Do you taste terroir in your beer?

Yeah but it's pretty confusing because I'm tasting the midwest from the malt, New Zealand from the hops, Boston from the water, and england from the yeast. My tastebuds are confused.

 

Since I can never do a control with this test I will never know.

 

Yes. I'd say hops are the main expression of terroir. Saaz from its home stomping grounds versus an attempt from Yakima are different. Malts are maybe less expressive than hops due to all the post harvest processing. Water chemistry, like the soft touch of a true pils, being easily achievable makes that a little less relevant.

All this is very much muddled by the fact that most ingredients for a single beer are not from one place. Would love to see more brew like SN Estate. The entire concept has such appeal to me.

 

Don't know about terroir, but I've definitely tasted terror.

 

The only beers that I typically associate with the term of "terroir" are lambics (which are brewed solely in Belgium). Lambics are brewed using wild yeast (and other microorganisms) that are present in specific regions of Belgium.

I don't drink them often but I am a fan of Cantillion beers.

Cheers!

 

Very rarely do I taste what I would call terroir in beer. I think examples might be that flinty flavor you can taste in some drier stouts, but that probably has little to do with actual terroir. The only recent examples I can think of are tasting beers aged in wine barrels. I had a smoked lager that sat in a pinot barrel at Breakside Brewery a couple weeks ago and definitely got the terroir from the barrel. Other than specific examples, I think terroir is illusive at best in most styles of beer.

 

You can with good cask ales from Burton. The make-up (soft but sulphate rich) of the water combined with the yeasts they use to intensify it, means you often get what they call a "Burton Snatch", which is the subtle whiff of sulphur from the freshly tapped cask offerings.

But that's certainly rare with beer. Due to it's manufactured nature, relatively speaking, compared with wine, the growing conditions are less visible in the final product. Beer is more about people. It's developed according to what could be done, according to laws and regulations (for better or worse), and probably most importantly, what people liked best. For example, Porter in places like London and Dublin, which boomed to become one of the biggest industries in the United Kingdom before diminishing to a point where hardly any was brewed, all because of people's taste (being influenced by new ideas and fashions) and economic conditions limiting what brewers could do.

Though actually, reading the article, some parts ring true, but it has to be terroir in a different sense of the word, so not really terroir.

 

I think that's one of the things Troy Casey is going for in his beers. He is using 99% local ingredients including fruit grown about an hour from his facility. As a result, the beers are pretty unique even amongst (somewhat) similar beers. There are even nuances between different harvests for the same fruits. It's a lot of fun to compare and contrast.

 

That sounds awesome. The different vintages I think are one of the keys to understanding the terroirs in wine, as you can pick up particular events even, like a frost or a rainstorm, or conversely a heatwave, and then understand from that how the landscape and latitude, among other factors, help and hinder the vines in different conditions year on year.

 

Is it hoppy?

 

Pretty much hardly at all..

The brewers hands... possibly , which has a bigger effect..

 

This is very noticeable in Belgian beers for me. I'm not sure why, but when I taste a beer that was brewed in Belgium, I usually know it. (Belgium or thereabouts. Netherlands, north France, etc.)

 

And maybe, if we're talking about a funky lambic, a wet Terrier.

 

Yes, especially when I drink the NB Le Terroir . Aside from that delicious beer, I tend to associate the style of beer with the season or weather (eg pilsner with summer).

 

Is terroir the same thing as hype?

 

I was very relieved after reading the article. When I first saw the thread title I thought someone was making beer brewed with little dogs.

 

I don't know if I can taste or identify the place in my beer, but for sure I get a unique flavor from Cory's Side Project beers. He sources his yeast and some of his fruit from his hometown.

 

Oh, you had Bud Light Chelada as well?

 

Maybe Budweiser terroir would be Clydesdale piss?