licorice finish?

[dudeck]

anyone out there know what would cause most of the beers i brew to have slightly licorice finish?

 

[EdWort]

Sounds like the Extract Twang to me.

Try doing a full boil and use the freshest extract available. Use Dried Malt Extract instead of Liquid Malt Extract (unless it is very fresh).

Going Mini Mash will help reduce this as well and going All Grain eliminates it all together in my experience.

 

[dudeck]

many thanks. i'll have to see if that has any effect.

 

[Pondrat]

My all grain porter has a licorice flavor that is unexpected so I doubt it's the extract twang. Any other thoughts?

 

[HopSong]

I just tasted my new extract with Crystal 60L and it has a very slight licorice finish.. just noticeable but not unappealing surprise. First time I've had that. It's an Am Amber ale.. using light malt extract.. I believe it's Briess. Hops are 1 oz Magnum, 1 oz Willamette and 1 oz Willamette. I did a full boil. Yeast was Safale-05

 

[Pondrat]

Since my last post, we've brewed our porter twice again, once with no changes, and once with changing the SafAle to liquid yeast. The licorice flavor was still present in the first batch, and gone in the second. Sad to say, but I think it was the SafAle that was doing it. We still use SafAle for our Pale and have no such flavor so I think it's perhaps the way it handles/compliments the darker brews that allows the licorice to come out.

 

[HopSong]

Thanks, I don't thing the taste was bad.. just unexpected. Like, what is that I'm tasting? I want to do this beer again.. but, after reading about all the difference, supposedly, between dry yeast and liquid.. I'll opt for liquid and see what changes I can detect. Certainly, dry is less expensive than the wet stuff. Be a fun trial tho.

 

[badbrew]

Had that once on a black stout that I made with chocolate.

 

[RCCOLA]

Since my last post, we've brewed our porter twice again, once with no changes, and once with changing the SafAle to liquid yeast. The licorice flavor was still present in the first batch, and gone in the second. Sad to say, but I think it was the SafAle that was doing it. We still use SafAle for our Pale and have no such flavor so I think it's perhaps the way it handles/compliments the darker brews that allows the licorice to come out.

Licorice is a common flavor in porter, as was said from using darker grains. I have used 10-15% brown malt in porter before and got a nice licorice flavor from it.