Guild of Beer Sommeliers How to Judge Beer and Understanding Off Flavours

In preparation for the Beer Sommelier assessment, I attended the How to Judge Beer and Understand Off Flavours. As a professional brewer, I was already familiar with many of the off flavours and their sources. What completed the picture for me was being able to experience these aromas through the flavour standards. It also highlighted which aromas I’m more sensitive to and which ones I struggle to sense. Not having access to flavour standards to practice with at home will add to the challenge of this part of the assessment, but having a good understanding of what aromas I should look for will have to be enough . I have also had the opportunity to use a range of judging criteria from the CAMRA scoring rubric to BJCP scoresheet so I was familiar with the formats. Using each of these formats to judge the quality of beer really illustrated how you can come to different conclusions about the quality of a beer based on the grading scale and weight of each category. From my perspective, the organisation of beer into styles is vital for drinkers to set expectations for their experience, and therefore we should judge a beer against the guidelines of that style. It’s one thing to make a delicious and high-quality beer, but is it delivering what’s expected? This is why it’s advantageous for brewers to constantly taste their beer, seek feedback from customers, and even submit their beers to competitions to get feedback from expert tasters to continue improving and honing their craft.