Sensory testing brings a systematic approach to the art of beer tasting. It might seem daunting, but it can be implemented as well in cask and craft breweries as it can in multinational, multisite businesses. Will North talked to James Clarke of Hook Norton to learn how the science of taste can be used on a smaller scale.
In this third article in our series on sensory testing, we’re turning our attention to smaller breweries: local craft and cask producers, working typically from a single site. We learned in the first article in this series some of the foundations of a systematic approach to flavour and aroma. In the second article, we saw how some of the world’s biggest brewers ensure consistency across multiple sites. Smaller breweries, with a single site and a smaller staff, need not be put off by the science: the same approach can be adopted, tailored to the style of beer you brew.
We’re drawing on the insights of three of the same experts we met in the first two articles: Genevieve Upton of Cara, Tom Brown of FlavorActiV, and Phil Douglas of Brewlab. But we’ll be led through the process of implementing sensory testing at a smaller brewery by a man with beer in his blood: James Clarke of Hook Norton, whose great-great-grandfather established the family brewery more than 175 years ago.
Team building through tasting
Taste is subjective. Almost all of us will be anosmic—nose blind—to at least one element of flavour. But even a small staff will provide enough variety of tasting abilities to work as a team to identify a beer’s flavour profile and confirm its quality.
That’s what Clarke has done at Hook Norton. “I’m a big believer in actual tasting of beer,” he says, “With cask ale, we’re brewing a perishable food product with a relatively short life once it’s been brewed. We just needed to empower our team more. We’ve all done some taste training before, but I wanted to bring [that knowledge] together.”
Clarke did this by bringing in team members from across the business, including not just the production team, but also sales and front-of-house staff members. “If you can take people out of their day job for a few hours to give them some investment in their learning that generally resonates very well,” he says. “When we’re tasting, there’s no hierarchy. There’s a group of three, four, or five people, and every opinion is considered. If someone disagrees strongly, it doesn’t mean they are wrong: we take a consensus.”
Bring in the experts
To help build his team’s tasting expertise, Clarke turned to Brewlab. The company’s joint managing directors Alison and Phil Douglas have made the 250 mile trip down to the brewery from their headquarters in Sunderland.
The two experts’ skills complement each other. While Alison looks after the hard science of microbiology, Phil brings a systematic approach to the sometimes more subjective art of tasting. “We have a reasonable well equipped lab here,” Clarke says. “But the laboratory very much works in tandem with the sample room.” At Hook Norton, there is a back and forth interplay between the lab, and the sample room next door, with insights from one feeding study in the other.
The Brewlab team shape their teaching of flavour evaluation to the needs of each learner. “They’ll tailor it,” Clarke says. “Sometimes someone needs a fundamental knowledge of beer quality and flavour. Then there are members of the brewing team who want a bit more understanding.”
Given the distance from Sunderland, it makes sense for the Brewlab team to stay overnight. That allows for a different type of knowledge sharing. “Then we have the opportunity in the evening to have those more informal discussions,” Clarke says. “That can be every bit as beneficial as the sit down, classroom-y sessions.”
Brewlab, with its small team, offers a very personal approach. But small brewers can benefit too from working with larger scale flavour experts like Cara or FlavorActiV. Both companies have local teams that can work with breweries around the globe. And their stable, soluble, flavour compounds, available in packs tailored to a particular beer style or brewing challenge, can be used to provide regular training and upskilling at breweries of any size.
Take your taste buds on a journey
A primarily regional brewery like Hook Norton stands on its local reputation. Clarke sees Hook Norton’s beer as being about, primarily, the social aspect of drinking. His beer doesn’t aim so much at those drinkers who want to experiment with halves and thirds of new beers, but those who are seeking a pint—or three—of the regular, in their local. So consistency is key.
“You need to make sure that when the person gets to the bottom of that class of beer, it’s as good as their first sip,” he says. To do this, Hook Norton combines sample testing in the brewery, with drinking pints in the pub. Every fortnight, Clarke will join two or three other team members on a tour of local pubs. Each will focus on one beer, having a pint or two at each stop. Now, with a new alcohol-free beer in the Hook Norton range—which we’ll look at in the next article in this series—even the designated driver can take part.
Build competence, build confidence, build collaboration
Hook Norton’s beer is sold largely through the free trade. Independent landlords give Hook Norton a route to market, and locally run pubs can provide the atmosphere that is, for Clarke, such a vital part of the beer drinking experience.
But working with independent businesses like this means there is much that is outside of Hook Norton’s control. Brewing and serving cask ale takes collaboration. “The trickiest part of cask ale is distribution,” Clarke says. “And it’s the last six feet that is the hardest. We have to be present to get that right.”
That can lead to some tough conversations. No landlord wants to be told they are mistreating the beer in their cellar. But good training in sensory testing and flavour evaluation, across the team, can help.
“It gives people confidence,” Clarke says. “When you’re challenging a landlord on a flavour basis, you’ve got to be confident. You’re obviously not going to say this beer is wrong, it tastes dreadful.” By understanding flavour, and what specific flavours can tell you about the pint’s history, the Hook Norton team can take a more collaborative, but still confident, approach.
“You can say, I think there might be a flavour problem here,” says Clarke. And that knowledge can feed into the next, helpful, question. “How long has the beer been in the cask? How long has it been on sale? Has it had time where it has escaped the temperature controlled supply chain?”
Flavour, without the alcohol
Hook Norton has recently been building on its well established reputation with new beers, aiming to deliver the same flavour profile, but with less alcohol, and now an ale with none at all. It’s a journey many breweries are now embarking on, and one that we’ll look at in the next, final, article in this series.
