The Beer Tasters Vocabulary (part three)
Greetings,
As I mentioned in a previous blog, you really only have three chances to experience the aromas of the particular beer or ale that you're tasting. As I noted before, the reason for this is that the first experience provides you with sensual first impressions. After brief reflection, the second chance allows you to experience the aromas of this particular beer or ale, confirm what you first perceived and perhaps find one or two other sensations hiding beneath the initial impression. The third chance to experience the aromas of a particular beer or ale is actually the first step in "tasting" the beer.
And so we actually began tasting the beer. During that moment between lip and sip, the aromas that you have been experiencing have started to resonate in your nasal passages. Once you have swallowed the first sip of beer, additional aromas will be released at the back of the throat to echo the first impressions in the nasal passages. This is why "tasting" beer is different than "tasting" wine. The technique for experiencing wine involves what is called a "bit bucket". This is a container for you to discreetly spit your wine after swirling it around in your mouth and experiencing the different taste and aroma sensations. With wine, all of the essential sensations can be experienced in a sip aerate swirl and spit. To fully experience all of the flavors and aroma of beer, the beer must be swallowed. For that, beer tasters from the beginning have always been grateful. But I digress...
And so you experience that first sip of beer. Naturally, the first impression is one of the cool liquid. If you are lucky and it is a well-made product, the next sensation should be a slightly prickly sensation on the tongue from the carbonation. I hope you'll notice that so far I haven't mentioned anything about flavors. It is important to understand these first physical sensations are present and have an effect on what you will taste. The colder a product is the less you will be able to experience any of the flavors or aroma sensations. On the other hand, the warmer a product is the more the faults of both flavor and aroma will stand out. The faults would be anything that is considered to disturb the balance of a beer. You are about to experience the second part of this balancing act.
Now is the time that the sweet, grainy, cereal, roasted flavors should become evident. Now it is time for the malt to show its stuff. Here is where the brewmaster is able to play with a palette of flavors that no winemaker has at his or her hand. Range in color and flavor of roasted malts is far too fast to be discussed here. I can assure you that there are many websites covering this particular subject. That said, I'll concentrate on the basic sweet flavors that "pale malt" and "caramel" malt at to almost any fermented malt beverage.
If you have never been to a professional or home brewery, I can suggest that if you wish to experience the taste and aroma of malted barley that you check on the side of your commercial cereal box and see if the words "malt" is anywhere mentioned on that label. If it is, it is usually considered one of the most dominant flavors. For those fortunate enough to have access to an old-fashioned candy store, both the malted milkshake, and malted milk balls will give you the impression similar to the flavor found in beer. The not like flavor as a richness and roundedness that is unique to malted barley. (For more information on how barley is malted please check my website: http://www.beerbasics.com/ ).
In the next edition of this blog I will go further into the different flavors that malted barley bring to the beers and ales.
Cheers!
Peter LaFrance.
