Developing sensorial capacity and the descriptive vocabulary with BJCP help

One of my main weaknesses when it comes to beer evaluation has always been sensory analysis. I used to be satisfied with saying, ‘This one’s sweeter!’, ‘This one’s more bitter!’, ‘This one’s undrinkable!’ (thankfully, there were only a few like that). But to reach anything close to the level of a judge, we need to go well beyond that. And like almost everything in life, the sooner we start, the better. This is even more true here, because as we live, we start associating flavors and aromas with specific things, and this sensory record goes on to make up our sensory memory. The more we live, the more we experiment and make associations that often aren’t useful when it comes to sensory description. For me, for example, the common lagers we find in the supermarket smell like ‘beer.’ From the very first time, that aroma has been associated with beer in my memory. But it’s time for that to change, and to talk a little about this shift, today I’m going to describe all the parameters that make up a BJCP scoresheet.

To start, we need to remember that there are only a few tastes we can identify: sweet, bitter, sour/acidic, salty, and umami. And when we think of beer, much of it boils down to sweet, bitter, and sour/acidic. By studying, we can see that each of these can be directly related to an ingredient in beer: sweetness generally comes from the malted grains; bitterness usually comes from hops; and sour/acidic flavors are often related to the choice of yeast (or to beer contamination 😂). But, of course, it’s not that simple. Bitterness can come from roasted grains, similar to coffee. We can get fruity sweetness from adjuncts or even the yeast itself. In short, the fact that beer flavors can be complex is one of the reasons it’s so fascinating to study (⚠️maximum beer geek alert⚠️).

And suddenly, I might have to change the title of this post, because, really, the sensory analysis development of a person in their late 30s involves deconstructing their sensory memory 🤦‍♂️. Going back to the lager example, I have to say it was quite challenging to perceive and reframe these aromas and flavors in my mind. As a rule, the lagers we find in supermarkets are beers with very subtle aroma and flavor (interpretations of ‘American Lager’ or ‘International Pale Lager’ depending on the country you live), and detecting and finding descriptors for them was the biggest initial challenge. So, how can we overcome it? By practicing! This involves not only tasting beers but also getting to know and trying each descriptor separately. But what do I mean by that? What are these descriptors?

Crop from a checklist of BJCP beer scoresheet.

Institutions like the BJCP define specific descriptors to standardize the sensory analysis of beer. In the image above, we can see a beer scoresheet checklist. In other words, this is not the actual scoresheet a judge uses in a beer competition. This checklist is primarily intended for training less experienced judges. Looking at this checklist, we can consider each of the descriptors and, while tasting, identify whether they are present in a more structured way. On the left side, there are boxes marked L for low, M for medium, and H for high to indicate the intensity of each aspect of the beer. After completing the checklist, we move on to filling out the scoresheet, which uses only text. By repeating this exercise many times, we begin to fill out the scoresheet directly without needing the checklist anymore. The existence of this type of form, translated into various languages, highlights the BJCP's mission to assist in the training and development of new judges. However, practicing descriptor recognition doesn’t only involve drinking beer; we can also practice using the descriptors themselves. For example, in relation to malt, we often start by thinking about cereals and bread, as bread is also made with cereals. Then, depending on the malting process, the beer’s aroma and flavor can bring notes of raw dough, the crumb of baked bread, and/or the several intensities of toasted crust. Therefore, we can train our sensory memory by smelling and tasting bread dough, bread crumb, or bread crust separately. This week, when I made my 'Dark Mild Ale,' I took the opportunity to taste and smell the malts before brewing. It’s incredible how much difference and depth of flavor and aroma can come from the 'same' barley grain. Familiarizing yourself with the aromas and flavors of the individual ingredients helps us understand the process as a whole.

Now, let’s talk specifically about the parameters included in the BJCP scoresheets. The ones that are fairly intuitive and that I’ve already been describing in the evaluations I’ve done are aroma, appearance, and flavor. We could say that aroma is the 'nose' of the beer, that is, what we detect with our sense of smell. Appearance refers not only to the 'color' of the beer but also its clarity and the famous foam head. And flavor is the 'taste' of the beer, and it’s important for the beer to travel across our entire palate so that all receptors are stimulated and the information is sent to the brain. For both aroma and flavor, we use the descriptors shown in the image above. Finally, there are two aspects I’ve been omitting from the analysis: mouthfeel and overall impression. These parameters are a bit more complex, and I wanted to discuss them in more detail first.

Mouthfeel includes the beer’s body, carbonation, alcohol warmth, creaminess, and astringency. Body is usually described as the beer’s viscosity, where a light or low body is similar to water, and a full or high body is similar to molasses. Of course, no beer has the viscosity of molasses, but the perception of a fuller body can be related to the presence of unfermented sugars and some proteins. To practice perceiving a beer’s body, it’s useful to start with two extreme examples of light and medium-full body, such as a Budweiser and a Guinness, respectively. While Guinness has that mouth-filling sensation, Budweiser is much lighter, partly due to its body. Then there’s carbonation, another fascinating parameter. If we continue with the example of Budweiser and its supermarket lager 'cousins,' most are highly carbonated. This carbonation was one of the tricks the industry developed to keep the drink appealing even without significant malt or hop flavor, as it creates a refreshing sensation, especially when served very cold. However, carbonation is perceived as a kind of tingling or fizzing sensation on the tongue and gums. Then we have alcohol warmth, which is quite intuitive—anyone who has ever had a shot of tequila or vodka knows this sensation. But in beer, we can find examples with high alcohol content (7%-8% ABV) that don’t leave any warmth in the mouthfeel—these are the most dangerous ones, haha. Creaminess, on the other hand, refers to a smooth, silky sensation, like a liquid that seems to massage your tongue. Again, Guinness serves as an example, especially the canned version with the nitrogen widget—it’s mouthwatering! Speaking of mouthwatering, we arrive at its opposite: astringency. Astringency generally creates a dry mouth sensation and is a moderate characteristic of the only Brazilian style included in the BJCP: the 'Catharina Sour' (still considered a regional style). As you can see, describing mouthfeel is a complex task—and it’s not even everything.

The final parameter to be evaluated is overall impression. Here, we describe the experience of tasting the beer as a whole. A good exercise is to try describing the beer to an audience unfamiliar with beer, avoiding generic comments like 'good aroma.' Usually, we discuss the positive points in simpler terms and highlight how well the beer aligns with the style being judged. Lastly, this is also the space where the judge points out any flaws in the beer and suggests changes to better fit the style, which is one of the main goals of the process. These are all the parameters that must be described in a BJCP evaluation. There are other details, like assigning scores to each of them, but this post is long enough already. When I’m closer to taking my practical exam to become a judge, we’ll discuss the BJCP scoresheet in detail. If you have any questions or want to know more about sensory development exercises, send me a message! Until next time!