Deliberate flaws?

[pruby]

Hi all,

I'm getting started in the world of brewing (all grain off the bat - extract costs a fortune here) and the scientist in me wants to experience all of the different common flaws so I can identify them down the line. I'm wondering whether anyone has a good way to reliably produce each characteristic, or whether there are just styles/varieties where the "flaw" is intended and readily identified.

Does anyone have a good set of reliable techniques? For example, I assume oxidising regularly during the secondary ferment would create acetaldehyde, but would it also produce other flaws? It'd be nice to isolate each one as a distinct note.

Cheers,

Tim

 

[jmcnamara]

The LHBS did a sensory class a while back that was something like this. The guy got a kit or something that you could use to spike beer with off flavors.
We used a basic coors light as the base beer.

One caveat with this is that there would be a few other flavors going on in your beer, so it might be harder to identify and isolate those off flavors outside of "the lab".

Also, if you want to see what oxidation tastes like, save yourself a batch of bad beer and just bite into some wet cardboard. Literally the same taste for me

Commercially, Heineken is intentionally skunked at the brewery. So you could try that too

 

[Hogarthe]

for oxidation just pour a beer and leave it for a while. you could stir it to get more oxygen in faster. skunked or light struck, leave a glass of beer in a sunny spot for a few minutes. other ones would be a bit harder. Some beers have some flaws in tghe design, Rolling Rock always had some DMS in it, and there are some English beers that have diacytal in them, but not sure which ones. You can search out a couple of those beers that have a flaw on purpose to make them unique, and try them.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

there can also be yeast flavors your don't like from infections or too high a temperature or even not finishing or cleaning its self up

 

[Nosybear]

Somewhere in the past I've read you can re-create a lot of off flavors using stuff around your home. Butter flavoring simulates diacetyl, vinegar, particularly cider vinegar, simulates acetic acid and so forth. I'm sure if you did a bit of research on the web you could find that article....

 

[jmcnamara]

that sounds very familiar. was it palmer's How to Brew or mosher's Radical Brewing? for some reason, i'm leaning towards mosher

i think i remember them using nail polish remover for one off flavor / smell. obviously, that one you're not supposed to actually taste.

 

[jmcnamara]

It is Radical Brewing, page 74 and 75 talks about recreating off flavors and aromas.

I don't mind posting a pic of those pages, but I'm not sure if it's against any rules here

 

[UgliestLemming]

Siebel Institute Kits work well, though pricey.

 

[Nosybear]

It is Radical Brewing, page 74 and 75 talks about recreating off flavors and aromas.

I don't mind posting a pic of those pages, but I'm not sure if it's against any rules here

I'd suggest we respect copyrights....