Question For Supertasters

[AlanC]

Hi Everyone, I am a supertaster. (See, for example, https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/feb/12/are-you-a-supertaster ) In other words I'm one of the unlucky 25% who can detect a horrible taste in certain foods and drinks that others cannot taste at all. My partner can buy two different pints for us to try, and both taste fine to her, but one tastes completely undrinkable to me. And she cannot guess in advance which one I will find find tastes absolutely horrible. It is common for supertasters to hate arugula (rocket), dark green cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and unsweetened black coffee. If you are a supertaster yourself, have you worked out which ingredients to omit from your home brew recipes? I particularly like olds (such as Theakston's Old Peculier and Harvey's Old), porters and Spingo Special. I would be extremely grateful for any help as I would greatly prefer not to throw away gallon after gallon of home brew while I find out what has that horrible taste in many beers. Thanks in advance, Alan

 

[Larse]

Not a supertaster, but looking at your list of common foods that supertasters hate, I can't help noticing that these are mostly bitter or peppery strong tasting foods. Does this carry through to beer for you? Are bitter beers anathema?

 

[jof]

I would greatly prefer not to throw away gallon after gallon of home brew while I find out what has that horrible taste in many beers.

I don't think I'm a super taster.
But if you are looking at All Grain brewing, you could reduce your losses by experimenting with 1 gallon small (stovetop) brews until you work out what works for you.

Use the search function to look up "small batch" and/or "stovetop".

 

[YeastFace]

The three brassica all contain compounds called glucosinolates. Not sure about coffee.

The beers you listed would appear to have low hopping rates. I can't find anything about hops containing glucosinolates, but may be worth looking into?

Of your list I love everything apart from sprouts.

 

[AlanC]

Not a supertaster, but looking at your list of common foods that supertasters hate, I can't help noticing that these are mostly bitter or peppery strong tasting foods. Does this carry through to beer for you? Are bitter beers anathema?

Hi Larse, It doesn't translate like that, I'm afraid. Because I can't eat arugula (rocket) the first thing that non-tasters ask me is 'Don't you like the peppery flavour?' I absolutely love pepper. Only another supertaster will understand. Imagine saying you don't like too much yellow in paintings, and a colour-blind person starts asking you about which are the shades of grey you don't like... Unfortunately for us, there is a taste that certain foods have that we can detect. And it is a curse, because that taste is simply foul!

Not a supertaster, but looking at your list of common foods that supertasters hate, I can't help noticing that these are mostly bitter or peppery strong tasting foods. Does this carry through to beer for you? Are bitter beers anathema?

 

[Larse]

I actually have Dave Line's recipe for Old Peculier right here. I'll list the ingredients he uses.

15L strike water
2Kg Dark malt extract
250g Crushed Roast Barley
250g Crystal Malt
1Kg Dark brown sugar
60g Fuggles hops
5 Saccharin tablets
100g Black treacle
Brewers yeast.

He boils the extract with the grains and hops for 45 minutes, rinses the spent grains with about 4L of boiling water, adds the sugar (dissolved in boiling water) and then tops up to 25L with cold water before adding the yeast. Ferment as usual for ale. He doesn't give an OG or FG, just 6% ABV. The treacle is used for priming!

Very simple recipe and quick to make.

Of possible note to the OP: Very low bitterness about 24IBU, also quite sweet with saccharine and treacle.

 

[AlanC]

I actually have Dave Line's recipe for Old Peculier right here. I'll list the ingredients he uses.

15L strike water
2Kg Dark malt extract
250g Crushed Roast Barley
250g Crystal Malt
1Kg Dark brown sugar
60g Fuggles hops
5 Saccharin tablets
100g Black treacle
Brewers yeast.

He boils the extract with the grains and hops for 45 minutes, rinses the spent grains with about 4L of boiling water, adds the sugar (dissolved in boiling water) and then tops up to 25L with cold water before adding the yeast. Ferment as usual for ale. He doesn't give an OG or FG, just 6% ABV. The treacle is used for priming!

Very simple recipe and quick to make.

Of possible note to the OP: Very low bitterness about 24IBU, also quite sweet with saccharine and treacle.

Thanks so much for that. Greatly appreciated.

I actually have Dave Line's recipe for Old Peculier right here. I'll list the ingredients he uses.

15L strike water
2Kg Dark malt extract
250g Crushed Roast Barley
250g Crystal Malt
1Kg Dark brown sugar
60g Fuggles hops
5 Saccharin tablets
100g Black treacle
Brewers yeast.

He boils the extract with the grains and hops for 45 minutes, rinses the spent grains with about 4L of boiling water, adds the sugar (dissolved in boiling water) and then tops up to 25L with cold water before adding the yeast. Ferment as usual for ale. He doesn't give an OG or FG, just 6% ABV. The treacle is used for priming!

Very simple recipe and quick to make.

Of possible note to the OP: Very low bitterness about 24IBU, also quite sweet with saccharine and treacle.

 

[Larse]

Thanks so much for that. Greatly appreciated.

No problem.

I suspect the issue for you is hops. Beer is quite simple really with normally only three ingredients. The bitterness in that recipe would match (say) Carlsberg, but Carslberg would have a greater hop flavour due to the much lighter malts used.

You could probably make a lager or a light ale but you'd probably have to experiment with the IBUs. Maybe start with 10 or 12 and work up or down depending on how it feels. I'd say NEIPAs would be out of the question, but you never know. Maybe some of the fruitier hop flavours might work for you.

 

[Clint]

So,do super tasters all "dislike" the same stuff?
I don't think there's anything I've tasted (food) that I definitely wouldn't eat again,providing it wasnt obviously off,rotten or vastly over salty..or I'm struggling to think of anything!
There's stuff I have less preference for but I generally appreciate it for what it is.
What makes me laugh is when people say they don't like something even though they never tried it but they know they won't like it...they probably won't like it coz it's not beige and doesnt come in a plastic tray.