The beer swaps we ran in 2020 as a club taught us a lot, but one of the key outcomes those that participated took from it was how we as a group became more calibrated at tasting beers. Despite this however, we discussed the subjective differences in perceptions from our natural or nurtured palates. This led to a discussion about how as brewers we could develop our capability to taste our beer, not only for off flavours, but for other aromas, flavours and textures in the beer to develop our brewing techniques and recipes.
Class One
Malt, including the malting process, types, adjuncts, kilning and the styles with which different malts are associated.
Class two
British hops, and the differences in aroma and flavour from new innovative varieties aimed and challenging American equivalents. This was following a great talk from Simon Parker a UK hop farmer from West England who distributes to Charles Faram and recently developed a new hop variety Opus (CF182).