Beer Sensory Class

by Jim Vondracek on 02/19/12

Two weeks ago, I attended a Beer Sensory Class taught by Marty Nachel.  Tasting beer, evaluating it and then talking about that evaluation is something that can be learned and practiced.  While this can lead to other classes, more training, beer judge certification, etc., I found it valuable just for enhancing my enjoyment of craft beer.  The more you know . . .

Marty is an author, certified cicerone (similar to a wine sommelier), and good beer advocate.  You can learn more about his interests and classes at http://www.ale-conner.com/  and http://www.beerexam.com/  Recently, the second edition of his book Beer for Dummies was released. 

This is Dominick and Bill, rows of cups in front of them.  The pedagogy for the class was to take a neutral beer base, like a typical American light lager, taste it alone, then taste it repeatedly with different innoculations of common or standard flaws or off-flavors.  Reptition was key, to try to build sensory memory (like muscle memory in athletics). 

Colleen and Tony are puzzling over some of the handouts and materials Marty gave us, to help make sense of the flavors we were perceiving.  One of the aspects that makes beer tasting challenging is that we don't all perceive flavors the same way or to the same degree. 

In some ways, it was hard work requiring a lot of concentration.  We all spent a fair amount of time going back and forth, as Mario is doing above, between what our noses and tongues were telling us and the very helpful resource sheets that Marty gave us. The flavors we focused on were:

• Acetaldehyde - a green apple aroma and flavor, which might be caused by an incomplete or stalled fermentation or contamination
• Diacetyl - artificial butter, butterscotch or toffee, sometimes perceived as a slickness, which might be caused by contamination or be a byproduct of fermentation; if its a product of fermentation, the yeast will 'clean up' after themselves, if given enough time and the proper environment
• DMS - a sweet, canned or creamed corn aroma and flavor, a compound that comes from the barley (particularly pilsen malt) that can be boiled off; also can be caused by too long a time to cool the wort or contamination
• Esters - fruity flavors and aromas, sometimes these are not a flaw, depending upon the style, caused by stressed yeast working in a less than optimal environment
• Oxidized - cardboard, paper, or sherry aromas and flavors, caused by exposure to oxygen post-fermentation
• Sour/Acidic - tartness in aroma and flavor, due to microbial infection or contamination

While it was hard work, we also had fun. By the end, when we had tasted, re-tasted, failed, succeed and failed again to identify the flavors, things got a little silly. 

We tasted, we listened to Marty, we discussed (as Scott is doing above), and tasted some more.  All for the purpose to trying to develop some flavor memory so that we could identify the six flavor compounds listed above.  I found at the end of the evening that I could identify acetaldehyde, oxidation and diacytel pretty well.  Even after a couple of hours of work, though, I still struggled with identifying DMS. 

This class was for members of a club Nancy and I belong to, the Brewers of South Suburbia (BOSS).  Above is a member of the club, Amie, who ended the evening by being able to correctly identify all six flavors.  Recently, she's also medaled at a beer competition, and won the club's bbq sauce and chili contests.