Educate my palette!

[zooper]

Hi, my beer knowledge doesn't really extend past John Smith's, Boddington's, and Belhaven Best, so I could really do with educating as to what's-what when it comes to tastes.

Back when I lived in Yorkshire, a local pub served what was then my favourite beer - Marston's Pedigree. I liked it because it wasn't very sour/bitter tasting, and for some reason tasted quite 'meaty' - I would describe it to my friends at the time as 'Sunday dinner in a glass'. Since moving to Scotland I haven't seen Pedigree anywhere, so went back to drinking the widely available but not very adventurous Smith's, Boddington's, and Belhaven Best.

I went to the York Brewery tour recently whilst on a short break and tried a pint of their 'Scrum Down' beer. It's a limited beer for the Rugby World Cup, so I can't get it anywhere up here - not even mail order as far as I can tell. It was the nicest beer I've ever tasted - it had the same savoury 'meaty' taste that the Marston's Pedigree did but was even less sour and much more of a gentler taste. Quite nutty, even bread-like. I haven't tasted anything like it and I've been buying bottle upon bottle of different ales since returning to Scotland to find something that matches it, but I haven't managed to find anything that comes remotely close. Everything tastes way too bitter/sour, too fruity, too rich, and nothing I have found has the same mild savoury/meaty/nutty/bready flavour that Martson's Pedigree had and that Scrum Down completely nailed on the head.

So, could anyone help me get terminology and flavours correct so that I know what to look for when sampling other beers to find a substitute? I know that 'maltiness' is supposed to be the sweetness, and 'hoppiness' is supposed to be the bitterness or the sourness, but strangely the Scrum Down was neither particularly bitter nor particularly sweet... it's a very unique flavour to me. Can anyone point me to a guide for this flavour/terminology quandry that I face? If anyone can offer any recommendations of beers for me to try, I'd also take those with gratitude

Thanks!

 

[Wendy1971]

did you try york brewerys guzzler? we made a similar beer a while back and it was very much the same

 

[tubthumper]

if your in scotland have you tried the froch heather ale I think that has close to what you are describing but not exactly

 

[prolix]

Zooper there are lists of tastes etc but everyones palete is slighlty different and tastes things to a greater and lesser extent, they best way is hard you have to drink lots of beer and find out what suits you. :party:

I prefer slightly maltier, low bittering, hop flavoured beer, but others call them bland and tasteless and they like in your face astringent tongue shrinking hoppiness and over the top malt flavours to balance it.

hops have lots of different flavours as well, some people like to experiment. I like to sup large quanities of good session beer. each to their own.

In short find out what you mouth likes and drink that! :

I drink Doom Bar by the way I used to drink pedigree, 6x, london pride and all the mid flavoured beers

 

[zooper]

Thanks everyone for the advice and information!

@wendy1971
We saw Guzzler, but didn't try it - I tried the Scrum Down and my wife tried Centennial (so by default, I also tried it Are you saying Guzzler is similar to Scrum Down?

@tubthumper
Our local supermarket (Asda) don't sell the Froach Heather, but I think I've seen it in Tesco, so we'll be switching supermarkets for the weekly shopping this weekend :)

@prolix
We sound like we like the same sort of beer! I'm going to look for Doom Bar and the others you listed this weekend too.

 

[markp]

The taste you are descibing sounds like a function of the yeast to me.
I drink quite a lot of York Brewery 'Guzzler' and 'Yorkshire Terrier'.....I live about 15 miles from York and can get it in quite a few pubs round about.

I started indentifying the beers that I really enjoy and then try to create a recipe along the same lines. With a bit of work and googling you can usually find out the ingredients.....getting the quantities right and the hopping schedule is the hard bit.
I then make the brew several times, tweeking the recipe as I go and usually trying out at least a couple of yeasts.

Yeast is often overlooked when it comes to thinking about flavour profiles and different yeasts can produce maked flavour differences fermenting the same wort.