Flavor Descriptions??

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gibfried

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We all hear these descriptions such as - biscuit flavor, or malty, etc. But what with these flavors. What is a malty flavor??? Or biscuit??? I here it all the time, and don't think anything of it....but here I am trying to make a beer with a biscuit-like profile - and scratching my little head.
 
orfy said:
Tasting like a biscuit??????


LOL. Yep. Tastes kind of like a breadyness but (imo) a little more 'rich' if you will? If you haven't had Biscuits though, it is hard to describe. Seriously though, I have found many of these descriptions pretty accurate. If you have a hard time visualizing them, go and find an example of the characteristic you are looking at and try it. Seriously (not trying to be coy here). And lock it in your mind. Although if and when you do, try to find an unadulterated product. In other words try to find some good biscuits that the ingredient list doesn't include the kitchen sink. Take 'Caramel' for instance. Make some simple caramel by melting some sugar in a pan with a low heat, let it turn a nice carmel color and let it cool. That taste is Caramel. Same thing with Biscuits. Make some fresh Biscuits or find a good commercial example (nothing comes to mind atm).
 
"tasting like a biscuit????" Horse****.

I've been brewing and sampling good beer every chance I get for years now. I just realized that I don't understand all these little tasting terms. I know terms like: dry,sweet,bitter, grassy, piney, etc. What is Malty? What is biscuit-like?

Any help would be much appreciated. I'm designing my own recipes, and run into a wall on this one.

:mug:
 
I'm being serious. It tastes like biscuit.

Like citrusy tases like citrus fruit and appley tastes like apples.
Fruity tastes fruity.
Malty tastes like.....malt......
No mystery.

None of the wine type bull****.

Taste a biscuit then taste some liquid malt. If you can recognise those flavours in a beer you have a Malty, biscuity tasting beer.
 
Is that an American biscuit or an English one?

The ones I like are:
Medicinal. Nice wide range of flavors.
Metallic, cardboard, and cr*p - Who actually tastes these things?

-a.
 
Just drink the stuff if you like good, if not then go figure out what is wrong and sort it.

If you want help then you need terms that people can understand and relate to. You can't explain or ask for help if not. No one knows what you are experiencing in your mouth unless you can describe it.
 
OK, In some seriousness, I actually had the same question awhile back abut the same descriptor... so I took a handfull of Belgian biscuit and I ate it (and spent the next hour picking the hulls from my teeth)... and I could be wrong, but that flavor is now what I call "biscuity."

BTW, I liked it so much I put two pounds of it in a batch and it's.... biscuity. (And quite good.)

cheers, -p
 
O.K. Pretty simple. Maybe I just never thought seriously about the subject. I'll have taste a biscuit, and taste a bit of malt.
 
ajf said:
Is that an American biscuit or an English one?

The ones I like are:
Medicinal. Nice wide range of flavors.
Metallic, cardboard, and cr*p - Who actually tastes these things?

-a.

hehe. But you know a friend of mine shared a good point on those 'negative' tastes and even some of the strange good ones (ie. "Sweaty Horsehair" "Barnyard" etc). Since the sense of smell is so interconnected to the sense of taste you can end up describing the way something tastes in terms of a smell. Kind of strange, but it makes sense if you think about it.

gibfried, it is pretty simple and sounds more odd/difficult than it actually is. One thing I have noticed as a Homebrewer that I didn't notice as just a consumer was the defective sides of many commercial brews (esp. cardboard flavors in improperly stored imports). One of the main aspects of classifying and taste interpretations is that you need to know what to look for in the brew. Once you do, you can almost always pick it out. Some folks argue that some people just have 'better' palates than others in terms of picking out specific flavors/etc. I contend that a sensitive palate is actually recognizing flavors because you are familiar with them, to a large degree.
 
gibfried said:
We all hear these descriptions such as - biscuit flavor, or malty, etc. But what with these flavors. What is a malty flavor??? Or biscuit??? I here it all the time, and don't think anything of it....but here I am trying to make a beer with a biscuit-like profile - and scratching my little head.

Yeah, um, how would we know whether you're scratching your head, when you have no arms?

Just wanted to send out a great big NO PROBALO to a fellow HomestarRunnerite. :mug:
 
gibfried said:
O.K. Pretty simple. Maybe I just never thought seriously about the subject. I'll have taste a biscuit, and taste a bit of malt.

:off: in 28 years of life you never tasted a biscuit?:off:

OK here . . . when you finally find one take 1 bite and get a good taste, then smother the rest of it in sausage gravy with a side order of grits and 3-4 fried eggs (I prefer the eggs over easy, almost runny) you'll be hooked for life
 
Pumbaa said:
:off: in 28 years of life you never tasted a biscuit?:off:

OK here . . . when you finally find one take 1 bite and get a good taste, then smother the rest of it in sausage gravy with a side order of grits and 3-4 fried eggs (I prefer the eggs over easy, almost runny) you'll be hooked for life
I'm right there with ya! Hey, where can I order some "biscuits and gravy" malt? Now we're talkin'!
 
FYO in the "Normal" world a Biscuit is a cookie.

One of these.
biscuit.jpg


NOT one of these.

menu_chicken_biscuit.jpg
 
LMAO on above.

In all seriousness, grab some biscuit, rye, wheat etc grain and chew on it is really a good technique to get a sense for the taste. I do it all the time at the HBS. If you chew sideways like a cow, even more flavor comes out too.
 
orfy said:
:off:
BTW - that looks like a Chick-Fil-A chicken biscuit. If you've never tried one, I highly recommend it! It doesn't sound or look like much, but the combination of a biscuit and a piece of fried chicken breast is really good!
 
orfy said:
FYO in the "Normal" world a Biscuit is a cookie.

One of these.
biscuit.jpg


Yeah that's the kind. I don't eat them often, so I don't know of a good commercial example. But they remind me of bread with a little richness. As opposed to tasting like crackers. At least to me anyways.
 
Go to your LHBS, buy a 2 oz. of each specialty grain that you are interested and steep them, one at a time. Even if they would normally require mashing, the flavors will steep out.
 
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