Tasting wort and gravity samples

If there is a secret, I do not know it. I have found that tasting samples has pretty much no bearing on what my final product will taste like. Regarding the oxidation, that takes time to become apparent, so there is a good chance it just wasn't there when you tasted the sample. Regarding the sulfur, whenever I have smelled that during fermentation, it always eventually subsided and never made it to final product. It happens sometimes when I use California Lager yeast

 

In commercial breweries, many brewers do taste the wort/beer at each stage. If something tastes different than normal, it can give you an idea of where things went wrong. If you are brewing new recipes, it is a little bit more guesswork to determine the outcome of the beer.

 

Similar to what honkey stated, tasting at various stages can give you an idea of what transformations are taking place at what time frame. You can understand what each step is, but you can gain extra insight by tasting along the way. Plus if anything goes wrong it may help to know when that problem showed up in the process.

 

It's all attention-seeking BS.

 

Well, that's a little harsh. A good brewer can get information from tasting samples at each stage. Chances are, a lot of people haven't been trained enough to do so, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt before making blanket statements.

 

While it may be harsh...doesn't mean it isn't true.

Point taken: home brewers aren't trained.
And more evidence it's merely attention-seeking BS.

 

I don't find it particularly useful myself.

 

I think it's important to taste everything in the process when you're first starting out with brewing. Why?! I dunno. I just think it's important to know what Star San tastes like. It's like tasting everything you add to a recipe when you cook with it. It just feels right.

 

I couldn't agree with this more. Drinking beer after you begin homebrewing is a totally different experience. I find specific flavours and aromas so much more distinct now that I have experienced them through the brewing process. That being said, my palate is still a major work in progress, but brewing has really helped it along.

 

No

Nott really the point... Homebrewers can practice and get to that point. It takes consistent brewing of a recipe, but still within the realm of possibility.

 

Knowing what your wort/beer tastes like throughout each step of the entire process can help perfect a recipe as well as maintain repeatability. I myself rarely taste samples anymore (cant stand the taste of unfermented beer, except maybe for a RIS) but if I were to go pro, I definitely would taste every step of the way so I know that the batches are consistent.

 

I find this correlation to be fairly true:

- bad or decent tasting fermenter samples may result in bad or good beer, but rarely great
- really good tasting fermenter samples usually result in really, really good or great beer

 

I don't know where you get your thinking, but a many home brewers are trained, how do you think they learned to even make beer?
Do you think they just got up one morning thru a pot on the stove and said "today im going to make beer",
not likely. They had to start with some kind of training whether it was a book or a class.

I have been brewing for close to 5 years now and I taste my wort thru the process, in my opinion skilled or not skilled you will get and idea of good or bad flavor from your wort .

We all have taste buds and yes we all have different tastes, (this is why I have others taste it too) wort is sweet but still a good indicator of flavor.

 

My personal experiences are consistent with what Matt posted above.

My principle motivation for tasting my gravity sample (FG sample) is to see if there are any off flavors (e.g., buttery – diacetyl, green apple – acetaldehyde, etc.). If the sample tastes good, invariably the final (carbonated) beer will be very good – excellent.

Cheers!

 

I don't get much from the initial wort sample, but I believe tasting a beer post-fermentation will give you a very good idea of what the final product will be like - since it's basically flat beer. After primary fermentation, drinking my racking/kegging gravity sample also tells me if the beer needs some additional conditioning time.

Do people pour their gravity check samples down the drain ??? Waste not, want not.

 

I don't taste and post about it, but I find it beneficial to taste the wort/beer as it progresses. I make final determinations about additions to the beer based on this, and if I am re-brewing anything, I get a much more certain sense of whether I am getting what I am expecting well before bottling.

 

Personally, I can tell if there is some sort of balance issue that I need to account for. For instance, I doubled the amount of oak that I'm aging a Wee Heavy on because it seemed too sweet at transfer. (Luckily, I had another 1/3 spiral soaking in bourbon) I'm hoping that the extra tannins will help to balance this.

 

I'll agree that it seems like most of us stop looking for diamonds in the rough. This is after we establish our pipelines. If a beer flops, then we throw a party or throw it down the drain.

If I'm doing an OG check, (rare), I'll take it from the preboil volume. It goes back into the kettle. A refractometer is getting to the top of my wish list though.

 

See, I never check pre-boil gravity but always check post-boil since my boil-off volume seems to be the most inconsistent variable due to the ever-changing humidity, temperature, and wind conditions of New England.