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Discriminating Tastes: Testing for Differences in Your Spirits
When distillers need sensory evaluation to identify outliers or differences in samples, look no further than discriminative testing. Here’s how it works.
When distillers need sensory evaluation to identify outliers or differences in samples, look no further than discriminative testing. Here’s how it works. <a href="https://spiritsanddistilling.com/discriminative-testing/">Continue reading.</a>
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Preparation area for a sensory room. Photo: Joe Stange.
So far in this series, we have covered the basic principles of designing a sensory program and running tests. Here, we’re going to zoom in on discriminative testing—the most important type for identifying differences in samples and a powerful tool in the distillery.
First, let’s refresh our memories: What is discriminative testing, exactly?
The Society of Sensory Professionals defines discriminative tests as those “used to determine if there is a detectable difference between products.” Thus, it focuses on the perceived differences among samples by assessors, and it involves the use of statistics to determine whether or not those differences are important.
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Reade Huddleston is director of distillation and spirits for CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective. Huddleston received his masters in brewing and distilling science from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland and has been working professionally in brewing and distilling for the past 11 years in Britain, Canada, and the United States.