You love to drink beer, and you wish you could make a living sipping on a cold one. Becoming a cicerone or a brewer is a romantic idea, but both have a steep learning curve. Thankfully, there happens to be something in between. Researchers at the University of Nottingham are looking for professional beer tasters.
According to the Nottingham Post, one of the objectives of this research is finding out how alcohol content and the time can potentially affect aromas and flavors in beer. To help answer these questions, they are recruiting and training people to be able to single out specific odors and flavors. The beer industry is trying to learn more in order to improve the quality of their ingredients, brewing processes, and ultimately, their beer.
After training, beer tasters will be able to identify a coffee flavor in a stout, pick up on the malt of amber ale, or smell the pine of a beer using Mosaic hops. Not only will these professional beer tasters help answer some of the researchers’ questions, they’ll learn exactly what smells and tastes are at play in their own favorite pint of suds.
Becoming a professional beer taster is the perfect opportunity for someone who wants to learn about the many complexities of all different styles of brew. It’s exciting and seems like a dream come true. However, it does require a certain amount of labor and learning.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of beer is the variety. There are so many different styles ranging from hefeweizens to IPAs to stouts, and so much more in between. New kinds of beer are produced constantly — New England IPAs, anyone? Consequently, it takes time and practice to learn how to recognize and distinguish the aromas, flavors, and bodies of such a vast pantheon of beer.
The University of Nottingham’s project is expected to last three to four years. Learning the tastes of beer over the course of a few years as a professional beer tasting sounds like one of the best ways to do it.
