By J.J. Olshausen
J. E. Siebel Sons' Co., Inc., Chicago

In order to make this article easier for you to read and save, we have made it a downloadble (PDF) document you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to access. Left click here to read it online or right click here to save it on your computer.

Synopsis:

A great deal has been studied, written, and published about taste-testing, and a tremendous amount of successful effort is continually put forth in the systematization of odor and flavor evaluations for all types of food products, as a matter of quality control and as checks on flavor uniformity and improvement, for the ultimate benefit of the consumer.

For malt beverages such as beer, many types of tests are in use: tests for difference, tests for similarity, twoglass tests, three-glass or triangular tests, preference tests, etc. Statistical significance ratings worked out in the well-known Bengtsson tables (published in E.B.C. "Analytica") and expressed by 1, 2, or 3 stars, are an additional refinement where taste comparisons are involved.

The present paper will not deal with any of these various approaches, but will rather attempt to present certain aspects and their pitfalls. Smelling and tasting have become a science, but a science dealing with human physiology, and humans do not have built-in spectrophotometers or other measuring devices.