s try it!” – Learning and education – Inclusive and employee owned

• Small Team = full picture

perspective

Weaknesses

• No ASBC MOA validated

panel

• Sensory lab with segregated

booths

• Statistical software
• Sensory technology/data

input

• Dedicated sensory

employee

Leverage Your Strengths

Building a Practical Sensory Program

Define Purpose

Set Up Basic Structure Build Sensory Toolbox

Collect, Analyze and Prioritize Data

• Start with low-hanging fruit
• More is better… to a point

– Collect actionable data

• Prioritize problem areas
• Return to “the goal”

Collect, analyze and prioritize data

Collect, analyze and prioritize data

Collect, analyze and prioritize data

Collect Analyze Acceptable Perfect! Improvement? Investigation Not Acceptable Retest Acceptable Not Acceptable Investigation

Building a Practical Sensory Program

Define Purpose

Set Up Basic Structure Build Sensory Toolbox

Collect, Analyze and Prioritize Data

Avoid Sensory Pitfalls

• Well, try your best
• Minimize bias
• Separation of quality, brewing, and financial

interests in the sensory space

• Focusing on areas not relevant to your beer
• Doing too much too soon
• Alienating potential assets
• Competitive or hostile environments

Avoid Sensory Pitfalls

Any brewery, of any size can build and fit a sensory program to their needs!

Long story short…

Thank you!

Questions?