Beer Sensory Training and Homebrew Tips: Mr Wizard
Q
I’ve researched a few kits to help in training a brewer to recognize off-flavors in homebrew, but I’ve also heard that you can make a less expensive kit yourself for a fraction of the cost? Can you give me some tips on where to start?
Justin Parrish
Charleston, South Carolina
A
I have used kits and commercially available beers for flavor training, and they both have pros and cons. I like to use color as an example when explaining the challenges involved in flavor training. When a color is explained to sighted people, a color swatch is shown along with a name. End of story. Pretty simple. Explaining what is meant by acetaldehyde, for example, is not so easy. One way to learn about flavors is using similes; acetaldehyde can smell like green apples, latex paint, and pumpkins. But this can be confusing because “a smell” is not singular. While acetaldehyde sometimes smells like an apple, there are many compounds that make up “apple aroma” that do not smell like acetaldehyde. In other words not all people imagine the same aroma when asked to think of an apple. The same is true for latex paint and pumpkins. And come to think of it, I have never thought that latex paint or pumpkins smell much like an apple, yet all three of these things are supposed to have an aroma which is similar to acetaldehyde. Weird!
In order to make flavor training less confusing, aroma references can be used. Standards can make things easier because they are sort of like color swatches. Standards are usually dissolved in a reference beer and can be compared to a non-doctored sample to demonstrate the aroma of interest. At times, this sensory training method works extremely well and the various standards clearly communicate the terms of interest.
When I was a brewing student at University of California -Davis, we used lab-prepared standards to demonstrate common off-flavors in beer. We always used Budweiser as the control (consistent, low flavor profile, defect-free), and would add various things to individual bottles using a simple method: a) remove bottle cap, b) add the compound, c) re-cap with a new crown, d) temporarily store, and e) use for training. None of these standards were intended to be ingested, so we were not concerned about “food-grade” ingredients. We added things like pure diacetyl, acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate, butyric acid, burnt matches (as in a burning match, inserted into the bottle), and phenylethanol. We would oxidize beer by opening a bottle, allowing it to sit exposed to the atmosphere for a few minutes, and re-cap, shake, and place it in an incubator for a day. These standards were typically quite bold and could be detected by most who smelled them. In order to do this, however, you need access to a wide range of chemicals. This challenge of sourcing some of the ingredients has lead to developments in sensory kits.
Fast forward to the present, and there are now standard flavor kits made by companies like FlavorActiv that contain food-grade compounds. These kits allow students to smell, taste, and swallow the various standards. I use these kits when demonstrating beer flavors to groups such as at the BYO Boot Camps, because they are consistent, convenient and not too expensive when used for a group of 10-15 people. Some of the aromas are hard to detect when used at the suggested dilution strength, so it is best to start out with a lower dilution if you are training folks that are new to beer evaluation. These standards are excellent, albeit not cheap at about $15 per standard.
Flavor training using standards does have its downside because most of the standards represent beer defects. Why? Because breweries do not want to put defective beers on the market, so expert panelists should be more sensitive to these aromas than the typical beer consumer. This means that brewers with educated palates key on diacetyl, acetaldehyde, oxidation, DMS, skunky, baby-diaper, phenolic, and other aromas that point to problems. It also means that expert tasters are really not much fun to have hanging around at Beer:30 because they have a hard time turning their palates off. Who wants to hang out with the person constantly complaining about their beer?
My preferred way of training folks about beer flavor is by using commercially available beers. I find the experience to be more “real”, as the samples are actual beers, and also find the type of flavor training to be more enjoyable. Instead of simply lining up 20 examples of off-flavors, this method allows for the discussion of all types of beer aromas. However, the very real challenge of using commercially-available beer is not having reliable defect standards. And the tasters must have really solid palates to navigate the complexity of aroma found in beer. So the fun cannot truly start without going through the brutal basics.
My suggestion for you is to use a blend of methods for training. The basics of beer flavor can be taught using commercially-available beers. These beers should be used to teach the basic language of beer flavor. Malty, hoppy, bitter, astringent, roasted, burnt, caramel, skunky, DMS, diacetyl, clove/phenolic, banana/fruity, yeasty, and oxidized can all be illustrated using beers that you select (this requires the trainer to have a really solid palate). More obscure flavors like ethyl hexanoate, ethyl butyrate, isoamyl acetate, mercaptan, geraniol, and caprylic acid though are best illustrated using kits. And then you can buy some complex beers to let students practice their skills. Have fun with this project!
Q
What are your top homebrewer tips?
Blixa Bagge-Bagge
Malmo, Sweden
A
Wow, nothing like an open-ended question! I do have a single thought about brewing that influences my general approach, and that is to keep brewing processes as simple as possible unless there is a specific need to add complexity. With this idea in mind, here are some tips that ring true to me. I hope these are helpful!
Match Your brewing System with your Brewing Style
It seems to me that many brewers, both homebrewers and commercial brewers, do things a certain way because they are simply following the lead of others. My philosophy is to do what is needed to brew great beer, and not much more. If infusion mashing using an insulated cooler makes beer that tastes as great as beer made from a more complex process, then why add the complexity? There are merits to keeping things simple. In my opinion, there is too much emphasis placed by some on the equipment used to produce wort, and not enough focus on the means and methods used for fermentation, aging, and packaging.
Know Your Brewing Profile; Utilitarian or Gearhead
It is totally cool to be a gearhead brewer. These are the brewers who love designing, building, and tweaking their brewing tools almost as much as brewing and enjoying beer. If you are a gearhead, you know it! It’s also cool if you see your brewing tools as a means to an end, the end being great beer. In my travels as a brewing professional, I have looked for a correlation between “X” and great beer. What are the commonalities, or X-factors, among breweries who produce great beers? Well, fancy equipment is most definitely not a commonality. Sorry gearheads, there are plenty of mediocre beers brewed using stunning technology. I suppose there is a bit of wow factor involved here . . . as in wow, with all of those awesome gizmos, this is it? But there is a real correlation between cleanliness and attention to detail, and beer quality. Fastidious brewers tend to brew better beer than sloppy brewers.
I am a gearhead brewer and love looking at well-designed and well-built brewing equipment. And the control that well-designed equipment affords the brewer is at times amazing. Yet I have come to realize that simple tools are often the best fit for the job. My tip here is to compartmentalize your thinking. Don’t confuse your tools with your beer, and feel free to fall into either camp. The utilitarian and the gearhead are not easy to detect in a blind tasting, because the quality of their beers are judged by the same set of quality parameters and great beers can be brewed using a range of tools.
Simplify Packaging
Very few brewers truly enjoy packaging. Indeed, bottling or kegging is the one task that seems to be universally reviled. So the best way to approach the chore of packaging is to spend more time thinking about how to improve it. The more important aspects of packaging include easy cleaning, set-up, and operation, and minimized oxygen pick-up during the process. Although packaging into kegs certainly can be the easiest method, kegs are not easily transported or given to friends and a regular maintenance schedule is required. The tip here is to determine the type of packages that are the best fit for your homebrewery, and to invest in the equipment needed to streamline this critical process step.
Go Metric
This may seem logical for those outside of the United States, but not always so for those still using imperial units. Brewing math can be confusing because of the various units and brewing-specific terms used by brewers. Using the metric system for calculations greatly simplifies this process. Plus, the basis for all science-based math is the metric system, and many of the calculations used by US brewers include conversion factors that put metric values into English units. Why make things more complex? Switching from gallons, quarts, pounds, ounces, and ˚F to liters, milliliters, kilograms, grams, and ˚C is a great first step into easier math. The only nations that have not converted to the metric system are the US, Liberia, and Myanmar, so metric brewing is a good way of practicing an important second language.
For example, a typical pint of beer . . . oops half liter, contains 2 grams of carbon dioxide per liter after fermentation and 5 g/L after carbonation. So how much sugar is needed to boost the carbon dioxide of 18 liters of beer by 3 g/L? This is easy math using the metric system. We need 54 grams of carbon dioxide (18 liters x 3 g/L), with a bit of chemistry we can see that 1 gram of glucose yields 0.49 grams of carbon dioxide (C6H12O6 2 CO2 → 2 C2H5OH), and can easily determine that 110 grams of glucose (also known as dextrose or corn sugar) is needed (54 grams CO2 divided by 0.49 grams CO2/grams glucose). Ahhh, so simple!
Calibrate Your Equipment
All beer recipes are based on ratios. Kilos of malt per liter of mash water, grams of hops per liter of wort, grams of priming sugar per liter of beer, etc. So it is really important to know liquid volumes. Calibrating your brewing vessels is not only super easy, it is one of the keys to better brewing. Calibration strips, ink marks on vessel exteriors, measuring sticks, sight glasses and etched marks on the interior of brewing vessels are the most common methods. Once you begin thinking in terms of weight per volume, and calculating your ingredient additions using this method you will never go back to general rules that are based in “2 cups per batch.”
Interact with Other Homebrewers
The brewing community is social by nature; after all, our product is the classic social lubricant. Beer makes us want to talk, and brewers love talking about brewing. Join a club, participate in group tasting, enter your beer in competitions to get feedback from others, and go to homebrewing functions that have an educational component. Not only is socializing with other brewers enjoyable, it is a great way to improve your brewing skills.
Know Your Cleaning and Sanitizing Chemicals By Name
The importance of cleaning and sanitizing cannot be over-stated. This rule applies equally to brewing clean beers as it does funky, wild and sour beers, just in different ways. I am a strong advocate of calling out cleaning chemicals by their proper names, as opposed to their common names. For example, “Bob’s Brewing Magic” is meaningless when it comes to clear communication, whereas 1% sodium hydroxide leaves no ambiguity about the nature of the cleaner. Know what you are using for your own safety and for the integrity of your beer; some chemicals require gloves and eye protection for safe handling, and some chemicals used for cleaning and sanitation can affect beer flavor and foam stability. A good vocabulary list of cleaning chemicals includes caustic, sodium hydroxide, sodium metasilicate, trisodium phosphate, iodophor, peracetic/peroxyacetic acid, quarternary ammonium compounds (aka “quats” and QACs), sodium hypochlorite, chlorine dioxide, sulfur dioxide, potassium metabisulfite, phosphoric acid, and acetic acid.
Clarify, Rack, and Dose When Bottle-Conditioning
Bottle-conditioning is a great method to carbonate beer and has the added benefit of extending beer shelf-life. And one of the tricks to this method is limiting the amount of yeast in the bottle, and ensuring that the yeasties going into the bottle are fresh and healthy cells. An easy way to set the stage for success is to allow beer to clarify in the fermenter after primary fermentation is complete, either by simply allowing yeast cells to flocculate or by assisting the process with finings, like isinglass, racking to a clean container where sugar and a fresh dose of conditioning yeast is added, and then bottling. The addition of fresh yeast is a practice used by most commercial breweries that bottle condition, but a practice used by few homebrewers. And using the same strain for primary fermentation and secondary fermentation in the bottle is not required; in fact, it is quite common to use a different strain for conditioning. Dried yeast added at the rate of 0.2 g/L is very handy for this practice.
All-Grain Brewers should Experiment with RO Water and Brewing Salts
Beer is 85-90% water, and water has a huge influence on all aspects of brewing. Mash enzymes, color development, hop utilization, and beer flavor are all significantly influenced by water chemistry. The problem that many brewers have with water chemistry is that it is a very challenging topic to clearly understand. And even with a clear understanding, adjusting water can be a real challenge because the data about local water from your water authority may not match the water coming out of your tap on brewday. Reverse osmosis, or RO, is a common water treatment method to remove just about everything from water, other than water. RO water is actually not great for brewing because it lacks minerals. What RO represents is a blank canvas that makes brewing salt additions easy, consistent, and location-independent.
Have Fun!
This last tip is perhaps the most important. Homebrewing is a great hobby and it should be fun. Make sure you take the time to look into new techniques, recipe ideas, or experiments if homebrewing starts becoming mundane.
Q
My buddy wants me to brew A ‘summery stout’ for his wedding this summer so I want to experiment. Any ideas/recommendations?
Keith Devereaux
Milford, New Jersey
A
I have been holding this question for several months, scratching my head each time I read it. I now have a pretty good answer that I hope is not too late to help you with your quest to celebrate your friend’s wedding with a special brew. The “summery stout” descriptor is definitely interesting, and part of what stumped my thinking! The idea that I have settled on is to suggest brewing two special beers; one to symbolize each of the two components of the union between spouses.
The idea I have for a bridal stout is a modest interpretation of a pastry stout, hybridized with a white stout. I like the flavor exploration that brewers have embarked upon with their pursuits of pastry stouts, but find the hugeness of these beers difficult to fully embrace because I like to drink beer. Many of the pastry stouts that I have sampled tasted great, but I could only drink about 0.2 liter before becoming sated. The other inspiration for my suggestion of the bride’s stout is a white stout, as a nod to the color of a wedding dress. And the roasted flavor notes that are combined with this pale-colored stout symbolizes the inclusion of the groom’s timbre in the marriage. Call me corny, but I am rolling with this now!
The bridal stout that I have envisioned is very pale, light on the palate, and with a complex, yet subtle, blend of coffee, chocolate, coconut, and vanilla. This beer has an OG of 1.040 (10 ˚Plato), uses pale malt as the base and includes 1⁄4 pound (0.11 kg) of lactose per 5-gallon (19-L) batch, 3% by volume of hot-brewed Sumatra coffee, a touch of vanilla bean extract added after fermentation to give a barely perceptible vanilla aroma, rich chocolate flavors from cocoa nibs, and nutty aromas from toasted coconut. After fermentation, the brew is nitrogentated (with beer gas) to add body to this lower alcohol stout, and to allow for you to serve this layered on top of the groom’s stout.
The groom’s stout is a classic tropical stout, think Dragon Stout from Jamaica or Royal Extra Stout from Trinidad, with a bit of fruit to represent the bride and to add a summery note to a beer that may feel more like fall or winter to folks not accustomed to this type of beer. Tropical stouts have an OG between 1.056–1.075 (13.8–18.2 ˚Plato), a FG of 1.010–1.018 (2.6–4.6 ˚Plato), an ABV between 5.5–8%, and carbonation falling on the medium end of the spectrum at around 2.2–2.4 volumes (4.4–4.8 grams/liter). I like fruits that marry with the roast and chocolate notes of a stout, and tend to think raspberry, blueberry, and tart cherry when brewing fruit stouts. You may also want to consider tropical fruits and look to mango, banana, or even lemon zest for some different takes on the fruited stout. Since this beer is intended to be layered with the bridal stout, consider the balance of flavors between the two components.
For those who are familiar with my column, this answer is one of the rarities that focuses on beer formulation. So enjoy the ideas because it may be a while until I again reveal my weird thoughts about beer flavor!
