"I can taste the priming sugar"...huh?

I think you should send me some of your beer and I'll test it for you.



(Gads, am I the only one around here willing to help this poor guy out?)

IrregularPulse said:

So as nice as it is to just take the forum members side and cockpunch the guy, you can't dismiss the off flavor completely as being related from priming sugar.

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Again, Cockpunch the sanctimonious sh!thead. Then give IP one for good measure too!

Seriously though, IP makes a good point. See if you can track down any causes for an off flavor. See if he can identify the flavor in something else.
If you rule everthing else out, then you have good cause to tell your friend that you appreciate his input, but if it's going to be the same thing all the time, maybe he could just enjoy the beer and be quiet.

TeufelBrew said:

Again, Cockpunch the sanctimonious sh!thead. Then give IP one for good measure too!

Seriously though, IP makes a good point. See if you can track down any causes for an off flavor. See if he can identify the flavor in something else.
If you rule everthing else out, then you have good cause to tell your friend that you appreciate his input, but if it's going to be the same thing all the time, maybe he could just enjoy the beer and be quiet.

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I've looked and looked and tasted and tasted, there is no single flavor in my beers that I would say is a consistant taste that my friend might be talking about. No one else has even mentioned it......ever.

T'hell with guy. It sounds like something something worth enjoying. It's like the old guy that sits at the lunch counter, asks about the special, looks at the menu for 10 minutes, then orders the same sandwich every day. I'd just chuckle at the guy a little, maybe inside, and move on.

Either that, or cockpunch him like a piñata.


TL

Try bottling a few separate beers with different sugars and one without sugar. Then have him do a blind taste test.

He might be confusing flavors. I can't tell many of them apart but I can at least admit that.

I assume this guy force carbs/kegs his beer? Is that why he claims to taste it?

I've got a friend that i taught to brew. He's kinda weird that way, too. He doesn't like my Roquefort clone because it is "winey tasting". Whatever. More for me.

NTOLERANCE said:

I assume this guy force carbs/kegs his beer? Is that why he claims to taste it?

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Yep, he force carbs/kegs. He's all snotty about it too.

imaguitargod said:

Yep, he force carbs/kegs. He's all snotty about it too.

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I figured as much.

I keg/force carb as well. But sometimes I ask myself if I shouldnt be adding priming sugar. It a natural way to carbonate beer. Two batches ago, I used priming sugar.

Many (most?? All??) of the recipes, methods and styles of beer we produce are based on the european styles/methods of the last 300-400 years. I dont think that compressed CO2 was around in jolly old England in the 1800's.

To me, youre just making beer the way its been made for many hundreds of years. Might not hurt to remind him of that.

david_42 said:

Once your beer is carbonated, there is NO priming sugar in it. Sounds like he could cover the back forty all by himself.

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I'm sure he could throw a football over those mountains over there too.

It does sound like you just have a snotty friend who mostly likely hates the fact that your beer is better than his even though he has the cool kegging setup. But don't always dismiss criticism, it'll turn you into the same kind of guy. Not saying you are, just as a message to everyone who was so quick to dismiss the chance of it.
If his friend would have posted his side on here instead, everyone most likely would have said how his friend (you) won't accept common criticism and try and make his beer better, just because he was a member of the community.
We're quick to protect our own here, like a good community should be, but sometimes we can be the one who are wrong.

I just got an idea that won't technically cost any extra if you planned on kegging anyway...

Keg a batch, but carb it naturally and don't say anything. Serve it to the friend in question from the keg and see if his feedback is the same. If it is, perhaps the off flavor is real. If he says the sugar taste is gone, then perhaps he's not really a qualified taster. This also has a side benefit; he will probably be smug about you "taking his advice" on switching to kegs. You will then have the option of turning that smugness into humiliation upon revealing that absolutely nothing is different about your brew. Just be sure that the kegged batch doesn't actually taste better than the bottled batches...

Prior to cock-punching, I'd submit a bottle or two to a competition and see if the BJCP judges taste anything odd, or bring it to a LHBS and see if they taste something similar. As IrregularPulse said, it might be a legitimate off flavor that your friend just doesn't know how to describe correctly. If you win BOS with it, then by all means go ahead with the cock punch.

wildwest450 said:

Two words- cock punch.

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