The Guild and the Laboratory: Shifting Sensory Regimes at Stockholms Bryggerier in the Early Twentieth Century.

Abstract

This article engages with scholarship on sensory history, techno-science, and the political economy of taste, illustrating how flavor evaluation became an industrialized, professionalized practice through a case study of Stockholms bryggerier, a Swedish brewer. Through these shifts, the brewing industry redefined taste as a techno-scientific concern, reshaping professional roles and positioning sensory assessment as a critical site of negotiation between traditional craftsmanship and scientific authority in twentieth-century food industries. From the late nineteenth century to the 1930s, Stockholms bryggerier shifted from a "guild regime" of sensory judgment, led by traditionally trained brewmasters, to a "laboratory regime" grounded in techno-scientific methods. Central to this transformation was the difference test, which standardized flavor assessment amid political tensions between Sweden's temperance movement and the brewing industry over beer's alcohol content and sensory appeal. This article shows how the difference test transformed sensory practices into a politically and scientifically mediated process.