Steve Koenemann

The Taste of Beer

Extra! Extra! Not everyone likes beer! While that is hardly news to any of us and sounds exceedingly silly to the average craft beer aficionado, it is clearly the case for many non-beer drinkers and the majority referenced dislike is the “taste” of the beer. I have even found that the so called “macro” beer drinkers don’t really like the stronger (more flavorful) taste of craft beers. Why do you think that is (says me)? It is not, at all, unusual for me to be a more than occasional “inner thinker” and for the last week or so, following a lengthy conversation with a decidedly non-beer drinker concerning my favorite brewed beverage, I have been thinking, quite intensely, about why I like beer. I thought that it might be interesting to other people to learn more about the phenomenon of “taste”, why I choose to drink beer (I like the taste) and some of the factors that might enter into the decision tree in determining whether a person likes beer or even a particular beer… or not.

Taste is one of those interesting senses that is truly a matter of personal preference and can definitely be influenced by factors external to the food or liquid present in the mouth at the time. Complex and elusive, taste or what most think of as taste, is actually a combination of two of our five senses; taste and smell. The actual/biological taste component of people’s perception is actually relatively simple. The smell component, on the other hand, is exceedingly complex and will only be barely touched by this article. Smell can impart both positive and negative influence on what you are actually tasting and can be, in fact, a significant deciding factor in whether of not you like the “taste” of what you are eating/drinking.

The biology of taste that many of us learned and that I taught to my students many years ago as a 7^th and 8^th grade Science teacher, consisted of only four simple attributes… sweet, sour, bitter and saltiness… and everyone (not just beer drinkers) is very familiar with what taste each of those terms implies. There are varying degrees of each of them to be sure, but little doubt (at least in my mind) about what flavors they represent.

• Sweet is a taste/flavor component found in many beers. The sweetness of the malts or additives (fruit, syrups, etc.) are responsible. Like any of these taste/flavor attributes, too much of any one of them present in a beer can make them unpleasant or completely unpalatable to the taster. I am not a fan of beers that are too sweet and totally avoid those that are cloyingly so.
• Sour is a common attribute of many styles and brands of beer. Lambics, Berliner, Flanders Red/Brown, and Framboise are all beers that exhibit this attribute to some degree. Sour beers seem to have recently claimed a fair amount of market presence/attention/mindshare and are among the most popular amongst serious craft beer drinkers (me included). A variety of fruits and syrups can brewed into or added to these beers types to make them more palatable to the less adventurous or less tolerant of the “pucker” that these beers can produce.
• Bitter is usually brought into the beer through the hops that are used to brew it. As a general rule, the more hops used (as well as the length of the boil) make a beer more bitter. Being the hop head that I am, this is one of my favorite flavor components to beer… while others avoid them or call them “bad form”, I love a good tear your head off hoppy beer… that’s something that I just personally enjoy. There are other ingredients (fruits, herbs, spices) which can also be used to make beer bitter.
• Saltiness is not really a taste/flavor component that I used to associate with beer… that is until I heard of a German beer style called “Gose”. Made with a wheat grist along with coriander and salt, it sounds very unusual. While I have not (yet) sampled this particular style of beer, it is definitely something that I will seek out.

Something that I have had to get used to as I grow older is that things change (Pluto is not a planet… you’re kidding me!) and also can become more complex over time. Like the “new math” that was introduced while I was a teacher, there are now different ways of thinking surrounding the sense of taste and there are now also a few more attributes of this sense that need to be considered as a part of the total package.

• Savoriness, also called “Umami”, is a flavor component more commonly referenced in Asian-style cooking, and refers to the “meatiness” or “richness” of the food. Anyone that has eaten cheap oriental food could be familiar with the “Umami” taste of that food imparted by the monosodium gluamate (MSG) it might contain. While I definitely like meaty and/or rich foods, MSG just gives me a headache… you can leave that out of my beer (and food) and, truth be known, this particular flavor component does not seem to play a large part in beer flavors (that I can see). There is, however, the mythical/legendary “bacon beer” that Brooklyn Brewing is reported to have produced… now that might be interesting!
• Dryness is one of those new flavor factors that can have a definite effect on one’s perception of a beer’s likability. Wine lovers are certainly familiar with this descriptive taste. Typically produced by the tannins or unripe fruit that the wine contains, beer taste can be influenced by some of the same elements. “Tartness” can also be used to describe this particular flavor in beer… particularly those that share the “sour” flavor attribute.
• “Metallic” is a relatively new and somewhat unusual flavor component for me; at least as far as beer is concerned. My recent experience with real oyster stouts from Harpoon and Porterhouse reinforced the need, in my mind, for something to describe the metallic (think mild blood) taste of this type of beer. Not unpleasant at all, mind you, but distinctive enough to justify its own “official” flavor description.
• “Hotness”, while probably not best described as a flavor, can provide some influence over the likability of a particular beer. This attribute is not just associated with the “pepper” hotness that might come from a chili beer, but may also refer (more commonly) to the “burn” imparted by a higher beer alcohol content… the “warming” of the belly that can be found in many beer descriptions.

As I mentioned earlier, taste, like the other senses, can be influenced by outside factors. An aging tongue and mouth can change one’s perception of taste as this sense tends to dull over time. Although my wife is a truly talented cook, I see the results of this “dulling” in the increasing amount of hot pepper that I add to food to make it taste less bland. While it does not affect the “pure”taste attributes like sour and sweet, a stuffed nose or cold can dull one’s perception of flavor because of its affect on the contribution of smell in how we perceive our food. There are foods and chemicals that can also alter one’s taste perceptions. The so called “miracle fruit” (synsepalum dulcificum), for instance, can make normally sour foods taste sweet after eaten.

Like many foods, there is a certain amount of an “acquired taste/tolerance” that plays into our acceptance of certain types of food and drinks. I have done some world traveling and it always amazes me what people consider and accept as “normal” when it comes the food and drink that they consume. It doesn’t always have to be something scary, like eating scorpions, and it definitely applies to the acceptance of the flavor of beers. My perception and acceptance of beer has certainly changed since that first taste, long ago, of a bit of that “nasty tasting” beer from my father’s glass… hardly my reaction these days and not because of my dulled taste buds either. Over time I have acquired a taste for not only the relatively simple (and common) taste of my father’s macro light lager beer, but also for many of the now more than 1,000 different beers I have sampled in the last 6 and a half years. As I have said before, I have never met a beer that I didn’t like; I just liked some of them more than others. Like many favored foods, I crave not only the taste of my favorite beers, but the variety and taste diversity that the world beer market place provides for me… a virtual lifetime of new tasting experiences. Bring ‘em on… I’m ready!!

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