The aromas and flavors in beer come from its ingredients. It’s not only the ingredients, but how they’re prepared and used in the recipe. This section discusses the three (4) main components of beer and what aromas and flavors they produce.

Beer Actor by Alan Levine on flickr (CC BY 2.0)

The 4 main components of beer are: water, malt, hops, and yeast.

Even water—or more specifically the minerals in water—impart aromas and flavors to beer.

In this section of the Certified Beer Server syllabus, we’re concentrating only on the last 3 ingredients:

1. Malt
2. Hops
3. Yeast

The reading material for this section was found in Tasting Beer.

Malt and grain flavors

Yeasts need sugar to make alcohol. Brewers get sugar from grains.

Barley is by far the most common grain used in beer. Barley has been used in beer for thousands of years. It has a lot of starch that can be converted to sugar, and its shells serve as filters.

To make the sugars accessible for brewing, the grain must be “malted.”

Malting is the process of wetting the gain enough so that it germinates and starts to sprout, but then heating the grain to kill it before it starts to grow into a plant. When the grain senses the moisture, it knows it’s time to sprout. So it turns those starches into sugar as food for the growing process.

Barley / Gerste I by Christian Schnettelker on flickr (CC BY 2.0) http://www.manoftaste.de was modified from its original state.

Grains can impart a huge variety of flavor and aroma in beer depending on how much moisture and heat is used in the malting process. Some are lightly toasted while other are toasted very dark.

The basic types of malt are:

• Base malts – The majority of the “grain bill” used in most types of beer, even dark beers.
• Kilned or Color malts – Used in smaller amounts, up to 20 percent of the grain bill.
• Crystal or Caramel malts – A special “stewing” process results in a glassy, crunchy texture. It provides fat, raisin, or other dried fruit aromas.
• Roasted malts and grains – Used up to 10 percent of the grain bill. Provides aromas and flavors of coffee, chocolate and other roasted foods.

Within each of the basic types shown above, there are different kinds of malts.

Adjunct grains are alternative grains. “In today’s beers,” writes Mosher, “adjuncts are about texture more than flavor. All tend to be less assertive in aroma than barley malt.”

For example, “wheat, oats, and rye all add creamy texture and great head retention to beers… Corn and rice always thin out a beer.”

Examples of adjunct grains:

• Wheat
• Oats
• Rye
• Corn
• Rice

So that’s a little about how grains and malt affect the aroma, flavor and texture of beer.

Here are some specifics to remember from the Certified Beer Server syllabus. Notice how the aromas and flavors range from doughy on one end of the spectrum all the way to roasted and burnt as the beer style gets darker.

Pale beer: uncooked flour, bread dough

Golden beer: white bread, wheat bread, water cracker

Light amber beer: bread crust, biscuit, graham cracker

Amber beer: toast, caramel, pie crust

Brown beer: nuts, toffee, chocolate, dark/dried fruit

Black beer: roast, burnt, coffee

Hops

Hops are in the nettle family and are related to marijuana. Hops have been used in beer since about a thousand years ago.

The only part of the hop plant that is used in beer is the cone. According to Mosher, brewers often incorrectly call them “flowers.”

Bitterness, flavor and aroma effects

Whereas the malt in beer provides the fermentable sugar and some sweet flavor to the beer, hops balance that sweetness with bitterness. Hops can add other flavors and even aromas to beer.

Recall that smell accounts for as much as 90-95 percent of the sense of taste. So brewers can use the varied aromas from hops to do some pretty interesting things.

Traditional regional hop traits

Mosher says there are more than a hundred varieties of hops. They all have their own attributes. You might not consider yourself much of an apple connoisseur, but probably you could easily notice a difference from Red Delicious to Gala and Pink Lady. It’s similar with hops.

Certain hops grow best, and most will best display their key characteristics, when grown in the region where they originated.

American hops are known for their pine, citrus, resin, tropical fruit, and catty notes.

English hops provide notes of “spicy to fruity, with a healthy dose of fresh green grassiness,” says Mosher. They can also provide earthy, herbal, or woodsy notes.

German and Czech hops provide “herbal, sometimes almost minty” notes, says Mosher. They can also provide spicy, floral, perfumy, or peppery notes.

Fermentation

Ale versus lagers flavors

It is said that

Brewers make wort, yeast makes beer. [Tweet This]

Yeast are little bugs that are found all around, on most surfaces in the world. They make bread rise and they turn sugary liquid into beer—or wine, or cider, or…

As the yeast float around in wort, they burp carbon dioxide (CO²) and piss (or puke) alcohol. (For more on yeast, see Beer ingredients and brewing processes.)

God gave us yeast, and yeast gives us beer. [Tweet This]

There are 2 main types of yeast for fermenting beer:

• Lager yeast
• Ale yeast

Other specialty yeasts and sometimes even bacteria are used to ferment beer. But lager yeast and ale yeast are the two main kinds.

Lager yeast works at very cold temperatures, around 40-45° F (4-7° C). Beers made with lagers yeasts “have a relatively clean, pure flavor without fruity or spicy aromatics,” says Mosher.

Ale yeast works at warmer temperatures, above 55° F (13° C). They “have loads going on, with fruity, spicy esters and higher alcohols and phenolic compounds, among others.”

These 2 yeast strains have been recently proven to be very closely related. However, the ale yeasts have much more variation, and it shows up in the wide variety of ale beers.

One important chemical produced by both types of yeast is called diacetyl. Diacetyl tastes like butter. At warmer temperatures, yeast reabsorb diacetyl and make it flavorless. So brewers raise temperatures of lagers during conditioning to eliminate the diacetyl flavors. This “diacetyl rest” is also sometimes used in ales.

Weissbier yeast flavor

Weissbier uses a very unique yeast. It “produces a clove aroma, along with banana and bubble-gum fruitiness.”

Other yeast and bacteria can contribute to beer flavor

Some different species of yeast and even bacteria are used for certain beer styles. The 4 fermenting buggies below have unique taste and aroma profiles.

Mosher describes them as “dreaded contaminants in most breweries; brewers bold enough to bring them under their roofs need to take extraordinary measures to prevent their escape and the fouling up of the whole place.”

Brettanomyces is a yeast that Mosher says might be endemic to oak wood (found no where else), but Wikipedia says in the wild it’s also found living on fruit skins.

Brett is used in lambics, some saisons, and English old ales. It “has barnyard or horsey aromas”

Pichia and Candida are yeasts that form films in beer. Chris White says pichia “makes beer that tastes something like sweaty socks.”

(Source: White, Chris and Jamil Zainasheff. Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation. Boulder, CO: Brewers Association, 2010. p 3. https://books.google.com. Accessed September 25, 2015.)

These have a role in lambics, but mostly they just cause spoilage. And it’s not only beer that they spoil, candida is the one responsible for yeast infections. Don’t worry, as Madeleine Davies says, just so you know, you can’t make beer with your vagina.

Lactobacillus and Pediococcus are bacteria that each produce lactic acid, which lowers the pH and makes beer sour. Mosher says it “can also create a lot of diacetyl (buttery) and goaty, sweat sock-reminiscent aromas.”

Lacto is used in beer styles like Goses and Berliner Weisses. “It’s a relatively clean taste for drinkers,” writes Kate Bernot in Draft Mag.

(Source: Bernot, Kate. “Yeast and bacteria 101: Brettanomyces, lactobacillus, pediococcus.” DRAFT Magazine, March 16, 2015. http://draftmag.com. Accessed September 25, 2015.)

Pedio is used in beer styles like Lambics and Flanders Red Ales.

Acetobacteria is a bacteria that produces acetic acid. As Billy Broas points out, acetic acid is “the key component in vinegar.”

(Source: Broas, Billy. “The Bugs that Sour Your Beer (And Why They’re Not All Bad).” Homebrew Academy, September 8, 2010. http://homebrewacademy.com. Accessed September 25, 2015.)

So aceto “adds vinegar or pickle aromas, but may also create a fair amount of ethyle acetate… fruity at low quantities, but in larger quantities it comes across as nail polish remover or solvent,” says Mosher.

Conclusion

So this is a little bit about how the major ingredients categories impart a range and variety of aromas and flavors in beer.

As you develop your palate, and concentrate on identifying specific aroma and flavor elements, you will be able to develop a vocabulary that helps you understand the beer more intimately.

A better understanding and more sophisticated vocabulary for beer will help you better communicate with your customer and know which beer she wants to enjoy.

In the next section, we’ll discuss some “off flavors” and how to identify a beer that has gone bad.

Flashcards for this section

Based on the reading materials mentioned and my notes above, here are my flashcards for this section.

3 main sources of aroma and flavor in beer

1. Malt and grain
2. Hops
3. Fermentation

(and water)

What is the most common grain used in beer?

Barley is the most common grain used in beer because its high starch content is readily converted to sugar and its shells serve as filters.

How are the starches in grain converted to sugar?

“Malting” converts the starches in grain to sugar.

The grain is wetted enough so that it germinates and starts to sprout. Then the grain is dried and heated to stop the process.

4 basic types of malt

1. Base malts
2. Kilned or colored malts
3. Crystal or caramel malts
4. Roasted malts or grains

What are adjunct grains?

Adjunct grains are grains other than barley.

They are used mainly for texture as opposed to flavor.

5 examples of adjunct grains

1. Wheat
2. Oats
3. Rye
4. Corn
5. Rice

Main flavors of pale beer

Uncooked flour, bread dough

Main flavors of golden beer

White bread, wheat bread, water cracker

Main flavors of light amber beer

Bread crust, biscuit, graham cracker

Main flavors of amber beer

Toast, caramel, pie crust

Main flavors of brown beer

Nuts, toffee, chocolate, dark/dried fruit

Main flavors of black beer

Roast, burnt, coffee

How many varieties of hops are there?

There are over a hundred varieties of hops.

Main flavors of American hops

Pine, citrus, resin, tropical fruit, cat

Main flavors of English hops

Spice, fruit, fresh green grassiness, “earth” (soil), herbs, woods

Main flavors of German and Czech hops

Herbs, mint, spice, flowers, perfume, pepper

2 main types of yeast for fermenting beer

1. Lager yeast
2. Ale yeast

Main flavors of lager yeast

Clean and pure, without fruity or spicey aromatics

Main flavors of ale yeast

Fruity, spicy esters and higher alcohol and phenolic compounds (cloves)

What is diacetyl?

Diacetyl is a chemical that tastes like butter.

Both lager yeasts and ale yeasts produce diacetyl. Brewers often use a “diacetyl rest” to get rid of it.

Main flavors of Weissbier yeast

Clove, banana, bubble-gum fruitiness

Other yeast and bacteria used in beer

Brettanomyces (yeast)

Pichia and Candida (yeasts)

Lactobacillus and Pediococcus (bacteria)

Acetobacteria (bacteria)

Why write the flashcards by hand? Buy the full set here: Instant access!

The post 016. Identify normal flavors of beer and their source appeared first on Beer Exam School.

Beer styles can be measured qualitatively and quantitatively. Today’s lesson describes the different ways to measure the characteristics of a beer, and understand its style.

Best in Show by capnvynl on flickr (CC BY 2.0)

This isn’t psychology. I mean, who’s to say why people put things into categories.

Cars, trucks, SUVs. Apartments, condos, single-detached homes. Men and women. Dogs and cats. Ales and lagers.

Categories help us understand things and appreciate things. Beer styles are a way to understand the beer in hand.

Reading material for this section was found in the Certified Beer Server syllabus and the following sources.

Discussion of quantitative assessments come mostly from the BJCP 2015 Style Guidelines; Beer, Mead, and Cider Guidelines with Special Ingredient Descriptions.

Discussion of qualitative assessments, especially pertaining to beer character, come mostly from:

• Michael Jackson’s Great Beer Guide by Michael Jackson
• Tasting Beer; An Insider’s Guide to the World’s Greatest Drink by Randy Mosher

  

Knowledge requirements: qualitative measurements versus quantitative measurements

I first learned the terms qualitative and quantitative in university science classes. It’s a way to differentiate between a measurement that is subjective from a measurement that is objective.

Qualitative measurement is subjective to the observer. It’s usually described with adjectives. What one person calls brown, another might call beige. Therefore, a quality is descriptive and can be perceived slightly differently from person to person.

On the other hand, quantitative measurement is objective. It helps me to think of the word “quantity,” like a weight or a measurement. It’s quantifiable. Quantitative descriptors usually come in the form of numbers. Therefore, a quantitative measurement is the same for everyone.

We can say qualitatively that a person is tall. We can say quantitatively that she is 5’11”.

So it is in beer styles, they can be measured qualitatively and quantitatively.

NOTE: For all of the beer styles that we’ll be following, please keep in mind that these styles are a general representation of most beers of the given style. That is, most beers in a style will follow these parameters and ranges that we’ll discuss, but there will be some outliers, some beers that fall slightly outside of the strict parameters for a given style.

It’s a spectrum, it’s fluid, it’s artistic, and it’s open to some interpretation by the individual brewers.

The four parameters that define beer style: Color, perceived bitterness, alcohol content, and character

As described earlier, the Certified Beer Server syllabus goes by the BJCP Style Guidelines for beer styles. Allegedly, the BJCP Guidelines don’t change as often as other guidelines.

BJCP Style Guidelines have lots of prose describing each style, sometimes half a page or more. In the next lesson, we’ll get into the descriptions for each specific style. For now, we’re just outlining how the descriptions are measured.

I’m changing the order of these parameters from that shown in the syllabus. I present them in the order we perceive them when approaching a beer.

In fact, I’m going out a little further on that limb; I’m grouping this study not by measurement type, but by the different parameters. It makes more sense to me to look at one parameter at a time, and understand both qualitative and quantitative measurements for that parameter.

Parameters of beer styles fall into these categories:

1. Color
2. Perceived bitterness
3. Alcohol content

Often these parameters will be abbreviated as follows:

• C – color
• PB – perceived bitterness
• ABV – alcohol content (alcohol by volume)

These 3 parameters each can be measured qualitatively or quantitatively.

A fourth parameter, however—character— can be measured only qualitatively. That is, character has no quantitative measurements.

Color

The first thing we will notice when approaching a beer is its visual color.

BJCP uses 12 qualitative color categories and corresponds them to the quantitative “Standard Reference Method” (SRM) scale. For this exam, we need to know just the following 5 color descriptors:

1. Straw
2. Gold
3. Amber
4. Brown
5. Black

Each of the qualitative color descriptors above correlates to a quantitative range on the SRM scale. We don’t need to know SRM values for the Certified Beer Server exam, but I’m including the information in case you want to get nerdy about. I like to get nerdy about it.

SRM is often used as a quantitative measurement of beer color. It’s measured on a scale of 1-40+.

BJCP Style Guidelines describes SRM as “a measure of beer color or density more than hue/tint.”

A friend from the Beer Color Laboratories sent me a Beer Color Reference guide. The transparent card has a gradient of colors that you can compare to any beer and gauge the SRM number. It’s a handy way to hone your visual skills and beer knowledge.

Anyway, he says, “SRM is actually a measure of ‘darkness’ at one wavelength and not a good representation of ‘color’ by any means. You need to gather color data for many beers… to get a representative color for beers at those [SRM] values.”

Beer Color Reference by Beer Color Laboratories is a handy tool for measuring the SRM of beer.

How we perceive the color and the hue/tint of a beer can be affected by a number of factors such as lighting and backdrop. Therefore, it’s very difficult to correlate qualitative measurements of color directly to quantitative measurements.

Just know that beer can be classified by color, and by darkness.

Five color descriptors and an example of each:

Check out the Wikipedia article on Standard Reference Method for a wider range of color representations on the screen.

The SRM ranges shown above are from the BJCP Style Guidelines 2008, but generalized for the 5 descriptors in the Certified Beer Server syllabus.

Perceived bitterness

After observing a beer’s color, let’s see how it tastes.

Actually, I like to describe aroma second, because, after looking at a beer, we’ll smell it before we taste it. But aroma has only a qualitative measurement, so the Certified Beer Server syllabus describes it in the “character” descriptor. Therefore, we’ll describe aroma below when we talk about beer character.

Flavor is also so varied and nuanced that is has mostly qualitative descriptors. We discuss a variety of flavors in the character section.

In the meantime, let’s cut straight to one aspect of flavor that is very popular in beer: bitterness.

Certified Beer Server syllabus qualitatively generalizes perceived bitterness with the following 5 categories of bitterness:

1. Low
2. Moderate
3. Pronounced
4. Assertive
5. Highly assertive

Each of the qualitative descriptors above correlates to a quantitative range on the International Bitterness Units (IBU) scale. The scale for IBU ranges from 0-100+. We don’t need to know IBU values for the Certified Beer Server exam, but I’m including the information in case you want to further advance your knowledge.

Popular Science has a pretty informative explanation of IBUs. It demystifies and debunks a lot of misinformation that I’ve heard going around. Basically, IBUs measures the concentration of bittering compounds in beer.

Not all tongues are the same. Bitterness can be perceived differently from person to person.

Additionally, perceived bitterness doesn’t correlate directly to IBUs. The way we perceive bitterness is affected by the amount of malt in the beer, so if you have 2 beers with the same IBU, the more malty beer won’t seem as bitter.

Just know that beer can be classified by perceived bitterness and by actual bitterness.

Five descriptors of bitterness and their corresponding IBU:

The IBU ranges shown above are from BJCP 2015 Style Guidelines, but generalized for the 5 descriptors in the Certified Beer Server syllabus.

Alcohol content

While still tasting the beer, we can perceive a general feeling for the amount of alcohol in beer. The amount of alcohol can vary from beer to beer.

Qualitatively, we can use the following 5 descriptors of alcohol content:

1. Lower
2. Normal
3. Elevated
4. High
5. Very high

Alcohol content can also be quantitatively measured. There are two measurements, both are expressed in percent:

• Alcohol By Volume (ABV)
• Alcohol By Weight (ABW)

Alcohol By Volume is the more common measurement.

Five descriptors for alcohol content and their corresponding ABV:

The ABV ranges shown above are from the BJCP 2015 Style Guidelines, but generalized for the 5 descriptors in the Certified Beer Server Syllabus.

Beer character

Another assessment of beer is the beer character. This one is qualitative, but has no quantitative measurements. It’s sort of the overall description of a beer.

For this exam, we’ll cover 6 parameters of beer character.

Here they are in the order that you will experience them:

1. Appearance
2. Aroma
3. Flavor
4. Perceived bitterness
5. Mouthfeel
6. Aftertaste

We’ll discuss how these are perceived and how to evaluate these later on in section III. Beer Flavor and Evaluation. For now, we’ll just try and give basic definitions.

Appearance – For appearance, we’re just trying to get an overall visual assessment of the beer before you really get into the smell and taste of it. Color is kind of part of it, but that’s covered more in the qualitative measurements above.

Get an overall impression of the beer from any visual cues you can pick up such as color, hue, clarity, or viscosity.

Aroma – “Whether the drinker sniffs or not,” says Michael Jackson, “much of what we think we taste is actually experienced through our potent and evocative sense of smell.”

We can’t list all of the aromas. Randy Mosher says humans can perceive 10,000 different aromas.

Flavor – Different kinds of flavor include sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami (“deliciousness” can also be perceived as meatiness), and fat.

According to Mosher, fat is “the most recently discovered member of the taste family, having been added only with the discovery of its receptor in 2005.” He also admits that “it’s not clear if this receptor plays any role at all in beer tasting, as beer is a fat-free product.”

Beyond that, the variety of flavors that can be perceived in beer is limited only by experience and imagination. Michal Jackson’s Great Beer Guide has a “Lexicon of flavors & aromas” that gives a good variety with explanations of why we perceive these flavors in beer.

For example, the perception of cloves in beer, he explains, “arises from phenols created in fermentation.”

Perceived bitterness – Bitter flavors are nature’s way of protecting us from food poisoning. For most people, bitterness is an acquired taste. In beer, we consider bitterness as a good thing.

Hops provide beer’s bitterness as well as flowery aromas and flavors.

On the other hand, astringent bitterness can signal a bad beer.

Mouthfeel – Mouthfeel can encompass a variety of sensations including temperature, carbonation, viscosity, and cooling or burning sensations.

Common mouthfeel sensations from beer are described as crispness or dryness, palate fullness, richness, oiliness, and more.

Aftertaste – Aftertaste refers to perceptions after you have swallowed the beer.

If you swallow a beer and it’s just gone, it doesn’t have any aftertaste.

On the other hand, flavors, aromas, and mouthfeel can linger or even change long after the beer is swallowed.

I love what Jackson says about tasting beer:

“Enjoyment of beer does not demand some special tasting talent. All it requires is an open mind, an interest in beer, and an eagerness to find aromas and flavors without fear of mockery.”

Summary

This lesson is really important. The information presented in this lesson is the building blocks for the next few lessons. It’s really important to memorize this information. It will make the next few lessons a lot easier to understand and absorb.

In the next section we’re really going to hit beer styles hard. We’ll pull together everything we learned from the last two chapters and get cozy with history, characteristics, and flavor attributes of styles by region.

It’s a big section. Let’s do this!

Flashcards for this section

Based on the reading materials mentioned and my notes above, here are my flashcards for this section.

There are a lot of flashcards for this section. Some of it seems redundant, because it’s a lot of intricate details presented in different ways. I did it this way to help us better learn these little details that will be so important for our future ability to understand beer styles.

What’s the difference between qualitative measurements and quantitative measurements?

What 4 parameters define beer style?

1. Color (C)
2. Perceived bitterness (PB)
3. Alcohol content (ABV)
4. Character

What does SRM stand for?

Standard Reference Method is a quantitative measurement for color.

What does IBU stand for?

International Bitterness Units is a quantitative measurement for bitterness.

What does ABV stand for?

Alcohol By Volume is a quantitative measurement for alcohol content. It is expressed in percent.

Which of the 4 parameters that define beer style can be measured only qualitatively, not quantitatively?

Beer character has only qualitative measurements, not quantitative measurements.

5 descriptors of color

1. Straw
2. Gold
3. Amber
4. Brown
5. Black

SRM range for straw color

SRM: 2-4

SRM range for gold color

SRM: 6-7

SRM range for amber color

SRM: 10-18

SRM range for brown color

SRM: 19-30

SRM range for black color

SRM: 35-40

5 color descriptors with corresponding SRM number and a style example for each

5 descriptors of perceived bitterness

1. Low
2. Moderate
3. Pronounced
4. Assertive
5. Highly assertive

IBU range for low perceived bitterness

IBUs: 0-30

IBU range for moderate perceived bitterness

IBUs: 20-40

IBU range for pronounced perceived bitterness

IBUs: 35-75

IBU range for assertive perceived bitterness

IBUs: 50-100

IBU range for highly assertive perceived bitterness

IBUs: 80-120

5 bitterness descriptors with corresponding IBUs and a style example for each.

5 descriptors of alcohol content

1. Lower
2. Normal
3. Elevated
4. High
5. Very high

ABV range for lower alcohol content

ABV: <4.5%

ABV range for normal alcohol content

ABV: 4.5-6.0%

ABV range for elevated alcohol content

ABV: 6.1-7.5%

ABV range for high alcohol content

ABV: 7.6-10.0%

ABV range for very high alcohol content

ABV: >10.0%

5 alcohol content descriptors with corresponding ABV and a style example for each

5 qualitative descriptors for color, perceived bitterness, and alcohol content

6 parameters of beer character

1. Appearance
2. Aroma
3. Flavor
4. Perceived bitterness
5. Mouthfeel
6. Aftertaste

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