Beer tasting notes

[BigYin]

Does anyone do this?

I do wonder if I am just plain rubbish at discerning the different aromas and flavours of a beer

I downloaded a beer tasting guide from a website (billybrew - sign up for their newsletter to get the tasting guide - not overly impressed with the newsletters, but the guide seems pretty good) - and I'm using beers Stevander gave me that he'd brewed from kits as my practise - partly because he's asked for honest feedback, and partly to help ME learn a bit more about the whole art if beer brewing.

Is is just me that can't distinguish the slight flavours that people might use to describe a smell or a taste???

There are all these different words you might use to describe them - earthy, sweet, vanilla, raisins - whatever! - but I just smell and taste beer :lol: :lol: :lol: :wha:

 

[doghouse gav]

Glad to hear you say that it's not just me!!
I must have the worst pallet ever!! As you said all the "undertones" of flavour are completely wasted on me!
My pallet is as follows..... Likey no likey :sick:

 

[Moley]

I must have the worst pallet ever!! As you said all the "undertones" of flavour are completely wasted on me!
My pallet is as follows..... Likey no likey :sick:

Sorry Gav, if I may make an observation before the topic expands and everyone repeats a common mistake, pallets are things used with forklift trucks.

Apart from that, may I join your club please, my palate is also uneducated.

 

[doghouse gav]

I stand corrected!

As for the club.. Your in :party:

 

[Moley]

Having said that, I could definitely detect sweaty socks, horse blanket and balsamic vinegar in some of Unclepumble's supposedly fine (and probably rather expensive) fruity Belgian lambics which were being circulated at the Spring Thing.

 

[Muddy Funker]

I'm rubbish, it normally goes something like this:

Sniff - Smells like beer
Slurp - Tastes like beer

However I had a Tesco Finest Double IPA recently and all I could smell was lychee, fantastic!

 

[graysalchemy]

If you savour your beer when you sip you should get waves of different sensations and tastes which you can then describe. If you quaff your ale and not swill it around your mouth you are not going to experience all the different flavours and sensations the beer has to offer.

I am sure a lot of you who have been brewing and drinking your own beers will notice the difference when you go into a pub a taste what you once thought was not a bad pint, and realise it is not a patch on what you are brewing. If that is the case then your palate is developing.

AG

 

[richc]

Having said that, I could definitely detect sweaty socks, horse blanket and balsamic vinegar in some of Unclepumble's supposedly fine (and probably rather expensive) fruity Belgian lambics which were being circulated at the Spring Thing.

That is because the Belgian brewers have been really clever and redefined everything that is usually a flaw as a feature. This means you can never say that a Belgian beer is wrong, just that it is interesting ;-)

 

[BigYin]

I'm rubbish, it normally goes something like this:

Sniff - Smells like beer
Slurp - Tastes like beer

So glad it's not just me then :lol: :lol: :lol: : : :

I'm going to keep trrying though - purely in the name of science you understand

 

[Muddy Funker]

I'm rubbish, it normally goes something like this:

Sniff - Smells like beer
Slurp - Tastes like beer

So glad it's not just me then :lol: :lol: :lol: : : :

I'm going to keep trrying though - purely in the name of science you understand

Haha, I understand :thumb:

 

[luckyeddie]

I spent about 15 minutes reading one of those 'amateur beer tasters' websites the other day.

Some seem very knowledgeable - others came across as a bunch of pretentious prigs. One chap for instance was bemoaning the fact that he couldn't taste the hops in a Kasteelbier Bruin (my personal favourite - a blistering quadrupel) and marked it at around 1.8 out of 5.

I checked a few of the other beers this fellow had reviewed - if it was a 100+ IBU nuclear hop bomb, it got 5/5.

Yes, he was American.

At the end of the day, it wouldn't be right if we all liked the same thing - that's what the multi-national breweries wanted in the 1960's and 1970's, and it was the rebellion against that cartel-like activity through people like Camra which eventually led to the revival of microbreweries and the revolution in home brewing.