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Dream job? Actually, beer tasting is hard work
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Wang Juan’s daily job is to drink beer, but she’s no drunk. Wang, who works at the Songjiang factory of Tsingtao Beer, is one of the few women in China accredited as beer sommeliers.
She’s an expert in beer production, flavor, taste, aroma and food pairing.
“An acute sense of taste and smell are prerequisites of my job,” she said. “It takes years of training and experience to be able to accurately distinguish various beer flavors and styles.”
Tsingtao Brewery Co, based in the Shandong Province coastal city of Qingdao, is China’s second-largest beermaker. Founded in 1903, the brand holds about 15 percent of the domestic market and is also popular overseas.
As she spoke, Wang poured beer into a glass in the factory tasting room, which is kept at a constant 15-25 degrees Celsius and insulated from noise and odors.
Beer tasting may not be quite as sophisticated as wine tasting, but you can’t just swill brew down, Wang said. Then she demonstrated the proper process.
First, a small sniff to detect any untoward odors.
Then the glass is swirly slightly to open up the aromas, loosen carbonation and test head retention.
Two more quick sniffs. Wang then inhaled the aroma.
Time for tasting. She sipped the beer. No big gulp. She retained the brew in her mouth for a few seconds to allow it to permeate the entire palate. At this point, Wang said, she can detect sweetness, saltiness, acid and general bitterness.
A quiet environment is imperative so that the beer-taster can concentrate, she said.
There is more to taste than one might imagine. A single beer can contain almost 800 flavor substances, including the alcohol, lipids, fatty acids and sulfides, Wang said. All the flavors need to be in harmony for the perfect brew.
“If one flavor is too distinct from the others or if it sets off odors, we call the beer ‘flavor-flawed,’” she said.
The China Alcohol Drinks Industry Association initiated a beer sommelier rating system five years ago, adding new flavor substances since then to the rating test for tasters.
A beer-taster with an advanced national rating is required to be able to distinguish more than 40 flavors and different densities.
“It requires more than 10 years of beer-tasting experience and takes at least half a year to practice for the test,” Wang explained.
Every day from 2-4pm, tasting teams congregate in the tasting room of the Tsingtao factory in Songjiang. A team, which usually comprises 12 members, spends up to three hours tasting and analyzing beers.
Each sommelier has a tasting list that includes about 30 samples of beer, drawn from daily production, market stocks and competitors’ brews. Tasters also need to sample raw ingredients like filtered water, syrup, rice water, malt water, wort and liquefied carbon dioxide.
Each tasting is noted down according to batch numbers. Sometimes the team of beer-tasters discusses its finding.
“Tasting more than 30 samples can easily numb olfaction and gestation sensitivities,” Wang said.
Outsiders might consider beer tasting a plum job, but Wang said it actually requires some personal sacrifice. She isn’t allowed to wear perfume, use fragrant skin lotions, or eat spicy and strong-flavored foods, including onions and garlic.
Wang said she has to put herself in a soothing mood for at least two hours before tasting. Too much excitement or physical exercise can adversely affect taste and judgment, she said.
Wang said all workers in Tsingtao’s quality control department are required to take gustation sensitivity tests. There are national standards for “quality beer,” but flavors are hard to standardize in statistics.
“The indexes used in the lab are limited.” She said. “Some beers meet national standards, but they don’t taste good. That’s where we come into the process.”
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