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Need help identifying a flavour in my pale ales

I want to identify a flavour I have had in a few of my pale ales (half mash).

What I don't know:

My palate and my ability to describe flavours is poor in the extreme, so I know I am not helping myself by not being able to compare it to something.

I can't really identify the flavour from the descriptions in various books/ web sites (eg howtobrew.com), although I'll admit I don't know what horse sweat smells or tastes like.

What I do know:

I know from extensive research :-) in England and Scotland (and here in New Zealand) that this isn't a flavour that is normally present in pale ales. However, I have found this flavour in many Belgian ales - although from slightly less extensive research :-(

The flavour was not present when the beer was very young (only two weeks after bottling), but has developed after the four - six weeks point.

Any help appreciated.

Cheers Robert

Reply to
Robert Fraser
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Ummmm... send a few bottles over this way. I'll be glad to "taste it out" for you.

Belgians? Is it banana-like? Best word for it I can think of.

enjoy and don't sweat it.

bob snipped-for-privacy@hart5.freeserve.co.uk

Reply to
jrprice

Love to get your opinion, but for the price of shipping a couple of bottles of my poor attempts, you could get a couple of crates of decent real ale in the UK :-)

Can't say it struck me as particularly "banana-like", but I'll crack another one tonight and check it out.

I am enjoying the brews, but it isn't quite the taste I was after - more experiments are called for. If I can identify the taste and the cause, I'll try a belgian-style ale soon, as winter is not too far away here. Speaking of which, we are having a warm autumn here, and the temperature in the basement where I store the bottles hasn't been below 18 deg C (65 deg F?) yet.

Would refrigerating the bottles to a lower temp make a difference to the taste as they mature?

Cheers Robert

Reply to
Robert Fraser

On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 12:11:00 +1200, Robert Fraser said in alt.beer.home-brewing:

A lot of the taste is due to the hops - different varieties give different tastes.

Only if you haven't been refrigerating it before drinking it. (And beer *is* organic - it can spoil if left at that temperature for a few years.)

Reply to
Al Klein

-- -- -- If you can taste it you can usually smell it. Half fill a glass with beer and swill it around a bit. Get your nose well into the glass and take a good long whiff. This will help concentrate the aroma and you may well identify the taste easier. For some off-ish flavours produced from yeasty by-products, which are quite often the cause of unusual flavours they are (1) ketones - comes through as diacetyl and smells like butterscotch candy (2) Esters - some strong smells here and easily identified such as amyl acetate, producing smells and tastes resembling bubblegum, bananas, pineapples etc. (3) phenolics which can come from hops and malt also, producing a somewhat spicy overtone. Hops can produce more than bitterness.Each hop variety has a unique flavour profile. If boiled for 60mins., most flavours are lost leaving only the bitterness though, even then there is harsh bitter, spicy bitter etc. Hops added late is another story and if overdone can overide the other tastes in the beer and completely dominate. Maybe you could come back to this thread and explain further, the tastes you've been experiencing. Steve W.

Reply to
QD Steve

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