Brewing Dilemma

So, I've come to a brewing dilemma. I made my first extract beer and I can't decide what I think of it. It may be ok, maybe a little bitter from the water I used, but it could also be infested with bacteria and clearly terrible. I feel like I have a very narrow pallet when it comes to truly enjoying a beer and I'm worried this will hinder me. I still like the creative process, and the idea of people getting drunk on my concoction. I need to refine my pallet. How?

Strive to do everything you read about and implement one at a time and evaluate outcome....Use bottled water next,,,next start using steeping grains....next a yeast starter.....

drink more beer, drink lots of different styles of beers, read up on the various off-tastes that you can get, brew lots, eat some of the raw grains and chew on some of the raw hops. just start teaching your brain to pay attention to what your mouth is tasting. taste your hydro samples, and don't get discouraged if it's not what you expect at first. the beer will change many times over the course of fermenting and conditioning. take good notes on what you're tasting and go over them.

Brew another 2 or 3 beers. My first beer sucked but all of the rest have been pretty good and a couple are really good. Your process and hence your beers will get better. Just keep brewing.

I agree, drink more beer that you are not used to drinking.
I have had some, like pale ales, that I thought were terrible because i was not used to the real hops flavor and bitterness, after a while not only did i get used to the flavor, I grew to like it.

Developing your beer pallet is easy, just drink more beer! When you go to buy beer push yourself to try something new

I felt the exact same way after my first brew. I still can't remember how I got into brewing, I never really had beer other than Miller High Life and Guiness at that time. When I had my first homebrew I felt like I had good beer but just didn't know it. Well, it was a terrible beer from a really old extract kit but it sort of woke me up to the entire world of beer. At that point I started drinking a lot of beers that I never heard about read about or even seen before.

Then it became okay why does my beer taste like this or how do I make my beer taste like this?

I think a good idea would be to have a look at the homebrew competition categories and learn about what kind of beers there are out there that people are making. Use BeerAdvocate.com see which beers are highly rated in each category and try to find those beers.

Yep, drinking more beer sounds like a solution to your problem. Not a bad solution to have to deal with either.
I'm not sure what is available where you are, but if you can try to keep finding different styles of beer to taste.
Back when I bought beer, I would pick up a half case of anything new to me that looked good.
I still look for anything new and interesting when I actually get a chance to go to the bar.
I even got my buddy who drank nothing but Bush beer to start buying moosehead after I brought that over to his house one time.
Now he loves all kinds of good beer, but prefers mine.

How long ago did you brew it? When I tried my first brew after botteling and letting it carb up for 3weeks than chilling for a day, I wasn't impressed at all. 2weeks later it was great tasting beer.

From the beginning I kept a tasting diary. For commencial beers, I would write my initial impression and whether I liked it or not. For my home brews I would note tasing impressions after 4 weeks conditioning, 6,8, etc. That will help you understand what the effect of time is on beer, and will help you be patient. A lot of brewers get discouraged because they drink their beer green and think it sucks. Its really just too young. The experience evolves gradually and without you really realizing it. I remember my "lightbulb" moment when I went into a restaurant and ordered a commencial beer. I took a sip, put it down and told my dining companions " you know, this is pretty good but would be even better with a half pound of light chocolate malt" then we all laughed. I suspect Guiness would be none too happy to take suggestions for improvements from the likes of me!!! (my guiness clone has a half pound of chocolate malt in it, you betcha!!!)

Drinking a ton of styles can be difficult if you are buying cases of expensive beers only to realize you don't care for them. There are quite a few stores around me in Maryland (and even some in PA, which is crazy if you know the byzantine alcohol laws PA has) that allow you to buy individual bottles and create your own 6 pack.

Also, try to find some beer festivals or homebrew festivals to get yourself introduced to more beer styles/beer culture. Brew pubs are good places to learn too. The brewer is almost always around at the smaller ones, and they love talking about beer, giving you samples, and just basically trying to educate you.

Search bjcp for homebrew style guidelines and the archetype beers they are based off of.

Reading about the history of beer and beer styles is kinda cool for me, Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher is a good place to start (the last halve, just going over styles, gets a little drawn out, but still a good read). You'll learn not only about beer, but wine and food and flavors in general.

also, let your beer sit a little longer, the changes are amazing, one week it tastes terrible, the next it's amazing. Just brew another one while you wait.

I appreciate the responses. I have been letting some of the beer sit longer as you have suggested. I do have a store in PA that I go to where I have been building various 6 packs and that is helpful.
I think that I am not a huge fan of most hoppy beers. Sierra Nevada was ok. Then again, I did have like 3 of them at the bar and not one with a well paired meal.
I'm just worried that I can't get behind my hoppy beers because they all taste kinda not great to me. Or maybe I just need to try more IPAs etc.

Another question is, do I have to follow the guidelines. If I use anything besides hops to bitter the beer then its really not beer anymore? Can I never enter into competitions or call it beer?

palate.

meznaric said:

I appreciate the responses. I have been letting some of the beer sit longer as you have suggested. I do have a store in PA that I go to where I have been building various 6 packs and that is helpful.
I think that I am not a huge fan of most hoppy beers. Sierra Nevada was ok. Then again, I did have like 3 of them at the bar and not one with a well paired meal.
I'm just worried that I can't get behind my hoppy beers because they all taste kinda not great to me. Or maybe I just need to try more IPAs etc.

Another question is, do I have to follow the guidelines. If I use anything besides hops to bitter the beer then its really not beer anymore? Can I never enter into competitions or call it beer?

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You can definately do that, read up on gruit ales. But anything you substitute for hops is most likely going to add bitterness too, and it won't have the same shelf life, hops are preservatives afterall.

I suggest you brew some lower ibu beers and work your way up. When I started I couldnt enjoy hop bombs either. It took awhile but eventually APAs grew on me and now I'm at a point where a IIPA is a welcome sight. Just don't worry, time will solve your dilemma.

And also take everyones advice and keep drinking.

meznaric said:

I appreciate the responses. I have been letting some of the beer sit longer as you have suggested. I do have a store in PA that I go to where I have been building various 6 packs and that is helpful.
I think that I am not a huge fan of most hoppy beers. Sierra Nevada was ok. Then again, I did have like 3 of them at the bar and not one with a well paired meal.
I'm just worried that I can't get behind my hoppy beers because they all taste kinda not great to me. Or maybe I just need to try more IPAs etc.

Another question is, do I have to follow the guidelines. If I use anything besides hops to bitter the beer then its really not beer anymore? Can I never enter into competitions or call it beer?

Click to expand...

No, Its your beer, you certainly do not have to follow the guidelines. However, remember that the hops taste is not a constant thing. 1 oz of 5.5 AA hops at 60 minutes is going to be much more pronounced in a pale ale , whereas in a porter it may not even be noticable. Using the style guidelines as a STARTING POINT will tell you where you are. I usually adjust the hops to be a point or 2 BELOW the style recommendation. Also, I have found many recipies here on the database that trend several points ABOVE the recommended IBU. Likewise, I adjust to my taste. The important thing is to understand where your palate is so you can make these type of adjustments.

One thing I did when I first started brewing and experimenting with craft beer was to pick up a little tasting guide book called "33 bottles of beer" It is a pocket-sized softcover notebook that allows you to take detailed notes on beer that you taste. It has a handy template for analyzing the different flavors in each beer. I found it to be very helpful in helping me identify which styles of beer I prefer. This, in turn, helped me decide which styles I wanted to brew. Much like you, I am not a huge hop-head. I have found that I love Belgian styles, Porters, Stouts, Scottish styles, and almost any beer on the malty side of the hoppy/malty spectrum. Just find out what you like and brew that. No need to force yourself to drink/brew IPA, if that is not a style that you prefer.

Our tongues are pretty good at telling us what tastes good and bad. What you brewed may not be the perfect example of its style (and likely isn't) but as long as you're not spitting it back out you did a fine job with it.