Beer Flavours

A Multi-Sensory Workshop with Dale Smith from FlavorActiV: Dale will conduct a sensory workshop to introduce common beer faults and positives, with a tasting session and live results to test the skills of the audience.

1. Beer Flavours – A Multi Sensory Workshop Dale Smith – Director of Operations, FlavorActiV Copyright © FlavorActiV 2016
2. What Is Flavour? Basic Tastes Bitter, Sour, Sweet, Salty, Umami Mouthfeel Texture, pain, dry….. Aromas / Smells Flavour
3. Why is Flavour Important In Beer? • The beer’s unique identity • Consumer’s preference • Brand positioning • We can tell the ‘health’ of the beer
4. The Flavour Fingerprint
5. • Standardised sensory panels • Via training from reference flavours • Standardised Language • Providing diagnostic tasting of products • Optimisation and quality control of beers and brands Flavour Is the Language of Beer
6. How To Taste • How’s it presented in the bottle? • How’s it presented in the glass? • What does the beer look like? • What’s the colour like? • How’s the carbonation? • Does it match the style? • Is it what you expect?
7. You Do Judge A Book (Bottle) By Its Cover Trendy Professional Young Adventurous
8. You Do Judge A Book (Bottle) By Its Cover Male Targeted Rebellious Hint of Danger Drinking culture
9. You Do Judge A Book (Bottle) By Its Cover Standardised Reliable Consistent Easy to Drink
10. How To Taste • Cap your cup with your hand • Short sniffs • Long sniffs • Close to the nose • Further away • Trying to capture all the different flavour components from the beer
11. How To Taste • Taste • Swirl around • Swallow the beer • Breath out • Captures the basic tastes and different flavour components interacting • Mouthfeel aspects
12. Types Of Beer Flavour Positives Off-Flavours Aging / Stability Taints
13. Flavours that should be part of the beer / brand Examples Include: • Esters – Isoamyl Acetate, Ethyl Hexanoate • Hops / hoppy – hop oils, kettle hops • Sulphurs – DMS, Hydrogen Sulphide Positives can become negatives if the flavour is too high Positives
14. Sample A
15. Positives – Dimethyl Sulphide
16. Sweetcorn, creamed corn, tomato ketchup, sea vegetables Importance and Origins: Formed by yeast fermentation A positive flavour and normal in beer profiles Can sometimes become a negative off-note at higher concentrations. DMS (Dimethyl Sulphide)
17. Flavours that occur due to the production process but shouldn’t be present Examples Include: • Butyric acid • Acetaldehyde • Phenolic (4-VG) • Mousy Off-flavours occur normally and need to be managed Off-Flavours
18. Sample B
19. Off-Flavours - Brettanomyces
20. Sweaty Horse, barnyard, farmyard and band-aid Importance and Origins: Formed by Brettanomyces yeast fermentation Generally an off-flavour Can be a positive flavour in some beer styles Very prominent in many ciders! Brett – Barnyard (4-ethyl phenol)
21. Sample C
23. Banana oil, fusel alcohol, hot alcohol Importance and Origins: Produced during fermentation from yeast under stress Normally due to poor fermentation conditions Temperature not correct / poor dissolved gas content Isoamyl Alcohol
24. Flavours that occur due to the aging / storage process Examples Include: • Papery • Catty • Leathery • Oxidised Mainly negative flavours. Aging flavours impact the shelf life of beers Aging / Staling
25. Sample D
26. Aging / Staling - Catty
27. Tom Cat Urine, Blackcurrant ribes Importance and Origins: Occurs due to aging of beer. Becomes more prominent in some beers over others. Very detectable at low levels. Can be a normal flavour in some beer profiles – mainly ales Catty (p-menthane-8-thiol-3-one)
28. Flavours that are introduced externally - contaminants Examples Include: • Medicinal • Motor Fuel • Chlorophenol • Musty / Earthy Taints should never be present within beer! Taints
29. Sample E
30. Taints – Motor Fuel
31. Petrol, diesel, motor fuel, motor oil Importance and Origins: Taint imparted by poor transportation and storage conditions Motor vehicle fumes contaminate finished product or raw materials Can also occur naturally due to hop flavours degradation or flavour breakdown (limonene conversion to terpenes) Motor Fuel (p-cymene)
32. Learning
33. Recap • Standardisation helps to identify flavours that occur in beer • Your appreciation for beer will improve! • Your beer tastes will however become more expensive! • Pay more attention to the beer and the individual flavours! Research your beer! • If something tastes weird it generally shouldn’t be there!
34. Thank You! www.flavoractiv.com dale.smith@flavoractiv.com Copyright © FlavorActiV 2016