Investigation of sensory attributes contributing to beer preference among Koreans by using fuzzy reasoning

Abstract

The sensory attributes which contribute to preferences for different beers amongst Koreans were investigated and ranked in terms of their priority. The priority sensory attributes were those with high contribution weights to overall preference. Three sets of contribution weights of the attributes were determined by fuzzy reasoning from the votes through a survey from the groups of all consumers (group I), lager-preferring consumers (group II) and ale-preferring consumers (group III). In order to investigate the most reliable contribution weights, the overall preferences of 20 beers were sensory-evaluated and compared with those estimated by fuzzy reasoning with the contribution weights. When the contribution weights of the attributes were most reliable, the estimates were equal to the total preferences of the samples. It was found that the estimates from groups II and III agreed with the experimental data better than those from group I. This indicates that the contribution weights from group I were less reliable, most likely because there are several groups of Korean consumers with a wide variety of preferences. Therefore, Korean priority sensory attributes for groups II and III were as follows. For group II, the attributes with the contribution weights in decreasing order were found to be total CO2'>bitterness'>duration aftertaste'>aromatic'>foam volume'>density'; for group III, the contribution weights were in the order of aromatic'>total CO2'>bitterness'>duration aftertaste'>density'>foam volume'. These findings will help develop beers appropriate for Korean tastes. Copyright (C) 2017 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling