Why "malt geekery" is non existent?

Simple...malts are in the background and a lot harder to pick out the specific malts being used where it's a lot easier to taste fresh Noble hops in a Pilsner, or whether an IPA is using exotic hops like Nelson or Citra vs cascade or English hops. Hop flavor is more outfront where malt is more in the background.

 

I don't care too much what malt is there - so long as it's there and stands up to the hops, if not beats the hop flavor down a bit.

Throwing a ton of hops at a beer and calling it extreme doesn't interest me at all and for a while - that seemed to be the prevailing habit in brewing.

 

I loves me a good malt bomb every now and then. Live Oak uses fantastic malts for all their beers. Primus being the best example. So goooood.

 

Though I've come to realize the people who tend to not like malt heavy beers are rabid IPA fans who can't appreciate things that aren't hop juice. It's interesting.

 

the only criteria I ever have about malt is it cannot be the dominant flavor, and needs to boost and raise the hop flavors. not blend balanced with them... needs to showcase them.

"rabid IPA" fan here, and I greatly appreciate hoppy juice-bombs. COME AT ME, BROS! lol jk jk

 

Screw malts, we should be talking about the water.

See Non Existent Thread: Why "water geekery" is non existent?

 

What? Rubbish. See also, octoberfests, brown ales, stouts.

 

Look at some homebrew forums, much talk on malts, yeast, water. It isn't all hops.

 

I have a related similar question...

Why "yeast geekery" is non existent?... or pretty much non existent, especially compared to "hop geekery". Countless threads and posts about favorite hops, a particular hop characteristic and such, but not so many opinions about favorite yeast types, etc (You could make the case that yeast is the most important beer ingredient).



Seriously though, @eldoctorador I agree with you that it's little odd how much attention the hop gets over malts [and yeasts], which have just as much impact on a beer's flavor, but also impact texture/mouthfeel more than hops.

Interestingly [to me at least], the next beer ingredient after hops that people seem to get most geeky about is water. They blather about unique and distinctive water sources, which is bullshit because professional brewers have been treating their water since at least the 1800's.

 

Yeast and water geekery probably comes down to if that particular beer drinker is a home brewer or not.

I know some absolute monster craft beer fans and when asked about things like yeast they go blank. Get a lot of "they use beer yeast dude" when asked. Yeah but which one?

 

One could argue "malt geekery" was sort of thing when some of the higher rated Belgian ales ruled the Beeradvocate and Rate Beer top lists. Such as Westvleteren 12 which was number one on here for many, many years before Pliny and Heady took over.

And while more malt-driven styles such as Belgian quads may generate bolder flavor than their less alcoholic equivalents, the flavors are still not as prominent and well-recognized as those coming from today's hops.

You could also argue imperial stouts would fall into this category. But then again, the majority of those that are highly rated have some other adjunct or barrel-aging component to them that adds a bolder/more recognizable flavor to the brew.

For the most part, in my opinion, it's due to the fact that many malts don't have obvious, recognizable flavors that stand out. At least not widely considered pleasant ones (smoked malts). Citra can have pleasant universally loved passion fruit flavors for example. Pils malt, Munich malt have...? Sure there's melanoidin characteristics, but it may not be obvious or pleasant to anyone who isn't familiar with those flavors through homebrewing and/or experience.

Moreover, many brewers today are simply using American 2-row pale malts which in my opinion aren't going to offer much by themselves. And the more flavorful malts like Pils and Munich (to my palate at least) need the proper process and technique (not unlike some processes with hops today) to generate the full range of flavor from them.

Finally, I feel like every week there's a new experimental hop I haven't heard of being utilized, with its own set of flavors and characteristics. Add this to endless combinations, and hops generate more discussion. This isn't the same with malts. Sierra Nevada is good about this, for example using an older variety of malt (Steffi malt) in their recent Oktoberfest collaboration.

 

I've actually heard a lot of talk about yeast around here (Belgian yeasts, how there's been some "fake" ales made using lager yeast strains rather than actual ale yeast, how some American Oktoberfests and such were actually "fake" lagers made using ale yeast, not liking certain yeast strains due to weird off-flavors, etc.)

More than about specific varieties of malt, anyway -- not nearly as much as all the hop talk, of course.

 

Hops = Michael Jordan
Malts = Horace Grant*

*I have no idea what I am talking about

 

I would suggest that the popularity of beer styles like Imperial Stouts are within the realm of "malt geekery". For example one beer brand I like as do other BAs is North Coast Old Rasputin RIS. That is a very tasty beer and the flavors of that beer are prominent with malty flavors.

Cheers!

 

I just recently posted on this topic:

“I love Belgian Ales! There is a wonderful diversity of styles from Wits, Saisons, Lambics,... but my absolute favorites are the Abbey/Trappist style Ales: Pater, Dubbel, Tripel, Quad,...

As bubseymour already mentioned: it’s all about the yeast!! My favorite yeast strain is the Westmalle strain which is available from Wyeast as the 3787 strain. I use this strain a lot in my homebrewing of Dubbels, Belgian Pale Ales, Tripels and Quads. This strain when fermented warm (e.g., 72 degrees F) produce a glorious combination of esters (fruity flavors) and phenols (spicy flavors).”

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...-love-about-belgian-beer.440622/#post-4943728

Brewers make wort, yeast makes beer!!

Cheers!

 

Let's think of malts as Scottie Pippen and we're good.

 

I am a malt geek you could say. I like hops but only as it relates to what makes beer beer, which is malt. Hops have only been a standard ingredient in brewing for the last 500 years and for reasons other than their flavor (really they don't taste that great, it's an acquired taste!). Beer and malted grains have been made for 10,000 of years or more.

I'm not making you wrong if you are a hop head, just putting them in context.