How Important Is Mouthfeel To You?

It's very important. I don't want a great beer with a poor mouthfeel.

 

I think it's hard to appreciate how mouthfeel affects taste until you have a really shitty one.

 

I'm mostly thinking of the right amount of carbonation and head though and not so much the thinness or thickness.

 

The thin carbonated texture of KBS ruined it for me. I was surprised how much I disliked it. I'll never search it out again. I'd much rather have the thick, oily texture of Founders' Imperial Stout.

 

Had a Switchback Ale cross my path today. The aroma and taste were pretty good but the feel was really watery and threw the whole beer down 2 notches somehow. I usually don't notice it that much but I think KS1297 was right in saying it doesn't really matter until there's a huge discrepancy.

 

Did you then procede to texture your sink drain with the remainder of the afformentioned liquid?

 

And the related question: does the word mouthfeel even strike you as weird anymore?

 

being an american who grew up drinking Coke and Pepsi et. al., carbonation is key to me. I try to handle beer styles that call for low carbonation appropriately, but generally speaking, I need some carbonation. It makes the brew more drinkable for me.

2. is almost exclusively to stouts, and that is: slickness and lumpiness. Some stouts are slick, some aren't. I'm not a fan of slick, but it seems to be part of the style, at least with the imperials and higher ABV stouts. As for lumpy ... I don't how it's possible, but some milk stouts feel "lumpy" to me. They aren't lumpy. They're liquid. With nothing but liquid in them. But the feel is still somehow lumpy on occasion, and I hate it.

So a brew can be super watery, but if it's carbonated, I'm good. And a stout can feel exactly like a pilsener, but since that means it's not slick or lumpy, I'll love it.

So feel is relatively important to me, but it's important that it fit what I want regardless of style, which is f-ed up and not right, but that's me ...

you asked

 

I think it's more important than smell and appearance, personally. The site disagrees!

 

not very… but there are times when it matters more than others.

 

Yeti is probably the closest thing to it that's easy to find.

The big one around here in Texas is The Temptress by Lakewood. It's like tapioca almost. Left Hand Milk Stout is a little like what I'm feeling but not nearly as much as The Temptress.

"Lumpy" is probably just real, real thick. TenFidy by Oskar Blues is thick. Sierra Nevada Russian Imperial Stout is thick.

 

Unless something is just over-carbonated to the point of being "champagne like" it usually doesn't seem to be a huge factor for me.

 

Its most important in stouts but what really threw me for a loop was Left Hand Sawtooth Nitro. Its like drinking cask from a bottle and if you didn't know what you were getting into it could ruin that beer.

 

i agree. i attempted to get my feet wet with sours by following a recommendation to try rodenbach grand cru a while ago. While i can't say i didn't like the beer, i will say that the dry "champagne like" mouth feel was a turn off. sofie was a little like that too. i guess i just prefer thicker, wetter beer-like beers than dry, light champagne/cider beers.

 

A french wine maker (Chablis) once told me: "Don't confuse the body, with the mouthfeel."

Although some use these interchangeably, what he was getting at is that more alcohol can stimulate/trick your taste buds into thinking a wine is big, but it may not actually have the weight, richness that some would call big body. Alcohol (and maybe carbonation) don't feel big on your teeth, just your tongue.

 

Most session IPAs I feel are ruined by mouthfeel especially All Day IPA. Flavor is damn good, but then finishes watery on the mouth. Luckily Stone stepped up the session IPA game with Go To IPA.