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Start Where You Are A Sensory Program Pep Talk Liz Pratt, Sensory Specialist Rising Tide Brewing Company
Start Where You AreA Sensory Program Pep Talk
Liz Pratt, Sensory SpecialistRising Tide Brewing Company
Liz Pratt
Sensory SpecialistRising Tide Brewing Company
● Beer volunteer
● Aeronaut Brewing Company
● Night Shift Brewing Company
● Tufts University Sensory and
Science Center
● Rising Tide Brewing Company
Liz Pratt
Sensory SpecialistRising Tide Brewing Company
● Beer volunteer
● Aeronaut Brewing Company
● Night Shift Brewing Company
● Tufts University Sensory and
Science Center
● Rising Tide Brewing Company
What To ExpectToday
● What is a sensory program?
● How sensory skills are used
every day in all departments
● How we run a sensory
program at Rising Tide
● What results we get
● Where to go next
Where Are We?
What is SENSORY ANALYSIS?
Using human senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound) to evaluate consumer products.
What is a SENSORY PROGRAM?
In our industry, this refers to a system of evaluating the characteristics of beer (and ingredients) by
appearance, aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel.
Producing the Best BeerLorem 3Lorem 1 Lorem 2 PackagingBrewers
Water
Malt
Hops
Yeast
Cellar Folks
Gravities
VDK Force
Tests
Blow-off
buckets
Go / No-Go:
Appearance
Aroma
Flavor
Mouthfeel
Carbonation
...Selling the Best Beer!Marketing
Communicate
product
character
Meet customer
expectations
Servers
True To Brand
Freshness
Carbonation
Cleanliness
Sales
Fulfilling
requests
Serving at
festivals and
events
Innovation
Recipe
improvement
Product
development
How We Do It
This is not how everyone does it. This does not have to be how you do it.
Rising Tide Sensory Sessions
● Limited time
● Use what you have
● Twice a week sensory
training or practice
sessions
● All staff are invited!
Rising Tide Sensory Tools
● Printer, paper, pens
● Glasses and caps
● Beer or ingredients
● Eight hours a week
Do-It-Yourself “Spikes”
Lightstruck or skunky: set a pitcher outside
Oxidation or hop aroma degradation: keep a beer library
Diacetyl: artificial butter flavoring
Acetic acid: white vinegar
Citric acid: check the baking section!
Mineral hardness: baking soda
Forms and Data Collection
What is most important to YOUR team?
I set up and ran my sensory sessions!
Now what?
Organize your data
Digitize your data
Use specialized sensory
apps like DraughtLab
What I Know About Our Sensory Program
I trust our brewers and cellar folks to catch impurities in our ingredients
before they go into the brew.
I trust our cellar team to perform VDK force tests and correctly identify
extremely low amounts of diacetyl before beer is moved to the brite tank.
I trust our packaging team to evaluate our finished product and make the
correct go/no-go call before packaging.
I trust our bar and sales teams to pull product from the shelf if it’s outdated,
oxidized, or otherwise not true to brand.
Just a few more things...
Include everyone - no assumptions!
Choose manageable goals
Set the tone
Stick to a schedule
Trust your results
ALL SENSORY IS GOOD SENSORY!
What is needed, and what is possible, is different for every brewery and every team.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good!
Protect your market share, control costs,
make and sell the best possible beer you can!
SENSORY IS NOT AN OPTION.
Where to go next...● MBAA online resources
● Tufts University Sensory Science Center
● Brewer’s Association
● American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC)
● Evaluating Beer (1993), Brewers Publications
● Taste What You’re Missing (2012), Barb Stuckey
● Email me any time!
Questions?
