Found a Julian-style date code on your beer? Use this free Beer Julian Date Decoder to translate day-of-year codes into calendar dates and figure out how old your beer is.

Buying beer for sensory practice takes a little more strategy than grabbing the right style off the shelf. Learn how to check beer freshness, where to find packaging dates, how to decipher common date codes, and how old is too old for sensory evaluation.

What happens when what you expect to perceive starts shaping what you actually report? Logical error occurs when sensory evaluators assume that two characteristics must go together—sweet means fruity, dark means malty, bitter means hoppy. Learn how these mental shortcuts influence sensory evaluation and how to separate what you perceive from what you merely expect to be there.

One of the questions I get asked most often about palate training with flavor standards is how to distinguish acetic acid from lactic acid. This exercise demonstrates several methods and includes a DIY option.

We perceive bitterness chemically through our sense of taste. We perceive astringency physically through our trigeminal sense. While understanding that two different systems are working to detect bitterness and astringency is helpful in theory, the reality is that these sensations are still happening in one small area at the same time - our palates, namely our tongues.

It’s kind of like saying a snake is venomous, not poisonous. Nice to know, but that doesn’t really help you when you’re staring at a snake that looks like it wants to hurt you in one way or another.

Okay, technically, this is a brewing technique and not a sensory technique. However, it is also an effective method for preparing malt steeps from dark grains, especially for a large group.

The cold water extraction technique was developed in the early 2000s by Mary Anne Gruber during her time as the Director of Technical Services for Briess Malting Company.

While it’s great if you have someone or someones in your life who is willing and able to assist with your sensory sessions, it’s not always the case that someone is available to assist. You don’t have to forgo a rich sensory session because you’re by yourself. This comes up most often when setting up blind beer tasting panels, because it’s hard to do a “blind” tasting when you’re the one preparing the samples.

Knowing how much beer to buy and how many cups you’ll need for a beer sensory exercise can be overwhelming. Here you will find calculators for beer volume, cups needed, and more. Great for group beer sensory and beer palate training at home!

The Jen Blur Method is a great beer sensory exercise that not only builds your beer style discrimination skills but also helps you become a more confident blind beer taster. The Jen Blur Method can be adapted to varying skill levels, from those looking to train their palates for beer tasting to those preparing for beer exams such as the Cicerone or BJCP tasting exams.

Using random 3-digit numbers for your beer sensory panels or beer tasting exam practice means that you’re not unconsciously biasing yourself or others. Random 3-digit codes allow for impartial evaluation.

Believe me when I tell you that doing the preliminary work of making, printing, and affixing labels to cups and other things is the difference between a well-organized beer sensory session and a confusing mess.

The hop tea method is useful to assess the potential dry-hop aroma of hops. For those studying for beer exams with a tasting component, such as Cicerone, BJCP, or WSET, hop teas are a great way to learn more about hop aromas and distinguish among hop varieties.

The hot steep method for the sensory evaluation of malt and other grains is the best way to learn more about how malt contributes to the finished beer.