Why "malt geekery" is non existent?

People that look at beer as a hop showcase depress me. Beer > hop juice.

 

See if your beer source can order a case of the Aventinus for you.

That weizenbock ages beautifully if properly cared for. I've had it fresh on tap and bottled at both 3 years old and 5 years old (from the brewery's Eieskellar lots) and it definitely seemed better to me with a bit of age.

 

I'm guessing that there's something physiological about the bitter taste that appeals to people, or else why would drinks like coffee, tea, beer etc be so popular? And why would IPAs be the most popular beer style? I mean, disregarding the effects of alcohol & caffeine---as if that's possible. But then, aren't both of those also bitter?

 

I'll give it a try. I already ordered some more Southampton beers with my beer guy.
Through Total Beverage Solutions.

 

Maris Otter is very much last week- it's 50 years old this year. At a time when the life span of a barley variety is 5 to 10 years it's an old man.
But nobody has found a better malting barley. To quote my local brewer "I only use Thos Fawcett's floor malted Maris Otter. I wouldn't use anything else even if it was only half the price"

 

Malt geekery is very much so a very big thing. I feel like the distinction is that hop heads are typically just consumers, where as professional and homebrewers are all malt geeks.. Because they have to be.

 

Malt characteristics are subtle compared to hops, and Americans are not known to appreciate subtlety.

 

.......bourbon.......

But i enjoy a complex malty beer.

Oskar Blues Beerito
Long Trail Double Bag

Those do it for me. Very malty. Very nice.

 

Ditto

I enjoy some malty beers but doppelbock is too sweet for me.

 

I do like layered malty beers. I just had double bag and it has layers of different malt taste. Caramel, then toast, then walnuts even. Very nice. I suppose people dont think of these beers as refreshing which kind of is the entire purpose of a beverage to begin with, but again, taking a break from hops, it'll be nice to see the other side and that malty beers can be complex and have layers just as hop can be layered.

Since its the seasonal creeping time, DuClaw has an Oktoberfest called Mad Bishop. Anybody looking for a malt foward beer with layers try that. Its great.

 

Definitely a thing. Found this thread because I'm looking for opinions on Two Tracks Badlands Sunset malt. I just used it in a gose, and the fermenters smell more malty than I expected.

Really though, I'm posting to give a plug for Bom brewery out of Belgium. The owner kilns (bakes) his own malt and the beers are definitely something unique to geek out about, especially if you can find it on draught!

http://bombrewery.com/en/about

 

Honestly, I think the reason is because a lot of brewers skimp on malts and spend big on hops. There are some malts that I think a lot of beer geeks would get excited about. I think New Glarus Two Women was one of the best malt flavors I've ever tasted.

 

I'd say people who are fans of stout/porter (not bourbon barrel aged or with anything), bock, doppelbock, Oktoberfests, wheat ales, and brown ales love those chocolate and caramel malts and amber malts and wheat malts. I bounce around. And as a home brewer, I have to love every ingredient that goes in to the beer.

 

I personally love malts. But it's much more difficult to identify and describe the differences between different malts than hops.

 

I recently had the opportunity to visit Mecca Grade Malting in Madras, OR. They "mechanically floor-malt" using a huge machine of their own design. Using a barley type developed at Oregon State University (Full Pint), they use multiple malting and toasting regimens to produce a range of base malts. Getting to visit and taste the range of malts both in raw ingredient form and in finished beers turned me into a malt geek.

 

It definitely exists, and breweries have absolutely attempted to promote geekery about it. But, malts get harder to talk about because brewers quite often will also develop a fondness for an arsenal of secret weapon malts that exist only in small percentages in their beer.
I'm not sure, either, that consumers would be up for the sticker shock and what would happen if x brewery suddenly decides to use the premium base malt their test batches used. That's the difference between a 9.99 4 pack versus a 13.99 one.
I think brewers have sort of created this problem for themselves with how they tend to market the hops in the beer over the other three things the hops need to stand on. Note the number of "citra" themed beers, and their friends galaxy, mosaic, etc. The numerous IPA trends certainly didn't help matters. Because, as has been said, Americans are not noted (much) for their grasp of subtlety, nor appreciation for the ephemeral. It typically needs to beat them around the head until they see stars.

 

I know very little about malts (granted, I know barely anything about hops either). I do know I like spelt malt, so I'll buy anything I see with that on the label (assuming everything else checks out okay).

 

Hops = Guitar
Malt = Bass
Yeast = Keys
Water = Drums
Adjuncts = Saxophone

 

Given that the most popular craft beer style is hoppy beers (e.g., IPAs) it seems to me that the craft breweries are simply serving the market. A quick glance at the sorts of beers that Stone is releasing for 2017 demonstrates this. One of the beers that Stone dropped for 2017 was their Imperial Russian Stout (malty beers are not big sellers?).

Yup, give the people what they want: hops and more hops.

Cheers!