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Ask The Beer Geek
Q: While I enjoy tasting various outstanding
brews, I would like to better educate my palate. I remember
seeing a website that offered a kit of many off flavors
for tasting. It contained tablets of off flavors, which
were added to a neutral beer, like natural light. I
can't find this site now; do you know where to obtain
such a kit? Anyway, hope you can help me out.
Greg
A: Well Greg, I knew exactly what you were talking
about when you asked the question, but it took me a
little searching to find where I had seen if before.
The answer lies within the pages of the Association
of Brewers website, of which the American Homebrewers
Association (AHA) is a part. The quick link for the
kit is http://www.beertown.org/education/flavor.html,
but if you ever forget that (and if you’re like
me, that’s a high probability) just remember to
go the AOB website (www.beertown.org) and click the
“Beer Infor/Education” link at the top. Then
you’ll find the link to the “Sensory Education
Prog.” link on the navigation bar on the left side
under “Homebrewing.”
The kit includes examples of 8 common off-flavors and
aromas found in beer and tells you how to fix problems
in your brewing through flavor and aroma evaluation.
Just be forewarned that this will cost you. The program
runs $149.95 for AHA members and $199.95 for non-members.
You can also find a more complete listing of flavors
at www.flavoractiv.com. You can buy their prepackaged
kits (The Enthusiast at $245.00 or Trainer in a Box
at $1995.00) or you can pick and choose which flavors
you want to try ($72 for 5 capsule pots and $204 for
20 capsule pots.) Keep in mind that the Beertown kit
is The Enthusiast kit.
Unless you’re independently wealthy, that’s
a lot of dough to shell out, especially to taste things
you wouldn’t normally want to taste. However, Simon
Hadman, a spokesperson for FlavorActiv, said that one
capsule is enough for 500 ml of beer. He suggests that
each taster get 100 ml. In other words, he recommends
1 capsule per 5 people. I wouldn’t recommend stretching
your money by using smaller samples, however. 100 ml
comes out to only 3.381 fluid ounces, which is less
than what many festival tasting glasses hold.
Since the Beertown kit comes with three capsules each
of 8 off-flavors, a group of 15 could participate in
a one-time tasting for less than $10 per person. If
you want to stick to FlavorActiv’s recommended
program, which includes multiple tastings at different
concentrations, a group of 5 would spend $29.99 per
person. Which route you took would depend on your reason
for the tasting. If you just want to familiarize yourself
with the flavors to help you identify them later, the
large group tasting would be enough. If you want a more
in-depth experiment in these flavors and to take full
advantage of the program, the small group tasting would
be needed.
Every issue, the Beer Geek will answer your questions
about beer – from the most basic to the most complex.
Send your questions to:
The Beer Geek
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