Has anyone else had strong or moderate smoke flavors from their beer? Maybe this is intentional. Solitude out of the cans, Oatmeal stout, Raspberry Rye Porter on tap. I bought a growler of their Oatmeal stout and the smoke flavor was almost overwhelming. Anyone??
Unintended smoke flavors can come from a variety of things and generally considered to be a brewing fault. If the brewery is using a direct fire mash tun, then the smoke flavor can come from scorched mash, stressed yeast that are fermenting too hot or were undermashed can produce a smoky flavor and also some bacterial infections can case this too. It can also be the case that in these dark beers, they just added too much roasted or smoke malt that contributed to this.
0 Yeah, I really can not believe this is intentional. They must notice this themselves. I hope they fix it, I really do want to enjoy their beers.
I cannot say that I have picked this up in any of their beers. I have had each of those you speak of and none of them seemed smoky at all.
I was at Brewery Vivant on Tuesday, and did not get any smoke flavor/aroma from the beers. Never have tasted the packaged beers. Smoke flavor/aroma is a phenolic, and can come from actual smoke, or the yeast. If it was strong I may have picked it up. We were in Bamberg recently, so I think I know smoke flavor/aroma.
I actually picked up straight up cigarette flavor from one of theirs, Solitude maybe. Vivant rins the extremes with me. Awesome or awful describe most of my encounters.
So, do you think that is some sort of infection? My first few times there, the beer was great, but my last half a dozen times its been poor(smoke flavor). Didn't mention this yet, but I chatted up a bartender there. She stated she had the same flavor from the Solitude on tap at another bar. A guy from the back came up by the bar(brewer?), she asked him about it. It was apparent to me that I was not going to be filled in on what he said. Harmony Brewing might be my stop for that area if this issue persists.
Dunno. I sampled at the brewery and noticed it. Bought a can, same thing. Figured they were going for a profile that just didn't a agree with my tastes. I suppose it could have been unintentional, but I'd be surprised if a mistake like that would make it all the way to the canning line for mass distribution.
I noticed a smokiness in one of their beers on tap at their brewpub. I think it was solitude, but don't remember for sure. It seemed out of place, but thought it was intended.
If you don't like smoky... Harmony Black Squirrel will send you running too. That is a beer I did not enjoy much unfortunately because its one of their mainstays
I don't remember smokiness but I do remember being underwhelmed by their beer overall. Cool taproom though...
I'm at Vivant at least once a week working in my sketchbook, and I don't recall any smoky flavors. (I generally hate smoky beers.) Though, to be honest, I never get the oatmeal stout. I had Solitude last week, and it seemed fine to me. Will have to see if I notice anything next time.
