Beer Sensory Class

Two weeks ago, I attended a beer sensory class, taught by Marty Nachel, the author of Beer for Dummies. The focus was on six common flaws or off-flavors. It was a really helpful evening, I thought. If you are interested, I put up some photos and did a write-up on it at http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/The-Blog.html

That's awesome! One thing I have trouble is properly identifying exactly what off flavor I have.
Thanks for the post:rockin:

whitehause said:

That's awesome! One thing I have trouble is properly identifying exactly what off flavor I have.
Thanks for the post:rockin:

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It's remarkably challenging. And part of this is learning what you perceive and how. For instance, I seem to have no trouble with acetaldehyde or oxidation, but DMS is more elusive. Others at the class could pick out the DMS easily, but had trouble with other flavor compounds.

That's the great part of this.....knowing what the off flavor is before you taste it.
So many times you hear "my beer has that homebrew taste". Then others chime in and say " there is no homebrew taste...... it's this, that , or the other thing" Well without knowing what a particular flavor is, how do you know what to correct.

How did you simulate the different flavors?

That's great! How did he "spike" the various beers for the off flavors? I have been looking for a cheap, easy way to add off flavors so I can train my palate better.

Marty used a kit that he purchased from the Siebel Institute. I think you cam buy similar kits through the American Honebrewers Association.

Just looked, the AHA has the kit but its almost $200 for non members. Yikes! I would love to hone my tastes but not at that price. Guess I will live in blissful ignorance

davekippen said:

Just looked, the AHA has the kit but its almost $200 for non members. Yikes! I would love to hone my tastes but not at that price. Guess I will live in blissful ignorance

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Get your homebrew club to buy a kit and have all of the members try it out. Our club did it over three meetings.

davekippen said:

Just looked, the AHA has the kit but its almost $200 for non members. Yikes! I would love to hone my tastes but not at that price. Guess I will live in blissful ignorance

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Ouch!! There has got to be a cheaper way. Maybe brew 1 gallon batches and intentionally try to recreate off flavors?

We did the same kit in the study group I did for the BJCP exam. Probably my favorite part about the entire 3 months of tasting beer. There were some extremely specific ester flavors in there too.

Interestingly enough, I learned that I cannot taste or smell acetaldehyde or diacetyl. DMS flavored Bud Light is pretty bad too!

I'd highly recommend this to anyone that can get a big enough group together to share the cost.


The good thing about this kit is that the flavors are consistent. You might not be able to produce that flavor, or the specific ester. If you want to do it on the cheap, and don't mind playing mad scientist, there is a list on the BJCP website about doctoring beer with common ingredients. Its best to do it with a flavorless lager like Bud Light, Michelob Ultra etc.

Here is a link I found on HBT https://www.msu.edu/user/jundtdus/beer_doctoring.htm
It tells you how to doctor your beer for off flavors on the cheap!!

The doctoring kit from Siebel had enough enough for four classes of ten people each, if I remember correctly, and the cost was similar to the AHA kit. That's five dollars per person per class, plus the cost of the 'light American lager'

Phunhog said:

Here is a link I found on HBT https://www.msu.edu/user/jundtdus/beer_doctoring.htm
It tells you how to doctor your beer for off flavors on the cheap!!

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That is a great website! I feel like I know more about off flavors just by reading about how to doctor the beers!!