So what does pine taste like?

I partook in an IPA about 6 month's ago that triggered a childhood memory (can't remember which beer it was). As others have said about the Christmas tree 'pine'...my memory was of the days when we would cut the tree in the house, to fit the trunk into the tree pan. Very strong, very piney.

 

For grass, if you somehow never got a face full of grass and dirt as a kid and don't want to chow down on some now, take a walk while someone is mowing their lawn and take a big breath with an open mouth. Same with a rainy day. If you can, just go for a short walk outside and smell and take massive breaths. You might even get a wet, ropey sort of earthy, clean dirt (clean dirt, sure, that makes sense I guess?) aroma or flavor which I sometimes find in smoked beers or some whiskeys. Living adjacent to the middle of nowhere as opposed to the middle of a clustered city helps with all of that, of course.

For piney, sap, and other resin or grass notes I would say most of my experience comes from herbal teas. Find an herb store and get some random flowers, roots, branches. Chamomile, pine or spruce tips, green tea, different mints, juniper berries and branches, dandelion, blackberry leaf, catnip, lemongrass, eucalyptus, so on and so on, make teas with them. I get a lot of similar aromas and flavors with all of those as I do Chinook, Centennial, Perle, Crystal, and Fuggle hops. Things like horehound candy and a few of the above herbs I get in the occasional black IPA and schwarzbier. Old bow string resin, old lacquered and worn wood, and old stuffy wicker furniture are neat things to breathe in for some IPAs and for digging deeper into any aged and oxidized hoppy beers.

 

Yeah, I grew up in Alaska and I've mowed lawns. Spruce sap, needles themselves, fresh cut grass, all of these things ended up in my mouth at some point or another. Indeed, Spruce tip beers remind me of my childhood.

Now when it comes to descriptors like horse blanket; I admit I never munched on a horse blanket but if I taste something and my thought is, "tastes like a horse blanket smells" then saying I'm getting notes of horse blanket seems a fair descriptor.

 

grapefruit and grapefruit rind could also apply to many ipa beers. I write my reviews mostly for myself so I can go back to see what I thought a beer taste or smelled or looked like. after a while its hard to remember what beer you had or didn't have.

 

I think I'll just stick to my stouts and porters and beers that have some substance to them besides hop bombs. Thanks, though, for showing concern for my mental health.

 

I would agree, its not often that i pick up on the pine thing in many IPAs, and more often than not i will find grapefruit and citrus to be more dominant. Whether that's an age thing (ie the beer isnt always the freshest by the time it gets here) or not, is probably open to debate.

Elderflower is another aroma/flavour I tend to pick up on a lot.

 

"Pine" often comes from myrcene, a prominent compound in certain strains of hops.

"Myrcene lends a strong citrusy aroma (think Cascade) when added late in the boil, in a hopback, or most prominently as a dry hop in the secondary fermenter. When high myrcene-containing hops are boiled in wort they provide pine and citrus flavors. Incidentally, myrcene is highly prized by the perfume industry."

 

For me, at least, what I always looked for was the smell of a pine/coniferous tree. That's really not it, though. It's the resinous quality that, again for me, represents "pine" in hoppy beers and NOT something like the scent of Pine Sol or Pine car freshener.

 

Shane, what is the boil 'doing' to the myrcene to create the pine flavors? How long of a boil is needed (e.g., the last x minutes of the boil)?

Cheers!

Jack

@sierranevadabill @honkey @erway @augiecarton

 

The pine flavor in Stone Arrogant Bastard becomes overwhelming by the time I reach the end of a pint. I know... I'm not worthy.

 

I'd certainly be interested in the source material for that assertion, as well.

 

Chinook, which AB at least used to use exclusively, has about 20 - 30% of its total oil being myrcene. By comparison, Cascade is 50 - 60%.

Some decent reading on it.

https://beersensoryscience.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/myrcene/

 

Great answers so far. My advice is to totally immerse yourself in the world of craft beer. With more experience carries more knowledge and a better palate. Case in point, I used to think IPAs/IIPAs were palate wreckers. However, it takes a lot of experience appreciating them, trying different versions, and brewing your own to learn to absolutely love them and learn that there is actually great flavor there.

 

This thread makes me want to have a beer tasting and make the people do tasting notes. You don't realize what your palate can do until you force yourself to decide what you're tasting. It's all about practice and focus. We all have the hardware (taste buds)

 

Go to a pine tree get some sap and inhale. You will get the idea of what is will taste like

 

It's been brewed the last two years. I really liked it fresh. I bought 2 packs and the second one was not as tasty as the first. It took a me a bit to drink them all. A beer much better fresh.

Enjoy

 

The smell of grass is as easily reconizable on the palate as on the nose. What can interfere with your palate is bitterness in beer, other off flavors or flavors that occlude the ones you don't think you can taste. Pine is a very bold flavor when you first taste it, it and then for me that became more like spice. .Today I tasted pine in a beer that presented a texture as well. Resin is a mouthfeel as well as a flavor. it feels a bit sticky. Smoking interferes with tasting and so can many environmental influences like cooking and cleaning odors. I do like the wine tasters and sit there with the glass under my nose. Just relax and look for the best examples in the styles you buy. Cheers!

 

I've found that "bready" , in regards to aroma, can mean two (at least) different things. It can mean the smell of bread dough , before baking, or/and it can mean the smell of baked bread, especially the crust, just out of the oven. I try to remember to specify, when I'm describing such a beer.

"Horse blanket"? Yeah, that one is probably mostly passed on via oral tradition, rather than direct experience. I'd guess most users of that term haven't ever been anywhere near one. (I have). Substitute "old,wet dog" , and you'd be close.

"Cellar stairs"? Woody, with lurking moldy/musty elements, and a touch of dry rocks? (Concrete dust?)