Monday 28 August 2017

It's a matter of taste



After a long period of what seems like never-ending experimentation, could it be that brewers are finally running out of inspiration? There does seem to have been a desire, amongst some, to shock by attempting to marry together totally different flavours in a way that simply doesn’t work; even with the best will in the  world.

Allied with this is a willingness amongst a significant number of beer geeks, to embrace some of the stranger concoctions with a sycophantic acceptance which borders on obsequiousness, even though they know in their heart of hearts that certain combinations are never going to work. To say that there is rather more of a hint of “the Emperor’s new clothes” about this, would be an understatement.

Most people could name the four main tastes which the human tongue is capable of differentiating; namely bitter, sweet, sour and salt. Certain tastes combine well, such as sweet and sour, and bitter and sweet, but others do not; the chief one being a combination of sweetness and saltiness.

I should perhaps have known this before picking up a bottle of  Maritime Salted Caramel Porter 5.5% in M&S the other day. Instead I had been looking forward to trying this beer, so imagine my disappointment after cracking it open to find that the added “Belgian-inspired twist of rich, salted-caramel” didn’t work at all. Combining salty and sweet flavours on this occasion, was a dismal failure, which did lead me to wonder, what  a respected brewer like Meantime, who produced this beer exclusively for Marks & Sparks, was doing?

Unfortunately this is not the first time I have encountered beers with an odd (off-beat is being too polite!), combination of flavours, but rather than something turned out in a railway arch, I have to say the culprits have often been some of the more mainstream and established brewers.

A while back, I purchased three bottles of Bateman’s “Craft Beer” from Morrison’s; a supermarket I rarely use, simply because the company have no stores in this part of Kent. I wouldn’t normally have bought them, as they looked rather "gimmicky," but as they were priced at just 99p each, I decided to give them a go.

I didn’t drink them straight away, but when I got round to opening them I made some notes. Unfortunately, I have to report that with the exception of one of them my initial feelings were correct. Anyway, here’s what I wrote at the time.

Bateman’s Orange Barley 6.2%. Brewed in small batches, and in small bottles, this beer forms part of the company’s “Sovereign Range”.  According to the label, “The beer is brewed with zesty oranges and natural cane sugar to deliver unabated sweetness, bite, body and charm”.

The beer was quite drinkable; not too sweet and with distinct orange over-tones. It was an enjoyable beer, which would go down well after a meal, but it wasn’t a beer I would go out of my way to drink.

Bateman’s Hazelnut Brownie 6.3%.  Another beer from the same range, which is described as “Deliciously fudgy, rich and nutty,” and contains Belgian chocolate, plus a hint of cinnamon.

This one was rather too sweet for my liking and, whilst not unpleasant, was again not a beer I would choose to buy.

Bateman’s Mocha Amaretto 6.5%.  Described as, “The perfect blend of coffee pot aroma, almond and chocolate indulgence with the sweetness of Biscotti. This delicately prepared beer is a true homage to all that is wonderful about Italy’s café culture”. This was the third beer from the “Sovereign Range.”

Well the marketing people certainly had a field day with this beer. It was truly awful; so much so that I couldn’t finish it. It was as though someone at the brewery had been playing around with the essences and flavourings, and that someone didn’t really know what they were doing! Although the beer had an air of amaretto, it was cloyingly sweet with a horrible clash of different tastes and aromas. 

Whilst the Hazelnut Brownie was drinkable, and under the right circumstances would not have been unpleasant, the Mocha Amaretto was absolutely ghastly; so much so that I poured most of it down the sink! It would seem that I am not alone in my dislike of this beer and my thoughts about just adding flavours for the sake of it, as an online search brought up this review from Pubcask.

The strange thing is that Mocha coffee flavours can work with beer, and Bateman’s are well aware of this; as witnessed by their  6.0%. Mocha Beer. This beer  is brewed using fresh coffee and chocolate beans which are combined with a rich malt base, and is definitely one of the better coffee and chocolate infusion examples.

On the sweet side, as expected, but with rich chocolate and coffee notes to the fore, this would make a good after dinner beer; or even one to go with the dessert. I would not want to drink more than one Bateman’s Mocha during a session, but it’s not a bad beer to round off the evening.

Dark Star Espresso 4.2%, is another coffee flavoured beer, and like the Mocha Amaretto is one which just doesn’t work for me. Brewed with roasted barley malt and bittered with Challenger hops, freshly ground Arabica coffee beans are added to the copper for a few minutes after the boil to provide a rich and complementary coffee aroma.

The brewery’s strap-line with this one is that “It’s not everyone’s cup of tea!” If you forgive the awful pun, I don't think it's anyone's cup of tea, as I haven’t found a single soul  who admits to liking it, and yet it’s one of the company’s regular beers, and has been part of their portfolio for quite some time. Somebody must like it then, as surely novelty sales alone would be insufficient to make this a viable brew.

The message to brewers then is clear; experiment by all means, but don’t be blinded by what you create. Above all, think things through carefully before launching. The message to beer geeks is similar and basically is don’t get sucked in by the marketing and the associated hype. Use your own experience of  knowing which tastes go together and which don’t and if you then try something, which isn’t really for you, don’t go around saying it’s marvellous, just because (insert the name of your own favourite hipster brewer), brewed it.

8 comments:

Curmudgeon said...

Yes, I get the impression that brewers have pushed the envelope of novelty and experimentation about as far as it can go, and drinkers are getting a bit bored with it all.

And most novelty beers, to be honest, are not things that people are going to drink regularly.

Anonymous said...

Slightly bemused by the generalised statement "Certain tastes combine well, such as sweet and sour, and bitter and sweet, but others do not; the chief one being a combination of sweetness and saltiness." One would be quite hard pushed to find a restaurant, gastropub, café or ice cream parlour these days that never has some kind of salted caramel dessert on its menu. And this has been the case for some years now, so its not a passing flavour fad but has become a mainstream taste.
That said, with a quick search suggesting there are over 300 salted caramel style beers floating around across the world, neither of the mere two (so not much of a sample) have tried, the Maritime by Meantime and Chew Chew by Fallen, particularly appealed to or worked for me as beers, even as a dedicated salted caramel dessert lover. Do like Dark Star's Espresso though, so there is a single soul who does.
If had one recent fashion to say yuck to in beer, for me it would be cucumber. But have friends who appear to rate some of those highly. Of course Pumpkin beer is an abomination, but everyone has always know that :-).

BryanB said...

As Anon says, salt and sweet is a well known combination - for example, salted liquorice has long been a favourite across much of northern Europe, while in parts of the US they love salt-water taffy.

And as you say, all these flavours and the beers you mention are very much "a matter of taste" - I wasn't a fan of the Orange Barley either, but I quite liked the Mocha Amaretto and I'm not alone: in cask form it won Beer of the Festival at the 2014 CAMRA Manchester festival.

Russtovich said...

Agreed on it getting a bit blasé at times.

With that being said though, I'm all for a brewery trying new things; the spice of life as it were. I have a few "go-to" beers that I always have on hand at home (sadly, proper pubs are few and far between where I live on the west coast of Canada). I don't pick up as many new beers as I used to, but I quite like having the opportunity to do so. In fact, there is one beer that is only brewed at Christmas that I have enjoyed the past two holiday seasons and look forward to doing so again this year. A Gingerbread Stout believe it or not:

http://centralcitybrewing.com/product/red-racer-gingerhead-gingerbread-stout/

So let them keep trying. Personal taste and popularity will win out in the end. :)

Cheers

Russ(tovich)

PS - "Do like Dark Star's Espresso though, so there is a single soul who does."

My youngest is the head brewer of a small brewpub in Edmonton, Canada. They made an Espresso Stout with beans from a nearby coffee shop. It was amazing!

PPS - "Of course Pumpkin beer is an abomination, but everyone has always know that :-)."

LOL; they keep trying to flog that over here every year at Thanksgiving. It always goes on sale after the holiday is over (and even then it doesn't move).

Paul Bailey said...

I stand corrected over my generalised condemnation of the sweet-salt combination; even though it is one of the more unusual ones. However, just because something works with desserts and ice-cream, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will work in a beer.

I still get the impression that some brewers are adding flavourings to beer which have no place in either mash-tun or fermenter. When these flavours are added to hide what is basically a poorly-formulated beer or, even worse, they’re present to try and disguise other deficiencies, then the people responsible are doing a grave disservice to the art of brewing.

One thing though, which everyone seems to agree on so far, Pumpkin beer really is an abomination!

Russtovich said...

"However, just because something works with desserts and ice-cream, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will work in a beer."

Agreed. That's why I didn't add my two cents worth to that part.


"When these flavours are added to hide what is basically a poorly-formulated beer or, even worse, they’re present to try and disguise other deficiencies, then the people responsible are doing a grave disservice to the art of brewing."

I hadn't thought of that aspect. Good point. If that's why they're trying new flavours then... sod 'em. :)

"One thing though, which everyone seems to agree on so far, Pumpkin beer really is an abomination!"

LOL, yup!

Cheers

Russ(tovich)

RedNev said...

Sweet and salt doesn't work for me, but then I don't much like the taste of salt, to the extent that I don't even put it on chips.

As for brewing fads: I'm sure it's only a matter of time until we get a chicken tikka masala and toffee IPA.

Curmudgeon said...

Fried chicken IPA!