Best way to learn flavors

[fromhereon]

I've been making all grain beer for a while now, and have been coming up with my own recipes. However I realized I need to get better at understanding the tastes that differant malts, hops, and even yeasts add to the beer. I've got tons of different malts and hops to try, so I want to make it as simple as possible.

I figured making a small batch with extract and using a single hop may be the best way to try different hops. I would actually like to make it simpler than that though. I was thinking about taking a single malt and steeping in water to get the flavor of that malt. Maybe I could even to something similar with the hops.

So, I guess my question is if I try tasting the malts and hops in this way would I get a true representation of the flavor they would give the beer. Since the grains haven't gone through the mash processes or fermentation. And If thats a bad idea what would be the best way to taste test a ton of single ingredients.

Thanks a lot,
Dan

 

[ArcaneXor]

Doing small batch SMaSH beers is the best way to go. With experience, you'll be able to anticipate the final taste of the beer by chewing/smelling the raw ingredients. In the meantime, I'd recommend chewing a lot of grains (by themselves and in combination) and making some hop teas.

 

[drummerguysteve]

I've made hop teas to get the idea of what the hops will smell and taste like. You won't see the bittering qualities so much that way, you really need to boil. I've never actually tried to make a malt tea before, but it might give you some idea. I do eat a couple grains of a new malt when I'm at the LHBS to get an idea of the taste.

What I've done several times is what people refer to as a SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop). If you have Munich malt, for example, and you have Northern Brewer hops, do a 1-gallon batch with a couple lbs of Munich, and .5-1 oz of Northern Brewer hops split between 60/30/5 or so. You'd see the bittering qualities of the hops, the flavor, and the aroma, and you'd see what the malt tastes like.

Since all the profiles you're looking at are different (bittering hops/aroma/malt flavor) you should be able to pick them each out, and understand what they'll taste like. A gallon will give you 8 bottles or so, so it will allow you a few different tasting sessions.

This could work with specialty malts too (it wouldn't be a SMaSH anymore), but you should get a good understanding of what your 2-row tastes like, and then maybe add a single specialty malt to a batch.

I did this once to see the difference between a couple different dark malts. A buddy and I did 5 different 1-gallon batches, using put a different dark malt in each (carafa, black barley, black patent, chocolate, and roasted barley). It was interesting to taste them side by side. We've also done the same thing with a single wort and 5 different yeasts.

Small batches will be your friend, but I wouldn't necessarily go to extract to taste your hops. Try to taste the malt and hops in the same beer.

 

[fromhereon]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I'll have to try it a couple different ways.

 

[wizardofza]

Eat some grain. Seriously. The more you try, the more you'll be able to pick certain grains out of a beer.