Building a Sensory Program: A Brewer's Guide to Beer Evaluation

Pat Fahey

Mar 2023 · Acrospire Press

About this ebook

While most breweries know that a sensory program can help them consistently deliver quality beer, shockingly few perform regular, standardized tasting of their products. Many cite roadblocks such as lack of resources, time, or knowledge. But ignoring routine sensory evaluation can have dangerous consequences, from customer complaints to costly recalls. Fortunately, establishing a results-oriented sensory program does not have to be complicated, and is entirely within your reach.

In Building a Sensory Program, sensory expert Pat Fahey offers you the tools to get your own sensory program off the ground in hours rather than months. Inside, you’ll find everything a panel leader needs to know to get started, from tasting techniques to training protocols for new panelists. Learn how you can use different sensory tests to solve important problems, from monitoring beer for release to developing new brands. By building an intelligently designed sensory program tailored to the needs of your brewery, you will ensure that your beer tastes the way it should, time after time.

About the author

Pat Fahey spent nearly a decade working for the Cicerone® Certification Program, training beer professionals worldwide in topics ranging from beer styles and flavor to sensory skills and tasting technique. Pat has given countless lectures on off flavor recognition and taster training, and has trained thousands of tasters in the US, South America, Europe, and Asia. In May of 2013, he became the youngest person to ever pass the Master Cicerone® exam, and today is one of 22 Master Cicerones in the world. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and works alongside his wife at Keeping Together Beer Co.