How to brew a Umami tasting beer

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rhoadsrage

rhoadsrage

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I am interested in trying a beer to create a beer that has lots of Umami flavor. Umami is the other taste sensation, like sweat, sour, salty, bitter and umami. I see that Kombu (dried kelp) and shiitake mushrooms have lots of Umami flavor and it can be enhanced with salt.

So I was thinking about a Mild or Porter or perhaps a Gose? Has anyone brewed with Dried kelp or mushrooms as an ingredient. I saw a Shiitake mushroom beer in Radical Brewing but the mushrooms are only added at bottling IIRC.

Thanks for and tips.
 
We've had a few discussions on it that might help you.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/umami-beer-166119/

This is a good discussion of dashi as well. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f56/dashi-148603/

I'm going to think that something like a mushroom or oyster/(or both) STOUT would perhaps be the closest approximation of getting a umami beer.

Here are some of the main umami producing foodstuffs.

* Kombu
* Seaweed
* Katsuobush/Dried bonito flakes
* Niboshi/Small dried sardines
* Bonito
* Mackerel
* Sea bream
* Tuna
* Cod
* Prawns
* Squid
* Oysters
* Shellfish

Of those Kombu has promise to easily add to a boil

Kombu (Kelp)

Kombu is a general term for brown algae. There are various species of algae. Among them, those most commonly used as dashi (Japanese stock) materials are makombu, rishiri-kombu, rausu-kombu and hidaka-kombu which are only harvested around the island of Hokkaido in northern Japan. Kombu, growing 3-10 meters long in two years on the coasts of Hokkaido, is harvested and sun dried on the beach before being shipped. Only Kombu which has matured for two years is used for cooking, as one-year-old kombu, called ‘water kombu’, does not contain the rich components needed for a good flavour.
Click to expand...

These mushrooms,

# Shiitake mushrooms
# Enokitake mushrooms
# Truffles

Bet evidently even sweet potatoes are umami producers.

Truffels sound interesting too.
 
Oh this is cool. Umami Stout Recipe and Blog.

From it.

Questions and Notes for Future Umami Beers

Umami didn’t enhance the aroma from roast malt, but it is supposed to enhance some aromas. What will umami do for hop aroma?

The Umami Stout is definitely noticably more bitter than the control stout. Does the extra bitterness come from bitterness in the kelp? or is it the umami enhancing the bitterness already present from the hops?

I think these questions point to trying an Umami IPA next. I happen to have an IPA ready for bottling right now so it shouldn’t be too long before I can find out how that works out.
Umami Stout Recipe
Grains
Weight (lbs) Weight (kgs) Grain
10 lbs 4.54 kgs 2-Row
1 lbs 0.45 kgs Roast Barley
1 lbs 0.45 kgs Barley Flakes
Hops and Adjuncts
Weight (oz) Weight (g) Ingredient Time
1 oz 28 g Zeus/Columbus whole 90 min
2 strips Dried Kelp (Konbu) 90 min
0.5 oz 14 g Cascade finish
3 strips Dried Kelp Tea after secondary
Yeast

Wyeast 1187: Ringwood harvested from lees
Brewing Schedule

Brewed: 03/07/2009
Racked: 03/14/2009
Bottled: 03/24/2009
Water

No water adjustments to local Pilsen-like water.
Brewing Stats
Stage Time / Temp
Mash In Temperature 149°F 65°C
Mash In Time 75 mins
Mash-Out Teperature 172°F 78°C
Mash-Out Time 20 mins
Sparge Time 80 mins
Boil Time 90 mins

OG: 1.052
IBU: approx. 20
Ferment Temp: 72°F 22°C
FG: 1.014
ABV: 4.5%
Yeast: Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale
Malts: Barley Flakes, Canadian 2-Row, Roast Barley
Adjuncts: kelp
Hops: Cascade, Zeus
Click to expand...
 
Brew a beer, bottle it, wait for autolysis.

Go find a vintage JW Lees or Thomas Hardy's somewhere to see what I mean. Alternately, Dark Lord seems to have this character straight out of the brewery.
 
Randy Mosher has a recipe for "Chanterelle Ale" or something like that in Radical Brewing... I will have to dig out my copy and find it...
 
As an aside, there are a couple other ingredients used in Japan to add umami to dishes, that you can find used in pretty much every household: hondashi and MSG.

I wouldn't recommend either one for beer because either one will probably end up tasting too salty.

kombu, mushrooms, etc. sound much more palatable to me.


Also note that there's plenty of umami in other meat stocks like beef, pork, veal, etc. Revvy seems to be associating the flavor with fish mostly, but you definitely get it from meats. Think of a nice slow-cooked pot roast...it's full of umami.
 
weirdboy said:
As an aside, there are a couple other ingredients used in Japan to add umami to dishes, that you can find used in pretty much every household: hondashi and MSG.

I wouldn't recommend either one for beer because either one will probably end up tasting too salty.

kombu, mushrooms, etc. sound much more palatable to me.


Also note that there's plenty of umami in other meat stocks like beef, pork, veal, etc. Revvy seems to be associating the flavor with fish mostly, but you definitely get it from meats. Think of a nice slow-cooked pot roast...it's full of umami.
Click to expand...

Yeah I left the meat off the list I just couldn't figure out how to translate that into a beer. Most of my umami cooking is meat related, I think a lot of folks equate umami with Japanese food, because they were the first to acknowlege it's existence, but I think anything braised in wine or meatstock or a combination of are rich in it, my Beef Burgundy recipe for example . One of the most umami-esque dishes to me is Greek Lambshanks stewed in tomato sauce and greenbeens, especially if the bone is left in and the marrow breaks down into the sauce.
 
Right well if you want sodium and glutemate...use MSG that's all it is. You're not going to find a richer source of umami. They sell it as Asian markets look for Ajinomoto.
 
weirdboy said:
Right well if you want sodium and glutemate...use MSG that's all it is. You're not going to find a richer source of umami. They sell it as Asian markets look for Ajinomoto.
Click to expand...

I wonder though if people who can't tolerate MSG would be affected. A lot of folks get headaches.

Plus I think it would be more fun/interesting to use something like mushrooms or seaweed to achieve it.
 
Revvy said:
I wonder though if people who can't tolerate MSG would be affected. A lot of folks get headaches.

Plus I think it would be more fun/interesting to use something like mushrooms or seaweed to achieve it.
Click to expand...

i saw a study on that once. they treated like 50 people to a chinese meal, gave half MSG.

long story short, at least with that group, it's all in your head.
 
Yeah, I read something on another website that said "several case studies" showed MSG had the same effect as a placebo.
 
Sorry to bring this one up again. Natural MSG optained via mushroom and seaweed is not like the MSG salt. It is MSG on crack.

So what brings me back to : Dried mushroom (Ceppe, Chantrelle, and Shiitake) when rehydrated infuse the water with nearly a beef like taste. Umami is the taste of "blood", so that's why meat is often associated to umami.

I am looking to add that taste to a beer but I wonder how to do it.
 

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