palate.

[Chippy_Tea]

I posted something similar to this elsewhere in the forum and as the member who posted the thread has the same problem i wondered how widespread it is -

I used to be a lager drinker and after trying a pint of my lads BrewDog Punk IPA (he had a keg at Christmas) and enjoying it decided to buy some bottles from Bargain Booze, i have been working through their list and believe me i haven't found one i do not like, this could be because all the ones i have tried are excellent or (and more likely) my palate is so screwed i cannot tell the difference between good and bad, i can tell a slight difference between each beer but if you asked me to describe what i can taste i wouldn't know where to start..

 

[shepp]

I'd like to do a beer tasting evening with someone who knows what they are talking about.
I know good beer but I could do with some help on tasting notes.
Only thing is I'd probably have to travel to East London and suffer the company of bearded hipster types who will probably start moaning about Brexit after a couple of halfs.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If you could find someone like Hoddy i think it would be a cracking few hours but as you say you could end up with a right prat.

(I only chose Hoddy as an example as even thought i do not brew i find his videos interesting)

.

 

[strange-steve]

I think it's something that comes naturally with experience, although it can take a while. Before I started brewing I was a lager drinker and tbh all beers tasted the same to me. But the more beer styles you taste, the more you start to pick up on the differences, and rather than simply pouring a beer and thinking "yeah that's a good beer" try to pick out individual flavours. This is easier if you consciously think about different flavours one at a time and ask yourself if that characteristic is in the beer. So is this beer bitter, is it sweet, is it dry, is it citrusy, floral, earthy, fruity, can I taste chocolate, coffee, caramel, toffee, biscuit etc. Another good way to pick out flavours is to get two different beers which are the same style and taste them side by side and note what is different and what is similar.

 

[wagum]

Yes my palate is not very good as i was also a larger drinker to fairly recently and i am only just begining to pick things out. But i think i will keep things simple, if i like a beer that's good enough for me 😀

 

[braziliain]

I'm truly awful at picking out flavours. I do think though that since I've stated to brew my own, I've noticed more. Going to home brew club was good as there was lots of tasting similar beers and spotting the difference as Steve says.

 

[Ale]

Malty and/or hoppy is the starting point. I hadnt thought about which was which before I came on here but then started to recognise the hop part and am becoming a hop head and being able to recognise different hop flavours.

Lager is fizzy dishwater that people drink to get pissed rather than a decent drink in my opinion. I really love my beer atm. I dont drink that much but really enjoying what I do have.

 

[geetee]

I think I posted a flavour wheel somewhere here once before. It's a device used in breweries to get consistency in their beers from batch to batch. it described the main flavours you might get in a beer and I found as a novice when training the best way is not to just think it's malty or hoppy but go through a list of flavours one by one:

is it malty
is it grainy
Is it caramel or toffee
it is roasted or burnt
Then the hops:

is it floral, fruity, citrusy, earthy or just overall hoppy

Once you have done this a few times it becomes sort of ingrained and you are"training" your palate and taste memory of what the dominant flavours are. You can score these on the flavour wheel to give a characteristic shape for each beer and it is helpful in focusing in on individual flavours
It is something that needs practice ( at least that is MY excuse) and what better way than drinking beer repeatedly and talking about it!

 

[wagum]

I think I posted a flavour wheel somewhere here once before. It's a device used in breweries to get consistency in their beers from batch to batch. it described the main flavours you might get in a beer and I found as a novice when training the best way is not to just think it's malty or hoppy but go through a list of flavours one by one:

is it malty
is it grainy
Is it caramel or toffee
it is roasted or burnt
Then the hops:

is it floral, fruity, citrusy, earthy or just overall hoppy

Once you have done this a few times it becomes sort of ingrained and you are"training" your palate and taste memory of what the dominant flavours are. You can score these on the flavour wheel to give a characteristic shape for each beer and it is helpful in focusing in on individual flavours
It is something that needs practice ( at least that is MY excuse) and what better way than drinking beer repeatedly and talking about it!

Not seen this before might give it a whirl

 

[dps51]

I was a ale drinker for years.Then one day I went into aldis and they had no ale so landed up buying a larger
so was drinking that for a few years which was not to bad. till I started brewing again now back drinking ale which I like the best
so yes you do need a good palate to taste the difference in all type of ales lagers out there till you find one that you like

 

[Leon103]

It comes with time.

Now if I have picked up something I don't like I usually think to myself why am I bothering drinking this. If I get to that point I know its rubbish and get rid, got plenty of choice, no point drinking something rubbish.

 

[WillFrites]

I was my village local's ale tester while I was there, as they knew I'd be honest with them. However I never tended to look for individual flavours but go for is it heavy or light, refreshing, warming, bitter, sweet. Try to keep it fairly general as everyone picks up different nuances.

 

[brisboy]

Aside from the interesting tasting wheel posted, there's a number of interesting tasting sheets online for beer tasting. Very useful to help develop an understanding of what flavours define the beer your drinking.

 

[serum]

This sort of thing comes with time. The more I drink the more I notice but then once you've had a few different things tend to come through as well.

It's pretty important as a brewer because you need to be able to compare what you make with the sorts of beer you're trying to make and know what the flaws are so you can improve.

 

[Graz]

As an aside I had a forced spell off the booze a couple of years back as I had a health scare, got put on medication to help with anxiety (due to the health scare) and couldn't drink much while I was on it so pretty much gave up.

After a couple of months off the booze and a diagnosis that wasn't cancer I eased back into drinking, and remember having a whisky on my Birthday, I'd had this whisky before so not new to me but suddenly I could taste so much more in it, pick out individual flavours, elements, etc.

Therefore, in my case at least, it seems like too much boozing actually worsens your palate.