Tasting Beers, side by side

Megary

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Just thought I'd share a weird experience (for me anyway).

I just tapped a Brown Ale I made with a little cherry wood smoked malt. The beer came out very good, even if the smokiness wasn't as forward as I was hoping. Still, a nice beer. Next time I'll just up the smoked malt.

But....the strange thing is that after I had a glass of mine I decided to pop open one of my favorites, a Sam Smith's Nut Brown Ale...just to compare. I wasn't trying to see which I liked better (please, I love SSNBA!) but I was curious if I could pick out any subtle flavors that a Classic of the style had that mine didn't. Maybe a certain flavor might show up in the SS that I could use going forward. And boy howdy!! Did I ever get a licorice taste from SS!! It was a taste that I don't ever remember being so pronounced. Yes, there was that great nutty flavor, but I was surprised by how much the licorice dominated.

Now to be fair, a smoked brown ale and a nut brown ale may only be second cousins, but I'm convinced that if I hadn't first tried mine (which was more toffee/malty) and just had the Sam Smiths, that licorice taste would not have stood out as much to me. Where does that licorice come from anyway???

I've got an Irish Stout in the fermenter. I can't wait to do a side-by-side with Guinness or Murphy's.
 
It's likely that they use a version of Porternine to achieve some of the color. That's basically black-cooked syrup that can give an impression of licorice. They may actually include a little licorice in the recipe. Very likely it's just a taste-bud thing whereby you've created a contrast by having the other beer first. Like when you taste a lemon and then something that's not necessarily very sweet but it tastes more sweet than it otherwise would. Some combination of the smoke and malt may have set up a contrast that made you taste more licorice than is there (if any actually is).
Try the Sam Smith again after something like a plain lager and see if your impression is different.
Very interesting stuff.
 
Very likely it's just a taste-bud thing whereby you've created a contrast by having the other beer first.
<SNIP>
Some combination of the smoke and malt may have set up a contrast that made you taste more licorice than is there (if any actually is).

I agree with this. I doubt they use licorice, but I was just surprised that licorice was without question the very first thing I noticed when I tried the SS.

A fun exercise.
 
It's not unheard of that licorice would be an actual ingredient, but it can come from a lot of the dark crystal malts along with the dark fruit - raisin, plum, prune - flavors. Licorice as a flavor note is mentioned in many descriptions of the Samuel Smith and is mentioned in the BJCP style guidelines.
 
Dig me the side by sides! I used to love the taste of Yuengling's Porter.....now, it's meh! I think a lot of this has to do with freshness of our own stuff.
 
Not sure where you live, but if you ever make it to San Diego, CA I’d recommend a trip to white labs. They do side by side comparisons with their yeast. They brew a wort for specific style, then split the batch so you can see and taste the differences. Coolest experience with beer that I’ve had recently. The pale ales and IPAs were so different.
 
White Labs has a taproom in Boulder, Colorado as well, if you make it here.
 

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