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**kombat** · 01-13-2013, 02:31 AM

This morning I brewed the "Common Room ESB" recipe found elsewhere on this site. Right before I drained the (cooled) boil kettle into the fermenter, I drew a gravity sample to see where my O.G. was going to land. It was a little low, but not enough to worry about. I removed the hydrometer from the sample tube and prepared to taste the sample. I knew what to expect, and suddenly it occurred to me.

This is incredibly rare.

Not only was I about to taste unfermented wort, but I KNEW what it should taste like. That's extremely rare.

Duck a l'Orange is a pretty exotic dish, but if you live in a reasonably-sized metropolitan area and have $50 to blow, you can taste it. Likewise with truffles, pho, or calamari. They're not your everyday cuisine, but any Joe with the cash can find out what they taste like.

But unfermented wort isn't sold anywhere. There are no restaurants you can go to to taste it. Pretty much the only way to taste it is to make it yourself, or have a relationship with a homebrewer. I'd be so bold as to suggest that less than 0.1% of the population has ever tasted wort.

So why would you take your gravity sample, and then just dump it out? It's absolutely not going to be harmful to you (it was just boiling 15 minutes ago), and such a tiny sliver of society will ever taste such a thing - why not taste it and gain a palate for wort?

I'm not saying I'd ever come inside after a hard day of physical labor and crave an ice cold glass of flat, unfermented beer, but I suddenly realized how extremely rare it is to know what to expect as I raised that sample cylinder to my lips.

Just some random musings. Thoughts?

bb239605 · 01-13-2013, 02:39 AM

That is a very cool thought and one that is quite accurate. While my taste for wort is not that high, it is a cool thing to think about

DocScott · 01-13-2013, 02:46 AM

Your dentist will thank you for this post!

trent · 01-13-2013, 03:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kombat

But unfermented wort isn't sold anywhere. There are no restaurants you can go to to taste it. Pretty much the only way to taste it is to make it yourself, or have a relationship with a homebrewer. I'd be so bold as to suggest that less than 0.1% of the population has ever tasted wort.

I don't think this is true. Isn't Malta basically unfermented malt?

EDIT, it is unfermented malt. So I hate to say a large portion of the world has had it. Even as a mixer it gets used.

**MalFet** · 01-13-2013, 03:26 AM

Malta Goya is pretty popular around my neck of the woods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta_Goya

edit: too slow!

blefferd · 01-13-2013, 02:28 PM

I thought every body drank the gravity samples while brewing and fermenting lol.

I like to drink the beer or apfelwien that sits right on top of the yeast cake also, I call it Rams Piss

**swackattack** · 01-13-2013, 02:53 PM

I tasted wort before brewing once. A local brewery (full pint) had a beer tasting at a bar and they brought grains for us to chew on and wort to taste. Kind of cool

**kombat** · 01-13-2013, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trent

I don't think this is true. Isn't Malta basically unfermented malt?

EDIT, it is unfermented malt. So I hate to say a large portion of the world has had it. Even as a mixer it gets used.

Huh. How 'bout that. I've never heard of that.

**BBL_Brewer** · 01-13-2013, 05:34 PM

Chuckling to myself. I misread the title as "incredibly toxic"

Nightshade · 01-13-2013, 05:38 PM

I always taste my wort samples, I have gotten to where I can tell if my recipe is turning out correctly by the taste of the wort (for my repeated brews)