What am I tasting?

[McCall St. Brewer]

I had a couple of Peroni's the other night at a pizza place and I was struck by how much it reminded me of how Old Style and Special Export used to taste back in the 70's when I first started to drink beer. (I haven't tried either of them lately-- at least not since they were still made by Heileman's).

What exactly is it that I am tasting with these beers? What I'm talking about is a sort of tingling sensation that it creates on my tongue-- almost like a mild electrical shock. Maybe a bit bitter and dry, too. Hard to describe, though, because it's pretty much unique to a few brands of beer. Not all American "BMC" type beers have this taste. Miller Lite does a little bit.

It's actually the taste that I associated with "beer" back when I was a lot, lot younger and first tasted beer.

 

[malkore]

that's the ecstasy they put in Old Style to keep the college crowd drinking it.

I would have to guess its the hop variety or the yeast being used...doesn't seem like a particular malt would be associated to tingling..

 

[Professor Frink]

You mean Old Vile?

 

[LostDakota]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that all of the beers you associate with "beer" were old, older than they rightfully should have been. When I worked at a restaurant, we couldn't sell a Peroni for the life of Papazian. And this was even an Italian restaurant. They would just sit there in the coolers for months. If you were lucky, you got the first one. Most of those coolers are just "topped up."

 

[chase]

Maybe it has something to do with the amount of alcohol per amount of flavor. These types of beers have a lot of alcohol for the amount of flavor they have. Normally, we're (homebrewers and good beer drinkers) used to drinking beers with lots of flavor, which masks the alcohol flavor. Since BMC beers have so little hops and malt, maybe it is just the intense alcohol flavor you are tasting?