Sensory Analysis

[xico]

Hey all, I am putting together a little experiment that I want to use to accrue data. A local hops distributor and maltster are offering me the materials needed to do 30 brews in 30 days to showcase single hops.

The grain bill will be the same (base malt and white wheat) and the hops will be broken into three tiers based on their IBU output (tier 1-20 ibu, tier 2-40, 3-60). They will all be used for bittering, aroma, and flavor. The hops distributor will host a tasting where I'd like to have a sensory analysis panel evaluate the different hops in a way that allows me to use the data. (essential oil flavors, type of bitterness, type of head, perceived aromas for each variety).

I know American Society of Brewing Chemists has a good deal of information on the subject but I can't possibly afford their subscription fee of 1000 dollars. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to organize data collection and management?

 

[Subdivisions]

Maybe look at brulosophy.com. Look through some of his exbeeriments to see his method of gathering tasting data.

If you can do 30 beers in 30 days then more power to you. Do you have enough bottles/kegs to store all of this??

 

[xico]

Yes, the equipment and materials will be made available to me. The hops distributor and maltster are investing in the project.

 

[aprichman]

How are you going to have the capacity to control fermentation temperatures on like 10-14 batches at a time?

It sounds like you want to do descriptive testing but getting good sensory data is going to be tough unless you take time to design the test properly. In the industry this means screening and then training a panel. Some people might not have a very sensitive palate or rate things overly high or low, this is an example of why you would want to screen people. Once you get a good panel how are you going to ensure that everyone identifies the taste/aroma descriptors properly? How are you going to standardize the intensity of each of these descriptors, what are people ranking these against? Finally, sampling 30 beers is going to lead to severe palate fatigue. How are you going to deal with this?

There's a reason why companies have an entire team devoted to sensory evaluation.

 

[xico]

How are you going to have the capacity to control fermentation temperatures on like 10-14 batches at a time?

It sounds like you want to do descriptive testing but getting good sensory data is going to be tough unless you take time to design the test properly. In the industry this means screening and then training a panel. Some people might not have a very sensitive palate or rate things overly high or low, this is an example of why you would want to screen people. Once you get a good panel how are you going to ensure that everyone identifies the taste/aroma descriptors properly? How are you going to standardize the intensity of each of these descriptors, what are people ranking these against? Finally, sampling 30 beers is going to lead to severe palate fatigue. How are you going to deal with this?

There's a reason why companies have an entire team devoted to sensory evaluation.

We have a massive climate-controlled walk-in on site, along with all the vessels and kegs needed for the project. From what I understand of sensory panels for breweries is that you are training your panel to detect off-flavors and to maintain a palate for the signature beers in production to prevent drifting. Palate fatigue will be resolved by hosting a handful of events. I will be borrowing a couple ISO's including 6658.

http://www.apidologie.org/articles/apido/olm/2004/06/MHS05/appendix.pdf

Some entries will be on a scale of 0-15, others will be descriptive. Since hops are the focus, I intend to put together a training for the evaluators. If you have any suggestions I would be interested to know what they are. Qualities of bitterness (for example detecting astringency) and familiarity with beta and essence oil compounds I think are the most important details to test for. I will be saving samples from every batch and will hopefully be able to run them through a gas chromatograph with mass spectrometry (just found out today!). It would be interesting to line up what the panel detected from what is chemically present. Please let me know what you think I can do to tighten up the project. We will begin brewing in January.

 

[B-Hoppy]

How are you going to have the capacity to control fermentation temperatures on like 10-14 batches at a time?

It sounds like you want to do descriptive testing but getting good sensory data is going to be tough unless you take time to design the test properly. In the industry this means screening and then training a panel. Some people might not have a very sensitive palate or rate things overly high or low, this is an example of why you would want to screen people. Once you get a good panel how are you going to ensure that everyone identifies the taste/aroma descriptors properly? How are you going to standardize the intensity of each of these descriptors, what are people ranking these against? Finally, sampling 30 beers is going to lead to severe palate fatigue. How are you going to deal with this?

There's a reason why companies have an entire team devoted to sensory evaluation.

Dang, Doc Shellhammer seems to be doing a fine job! I was just going to ask about the credentials of "who" will be on the panel? Carry on.

 

[mblanks2]

+1 for brulosophy.com