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Author Topic: Grain-like bitterness  (Read 3183 times)

The Beerery

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Re: Grain-like bitterness
« Reply #15 on: June 14, 2019, 11:14:46 am »
I have ran many a BIAB experiments, and I too get a weird grain flavor, or what think is more of a grain husk flavor. For me it was coming from either direct heating and/or bag squeezing. Either way I stopped with BIAB because of this.

Offline Robert

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Re: Grain-like bitterness
« Reply #16 on: June 14, 2019, 12:14:05 pm »


Though I've never done BIAB, I'm not certain, but I think I've detected this in a couple of my pale lagers lately.  I think it may have been a milling issue, since for a couple of batches I was getting more fine boak particles than I'd been accustomed to.  Might just have been down to a batch of malt that was susceptible to excessive husk damage under standard milling procedures.  At any rate, I'm going to pay a lot more attention to milling speed, and go back to extra measures against HSA, at least all that my mere human-scale brewhouse will admit.  (Conventional 2 vessel setup, direct fired mash kettle and separate lauter tun.)
Rob Stein
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Offline Joe T

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Re: Grain-like bitterness
« Reply #17 on: June 18, 2019, 07:47:12 am »
Sometimes lately, I will have days when all beers will have an unpleasant bitter astringency to them. It can be a homebrew, craft, or macro that I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday but it tastes terrible today. And then tomorrow it will taste great again. Not sure what's going on but it seems to be something with me, not the beer. Anyone else experience this?

Offline Robert

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Re: Grain-like bitterness
« Reply #18 on: June 18, 2019, 07:54:37 am »
Definitely.  The older I get the more all my senses mess with me, then throw in some allergens or whatever...  Some days I guess you just have to throw out the results.  You know, things taste funny today, I'm not taking any tasting notes.  On a day when I think my senses are more trustworthy, I'll make critical assessments of my beer.  But even on a bad day, I think we can still rank beers relative to each other. The playing field is still even.
Rob Stein
Akron, Ohio

I'd rather have questions I can't answer than answers I can't question.

Offline denny

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Re: Grain-like bitterness
« Reply #19 on: June 18, 2019, 08:07:05 am »
Definitely.  The older I get the more all my senses mess with me, then throw in some allergens or whatever...  Some days I guess you just have to throw out the results.  You know, things taste funny today, I'm not taking any tasting notes.  On a day when I think my senses are more trustworthy, I'll make critical assessments of my beer.  But even on a bad day, I think we can still rank beers relative to each other. The playing field is still even.

Robert, sounds like you should take my survey
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Offline Robert

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Re: Grain-like bitterness
« Reply #20 on: June 18, 2019, 08:10:25 am »
Definitely.  The older I get the more all my senses mess with me, then throw in some allergens or whatever...  Some days I guess you just have to throw out the results.  You know, things taste funny today, I'm not taking any tasting notes.  On a day when I think my senses are more trustworthy, I'll make critical assessments of my beer.  But even on a bad day, I think we can still rank beers relative to each other. The playing field is still even.

Robert, sounds like you should take my survey
Not 60 yet, Denny, just getting a head start on decrepitude! 
Rob Stein
Akron, Ohio

I'd rather have questions I can't answer than answers I can't question.

Offline jeffy

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Re: Grain-like bitterness
« Reply #21 on: June 18, 2019, 08:30:08 am »
Definitely.  The older I get the more all my senses mess with me, then throw in some allergens or whatever...  Some days I guess you just have to throw out the results.  You know, things taste funny today, I'm not taking any tasting notes.  On a day when I think my senses are more trustworthy, I'll make critical assessments of my beer.  But even on a bad day, I think we can still rank beers relative to each other. The playing field is still even.
I find myself having to relearn all the smells I used to know, not because of old age, but because I had surgery to remove nasal polyps a little over a year ago.  Before that, unless I was on big steroids, I had anosmia.  Now I find myself blind to some things, but overall I'm really enjoying the sense of smell I have regained.
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Offline Visor

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Re: Grain-like bitterness
« Reply #22 on: June 18, 2019, 08:40:29 am »
    Happens all the time, and not just with beer. I'm sure the fact that I've pretty well burned my taste buds out with 40 years of over the top, subtlety is for wimps, use every spice in the cabinet bachelor cooking has nothing to do with their schizophrenic variability now.
   Denny, I'll take your survey, if I can get an email to go through to you, got rejected a couple times yesterday.
I spent most of my money on beer, tools and guns, the rest I foolishly squandered on stupid stuff!

Offline denny

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Re: Grain-like bitterness
« Reply #23 on: June 18, 2019, 08:50:18 am »
    Happens all the time, and not just with beer. I'm sure the fact that I've pretty well burned my taste buds out with 40 years of over the top, subtlety is for wimps, use every spice in the cabinet bachelor cooking has nothing to do with their schizophrenic variability now.
   Denny, I'll take your survey, if I can get an email to go through to you, got rejected a couple times yesterday.

Thanks for letting me know.  I'll get Drew to look into it.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

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Offline Robert

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Re: Grain-like bitterness
« Reply #24 on: June 18, 2019, 09:28:11 am »
Definitely.  The older I get the more all my senses mess with me, then throw in some allergens or whatever...  Some days I guess you just have to throw out the results.  You know, things taste funny today, I'm not taking any tasting notes.  On a day when I think my senses are more trustworthy, I'll make critical assessments of my beer.  But even on a bad day, I think we can still rank beers relative to each other. The playing field is still even.
I find myself having to relearn all the smells I used to know, not because of old age, but because I had surgery to remove nasal polyps a little over a year ago.  Before that, unless I was on big steroids, I had anosmia.  Now I find myself blind to some things, but overall I'm really enjoying the sense of smell I have regained.
Jeffy, I've read about a guy here in Ohio who was on the verge of opening his long planned brewery when surgery for a tumor left him completely and permanently without any sense of taste or smell.  The opening went ahead, the brewery has been successful, but he has to rely on his memory and the senses of others to guide him.  Count yourself lucky.
Rob Stein
Akron, Ohio

I'd rather have questions I can't answer than answers I can't question.

Offline ynotbrusum

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Re: Grain-like bitterness
« Reply #25 on: June 19, 2019, 12:49:17 pm »
Definitely.  The older I get the more all my senses mess with me, then throw in some allergens or whatever...  Some days I guess you just have to throw out the results.  You know, things taste funny today, I'm not taking any tasting notes.  On a day when I think my senses are more trustworthy, I'll make critical assessments of my beer.  But even on a bad day, I think we can still rank beers relative to each other. The playing field is still even.
I find myself having to relearn all the smells I used to know, not because of old age, but because I had surgery to remove nasal polyps a little over a year ago.  Before that, unless I was on big steroids, I had anosmia.  Now I find myself blind to some things, but overall I'm really enjoying the sense of smell I have regained.
Jeffy, I've read about a guy here in Ohio who was on the verge of opening his long planned brewery when surgery for a tumor left him completely and permanently without any sense of taste or smell.  The opening went ahead, the brewery has been successful, but he has to rely on his memory and the senses of others to guide him.  Count yourself lucky.

Indeed.  That would be miserable, to say the least.  But, hey, Beethoven was deaf, right?  Anything is possible, but coming up with recipes for new varieties of ingredients would be pretty difficult in that situation.
Hodge Garage Brewing: "Brew with a glad heart!"

Offline Robert

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Re: Grain-like bitterness
« Reply #26 on: July 08, 2019, 09:27:19 pm »


When you say "grain like bitterness" I think of herbstoff aka grain bitterness which is caused by oxidation.
i know what it tastes like these days. Often pick it out in locally brewed German beers, Kolsch and Pils for example.

My wife, who has a great palate, seems to be blind to it.

Damn.  Now I gotta figure out exactly what this herbstoff thing is.

Like when I learned what THP tastes like. That grainy cheerios flavor that I thought complimented the graininess?  Drinking (some) sours isn't quite the same any more.

It's from HSA. So its literally in every beer that isn't brewing in a low oxygen brewhouse. It will not be in European Macro brews.

Drinking a Coors Banquet.   Swear I'm picking up Herbstoffe.  Huh.  Never thought about it before.   Maybe just hyper aware of late thanks to this thread. 
Rob Stein
Akron, Ohio

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Offline Richard

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Re: Grain-like bitterness
« Reply #27 on: July 08, 2019, 10:26:18 pm »
Our sense of smell and taste can be fickle and give different results from day to day. A few years ago I went through a period of time when everything tasted bitter. I eventually tracked it down to eating Chinese pine nuts from Costco. They are known to cause "Pine Mouth" which can last from a few days to a few weeks and cause everything to have a bitter taste. I grew up in New Mexico where we would harvest and roast our own pine nuts, so I love them. I never had a problem with those, but the Chinese ones are different. Now I don't pass judgement on the taste of a beer until I have tasted it on several different days under different conditions.
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Offline ynotbrusum

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Re: Grain-like bitterness
« Reply #28 on: July 09, 2019, 05:38:18 am »
Our sense of smell and taste can be fickle and give different results from day to day. A few years ago I went through a period of time when everything tasted bitter. I eventually tracked it down to eating Chinese pine nuts from Costco. They are known to cause "Pine Mouth" which can last from a few days to a few weeks and cause everything to have a bitter taste. I grew up in New Mexico where we would harvest and roast our own pine nuts, so I love them. I never had a problem with those, but the Chinese ones are different. Now I don't pass judgement on the taste of a beer until I have tasted it on several different days under different conditions.

That is interesting to hear.  I swear I have had my taste thrown off for a day or so from particularly spicy smoked meats that I have eaten.  I thought it was just me....
Hodge Garage Brewing: "Brew with a glad heart!"