I can't taste nuances

I could have written this post (except the part about living 10 minutes from The Bruery), so yeah, there are others out there that know a good beer but can't tell you why. I love the complexities of some beers but couldn't begin to pick out what the flavors are.

 

Well you can look at it this way, find beer you like and can afford and be happy. I think sometimes, folks are full of it when they claim to detect all this stuff in beer myself.

Still tasting beer by Randy Mosher is your answer.

Its like wine tasting, you can just know what you like and enjoy it, or get nuts about every little thing and learn more. To know about every favor, you go to have something to compare too. Just do not go to far and get some real cat piss. lol. There are beer judging training kits out there and flavor wheels.

btw welcome to the nut house here.

If you start home brewing you will discover the differences in malt, hops, yeast. Sometimes you can get in the way of drinking a good beer, by tasting it and TRYING to analysis it.

I started on the simple beers, Mild pale ales and bitters. Mild meaning its a young beer. You know malt, yea that is grain favor. etc. yeast makes a HUGE difference to me. Hops also. depends how they are used. yea water matters also. lol

enjoy. and really do not worry about it.
do not sweat the small stuff and its all small stuff.

btw I disagree about reading other folks reviews. they DO NOT taste what you do, do not fool yourself. many post a bunch of crap. MJ never took 500-1000 words to describe a beer, neither should you.

just my 2 cents. YMMV

 

First, buy a book called "Tasting Beer" by Randy Mosher and begin reading it, usually while having a beer (after looking at the book you'll figure out which to have at different parts of the book).

Second, start writing reviews, not for posting on this site but for your own personal reasons.

Third, after writing a review look up the beer in the database. Sort by top reviewers and start reading posted reviews. As you find reviewers with tastes similar to yours make note of their names so you can find other reviews by them. As you look at their reviews ask yourself if what they described seems to be what you tasted.

Fourth, have that beer again, but this time look at your first review and the reviews by your selected top reviewers and drink the beer while reading their reviews, ask yourself if you can taste the same or similar things.

Fifth, look at and drink different beers where your top reviewers found different flavors even though the style may be the same and see which you can find and try.

Sixth, keep writing down your reviews to force yourself to describe what you think you are tasting.

Seventh, have fun!

Edit: Contrary to what some people think we do not all taste things differently. If we did there'd be no national cuisines or popular styles of beer. There is overlap, sometimes a lot.

 

I'm definitely in the same boat here but one thing I've started to do with new brews is look at some of the reviews while I begin drinking it. That way you can begin to put a name with the tastes. The problem for me is that I don't necessarily know what discription to call it, so by looking at the reviews while I drink it I can begin to recognize what the tastes are and hopefully apply it to other brews.

 

Problem there is you read that some 1 detected whatever and you think your nuts because you cannot. Review a few 100 beers before you ever look at reviews on here. just my 2 cents....

I was self reviewing beer in the late 70's. I did not need anyone to tell me what I tasted then or now.

 

Back in the dark days before the internet, I liked better beers and wanted to try home-brewing. I joined a local HB club that had a lot of experienced brewers -- and tasters. Couple of the older members were inaugural members of the BJCP -- one was one of the first master judges. He could dissect flavors and aromas, and their sources, as easily as we can walk down the street.

I learned a lot about flavor and aroma characters. Maybe there's a home-brew club near by?

 

Well that's the problem I have...my palate is not defined enough to detect those tastes. I do agree that looking at reviews simultaneously can confuse you, but it at least lets me put a name to the different tastes. Say a brew has strong pine and earth flavors I can at least know that that is what pine is supposed to taste like. Sorry if this is confusing...I'm also not good with words.

 

I understand its very hard to write down what you taste, but try it any way. Still you got to have something to compare it to. hops you need to taste many raw. it all depends on your nose, most of us are NOT super tasters. still i started with LOW hopped beers/ales. Learn the malt profit first I always say, because the hops will just blow you away.

visit a HB club, its really the only way to have access to the raw materials. Unless you start your own at home.

 

Coconut is somewhat ephemeral in beer and has a raw light scent that is not sweetened or toasted like the kind of coconut that you are used to in baking. Also your palate becomes more and less sensitive over time and with training. What used to be an egregious bitter is now a pleasant bitter. Pine can be taken for granted after a while at least I find in my own tasting. What I would do is sit down with the beer and one of the top reviewers here on this site. Sip the beer and see if you can find what the other people observed. Remember that the beer has to be at an optimal temperature to release all it's aromas and flavors so not too cold. Then when you have gained a measure of confidence try jotting down your own observations before you read any reviews and see how you do. =)

The bottom line though is that when you stop enjoying drinking the beer then it doesn't matter anymore. If you like the beers you have and can never write a review so what? The idea is to drink it first and foremost.

 

I started drinking whiskey, then beer.. something i learnt when tasting whiskey was to go out of my way to experience a taste or smell and actually pay attention and make a mental note.. it made it a lot easier to pick these things out when drinking a beer or whiskey.

 

When others say they are tasting something that you don't, it's easy to think it must be there and you're missing it. But consider that maybe it's not, and others are just tasting it because the reviews say they should be. Don't be like those others!

 

utopiajane's post above is great - especially the bit at the end.

Detecting mango is less important than knowing what's "good."
Knowing what's "good" is less important than finding what you like.

Try looking for differences in the same beer in different circumstances (a new bottle, an old bottle, on draft, with a hamburger, outside).

 

Yes this. ^ If you have an older IPA it may not have all the nuances and flavors that the one you are reading about did. A stone fruit quality in beer can be an all around sweet fruit softness and not anything precise. Once you can pick out the quality itself then you can decide if it reminds you of peach or apricot or mango. Pineapple in beer sometimes comes across as a sweet little tang and not like an actual pineapple. . . until you reach for a word and then there it is pineapple.

 

A really good place to begin to learn to detect and define flavors is with really good German beer. The pure malt is so noticeable after years of drinking silo barley and corn, that you taste fresh bread, smell dough and lust for the next sip. A meal in a glass!

 

I'm kinda like the OP with nuances. My 1st impression is always just an overall sense of a Wow, pretty good, don't like it much. I'm getting a little better BCBS is an example. My 1st impression was really sweet, chocolate, tons of Bourbon. Now after a year or so I don't think it's all that sweet, I get bitter chocolate on the finish, sometimes maybe some dark fruit like raisins, prunes etc. But sometimes not, maybe it depends on what you eat. I saw one of Ramseys' shows and he was teaching the chefs now to pick out nuances in food, by trying stuff blind folded, surprising how many simple everyday foods they missed on. Maybe with a stout eat a few raisins and take a sip, a prune take a sip, a fig take a sip etc. Kinda parallel tastes and see what hits.

I'm surprised with IPA's I get heavy Grapefruit on one and someone else will get Pine. They're not similar at all. A light citrus forward IPA isn't the same as a dank, bitter, piney resinous brew. But two different people two different reactions. I've heard Citra brews described as Piney, and or cat pissy I get none of that at all, Grapefruit bomb all the way. People perceive different things.

 

yea also food pairs can be a nice way to learn flavors.

 

I can only say stay away from IPA at first. that is my only real advice. too many hops no matter how old will just over do your taste buds, until they are numb.

 

Just drink more and varied beer. Good advice, eh?

As some have posted above, I wouldn't sweat it...some brews are going to be naturally more complex than others. Just find the notes you enjoy in beer and go looking for similar things. You'll just naturally discover new things along the way.

Happy drinking!

 

1. Do you have this same issue with food?
2. Do you smoke?