Taste Envelope - Attack, Sustain, Decay, Release

Rammelkamp · 02-02-2007, 04:50 AM

Ever since I began learning about brewing beer I have been tasting a lot of different types of beer from all around the world, I have noticed that different beers have different temporal reactions. Using the musical model of envelopes (ASDR) Attack, Sustain, Decay, Release, is a good way to think about it.

How do beer aficionados explain these qualities of beers?

Sustain, Decay, and Release could be considered "after-taste", but do people ever further discriminate based on how the time aspects of the sensation of beer "taste" effect the drinker?

Sir Humpsalot · 02-02-2007, 11:16 AM

I too notice more than just taste and after taste. In fact, I kinda like the way you describe it.

**Orfy** · 02-02-2007, 11:45 AM

The old aroma mouth swill and swallow bit hey?

I just know I like it. I can't really get into that in depth stuff like some of the winies do.
I just like to brew well and enjoy. I know what I like.

zoebisch01 · 02-02-2007, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orfy

The old aroma mouth swill and swallow bit hey?

I just know I like it. I can't really get into that in depth stuff like some of the winies do.
I just like to brew well and enjoy. I know what I like.

I am kinda with you orfy, but there is merit to localizing what you like because then you can more easily adjust your recipes to bring out those characteristics. That is kind of how I develop my stuff. The first shot is usually an educated guess, and from there begins the refinement process. I find that if I know what element I am missing and want, I can figure out a way to introduce that to my beer (I apply this to food as well). But all in all, I try not to get too technical about it.

**Orfy** · 02-02-2007, 11:56 AM

I agree.........

Sir Humpsalot · 02-02-2007, 01:45 PM

My ESB is a good example. I had an "americanized" ESB at Goose Island and it was fantastic. It had a lot of hefeweizen character- estery, banana clove sweetness, as I recall, but then with undeniably hoppy sustain and release. It started like a hefeweizen, turned into a doppelbock for a brief fraction of a second, before becoming progressively more bitter until it finished like a citrusy IPA.

I tried to replicate that recipe as best I could. I began by cheating and using cascade for aroma, thinking that it would guarantee me more citrus-ness and also accentuate the malt that you taste earlier on.

As it turned out, my recipe did EXACTLY what I wanted it to do... except the color was off, the clarity was off, the cascade was way too over the top, and the malt character wasn't estery at all- It had none of the hefeweizen character that I was hoping for. I used .75 oz target(60), 1 oz Willamette(30), and 1 oz Cascade(0.2 ounces at 5,4,3,2, and 1).

So now I have my target in sight, but some fixing to be done. I will cut the Cascade to half an ounce. I will add some low-AA Kent or Fuggles for a little more ESB character, and maybe try some other steeping grains (I only used crystal 10L) in order to get more complexity and mouthfeel from the malts.

Incidentally, the head on the beer is AMAZING!!! (I might have overcarbed

) They are in the fridge after 5 days with a FG (after priming sugar) of 1.020 (1.017SG before).

But yeah, it's fun to localize and separate the individual things you like.

**david_42** · 02-02-2007, 02:16 PM

See if there's a BJCP class available locally. They know all the buzzwords.

**Evets** · 02-02-2007, 09:40 PM

Sounds like a musician.