Zymurgrafi
Well-Known Member
So after enjoying craft brews for nearly 2 decades and brewing my own for a little over 5 I am still trying to really pinpoint and describe flavors of beer. I think brewing was what really made me more aware and discerning overall. It is a good thing but with a price. It makes me a lot tougher of a critic and has raised and changed my standards of GOOD beer.
I find taking notes and reviewing beers has also greatly improved my understanding and appreciation. It has certainly broadened my beer "vocabulary" and helped to pick out enjoyable traits of beers. The thing I still have trouble with though is the un-enjoyable characteristics and off-flavors. I know when I do not like something about a beer but I find it much more difficult to describe and to identify what it is.
Some of these are easy. The unbalanced, sour (when it should not be) skunked/light stuck, etc. Fairly easy to pick out. Others I don't know. Maybe it is something wrong, maybe it something I just don't like but I do not know what it is.
Examples. One flavor that I have never been quite sure I understood but now I think I do is diacetyl. I know it is perceived as buttery. I have decided I do know this flavor now and I am really sensitive to it and cannot stand it. I taste it more as butterscotch than butter. The beers that helped me learn diacetyl... EVERYTHING brewed by Shipyard brewing of Maine. I have read peoples reviews of their beers and they say trace amounts of diacetyl. I say it WHOPS you in the face. I cannot drink any of their beers. No Ringwood yeast for me then!
One instance where I cannot pinpoint the funky flavor. Long Trail brewing. There is just something funky going on in their beers that does not work for me. Funny thing is this is recent. I used to enjoy many of their beers. For the last few years I detect something not quite right in those same beers. It could be yeast driven, could be a "house flavor", or perhaps their sanitation has gone down hill. I dunno, and I do not know how to describe it which makes tracking it down all the more elusive.
Any way, rambling on here at 3 am. This could really be a coherent discussion, but I fear I set it to words in the middle of the night. We'll see how it looks in the morn.
I find taking notes and reviewing beers has also greatly improved my understanding and appreciation. It has certainly broadened my beer "vocabulary" and helped to pick out enjoyable traits of beers. The thing I still have trouble with though is the un-enjoyable characteristics and off-flavors. I know when I do not like something about a beer but I find it much more difficult to describe and to identify what it is.
Some of these are easy. The unbalanced, sour (when it should not be) skunked/light stuck, etc. Fairly easy to pick out. Others I don't know. Maybe it is something wrong, maybe it something I just don't like but I do not know what it is.
Examples. One flavor that I have never been quite sure I understood but now I think I do is diacetyl. I know it is perceived as buttery. I have decided I do know this flavor now and I am really sensitive to it and cannot stand it. I taste it more as butterscotch than butter. The beers that helped me learn diacetyl... EVERYTHING brewed by Shipyard brewing of Maine. I have read peoples reviews of their beers and they say trace amounts of diacetyl. I say it WHOPS you in the face. I cannot drink any of their beers. No Ringwood yeast for me then!
One instance where I cannot pinpoint the funky flavor. Long Trail brewing. There is just something funky going on in their beers that does not work for me. Funny thing is this is recent. I used to enjoy many of their beers. For the last few years I detect something not quite right in those same beers. It could be yeast driven, could be a "house flavor", or perhaps their sanitation has gone down hill. I dunno, and I do not know how to describe it which makes tracking it down all the more elusive.
Any way, rambling on here at 3 am. This could really be a coherent discussion, but I fear I set it to words in the middle of the night. We'll see how it looks in the morn.