CHICAGO – In January, the Cicerone Certification Program began shipping new flavor training products designed with the small brewery in mind. The new kits provide a turnkey package for training and validation of an in-house taste panel on a budget that small brewers can afford. Cicerone developed the new products in partnership with AROXATM, an international leader in beverage sensory technology.

The new Taste Panel Training kit comes with two sets of 15 key brewery off flavors, but it also includes a suite of resources delivered through AROXA’s SensCheck software that allows any brewery to develop a working quality control program.

“Brewers can buy off-flavor standards many places,” said Ray Daniels, Director of the Cicerone Certification Program, “but once you receive the flavor standards, the real work begins deciding how to use them effectively. The resources included with this new kit walk brewers through program development, planning and instruction that would normally require many days of work. The kit also logs each taster’s results into a database to track their performance.”

After training is complete, users can become validated tasters by using the Cicerone Panel Validation Pack to verify each taster’s ability to identify the off flavors. Cicerone will maintain a roster of validated tasters so that breweries have third-party verification of their taste panel’s qualifications.

“We have worked for years to help ensure good handling and service of beer and as a part of that, we began offering off-flavor training products to the industry. These new products extend our mission by giving small brewers access to all the tools they need to establish a quality control taste panel.”

Some brewers have already had an opportunity to preview this training program through seminars conducted at the North Carolina Craft Brewers Conference and in conjunction with Cigar City brewing in Florida, said Daniels.

The new line of taste panel kits will fall under the Flavor Training by Cicerone brand umbrella.

The Cicerone Taste Panel Training Kit trains on: acetaldehyde, acetic acid, butyric acid, chlorophenol, diacetyl, DMS, ethyl acetate, 4-ethyl phenol, geosmin, H2S, isoamyl acetate, isovaleric, lactic acid, mercaptan, and metallic.

About The Cicerone Certification Program:

Founded in 2007 by brewer, author, and beer educator Ray Daniels, the Cicerone Certification Program seeks to ensure that consumers receive the best quality beer at every service occasion. To facilitate this, those who sell and serve beer are encouraged to acquire knowledge in five areas: 1) Keeping and Serving Beer; 2) Beer Styles; 3) Beer Flavor and Evaluation; 4) Beer Ingredients and Brewing Processes; 5) Pairing Beer with Food.

To this date, more than 60,000 individuals have been certified through the program.