The visual appearance of beer: A review concerning visually-determined expectations and their consequences for perception

Abstract

This review critically evaluates the literature concerning the impact of visual appearance cues (including colour, foam, and cloudiness) on people's perception in the beer category. The authors assess both the sensory expectations that are elicited by the visual appearance of beer, and the extent to which those expectations carry-over to influence the actual tasting experience. Beer is a particularly intriguing category to study since the differing production rules in different countries mean that there is not always the same scope to modify the colour in order to meet perceived consumer demands. What is more, there is currently disagreement in the literature concerning the impact of beer colour and foam on people's expectations of beer prior to tasting, and their multisensory flavour perception on tasting. Given how much beer is consumed annually, it is surprising that more research has not been published that assesses the undoubtedly important role of visual appearance in this beverage category. Part of the reason for this may simply be that it is difficult to create consistent experimental stimuli given the rapid transition of the head of the beer post-serving.

Development of an Araucaria araucana Beer-like Beverage: Process and Product

“…However, the oat-piñon prototypes scored lower in visual appearance than the 1:1 barley-piñon prototypes, which can be attributed to the lower foam retention of the oat-piñon prototypes. This is consistent with other studies that report that a moderate level of foam stability is preferred to low stability [38].…”

Visual expectation of craft beers in different glass shapes

“…It is possible to construct expectations (which may be conscient or not) regarding the taste of a food or drink based on the multimodal associations (Wan, Woods, Butcher, & Spence, 2015). This way, if the difference between the consummating clues and the anticipatory clues is small enough, the experience of taste is fixed in the visual expectations (Van Doorn, Timora, Watson, Moore, & Spence, 2019). Therefore, the expectations regarding a portion of food or beverage can impact the evaluation and consumption of the people for this product (Piqueras‐Fiszman & Spence, 2014; Wan, Woods, et al, 2015).…”

“…It is also interesting to observe that beer consumers of distinct nationality and sex also have different expectations regarding beers (Van Doorn et al, 2019). Donadini et al (2016) studied Italians, Polish, and Spanish consumers regarding their expectations for beers of different colors.…”

Brewing on an industrial and a craft scale – impact on the physicochemical properties and volatile compounds profile of the pale pilsener-style lager beer analysed with HS/GC-MS

“…at. ( 2019) study it was confirmed that, as the colour intensity of beer increased its rated ability to quench one's thirst decreased [32]. Given that thirst-quenching quality of Pilsener-style lager beer is of great importance to consumers due to their wish to drink refreshing beer, it should be concluded that industrial beers in terms of colour intensity are of superior quality to craft ones.…”

“…The assessment of beer's appearance incorporates, amongst others, colour intensity and clarity, which both significantly affect hedonic response, while drinking beer. If the expectation and the visual experience during drinking differ, then beer quality may be rated negatively right from the beginning [32]. In this way, regardless of the manufacturing scale, it is generally best to produce beer with appearance attributes that match the typical characteristics of a specific beer style.…”