Sensory profiling of canned lager beers using consumers in their own homes

Abstract An advantage of free-choice profiling for the sensory characterisation of foods and beverages is that it can, in principle, be carried out with inexperienced consumers. The technique will work best if consumers are regular users of the product range to be investigated, are allowed to familiarise themselves with the products, and are allowed to develop and score these products using their own vocabulary of terms in the situations in which they would normally use the products. This implies free-choice profiling in consumers' own homes. In the study reported here, 19 consumers profiled a range of 17 canned lager beers in just such a way. The results of this profiling agree well with previous ‘expert’ profiling of similar products and, in addition, yield a vocabulary of consumer relevant descriptors.