Strange hop "off-flavor" spanning multiple breweries

Maybe your pallette is so advanced that that you are the only one able to notice

 

Maybe i was not clear in my post. He had several beers from different breweries. The taste he did not like was in the beers with citra hops. I've most of the beers also and found nothing wrong with how the hops tasted.

 

Ha, with just reading the title of the post, my first thought was soapy hops. I get that a lot, from many breweries. It can definitely be to apparent in some IPA's.

Edit, I also find it in many beers that are "additive" heavy. Like that peanut butter, chocolate, mint stout, which all seems to give it a soapy "slickness" that I can't really describe accurately.

 

A soapy flavor? Is it in any way possible it's a sanitization thing like some residue was left in the vessel before bottling? I feel like I know what you mean, magic hat IPL was that flavor to me. So was BP even keel

 

I think perhaps the most obvious answer here isn't the correct one. It is quite likely that it is simply palate fatigue. Your palate changes over time, and hops are a pretty intense flavor. Depending on how often you are drinking hoppy beers, your palate may just be telling you it needs a break. I could be way off, but it's definitely something to consider.

 

I used to think that Harpoon's IPA was very very floral in both taste and aroma, but now, taste not so much like I remember.

 

Supertasters have more taste buds, so the quick synopsis is that they are more sensitive to bitterness. That is about it.

Sense of smell is something that most females are better at, on the average.

 

I'd almost guarantee that what you're experiencing is a specific combination of free volatile thiols or mercaptans in the hops that are used in the beers and that you are simply more sensitive to them than most.

 

I would expect that individual body chemistry changes without awareness. of the change. On some occasions, I taste metallic things, or fermented-like stuff when not drinking. Bananas now taste different to me that my childhood memories insist. The vagaries of human sensory perception become more clear all of the time, but each one of us is the same and different at once. A great area of "real" science.

 

Yes, there is real science involved (no need for the quotes). Linda Bartoshuk, who first used the term supertaster to describe those individuals with a very high sensitivity to bitterness is a Research Psychologist specializing in Sensory Psychology and its relation to genetic variation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Bartoshuk

Similarly there are also a whole collection of Food Scientists from a number of different scientific backgrounds who spend their time researching sensory responses to foods and beverages, including a tight focus on the how and why of certain ingredients.

I once spent some professional time consulting with some of them and learned that there is a great deal of solid science being done out there on these things. For example, there is no doubt that some physiological changes can take place with out conscious awareness of the changing.

 

Taste is a complex thing. Not only does it have much to do with one's acuity of smell, but it also has to do with the individual's sensory thresholds for picking up certain chemicals. Add to that bias about what "should be" tasted (taste memory, as you mentioned), the environment in which said foodstuff is consumed, and what has been eaten/smelled before consumption and you've got variables galore. As you've said, though, individual body chemistry (that is unrelated to the thresholds mentioned before) is hugely important. Hormone, neurotransmitter, and hydration levels being of maximal importance.

 

The quotation marks were for my conjecture, which is definitely not science. Great work is being done in the field.

 

maybe off topic but maybe not

I get a big fake grape soda taste in Slyfox 360. I define the taste as purple but the powers to be here delete my post saying no such flavor as purple.As soon as I taste it the word purple comes into my head. I taste this flavor in other beers too but Slyfox has the most prevalent , I dont remember the other beers but every once in a bit I taste it.

Any how the hop varieties in the beer are Bravo, Cascade, Centennial and Lemondrop

would any of these give a grape soda(purple) taste?


Enjoy

 

This is a neat example of memory bias. Firstly, I'm not saying that there is no such thing as grape drank taste from a beer. What I am saying is that it's more likely that something about the beer reminds you of something in grape drank, because all that is in grape drank is water, sugar, and, of course, purple.

 

Ahhh, I see. I personally tend to interpret double quotes around a word or phrase as a signal that the term is being used in special sense or some non-standard way. Apologies for the misinterpretation.

 

Scott, of the hops listed the one that I am the least familiar with is Bravo. Below is the description of this hop from the YCH website:

“Aroma: Specific aroma descriptors include orange, vanilla and floral.”

Maybe the equation is: orange + vanilla + floral = purple?

Cheers!

P.S. It has been a few years since I drank a Sly Fox 360 IPA and I have no recollections of its flavor profile so I am of zero help in that regard.

 

Did you buy a new dishwasher? Switch dish soap brands? How long do you rinse your glasses for? Same experience at multiple bars?

I've found a lot of fresh NE IPA's taste pithy and rindy, sometimes floury (probably added flour or too much flaked wheat). I have tasted a soapy flavour in a couple of hazy IPA's too, I often perceive diacetyl this way, like oily butter so I chalked it up to that.

 

Well since most people reading your review (include me) wouldn't have the faintest idea of what purple tastes like....