Hill Farmstead Everett Clone

Hey all,

My clone has been bottled for about three weeks now, and while it's a tasty beer, the finish is killing me. There's an umami note that, when mixed with the sweetness of a 1.031 beer, becomes terribly overpowering. I'm convinced that it's the roasted barley that I used (Briess 300L, since that's all my LHBS has available). I've had this same flavor in other stouts/porters that I've used that specific roasted barley in, although not as much (used a higher percentage of RB in this grain bill than previous recipes).

Anyway, those of you who have been happy with how this recipe turned out, I was wondering what maltster's roasted barley you guys were using, or at least a lovibond. Thanks in advance?

 

I've never associated roasted barley (including Briess) with umami. Meaty/savory (my idea of umami) suggests (possibly) yeast autolysis to me. Can you use any other words to describe what you're tasting?

 

I used this because my LHBS was out at the time...didn't have any umami in my batch at all.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/briess-organic-roasted-barley-nb

 

I think it's process related and agree with VikeMan that autolysis is probably the cause. But I also think there has to be more than one way to arrive at that flavor compound. Reason being is that I've gotten this umami flavor in homebrew and commercial examples alike, and I highly doubt any commercial brewery is letting any beer sit on yeast long enough to develop autolysis, unless it's derived from excessive pressure in the fermentation tanks instead.

For my tastes, it starts out as umami and then becomes more soy-like if it's really bad.

Coincidentally, the only times I've ever picked up on this flavor is when drinking stout, so maybe your roasted barley theory holds some weight.

 

I don't think it's autolysis in this case - this was a fresh pitch of 3rd generation 1318, always harvested from a starter, and it only sat on the cake for three weeks before bottling.

FeDUBBELFIST nailed it with this:

The flavor starts as umami, but then the extra body and sweetness of this particular recipe pushes it into the soy territory. Another recipe that used the briess RB was so bad it was almost a burnt/rubber taste.

I've been obsessively web searching "briess roasted barley umami soy" trying to find anyone with similar experiences, but can't seem to find anything. I wonder if it's specifically the malt at my LHBS. Perhaps it's stale or something. I'm going to try ordering a different maltster's RB online and rebrewing this recipe.