Getting a sense of results before brewing

[dpaola2]

I've made root beer a couple of times. I find it a fun beverage to experiment with due to the different types of root and bark ingredients.

One of the things that's been on my mind recently is: with root beer, you can steep the various ingredients in a tea and get a very good sense of what the final product will taste like without going through the whole process. (Sasparilla, Sassafras, wild cherry bark, licorice root, whatever).

Is there a congruent practice with beer?

 

[BrewZer]

The fermentation process changes the flavor dynamics so much that it's very hard to approximate the final flavor without sitting through the whole time required for it, including the additional time it takes to condition and carbonate the beer.

About the only way to get a 'short-cut' is if you're emulating a commercial beer and taste that result. And even then, there are no guarantees that's what you'll wind up with.

Some people say you can brew a tea of spices/additives and add it to a bland beer to get an idea of how much of which ingredient to use... I think that's only a rough approximation, myself.

 

[Franktalk]

The fermentation process changes the flavor dynamics so much that it's very hard to approximate the final flavor without sitting through the whole time required for it, including the additional time it takes to condition and carbonate the beer.

About the only way to get a 'short-cut' is if you're emulating a commercial beer and taste that result. And even then, there are no guarantees that's what you'll wind up with.

Some people say you can brew a tea of spices/additives and add it to a bland beer to get an idea of how much of which ingredient to use... I think that's only a rough approximation, myself.

This is true, though making a beer tea might suggest what you might get if you were to use either a neutral ale yeast or a lager yeast.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Some people say you can brew a tea of spices/additives and add it to a bland beer to get an idea of how much of which ingredient to use... I think that's only a rough approximation, myself.

I agree. I have tried a variety of things and they only kinda sorta give you an idea of how the beer will turn out. Like doctoring a commercial beer with hops or hop tea, evaluating malts with hot steep, or doctoring a beer with a grain tea...they can all give you a hint but are not like drinking a finished beer.

 

[tracer bullet]

Agree to sample store bought beer then check out clone recipes. But you sort of need to have a good idea about brewing already or the comparisons will still be pretty hard.

If you have a local shop you can bring a dozen or more baggies and weight out say 4 oz of a lot of different grains (label them and keep them separate). I've found that munching on grain is a pretty good way to get an idea of what they are like. Not perfect mind you but an idea.