So what does pine taste like?

Yeah, Two Hearted is floral/orange/pine to me when it's super fresh. Unfortunately, the floral aspect is the first one to go.

 

This thread makes me want a Deschutes Pine Drops

To the original poster....you should read some reviews of Saisons and sours....wait until you start visualizing horse blankets and musty farmhouses!

 

Pine was one of the strongest flavors I picked up when I first started drinking, and I disliked it so much that it kept me from hoppy beers for a while. I remember getting it very strongly in black IPAs like Sublimely Self Righteous and Wookey Jack. Must've gotten used to it, as I really don't pick up pine, or maybe I just haven't had a beer with stong pine lately (though I honestly don't remember getting it from Pinedrops, so it's possible I've just resined over my tastebuds).

 

Go outside and eat a blade of grass. Some beers give off a similar quality. Same with hay, tree sap etc... pine to me tastes like dirt/menthol combo. Its just pine. Its own thing mostly though.

My first ever ipa was 60 minute. My original thought was that it tastes like a perfume made of a Christmas tree and flowers. Now ive developed a taste for it and can pick out nuances. Pine is a great flavor. To me if pine is strong then the beer is fresh and or hops are potent.

 

"So what does pine taste like?"

Ummmm....it tastes like pine! What does chicken taste like? It tastes like chicken.

 

Pine tastes like pine smells. I grew up in the piney woods of east Texas and I had to mow the grass. The grass was loaded with pine cones which, when mowed, would load the air with that pine smell. I hated it. As a result, when I taste pine I want to gag because pine is crap and reminds me of mowing with a damn push mower all over the place and getting pine all in my nostrils.

Still don't like IPAs.

 

Like Pennsylvania Tuxedo from DFH.
Okay that's spruce but really, you will get an idea (if they produce it again, I think it was a 1-shot deal).

 

In a correctly executed IPA/DIPA ..... heaven.

 

Never tasted pine or grass?
I assume that most people describing beer as such, are going from experience.

As for the beer, "grass" (usually) taste = the smell of newly cut (lawn) grass.
"Pine" = taste of [the smell of rubbing against same, +/-, plus something akin to the smell of pine tar (see George Brett ) ]

I can see why you might be unsure. There's nary an IPA in sight anymore that has those elements, and only those elements. Even when I encounter them, there is usually some fruit flavor, usually grapefruit rind, that obscures those elements.

 

That is a good one. Here is another one done by a friend of mine, a bit more up to date.
http://www.bear-flavored.com/2011/12/bear-flavoreds-ultimate-guide-to-hop.html

 

Thank you!

 

If you've ever smelled pine needles or pine sap, that's what is meant by pine notes.
If you're feeling particularly brave, chew on some pine needles. They won't hurt you.

 

I think it is more the smell than the taste, so no need to go and take a bite of Christmas tree.

 

You need counseling to get over your childhood trauma!

 

I sometimes cook/bake with mastic, a resin from evergreens that are generally Mediterranean in origin, and it comes pretty close to the "pine" taste that I expect out of some (not all, anymore) of the great PNW and west coast IPAs I love. Fun stuff to mess with, that mastic. Cheers...

 

Just wait til you drink your first beer that taste like band aids and vinegar. Flanders Red ale, anybody? LOL

 

On a more serious note OP, I have boiled fresh pine needles in water before to make what campers call "pine tea" ... it's actually quite good.

 

Only the best ones, though .

 

Orange for me is dominant, but it's not sweet al all.

 

I'm drinking a Stone Ipa now, and there's no way taken blind I'd not think this was a Two Hearted. It's all Centennial I'd guess.