Flavors you've never picked up on

Oak generally gives off nuances of sweet baking spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla etc..) Different oak gives off different flavours. There are brewers who use oak from spirit producers, which can give off a subtle flavour of whichever liquid was in the oak barrel before hand. Also, many of the properties that are absorbed into the beer from the oak, are transfered less and less with each use. Therefore, if a brewer buys a "pappi van winkle" barrel that was used 2-3 times before at the distillery, many of the nuances from the actual oak barrel are lost.

It's not uncommon for breweries/wineries to use "neutral" barrels - barrels that have lost most of their flavor componets - to add a mouthfeel to their beer or wine. So it's quite possible that you might not get any subtle oak nuances to a beer, but more of a creamy mouthfeel.

 

Bubble gum notes. I was part of homebrew tasing contest and when one of the guys said he detected bubble gum notes I thought he was full of shit. Apparently it's common in wheat beers.

I have the Lips of Faith IPA and I understand the onion is very noticeable so I'll be on the lookout when I get to that one.

 

As a guy who use to have the time to home brew and still drinks with two home brewers I have had the fortunate or unfortunate opportunity to taste most of these flavors, especially butterscotch and diacetyl but wet horse blanket? Really?

 

generally kind of a vanilla / coconuty flavor in american oak, and a much mellower version of the vanilla-ish flavor in french oak. woody flavors occasionally, and definitely sometimes some spicy and charred flavors, but the dominate beer-flavor you get from oak is vanilla and almost-coconut. also imparts tannic mouthfeel if things don't go too well.

do you have access to southern tier's unearthly IPA and oak aged unearthly? neither are the greatest beer in the world, but that gives a good contrast (since like you said, most breweries usually age beers in bourbon/other spirit barrels when they want to release a specialty version of a beer, while most just-oak beers you never get to taste the base beer).

 

Although I loved LaG Sucks last year, I did pick up on the "onion" flavor in a few bottles.
I didn't mind it so much, as the rest of the hop bouquet & flavors were outstanding.

 

So how much rye whiskey do they make? A bourbon barrel can only be used once for bourbon. Just asking.

 

Never tasted band-aid until I tried Brux. It was shockingly apparent in that brew fresh.

One I always pick up on is a massive guava character from very fresh Flower Power. It reeks of the stuff, and it's fantastic. A lot of my friends can't get it.

 

Soy sauce. Thank god, I'd probably want to throw up or something.

 

Can't say I've ever noticed onion/garlic. I've seen "nutty" thrown around before and never really noticed it. Maybe I'm trying to pick up the wrong kind of nut, but I'm missing it.

 

I was there once. It was when the biggest stout I've had was in the 7% range. Tried my first BCBS and was taken back by how much soy I noticed. Now, I don't notice it at all. Strange.

 

Had many Old Ales? To me the nutty character can be very apparent in those, and to a lesser extent certain Barleywines.

 

I think I have been able to pick up on most flavors, but it might just be my sense of self-worth.

 

I am blind to diacetyl. When I received taste panel training I could never detect beer spiked with diacetyl. I overcame this disability by identifying all "good' beer as diacetyl.
Once upon a time someone poured a gallon jug of diacetyl down the sink drain in a nearby lab. The stink was intense and it got distributed by the air conditioning system into my lab. Everyone in my lab ran outside as if the place was on fire. Everyone but me. I didn't smell a thing. I just sat there, wondering what all the fuss was about.
For the record, I can readily smell that fake butter popcorn. You couldn't pay me enough to eat that fake stuff. Its another example of "better living through chemistry."

 

pineapple

 

I would've agreed until last weekend when I caught a whiff of a Victory Headwaters Pale Ale. It wasn't a little bit like cat piss, it was exactly and only that smell. Now, a lot of kitty litter is made from pine, so that might contribute...

 

p*ssy .. no matter what i keep reading.. no brett has ever tasted like a crack to me

 

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/173/945 I think this one tastes like a leather armchair....but it's still pretty good.

 

You've never been inside a horse barn before?

 

Cardboard when describing oxidation.
Oxidation creates many different aromas but I've never encountered one that I would describe that way.

 

Gueuze Lambics get the horse sweat/horse blanket label for the smell not the taste. Its because the bacteria that sours the beer gives off a similar smell to horse sweat. If you've never been around horses it would be hard to know what that smells like.