Conversation at my mother's house...
 

So the wife and I spent the weekend up in Chicago with my mom, sister, brother, and his wife. Around 9:00 mom cracks open a bottle of Southern Tier Backburner Barley Wine and we sort of share it. It's a decent, balanced beer, with a thick, sweet, roasty malt base and a nice hop aroma to complement it. Not too bitter, but not nonexistent either. After I've had some of it, she goes, "how do you like the barley wine?"

I say, "It's good. Nice and malty."

"MALTY?!" She practically screams. "It's not malty, it's hoppy!"

"Well there's definitely a hop character to it but it's definitely maltier in overall flavor. It's a barley wine, it's supposed to be malty."

"No, Derek. It's hoppy. I don't like malty beer."

And like that, the conversation was over. I wonder if there's any hope.

At least she married your brother and not you, right?

Or were the quotes from SWMBO? :eek:





Backburner is a little more hoppy than most barley wines, though.

My mother, actually. And yeah the hops were definitely not absent, but the initial palate is definitely a malty profile.

Some people just don't have a very developed palate. Either that or some people seem to get some flavours/characteristics mixed up or confused.
A friend of mine was drinking a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and was convinced there was lemon or something in there because of the hops being so citrusy.

Your mother likes sharing Barley Wine and you're wondering this?

My mother likes Amstel Light...feel better now?:D

Yeah geez....YOUR MOM cracked open a Barley Wine...and even knows what the terms malty and hoppy are, and yer bitchin fer chrissakes?

Don't forget taste is subjective...it is like trying to describe red to a blind person, or jazz to a deaf one...It's hard because things that are sense driven, including our tastes, are really subjective....Personal.

Your mom's palate MAY indeed be more attuned and/or sensitive to hops and therefore she detects the presence of it more than you (I'd be curious if she likes or hates IPA's) where the same beer seems more malty to you.

And guess what? You're both right....

This is waaay far away from the "stupid" comments about your beer thread...at least she's not saying she doesn't like dark beers becasue they are all too heavy of something....she likes something less than mainstream, and sort of knows why.

She like Barley wines??? Is she single? How old is she? Is she Hawt?????:D

This rant was over as soon as you said your mom likes barleywine. That has to be one of the coolest mom's I know.

:drunk: Well, OK. Yeah, she loves IPA, almost to exclusion. I'm fairly certain the homebrew porters I brought her will still be there when I visit her again. It seems that, to her, she can't like a beer that isn't a hop bomb, and when I suggest she actually does, gets defensive of the beer... :shrug:

Meh...you're too youn for her...she's MINE...Mine I say. :D

Revvy, Mom is 55, divorced, and in a relationship that she doesn't know how long will last. I will say nothing on the hawtness front but she's the one in fuchsia in my wedding pictures (yourrealyou's photos- powered by SmugMug, http://yourrealyou.smugmug.com/gallery/5757207_vwxEd#355908178_Hw2N7).