Beer tasting palate

[chuff76]

Beer tasting palate? I don't appear to have one :-?

I know what I like, and I know when something tastes 'wrong' or different but I can't really explain why.

I opened a bottle of my first AG this weekend, I did have problems on brewday but it tasted pretty good - I just find it impossible to describe exactly what I'm tasting. I can't really ascertain how sweet or bitter something is unless its very apparent.

I don't suppose this is going to help my brews very much, like making perfume but having no sense of smell. Guesswork, relying on the recipe to be correct rather than knowing how to tweak it myself.

 

[Robin54]

I think I know what u mean, having had a similar experience with a recent brew. Even with commercial beer, sometimes its great sometimes not, and then the mind games start. Its maybe that at a certain age one senses are being less sensitive. I look upon it as if someones hurls a ball at you. when you were 16 you swooped and caught it. Now you look at it, communicate with brain, brain communicates with hands and arms, and then smack..it hits you in the face! I just think as one gets older ones senses are not as sharp as they were and the brain less receptive. These are just 'random' thoughts but Im convinced as you get older funny things start happening that don't seem to have an explanation. Sorry mate...not helped have I??

 

[chuff76]

:thumb: haha cheers Robin, I don't think you're far wrong!

I'm not sure I ever had 'it' with tasting beer though, having been raised on a diet of commercial lager my whole life.

I wish I could sup a bottle and be able to tell you roughly what IBU's it was - Best I can offer is 'thats nice, tastes a bit like such and such' :)

 

[MyQul]

:thumb: haha cheers Robin, I don't think you're far wrong!

I'm not sure I ever had 'it' with tasting beer though, having been raised on a diet of commercial lager my whole life.

I wish I could sup a bottle and be able to tell you roughly what IBU's it was - Best I can offer is 'thats nice, tastes a bit like such and such' :)

I think it's practice. I dont like beer that's very bitter and my favourite IBU:OG ratio is 0.5. I know how bitter this tastes because I usually make my pseudo lagers at this ratio. So if I go into a pub an taste a beer I can tell roughly what the ratio is based on what my own beer's ratio is

 

[Fore]

Reminds me of the Tim Vine joke... I was standing in the park wondering why frisby's seem to get bigger as they get closer to you, and then it hit me.

I suffer this not being sure business. The only way I found of being pretty sure was to do a side by side taste test of the actual beer I'm cloning. On a pre-sample, I was sure I was way way out, then on the side by side I found I was really close. Just goes to show.

 

[Dutto]

Check out ...

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/004013.htm

This may be the problem for a few of us on the Forum ...

"The number of taste buds decreases as you age. Each remaining taste bud also begins to shrink.
Sensitivity to the 5 tastes often declines after age 60.
In addition, your mouth produces less saliva as you age.
This can cause dry mouth, which can affect your sense of taste."
​

If the last two are correct, how come I now drool in my sleep! :whistle:

"Certain things can speed up the loss of taste and smell.
These include diseases, smoking, and exposure to harmful particles in the air."
​

I would also add living in India and eating food that is so highly spiced that a visit to the toilet afterwards becomes a case of "I don't want to do this!" :lol:

I was enjoying a pint of bitter this afternoon when SWMBO arrived with a couple of Ryvita covered with salmon paste and liberally sprinkled with Tabasco.

The pint just didn't taste the same afterwards! I wonder why? :whistle:

 

[HebridesRob]

any of this help?
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=h...&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=rud6V6OsBsmxsQGXnIzYBg

I think some people are just better at it than others, I'm pretty sure I'm one of the worst.

 

[Covrich]

Eating food or certain dinners before you drink can affect how you taste beer.

 

[monkier]

Beer tasting palate? I don't appear to have one :-?

I know what I like, and I know when something tastes 'wrong' or different but I can't really explain why.

I opened a bottle of my first AG this weekend, I did have problems on brewday but it tasted pretty good - I just find it impossible to describe exactly what I'm tasting. I can't really ascertain how sweet or bitter something is unless its very apparent.

I don't suppose this is going to help my brews very much, like making perfume but having no sense of smell. Guesswork, relying on the recipe to be correct rather than knowing how to tweak it myself.

I think its just a matter of experience. Before i started brewing my own i couldn't place beer flavors at all. Now that i've done a few brews i'm getting much better at placing flavors. The more i taste beer i've brewed and know what has gone into the beer, the better i'm getting at picking out the same flavors in other beers too.

 

[The Idiot]

I spent a year making SMaSH beers. Each batch used the same grain bill, but I cycled the hops, using mainly the ones that go into combinations that I like. That got me a whole load better at identifying hop ratios and IBUs.

Often it's all about having a point of reference. I also found that Gordon Strong's 'Brewing Better Beer' did make me better at assessing beer and identifying its good and bad points. I'd recommend it to anyone who's into brewing, and it certainly helps with regard to tasting.

 

[Spoc]

Make sure your nose is clear before tasting as the biggest part of taste is the aroma and don't eat anything for at least an hour before you try it
If you want to test the bitterness and sweetness peg your nose first that way only your taste buds are working on it

 

[geetee]

The Brewlab course has a module for tasting and off flavours and when I started I thought I can't do this. It is amazing how you can train yourself (with some guides) to at least get better at it.
the way to go is not to think what does this taste of but try to do a sort of methodical check list and see if your beer has any of the common flavours: For instance.
Start with something like is it malty, grainy, bready, chocolate, toffee, roast, caramel and by looking for flavours you may or may not find then. Concentrate on each one in turn is it there or not there?

Then move on to is it bitter, Very bitter, dry, full bodied sweetish, sour, vegtable, phenolic,yeasty,cardboard, butterscoth etc

Finally look for the hops flavours: is it just hoppy, grassy, fruity, spicy, citrussy,floral dry ,astringent (lasting very dry bitterness.)
Sound complicated but once YOU start looking for specific flavours the next time you try a beer that one comes straight to you if it's there. First of all identify the flavours and once you get them decide is it slight medium or strong and then you are getting somewhere.
It's like building up a taste and /or smell library. the good thing is it's fun to do as it involves drinking beer,
The bad thing is you can sound like a real pretentious prat if you do it out loud!

The aim for this will be to build up a flavour profile for your beer that can be repeated time after time with the same malty sweetness, hint of chocolate and spicy hops for instance. If you get the same every time then your brewing is indeed consistent, Most big breweries will use a tasting panel to do this and will have a "flavour wheel" with almost 40 different possible tastes/flavours that is typical of a beer.
Example of a simple flavour wheel attached, you can score these 1- 5 from the middle in intensity and join the dots if you want..

 

[MyQul]

Somewhere on 'tinternet theres an article about training your palate to identify beer flavours. No idea where it is though, and it looked quite interesting. Bit of googling?

 

[chuffer]

The bad thing is you can sound like a real pretentious prat if you do it out loud!

"Hmmmmm, I'm getting honeysuckle on a winter's day, with a hint of dutch laughter and an undertone of camel toe"

 

[Spoc]

"Hmmmmm, I'm getting honeysuckle on a winter's day, with a hint of dutch laughter and an undertone of camel toe"

Did you get that from some of them new trendy real ale bars in most of them the bar staff are proper bells :lol:

 

[Dutto]

"Hmmmmm, I'm getting honeysuckle on a winter's day, with a hint of dutch laughter and an undertone of camel toe"

Think of some of the enormous lycra clad ladies that sit opposite you on a bus in Skegness during the summer and I guarantee that every pint will taste of camel-toe! :whistle::whistle:

 

[MickDundee]

When it comes to smell, I think my 2 year old daughter might be a future expert. She's recovering from having her tonsils out at the moment so we've been letting her sit up with us at night and go to bed in our bed (she's about better now so back to the old routine tonight though), and I had a bottle of Hoegaarden last night. She asked if she could smell it and she said "smells of orange". I was impressed!


Obviously I haven't tested her palate with taste, I'm not totally irresponsible!

 

[MyQul]

When it comes to smell, I think my 2 year old daughter might be a future expert. She's recovering from having her tonsils out at the moment so we've been letting her sit up with us at night and go to bed in our bed (she's about better now so back to the old routine tonight though), and I had a bottle of Hoegaarden last night. She asked if she could smell it and she said "smells of orange". I was impressed!


Obviously I haven't tested her palate with taste, I'm not totally irresponsible!

I'm sure a couple of pints wont do her any harm :whistle: (you can probably tell I haven't got kids :lol:)

 

[dan125]

Obviously I haven't tested her palate with taste, I'm not totally irresponsible!

I've let the kids try my beer. It might be irresponsible, but very funny to see the faces that were pulled.
If anything I've put them off beer for life - which will hopefully keep them away from my brew as they get older. :thumb: