Practical Beer Taster Training

Course objectives

The aim of this hands-on practical training course are to teach you how to:

• Reliably tell one beer from another


• Describe the differences between beers using industry standard flavor terms


• Evaluate beer flavor quality and assign a quality rating to beer samples using an evaluation form suited to all styles of beer


• Develop your practical taste panel management skills allowing you to teach your colleagues the knowledge and skills you have acquired on this course

Is this course right for me?

The aim of this hands-on practical training course are to teach you how to:

• This course is intended for:
  
  
  
  • Brewery Taste Panel Leaders who want to improve their beer tasting and taste panel management skills;
  
  
  • Brewery Quality Managers who want to improve their beer tasting skills and learn how to make the best use of sensory analysis to drive quality improvements in their brewery;
  
  
  • Candidates for the Advanced or Master Cicerone© exams;
  
  
  • Brewery staff interested in setting up a sensory programme in their brewery.
  
  
  
  


• No previous beer tasting experience is needed.


• If you intend to use this course as a basis for teaching others some basic experience of general training and coaching is desirable.

Programme

The course comprises two complementary sections. During the first three days we will teach you how to evaluate beer. During the remaining two days we will teach you how to train others to evaluate beer.

• Beer Quality Assessment Taster Training – Over three days you will taste close to 150 beer samples delivered during 15 training sessions. You will learn the specific tasting techniques required to reliably detect and identify a wide range of positive flavors, off-flavors and taints. You will learn about the origins of each flavor, their importance, and the steps you can take to control such flavors in routine beer production. As a result of this training you will be able to confidently assess the quality of a wide range of commercial beer samples and be aware of the areas you need to improve upon to develop your skills in the future.


• Taster Training Skills - Over two days you will learn the principles of professional beer taster training. We will teach you how to deliver a 15-session taster training course in your own brewery and evaluate the results. You will learn how to deliver training in the area of sample evaluation, flavor identification, and beer quality assessment, facilitate successful training sessions and provide constructive feedback to trainees. As a result of this training you will be able to teach others how to assess the flavor quality of commercial beer samples and be aware of the areas you need to improve upon to develop your skills in the future.