About the taste of craft beer

At present, there are many kinds of craft beers on the market, and there are differences in color and taste. In the face of many craft beers, if you want to understand the taste of beer, you need to do it in two steps. First, hold your breath, take a sip of the beer, allow the beer to make full contact with your tongue and swallow. In this step you need to feel the real sweetness, acidity and bitterness of the beer. Then, taste the beer again while smelling, this time you can feel the changes in sweetness and bitterness under the interaction of smell and taste.

1. Authentic sweetness, bitterness and acidity

The true acidity, sweetness, and bitterness of the beer can be used in low (no apparent sweetness, almost non-existent) - medium to lower (smear or absence) - medium (taste is obvious, but not persistent) - medium to upper (taste is obvious) - High (the taste is fairly pronounced) to describe the real taste in the beer.

2. Perceived sweetness and bitterness

There may be differences between the flavors tasted by the oral taste buds and the aromas smelled by the nose, and the aromas perceived by the sense of smell and taste will also interact. For example, ripe fruit, spice, and caramel flavors can mask bitterness and sourness in the mouth; roasted aromas can increase bitterness and sourness; and sweetness perceived in the mouth can increase the aroma of ripe fruit. Others are less sensitive to the perception of sweetness or bitterness. Again, low-medium-lower-medium-medium-upper-high can be used to describe the taste you perceive in the context of smell.

DEGONG micro craft beer brewing equipment

3. Salty, fresh, spicy

Generally, when tasting beer, salty, fresh and spicy tastes do not often appear. If you experience these flavors in beer, it may be due to: Salty—the water source used to brew the beer is high in sodium, added salt, or pickled foods; fresh—the yeast-aged beer , the lees releases amino acids into the beer over time, resulting in umami; or additional umami foods such as seaweed or mushrooms are added to the beer; spicy - usually only present in beers with additional chili peppers.

4. Attenuation

Attenuation in beer refers to the difference between the original sugar content of the wort before fermentation and the amount of residual sugar in the beer after fermentation is complete, but not the residual sugar in the beer, as it is reflected in the sweetness of the beer. The "Attenuation" here refers to inferring the change by sensing the balance between the degree of alcohol content, body and carbohydrates.

Low: Sweetness in beer overwhelms alcohol, fermentation appears to be "unfinished"; more than thirst.

Mid-Lower: A lot of residual sugar, but a good balance between body and alcohol; more than thirsty.

Medium: The sweetness in the beer is suitable, and the balance between the body and alcohol content is also quite balanced; the beer with low alcohol content is more thirst-quenching.

Upper-Mid-Above: Sweetness doesn't seem to be enough to maintain balance with body and alcohol; beers with low-to-upper-medium alcohol are more thirst-quenching.

High: The sweetness is lower than the body and alcohol content and cannot be balanced; beers with low to medium alcohol content are too dry.

5. Changes in aroma

There is often a difference between the aroma you smell and the taste you taste when you eat it. You can describe the difference between the two. For example, whether there is a new aroma, whether a certain aroma has changed, and so on.