So, I've noticed a disturbing trend in the Memphis craft beer market lately… Where a handful of locally made beers have had a very cheesy aroma (in one case aged Parmesan, in another sharp cheddar) which is followed by similar offnotes in the taste. I haven't seen that since cigar city launched dos costa oeste many years ago. Are there any home brewers out there that can explain this? I presume it can't be intentional?
I don't know about intentional. I certainly wouldn't do it. But it could be due to either old hops or perhaps a Brett infection.
I pick up a cheesy aroma in various beers from time to time, even well made ones. In my case, I believe I just perceive ethanol itself as a sort of cheese-like aroma. Also similar to Elmer's glue, like a vinegar smell. I figure I'm just sensitive to perceptions of alcohol and perhaps vinegar, and for the most part I've trained myself to ignore these sensations because no one else mentions them ever. If the beer smells very obviously cheesy, then that's oxidation or an infection, either of the beer itself, or of the hops as an ingredient from before the brewing process began.
Were they sour ales by chance? If so, cheesy aromas are fairly common when mash souring or kettle souring. Paying attention to pH (mainly) and (possibly) providing lacto an anaerobic environment can usually prevent that from happening.
Well there you go. Sour beer, sour cheese, beer = cheese. They're both cultured with the same kinds of crazy bacterial beasts.
I'd agree with this. Ever smell the 88% Lactic Acid solution from the homebrew store? It smells just like creme fraiche.
A Berliner should taste sour. But it shouldn't taste like cheese. The Lactic sour flavor in a Berliner should be clean.
I made the mistake years ago of putting oxidized hops in a pale ale. I thought that the variety of hops I used was supposed to smell like that. No matter how long I let it age the rank taste remained.
The only time I visited Hair Of The Dog, all of their beers, except the barrel aged one, tasted and smelled distinctly like blue cheese (and bandaid). A local mentioned that because it was an extra hot summer that they were having trouble keeping fermentation temps low enough and the flavor was a result. Not sure if that's a true statement or just heresy, but either way, our visit was awful. Hoping for a better visit this summer.
