Where do flavours come from in beer? | The Craft Beer Channel

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

OK then beer geeks! What flavours do you get in beer that baffle you? Jonny will tell you where they come from! (Probably)

[@TheHoumann]

Great informational video, Jonny, thanks! As a (frankly, pretty bad) homebrewer, I often wonder where certain metallic flavours come from. It's probably not from an ingredient, but something I'm doing wrong in the process... PS: You have mentioned your favourite beer joint in Amsterdam in a video a long time ago; what was it and is it still open?

[@nathanielaprill5299]

Some of the most specific and strange flavors I've gotten from beers were salami... on several occasions, including 1 that tasted like *spoiled salami*. Gross, but even my brother agreed after I mentioned it, and he was unhappy that I identified that strange taste and he couldn't get that taste out of his mouth. One major one my dad and brother both agreed when we shared a beer was one that tasted like the way a Fiberglass shop that my mother worked near would smell like. A very unique chemical smell we could now taste. It was astounding that we all knew that smell and we all made that association when we tried that one beer. We all hated the beer but it was by far the most surprisingly strange taste I've ever gotten from a beer.

[@selbyrefs862]

Tasted a cider that had a tcp taste i know its not beer but what the hell was that?

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

@@TheHoumann Metallic flavours usually come from something in your system - could be rust, dirty pipes - or oxidation so check your processes. It can also come from the water supply, so taste that too! My fav bar in Amsterdam is Proeflokaal Arundsnest it is is still open!

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

@@nathanielaprill5299 Both are very weird! I expect the salami flavour was autolysis - kind of umami, marmite, meaty thing. As for the fiberglass... perhaps chlorine?! That is pretty often in beers due to equipment being tainted.

[@hunterhernandez1511]

This is one of my favorite videos you’ve come out with. I really enjoy these educational style videos and it helps me explore and refine my palate.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Thanks so much glad it helps!

[@selbyrefs862]

Me too👌

[@kokesalinas6705]

this is one of the most educative videos about beer I've seen!

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Thanks so much!

[@TheStealthytoast]

Really helpful as a newby to start understanding flavours and where they come from!

[@boymakesmusic]

this is hands down the best answer to the tasting curiosities i’ve always had with the beers i’ve tried. thank you!!!

[@joshbent653]

My favorite beer channel all the way from Wisconsin

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Thanks so much!

[@andremarri2162]

This is one of the best channels on KZbin. Congrats. Awesome video

[@rayd.295]

Very good presentation.

[@craighatto]

Watching this with my 8 week old daughter hoping she will pick up some tips.

[@barrycranston5122]

Exceptionally well presented and explained. It should become the benchmark in explaining flavours in beer.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Thanks so much Barry!

[@lafamillecarrington]

Enjoyed one of my beers (not a particularly great one!) whilst watching this. Biscuit, clove and pear were what I got, slightly hidden by a rather harsh bitterness.

[@steventhompson9319]

I have a homebrew pale ale currently tasking like Lipton's Peach Iced Tea. I quite like it.

[@jonasn6784]

Pretty much the weirdest flavour for me is autolized yeast in German wheat beers. When the rubbery/meaty flavor combines with 4-vinyl syringols smokiness and all I can smell and taste is a freshly opened glass of hot dog sausages. It's literally like drinking the remaining liquid, when all the hot dogs are taken out of the glas. Alright enough geekiness. Good job on the video, guys. It's easy to follow and to connect everything. Cheers

[@DonsBeerReviews]

Loads of fantastic information, thanks 👍

[@timmoss8510]

So pleased you mentioned the water point. My dad was head brewer at Mitchells in Lancaster, in the 90s and the inconsistency of sulphate concentration in the spring water was critical..

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Man that neat have taken some monitoring!

[@arthursimsa9005]

It’s perhaps the first time I hear the words savory or umami associated with stouts and roasted malt character, and it makes a ton of sense. The first time I drank a « proper » stout (ie not a famous dry Irish stout), I thought of vegetables in soy sauce (rather than coffee, chocolate or nuts)

[@BanjoStu]

Great informative video.👍 That peach definitely looks like a nectarine though. 🤔😉

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Yep... shop was outta peaches but I wasn't sure everyone knew what a nectarine was.

[@tobbemann]

Great! I get berries of all kind a lot for tasting notes - I guess both from the yeast and the hops!

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

And if there are some slightly dark malts in the bill, the malts too probably!

[@omriscannell9217]

Recently I went to a local craft beer shop along with a friend who doesn't really drink beer. They were giving samples from a local brewery that I had not tried so we sampled their weiss. I got the regular banana notes etc and it was pretty good but what was interesting was that my friend said she picked up notes of chicken viennas!?

[@timwise116]

Really enjoyed this video, thanks Jonny! So, when you get those bubblegum notes from typically (in my case) a juicy NEIPA, where does that come from?

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Good question. It could be a couple of things - most likely it is the yeast giving off borderline bubblegum aromas, as some German Hefeweisse strains do

[@timwise116]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel thanks for the reply!

[@dralois]

Bubblegum flavor is actually a mix of banana and strawberry, so it can definitely at least in parts be derived from the yeast. Not so sure about where the strawberry comes in..

[@arthursimsa9005]

Strata hops, among others. Cryo variants too.

[@palmada]

Most impressive is how you didn't bump the table and ruined that whole spread.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

I was like a ninja between takes.

[@selbyrefs862]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel and i thought it was all one take jonny

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

@@selbyrefs862 hahahahahHHahahahahahshshahahahahahaha. Ho boy I wish.

[@fredriknyberg5733]

I get liquorice from just about every barley wine i drink and it's delicious. it reminds me exactly of a scandinavian candy called skippers pipes.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

That's a combo if hop bitterness and darker malts! Love that flavour.

[@fredriknyberg5733]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel do you think the same effect is possible from a single grain long boil barley wine?

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

@@fredriknyberg5733 definitely so long as the hopping rate is there and the caramelisation achieved

[@Dcalzaretta]

In the COVID before-times I visited Iceland in the winter and had a local beer (by Stedji Brewing) made with whale testicles smoked over sheep's dung. It was a somewhat smoky brew. I sure had a ball drinking that beer. It was nuts!

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Crikey. Sounds awful! We just read this out in our weekly podcast!

[@steventhompson9319]

Great vid, thanks. And you sorted the print out, too. SICK. We don't have any cloves in and keep meaning to buy some because I just can't smell (what my memory is of) the scent of cloves in Hefeweisen. Loadsa foam bananas, though.

[@danieltaylor3737]

Dog food. Here in NZ there's a brewery called Parrot Dog and they brew an ale called Bitter Bitch. It's mellowed out in recent years, but I remember, back when they first released it, maybe around 2012 or 2013, both me and my mate trying it our reached a consensus - dog food!

[@timpilkington9285]

Have you guys got a video discussing the different kinds of (well-known) hops?

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

We don't, though this is an excellent idea! What in particular would you want to know?

[@timpilkington9285]

​@@TheCraftBeerChannel, cheers for responding. Something like a deep dive into the flavours you usually get out of the different kinds of hops would be interesting. I find that when I'm drinking a beer with multiple different hops it's not always easy to tell which hop is creating which flavour.

[@KevinZ.000]

A nice follow-up to this would be adjucts that are added to beer. In the New England area I've had beers brewed with oysters. An interesting profile but definitely no a go to for me.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

It's a traditional style of Stout in the UK - a few breweries still make them. Supposedly they were first used to help the beer clarify, but not sure how true that is.

[@joshuareid7084]

Great little video, it's easy to go overboard on detail when it comes to flavour science! Funny you hadn't included anything about yeast's role in mediating the "buttery" flavour you can get in certain beers, sometimes wanted and sometimes unwanted! Granted the table was pretty full already without trying to fit a butter dish onto it...

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

We talked about that in our When Beer Goes Bad Video a few months back... kzbin.info/www/bejne/gpm4pnVpmp2GeMk

[@joshuareid7084]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel of course! Thanks for the reminder, I'll have to rewatch that soon.

[@atroyz]

I never realized how grateful I am that beer is wet.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

WHen you think about it, it's pretty important really...

[@MichaelAndersen_DK]

Hey, my oatmeal stout is feeling left out, so now I have to drink it. Cheers! (caramel, coffee, chocolate - yummy!)

[@jacksonkeeler]

Always got banana taste and aroma in my home brews no matter what style - realized it was the yeast! I switched to using primarily kviek yeast now and my brews taste clean

[@mattbennett3589]

I drank a barrel aged rice stout the other day from Martin House Brewing, and I swear my mind was saying soy sauce notes were in there.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

This is a pretty common off flavour in barrel aged beer - soy sauce is a sign of autolysis, which is basically dead yeast. Could also be beefy or marmite like.

[@dugost]

Great video. Learned a bunch. One flavour I can never properly describe seems to only crop up in Irish reds I've tried. I assume it comes from CaraRed but words for the delicious flavour I get on the finish elude me. Whatever it is, if there are other styles that commonly share that flavour I'll be on the lookout to try those too. Wishing our local liquor stores had a wider selection!

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Oh damn can't help there but is it in the caramel, toffee, liquorice vein?

[@dugost]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel Definitely not licorice but I'd say caramel or toffee is likely the closest. Thanks for the reply. I had better go crack open some reds and try to sort this out!

[@selbyrefs862]

Can you do one now with just hops saying what hops give what flavour ie citra = whatever etc etc maybe a blind smell test guess the hop from the smell from the rub? Keep up the good work! Love n beer!!!

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

We have an idea around this that we're working on!

[@richardwilkinson77]

Brilliant video Jonny! Now I understand more about what to alter to try and develop different flavours in my beers. Interested to know more about the science behind biotransformation though. How is the yeast acting differently on hop compounds added during fermentation, as opposed to those added before the yeast is pitched?

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Hey Richard - great question and slightly beyond my pay grade. To be honest, I'd they say they aren't really! If enough hop matter goes into a cooler whirlpool (so isn't isomerised which I think might impact how transformable the compounds are) then you will still get biotransformation. This is certainly the theory many breweries work to, including Verdant who told us not to do an early dry hop when we brewed with them. So I guess what I'm saying is it doesn't act differently, but if you don't whirlpool or filter heavily from there, you'll likely need the extra addition to kick off biotransformation.

[@Dribuz]

Brilliant video guys, thank you! How can you tell when a flavour comes from the 4 main ingredients during the chemical processes or when it is simply added as another ingredient?

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Good question! Aside from looking at the ingredients, usually the addition of non-traditional ingredients makes the beer a little more two dimensional, because the adjuncts tend to dominate. So while Azacca hops might taste like mango, they will not add JUST mango, so you can pick it apart that way. The same with chocolate and coffee with malt.

[@mikerich32]

I'm very new to craft beer, so I don't know much. I recently bought some local IPAs (in North Carolina, USA) and I enjoyed them, but one of them stood out more than the others. It didn't have a super unique flavor while smelling and drinking it, but burping right after gave HUGE notes of like peach and mango that I couldn't pick up while drinking it. Any idea why? Am I just bad at tasting? hahaha

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Haha this is called the retronasal action - basically you flood your nose with the aromas pretty effectively by burbing or simply breathing out! It's why you should always breath out when tasting beer.

[@iflanzy]

Before watching the video, I'm guessing the answer is magic. And if it's a stout, it's black magic.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Oh damn I forgot to mention the magic ingredient!

[@mrougelot]

Clove trumps all!

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Always and forever. Such a powerful aroma.

[@xander1052]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel never again will I make an ice distilled christmas spiced (Cinnamon, Clove, Nutmeg and Ginger) Mead, which I believe is sold in shops as Calpol.

[@andrewfallon7963]

I find that a lot of beers with added coffee end up with a strongly vegetal note, like green bell pepper.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

This is very common. The same with Cacoa nibs too. Usually it is over extraction but also you do need to be careful with the beans you use.

[@jpl3-g2b]

This was so pleasant to watch. With my friends always try to find all those subtle notes in different beers. Personally i love those where one particular characteristic stands out. Thats why i love barley wines, where you have not much hops, but that sweet, malty flavor and a little alcoholic warmth. And then, i would have a hazy ipa for example, to get all those citric or floral notes. And at least (yet my favorite), a good stout. Of any kind, just to feel in different shades the cacao, coffee, toffee, sometimes milk (if it has lactose) flavor. I think i have to pay more attention to the yeast. I ve only felt the bready aroma of it, but not much besides that. Coul you teach us about esters?

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

For sure! Let me have a think about the best way to do that. IN the meantime we have this video which will teach you lots: kzbin.info/www/bejne/anu3lZR3Z8qLsLc

[@Gabriel2.0]

great video man! also, the way you carbonate the beer can drastically change the final taste

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

This is very true! Perhaps I should have put CO2 as the fifth ingredient.

[@nguye578]

Maybe the flavor that throws me off the most is when you get something heavily savory, almost like soy sauce or mushroom broth. Every once in a while I'll find it in a stout and I have to decide if I'm going to drink the rest of it, or use it for chili or stew. As for water, I think salinity is a fun and easy way to play with your beer. Sometime a small pinch of salt in a sweet, chocolatey stout can do wonders to offset some sweetness.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Likely that is autolysis, so dead yeast flavour in the beer. Very common is well aged beer, but rarely tasty.

[@NikitaVorontsov]

This is very cool! Hopefully this'll help with future videos without resorting to ol' faithful descriptions!

[@MadeByMartyn]

Dank. A weedy mix of flavonoids and terpenoids best drank with its close relative. Today is 4:20 by the way (wouldn't have thought to mention Dank otherwise...)

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

When darkness falls

[@kylegoulet3196]

In Canada (West Coast), we are starting to see quite a few Aussie-styled IPAs that have strong coconut notes. Often they have a scratchy mouthfeeel too. Do you know what hops are causing this?

[@arthursimsa9005]

Sabro, Talus, HBC 472

[@2002chrisking]

Really great, interesting video. I have to say tasting notes can sometimes put me off of beers because I'm not a fan of the flavour mentioned - when people describe notes of dates and prunes always make me think twice of buying that beer (some of the big Belgian beers fall into this category). Conversely when I hear Chocolate, coffee, mango etc, I'm thinking hell yeah that sounds amazing!

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Haha well some are still worth a go. We all get subtly different things from beer, but equally tasting notes are SUPPOSED to help us work out what we want. So if it works for you, stick with those you enjoy.

[@arthursimsa9005]

Then don’t drink strong, dark Belgian ales. What’s the problem? Maybe you’d enjoy it in beer too. I like Tonka, but don’t like it in beer.

[@woodskins]

Dont forget the orange flavour from many Kveik yeasts

[@joepnuijten2267]

your peach sure looks like a nectarine

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Shhhh. They didn't have peaches at the shop and didn't know if everyone knew what a nectarine was.

[@SNDLI]

Looking at that table gave me the sudden urge to play fruit ninja

[@xFTE97x]

Great video guys, hit the nail on the head with this one👍🏻 I would say the weirdest thing I’ve got out of a beer is latex/balloon kind of aroma, not pleasent at all, but the beer didn’t tast like that, thank god😂

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Oh dear! I have occasionally got that from beers where the water has been really heavily treated. Was is an NEIPA?

[@xFTE97x]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel no it was a Lambic-style beer, classified as wild ale, aged on apricots in foeders. The taste was pretty good tho. Never had that in an NEIPA, yet haha

[@davidellis6468]

so, how come you sometimes smell cow poop when you open a bottle but the beer tastes amazing? I didn't see cow poop as a specific taste profile mentioned in the video... Excellent infotainment, delivered for the full spectrum from people new to beer to the geeks some say they are.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Wow this is a new one... any specific style of beer you get this in!?

[@FatherEarth93]

I got cow poop / manure from an American Wheat ale with Brettanomyces once. Maybe the Brett went a little overboard or the other ingredients could not stand stand up against the Brett?

[@xander1052]

@@FatherEarth93 I mean, Brett does make beers smell a bit like a farmhouse, so it makes sense

[@davidellis6468]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel It was a mixed ferm (6 months to 1.5 years) wild ale using a house microflora over Cherrys. Bloody lovely to drink.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

@@davidellis6468 aha! Well that will be the Brett! It can add a really funky, farmyard smell to be while not actually creating that flavour.

[@noahcarver6072]

I always taste lemon umami off my nose and palate with a Duvel. Followed by an explosive carbonation which dissipates into the liquid finish.

[@robingeveke6001]

I had a rauchbier recently which tasted very smokey and almost meaty. Wonder where that came from?

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

That would be from the smoked malt, of course. That meaty character is likely just reminding your brain of bacon, which is of course also smoked. Usually the malt is kilned and smoked over beechwood.

[@andrewsteer8860]

Was it Schlenkerler? I compare that to drinking smoked meat

[@robingeveke6001]

@@TheCraftBeerChannelthanks! the beer was playing tricks on my mind then. the interaction between smell and memory is quite interesting!

[@robingeveke6001]

@@andrewsteer8860 it was "Marrella" from a dutch brewery called "De Kromme Haring", which translates to "The Crooked Herring". It certainly tasted interesting but I didn't like it at all.

[@andrewsteer8860]

@@robingeveke6001 I suppose we can’t like everything! I had an aged bottle of Schlenkerler doppelbock 2 weeks ago, 5 years old and it was far too Smokey for me. Amazing beer, but not for my palate!

[@bjornpacholski6731]

How about tonka or cinnamon flavors/aroma you get in those tonka stouts?

[@arthursimsa9005]

These are obviously adjuncts

[@angeliquekieser9467]

The weirdest flavour I have come across was cheesy. It was a pale ale that had a very strong Nik Naks aroma but interestingly no cheesy taste... definitely not intentional

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Yikes. Well it could be isoveleric acid, which is a common off-flavour in sour beer and smells like parmesan or baby sick. But it could also be bad/oxidised/old hops being used. Some modern varieties when not properly stored can start to produce these aromas.

[@xander1052]

Weirdest one would have to be when me and friend cracked open an IPA and it tasted of nothing but fresh yeast, no hop notes whatsoever, though as it's obvious where that note is from, more interesting is when I've gotten notes of watermelon from just one NEIPA, all the others have been mango bombs and such.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

I have gotten watermelon from a few NEIPAs. Need to work out which hop is doing it!

[@arthursimsa9005]

Melon is pretty common nowadays in NEIPAs. Cashmere hops, among others.

[@BiscuitGeoff]

I had a beer last year that was very strong, had very little sweetness and instead had almost a marmite flavour. We cracked open some cheddar to go with it. How does that happen?

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

So that sounds like the beer fermented all the way out, so it ate all the sugars in the beer. That means the yeast had a WILD time for a bit, and then died. And dead yeast (which should be removed before packaging or ideally not killed at all!) tastes of marmite

[@BiscuitGeoff]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel awesome to learn, thank you

[@brettslater9330]

I get vanilla in s few beers but not sure if from the yeast or malt. I brew myself so know that no actual vanilla has been added.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

NEIPA yeasts can have that sweet vanilla note, as can certain hops but not many.

[@GalacticCheese]

I like the bubble gum out of a weissbier

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Hell yeah me too

[@JimbobH]

Theres a weird taste I sometimes get from cask beers and always wondered what it was, I can only really describe it as, rather unpleasantly, raw chicken

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

This is an entirely new one on me! I'll have to do some digging to see what it could be

[@hanzelvasconcelos7903]

You kept saying MOLT and i kept on thinking beer being made in an iron foundry

[@Doupyourflies]

Are brewers of traditional English Best Bitters deliberately trying to create the flavour of tobacco? Where does that acrid taste come from, the malt?

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Hey! Erm... I must confess this is not a flavour I've ever associated with British Bitters, which are often criticised for having zero bite to them and being a bit dull (only the bad ones are). I can only assume you are very sensitive to the earthy flavour of British hops, which could potentially come across as tobacco.

[@Doupyourflies]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel Thanks, I think you're right. I struggle with citra only beers and tho' less pronounced and despite being OK at first, after a few sips it does get a bit like tobacco. Maybe fuggles? Before the West Coast revolution I used to gravitate towards the sweeter beers here, like Abbot and Old Hookey. Smiles from Bristol could get fruity but I do struggle with really old fashioned bitters, particularly Northern ones. Some great vids lately.

[@goodolarchie]

An englishman and there's no toffee on the table over in that malt corner!? Jonny...

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Do I lose my citizenship?

[@jsfourdirections]

The bald snob returns!

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Hoping for some more props.