Experiment: Identical Brews with the Haze Gene Present or Absent

In this tetrad test, panelists were instructed to find within their four-beer flights, which two beers per flight were hazy (those brewed with the haze-positive parent strain) and which two were not (those brewed with the hzy1∆ strain). Because this was a sensory panel that aimed to discover differences that also had a visual correlation, samples were served in opaque cups with lids to obscure tasters’ view of the samples. Truly blind, it required them to focus solely on the flavor and aroma differences.

The results showed that our panelists could not ascertain which samples were hazy with any degree of certainty or repeatability. While some panelists did select the pairs correctly, the taster comments revealed that the correct answers may have been lucky guesses: one taster with a correct answer noted, ​“honestly a guess,” while another correct taster commented, ​“I’m having difficulty picking out similar beers.” Across the three panels, the theme of the comments was primarily that all four samples were incredibly similar.