BDT 122 - Beer Styles, Sensory Skills, Beer Flavor Evaluation

Credits: 4
Lecture Contact Hours: 4
Description: This course introduces the history of beer, beer styles, and the factors contributing to flavor development and flavor defects. Focus will be given to understanding and evaluating foundation and modern beer styles and the role of ingredients and the brewing process on the final products’ characteristics. Students will critically evaluate 50 beer styles as cataloged by the Beer Judge Certification Program, and their ingredients, using a sensory evaluation process.

Prerequisites: Students must be at least 18 years of age to take this course [MCL 436.1703 Section 703, (13)].
Corequisites:
Recommended: BDT 101.

Course Category: Occupational
Course Competencies

Describe how beer’s history has contributed to the development of modern beer styles.
Discuss the contemporary American Craft Beer industry and its contributions to modern beer styles.
Examine the basic physiology of our sensory system and its relation to how we perceive flavor.
Analyze the four raw beer ingredients, their specifications, and their processing methods for use in beer.
Examine the properties of the raw ingredients and their contributions to beer flavor development.
Evaluate beer using a sensory evaluation process involving aroma, appearance, and overall flavor.
Practice identifying beer flavor descriptors using the Beer Flavor Map.
Correlate the stages of the brewing process with their influence on the final product’s flavor.
Correlate the variety of beer styles with the combination of ingredients, sensory characteristics, and processing methods that distinguish each.
Judge beer using the Beer Judge Certification Program method & criteria.
Analyze flavor, provenance, and prevention of brewing process beer defects.
Analyze flavor, provenance, and prevention of beer service-related defects.