Looking to hone your sensory skills this year? Don’t miss the 2026 Craft Brewers Conference® (CBC®)!
Each of the three brewery production experiences—small, microbrewery, and regional—include at least one interactive sensory component. Hops, malt, cider, beer, and thiols are on the schedule to help you expand your understanding of these key products.
Explore the Science of Thiols
Tying It All Together: Linking the Science of Thiols to Sensory and Practical Brewing will include a live sensory exercise to gain a deeper understanding of how measured amounts of thiols translate to aroma quality and intensity in beer and explain how to effectively use science and sensory to craft better beer.
Dive Deep into Craft Malt
Maximizing Craft Malt: Leveraging Malt Steeps for Recipe Development will build upon the Hot Steep Method, the established sensory approach to evaluate malt, by taking the method to the next step, steeping an entire malt bill. In addition to tasting individual hot steeps of an array of malt types, participants will design unique malts bills, perform and taste a hot steep, and discuss the final result.
Beyond Beer: Cider Tasting
Ready to go beyond beer? Understanding Cider Styles Through Guided Tasting will identify the distinguishing characteristics of four major cider styles and teach you practical evaluation tools to assess cider quality and detect common flaws. After attending this exercise, you’ll be able to describe cider styles and quality factors to staff and customers.
Meet the Newest Public Hop Varieties
We saved hops for last: Hop into the Future: Meet Vera and Thora, The Latest Public Hop Releases from USDA-ARS features two new public hop varieties that were released in 2025, Vera and Thora, from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) public hop breeding program. The session will include hands-on sensory of Vera, Thora, and other public hops.
A second come and go session, Public Hop Sensory Evaluation, is an exclusive opportunity to taste and evaluate seven beers, crafted by Firestone Walker using the same base beer recipe and brewed with seven different USDA-ARS experimental hops from the Hop Quality Group. This is an interactive experience utilizing Sample Ox to collect participant feedback. Afterwards relax with a beer brewed with the new public variety, Thora, while you network with fellow CBC attendees.
Register for the 2026 Craft Brewers Conference and we’ll see you in Philadelphia April 20-22!
