Year of Aroma
Build your sensory skills—all year long.
Four guided sensory experiences. 48 aromas. One year of deliberate aroma practice.
What is Year of Aroma?
Smelling gets better with practice. But knowing how to practice makes a difference.
Year of Aroma is a year-long guided beer sensory training program built around four live online workshops and deliberate aroma practice.
Every three months, we'll explore a different part of beer's sensory world—from malt and Maillard reactions to botanicals, fermentation, and fruit. Collection participants receive 12 aroma standards for each workshop, giving you 48 opportunities throughout the year to smell, compare, describe, and connect what you're learning with what you perceive.
No guessing what you “should” smell. No memorizing a flavor wheel.
Instead, structured practice designed to help you build a more useful sensory vocabulary and understand where those aromas come from in beer.
Choose Your Experience
Experience - $199
Learn by smelling along
Join all four live 2027 workshops and receive the supporting workshop materials, plus 12 aroma standards for each session. Smell along with 48 aromas throughout the year as you build your sensory skills and deepen your understanding of beer aroma and sensory vocabulary.
INCLUDES:
Everything in Digital
48 aroma standards
12 standards shipped before each quarterly workshop
Smell along during live sessions
Digital - $79
Learn with what you have available.
Join all four live 2027 workshops and receive the supporting workshop materials. Bring your own aroma references, follow along without them, or use the sessions to deepen your understanding of beer aroma and sensory vocabulary.
INCLUDES:
Four live workshops
Workshop recordings
Digital workshop materials
Collection - $279
Build your own beer aroma library as you learn.
Receive 12 curated aroma standards before every workshop, plus the Aroma: Explore the Wheel collector box and a 100-aroma reference booklet.
INCLUDES:
Everything in Experience
Aroma: Explore the Wheel collector box
Printed 100-aroma reference booklet
Space to build your complete aroma library
Need another way to make Year of Aroma work?
Year of Aroma is eligible for Collaborative Access, which lets you exchange time or skills for part of the cost. Collaborative Access can also be used when purchasing Year of Aroma as a gift. Learn about Collaborative Access →
FEBRUARY 9
MALT, MAILLARD, & ROAST
Explore how malting, kilning, Maillard reactions, caramelization, and roasting shape the aromas we describe as malty, sweet, and roasty.
The Four Quarters
MAY 11
BOTANICAL BEER
Explore the overlapping sensory worlds of hops, herbs, spices, and flowers—and practice distinguishing botanical aromas from one another.
AUGUST 10
FERMENTATION & MATURATION
Follow the aroma beyond raw ingredients into yeast expression, alcohol, aging, wood, spirits, and other developed characteristics.
8 P.M. EASTERN · RECORDINGS INCLUDED
NOVEMBER 9
FRUIT: COMPARE & CONTRAST
Finish the year by putting similar fruit aromas side by side and sharpening your ability to distinguish citrus, stone fruit, tropical fruit, and red/dark fruit.
What Comes With The Collection
Your collection grows with you throughout the year.
Start with the Aroma: Explore the Wheel collector box, the complete 100-aroma reference booklet, and branded materials. Before each workshop, you'll receive a set of 12 curated aroma standards selected specifically for that quarter's topic.
After the workshop, add those vials to your collector box.
By the end of 2027, you'll have 48 aroma standards you haven't just collected—you've actually practiced with.
How It Works
Choose your experience.
Digital, Sensory Experience, or Collection
Get ready for each quarter.
Sensory Experience and Collection participants receive their aroma standards before each live session. Digital participants can join with no materials required.
What You’ll Learn
Year of Aroma isn't about memorizing 48 correct answers. It's practice in how to smell.
Across the four workshops, you'll practice:
noticing similarities and differences between aromas
moving from vague impressions toward more specific sensory language
connecting aromas to beer ingredients and production processes
separating recognition from identification
building aroma memories through repeated exposure
describing what you actually perceive rather than searching for a predetermined answer
The goal isn't a perfect nose. It's a more practiced one.
Give a Year of Aroma
Choose the experience that fits them.
Choose from:
Digital—$79
Sensory Experience—$199
Collection—$279
Year of Aroma was designed to be easy to give—even when you don't know the recipient's shipping address.
If you choose the Sensory Experience or Collection, you can provide the recipient's shipping address at checkout, or let them claim their gift later and tell me where to send their aroma standards. Collection gifts purchased before the holiday shipping deadline can also be shipped to you first, so you'll have the collector box, 100-aroma reference booklet, and gift materials to put under the tree.
Shopping later? No problem. Every Year of Aroma option includes a printable gift certificate with a QR code your recipient can use to claim their gift and provide any information needed for their experience.
Their first workshop isn't until February 9, so you can give an entire year of sensory training right up through the holidays.
Want to give Year of Aroma, but the full Collection price isn’t workable?
Collaborative Access is also available for gifts. Exchange some of your time or skills for part of the purchase price. No proof of financial need required—just good faith.
Who It’s For
Year of Aroma is for curious beer people who want to become more deliberate tasters.
You might be studying for a Cicerone or BJCP exam, working behind a bar or in a brewery, judging beer, homebrewing, or simply wondering how other people manage to find all those things in their glass.
You don't need advanced sensory experience. You don't need to be “good at smelling.”
You need to be willing to practice.
Dates & Shipping
February 9 · May 11 · August 10 · November 9, 2027
All workshops begin at 8 PM Eastern. Recordings are included.
Sensory Experience & Collection participants: Your quarterly aroma standards ship before each workshop.
U.S. orders: Physical registration closes two weeks before each workshop.
International orders: Physical registration closes six weeks before each workshop.
Digital registration: Available through the workshop date.
FAQs
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No. The workshops are designed to build sensory skills through practice, whether you're relatively new to beer tasting or already have significant experience.
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No. Recordings are included. Attending live gives you the opportunity to smell and learn along with the group, but you can complete the experience on your own schedule.
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Most vials contain food-grade flavorings made with ingredients that are approved by the FDA for use in food flavoring applications.
Ingredients for most flavorings include natural and artificial flavors, propylene glycol, water, and/or ethyl alcohol.
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Yes, with an earlier registration deadline for physical aroma sets. Webinar-only participation is also available if physical shipping isn't practical.
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Absolutely. Collection purchases include access to a printable gift certificate and a recipient claim process, so you don't need to know the recipient's shipping information when you purchase.
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Digital includes all four live workshops and recordings. Experience adds 48 aroma standards shipped quarterly so you can smell along. Collection includes everything in Experience plus the 100-vial collector box and collection materials for building a permanent aroma library.