Tasting Beer in Beer Land!

Sensory analysis has always been my thing. As a scientist, since the year 1991 to be precise. That's the year that I won second place in the school science fair for my experiment “Tasty Sight.” I was in the fourth grade and this was a BIG deal. Usually lower schoolers didn't place in the science fair. Most of the awards were won by the upper schoolers and the middle schoolers. And this wasn't just any school, this was the fanciest school in the city and it was all grades from kindergarten to grade 12.

I remember when they let us into the lower school gym after the judging had taken place. The tri-folded displays made out of card board that held each students entry were lined up neatly in rows on folding tables. My display would be easy to spot.

My dad made the display board a couple years before when it was my oldest brothers turn for the science fair. It was made of peg board and had real metal hinges. It was sturdy. By then, my brothers had moved on to just experimenting and not so much with scientific theory and I, the youngest, and by far the dorkiest, was happy to accept the twice second hand board.

My experiment, titled “Tasty Sight” sought to determine the effects of color on food preference, via cookies, with age as a variable. I made several batches of chocolate chip cookies and tinted them different colors with food colorings. I tested sample groups of first and fourth graders, tallied up the results, used an apple II computer to make graphs of my results, glued it all to that board my dad made and entered the contest.

I will never forget that day in the lower school gym, with the light filtering through the skylights above, I rounded the corner to the table where my display was set up and I saw it. There it was. A red ribbon. Everyone got a participant ribbon, but paper clipped to my board was a second ribbon. It was red. It said second place. I was so excited!

So, then I decided to grow up to actually become a scientist. Specifically, one who deals with how the brewing process affects the flavors and sales of beer. Its as if a prophecy from my childhood had been fulfilled. It all makes perfect sense. And boy I have learned so much since that day in the fourth grade.

  As a brewer, my favorite part of sensory analysis is the subjectivity that exists. There are no right or wrong ways to determine flavor. Your body and brain react the way they do with the sensory input information they have and that is different for everyone. Sometimes, its not about judgment, its about observation. That being said, this is where I'll ruin beer drinking for you: once you learn the off flavors, you can never go back to unknowing them.

But that's important, right! There's so much you can tell from a process standpoint from the flavors you find in a beer, both good and bad. And the brewing process is long and tedious; there's a million ways to mess up a beer. But you get a perfect one, and it can be a spiritual experience. Like rounding the corner in the cool light of that lower school gym to see that second place red ribbon attached to your science fair board.