This may sound a little weird, and quite possibly its just me, but there is a particular flavor that I feel like I've noticed in a handful of newer IPAs lately that I'm curious if anyone else has gotten. For those who are old enough to remember these, the flavor reminds me of the old chewable Flintstones vitamins. Another thing that may be similar is that vitamin C drink mix called Emergen-C. It's this sort of fruity meets chalky kind of aroma/flavor. Part of me wants to attribute it to water chemistry, but the weird thing is, is that I can smell it. As far as I understand we cannot smell most salts. Is there something to this or am I just overworked and going insane? Haha.
Vitamin Flavor in IPA
- Thread starter Pehlman17
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I think it may be some of the weird hop combinations they use now to go fruity. Some IPA's do taste medicinal and fake to me.
Are you talking about in your homebrew or in commercial stuff? I've definitely had that flavor in both before. High amounts of Calcium Chloride can do that. Especially combined with high amounts of dry hopping. I've gotten an Aspirin flavor as well. Not sure if you've ever accidentally chewed an Aspirin, or popped one in your mouth and not had a drink readily available? lol
I like the water chemistry idea and agree. If you treat your water you could try some with CaCL2 dissolved in it to see.
Could be the hops too. I kinda actually hate Citra, even though I like hazy / fruity / etc. IPA's overall. I don't get this flavor, but something about it doesn't work for me. Maybe check the hops used, if possible, and see if you start to find a commonality.
Could be the hops too. I kinda actually hate Citra, even though I like hazy / fruity / etc. IPA's overall. I don't get this flavor, but something about it doesn't work for me. Maybe check the hops used, if possible, and see if you start to find a commonality.
Commercial stuff. I only really drink West Coast when it comes to IPA, so this isn’t a NEIPA-bashing thing. Most recently it was in a beer that’s been around for at least the past 15 years, but I wonder if they’ve perhaps changed their process/recipe. I know hops have changed a lot in the past couple years, plus many breweries make IPA’s differently than they used to as well. Less malt, less bitterness, heavier dry hopping, etc. Im wondering if there is something there perhaps.
Not to get too graphic, but have you ever taken a bunch of B-vitamins, and your pee is neon yellow, and there’s a particular smell to it? That’s kind of what I’m getting. But like if you sprayed a bunch of citrus fabreeze over it to cover the smell.
Oh dang. Well, I'm well versed in the neon pee thing. I take my vitamins lol. I've only gotten the Flintstone's vitamin flavor in NEIPAs.
I assumed it was only a hazy thing, but it’s suddenly popping up in the clear ones too now. I’ve drunkenly ranted plenty of times about how dumb I think the new “IPA fruit wars” are, so I won’t repeat that here, but I will also admit there is likely some bias at play on my part. But the weird chalky mineral thing seems fairly new to me. My prior complaints were mainly about an overly pithy citrus rind quality, but at this point I feel like at least that flavor seemed natural.
There may be a trend in packaging with a dose of Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) for freshness. It's been thrown around as being a good anti oxidant for keeping hazies yellow rather than brown.
I've been using it in the keg, and I get no Vitamin flavor from it.
Me too and me either.
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Ditto. Ever since I started taking a B-12 supplement I started noticing it. In the pee, not my beer.
hiphoppotamuss
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Funny. I brewed a cream ale and wanted to give it a touch of orange flavor so I used Mandarina Bavaria for my hops. I’m getting exactly what you’re describing!
It’s got an aftertaste that tastes like vitamin C chewables. Nothing else for my brew practice, water chemistry etc. was changed with this batch so I’m thinking it’s the hops.?
I used Mandarina Bavaria in an attempt at a cold IPA and I got melon, maybe a little strawberry, but no funny aftertaste at all.
Makes you wonder how much we taste the same things differently.
Makes you wonder how much we taste the same things differently.
This is a few days later but - what if some breweries use too much? Or it's even an accident - some newbie helper doesn't know grams from ounces or something like that.
I wouldn't guess the stuff would hurt you, one could take good beer and keep adding a little AA to it and see if it eventually tastes like what's described in the first post.
