Help me understand biscuit

I think you pretty much answered your own question. I've generally seen it used, and used myself, from time to time, to describe lightly toasted bready/doughy flavors/aromas.

 

I honestly used it wrongly when I started reviewing; trying to describe breadiness. But I've since learned that it was probably started in reference to the English definition of biscuit: closer to our cookie, but not as sugary sweet.

 

I was raised in the South, so I know about biscuits (esp. buttermilk biscuits)! I use the term (rarely, though, do I use it) to describe the flavor of a fresh biscuit without anything on it. It has a distinct flavor that is different from other breads.

While the term may have first been used in beer reviews to mean the hard cookies the English call biscuits, that is not how I use it (nor how I read it in other reviews).

A famous person (I don't remember who...) once said something like: Americans and the English are two people separated by a common language.

 

I get the biscuit smell from Wheat Beers mostly, Hefeweizen and Belgian Wit.
Cheers.

 

Probably (as I understand it, & use it) is meant to be like "bready" , but drier, & less/not yeasty. ( Biscuits are usually made with baking powder, not yeast , afterall. ) "Crackery" is probably meant to be even further to the dry side of the "baked grain" spectrum.

 

Found this glossary on the site.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/101/terms/

Interestingly "biscuit" isn't included. I see the term used on here a lot and was also a bit puzzled by the intended meaning.

 

@mikeinportc is awarded a gold star!

The challenge of simply using the word 'bready" to describe a flavor is that there are all kinds of bread so there can be (will be) ambiguity here. The benefit of detailing a beer as having a biscuit flavor/quality is that it narrows it down to being a more bland sort of a doughy flavor (e.g., akin to Wonder Bread). Crackery is similar except for me it describes an even drier aspect but both plain biscuits and crackers (e.g., oyster crackers) are quite dry.

Cheers!

 

You're obviously not from the South!

Southern home-made biscuits are nothing at all like Wonder Bread, in taste, aroma, texture, ... nothing.


And, neither are MN-made biscuits!

 

I love that combination of a toasted biscuit and freshly cut grass that I find on some of my favorite pilsners. To me, that’s what I think of when I see “biscuit” as an aroma or flavor descriptor.

 

Ya I think of biscuit as the fuller bodied version of the "rustic white bread" flavor that I love in saisons. Its like a softer and fuller version of white bread

 

Usually attributed to George Bernard Shaw, but also used famously by Winston Churchill.

Cheers!

 

Brewers actually use malts called Biscuit and Victory to achieve these flavors.

https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/dingemans-belgian-biscuit-r-malt
Belgian Biscuit® malt is a unique lightly toasted malt that contributes a slew of warm, earthy, toasted malt flavors and aromas. It promotes a light to medium garnet brown color and imparts a toasty finish to the beer with complex nutty flavors and an aroma of baking bread.

https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/briess-victory-malt
Victory Malt is a biscuit style malt, lightly roasted to bring out the nutty, toasty, and biscuit flavors and aromas associated with baking bread. It's an excellent malt for adding a layer of dry toasted complexity and a russet brown color to a wide range of beer styles.

 

Sometimes ya gotta risk it...

 

I've always thought of biscuit as a reference to the British cookies, since the first place I ever read the term was in Michael Jackson's writings describing British beers. Sorta like plain shortbread or Danish butter cookies if you remove the butter flavor and aroma.

 

English biscuits originate from sailors 'cookies' that were twice baked to prevent them going stale out at sea, so that's definitely the kind of thing we're talking about rather than the Southern type.

More like a Social Tea than shortbread though.

 

Defining flavor characteristic terms is nearly as bad as trying to define what an IPA is vs a Pale Ale is (or Session IPA)... Perhaps that's why NE IPA's are so popular, the average person doesn't need a secret decoder ring to figure out what "Juicy" means. Though they do probably ignore terms like "stone fruit" which probably no one who uses that term has ever used in normal everyday parlance. It does seem like we have a terminology issue in craft beer.

 

As a Brit I always thought of “biscuit” to be something along the lines of a Rich Tea (not claiming this is anything factual / correct - it’s not - just obviously where you’re from plays a part). So a light, malty, slightly sweet taste.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Tea

 

Stone fruit is the damn worst. I wish people would be more specific.

 

I don't think I've ever used the term 'biscuit.'

I often use 'bready/doughy' to describe what I perceive as wet, sweet and chewy, or 'crackery' to describe, dry, unsweetened and crisp - with everything else being on a spectrum between the two, and with 'sugar cookie,' another term that I probably use too often, probably being somewhere in the middle (and I also use a lot of run-on sentences).

I've never really thought about it carefully before and I probably should have. So, thanks.