Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Malt VS hops

I concluded I like malty ales and do not like hoppy lagers. That is my final answer, my o pin yun and I'm sticky with it.

Hey, turns out that's a thing.
I am frequently asked to clarify the difference between “malty” flavors and “hoppy” flavors in beer. Nearly every day someone stumbles upon this blog with the search query “malty beers vs. hoppy beers.” I find that people can often describe the flavors they taste, but aren’t necessarily able to attribute those tastes to one or the other source ingredient.
Ably answered at a perfect pint blog.

But they did not mention that malt is the flavor of malted milk shake vs regular milk shake, it is the flavor difference between wet Wonder bread and Malt-O-Meal, the difference between chocolate milk and Ovaltine, the difference between Newcastle ale and St. Pauli Girl lager. I think.

I did not realize that hops is like spice. That changes my attitude.

13 comments:

Michael Haz said...

I like most beers, and favor those that have some hoppiness. What I don't care for is the new crop of highly-hopped craft beers. A beer shouldn't be unpalatably bitter, and that seems to be the goal of the hopped up crafts.

I sampled one that had an actual hop bud in each bottle. It was horrible! Plus, hops make you drowsy, so too much hop in a beer will make you conk out.

Fr Martin Fox said...

I like both a malty beer and a hoppy beer, depending on the time of year.

For hot weather, a highly hopped beer, such as a pale ale, really satisfies. The bitter flavor Michael refers to is exactly what I like.

But in cooler weather, I rather like a maltier beer which, to me, tends to be more sweet.

What I don't like is the way craft beer brewers are getting bored with making tasty beer, and now they're figuring out what sort of other junk they can throw into it. Combine that with taverns with 12 taps, beer names that reveal nothing about what they are, and bartenders who don't know anything about beer...and the result is a kind of beer lottery.

I find myself telling the server, I don't want anything with fruit or spices in it; or else I end up getting a Sam Adams.

Michael Haz said...

I agree. A relative gave me a dozen bottles of obscure craft beers for Christmas. The ones that I have sampled thus far were awful. Cocoa nibs in beer? Uh, no. Pumpkin pie spice in beer? Surrender your brewing license. Because you can make a thing doesn't mean that you should make it.

ricpic said...

O Pin Yun was the pilot who cried "Ho Li Fook!" just before that Chink plane crashed the runway.

chickelit said...

I concluded I like malty ales and do not like hoppy lagers.

I concluded that I don't like hoppy ales and prefer lagers. I've also concluded that people are paying way too much for craft ales.

Chip Ahoy said...

I buy malt in sacks at the brewery shops and put it in things like bread because I like it so much.

ndspinelli said...

I'm guessing you wouldn't like the hot new brew pub beer in Madison, Hopalicious. I find all this millions of beers stupid. Miller, Coors, PBR, etc. on tap and a shot of bourbon.

For you east coasters where PBR is hipster. Well, a beer I grew up on out east, Narragansett[used to be a sponsor of the BoSox] is becoming hipster in Madison.

Michael Haz said...

Nick, I've had some Hopalicious. The first half of the bottle was okay, then a bad aftertaste settled in.

The craft distillers are now trying to screw up good vodka. I have a bottle of Covington vodka, made from sweet potatoes. My first question after sipping it was "Why??"

The Dude said...

I had a beer last year.

chickelit said...

ndspinelli said...
I'm guessing you wouldn't like the hot new brew pub beer in Madison, Hopalicious. I find all this millions of beers stupid. Miller, Coors, PBR, etc. on tap and a shot of bourbon.

Stores out here have wine tastings where it's perfectly acceptable to spit out a bad tasting wine or beer and ask for another fresh cup. Nothing makes a young wanna be micro brewer feel more "micro" than a beautiful woman tasting his product and spitting it out.

Hey, would that work in a movie scene?

ndspinelli said...

chick, Are you referencing Paul Giamatti drinking the spit bucket in Sideways?

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Hops is a spice. All decent ales and beers have lots of malt (that is the fuel--sugar-- for the yeast and creates the body of the ale or beer). Malt is made by letting the grain (usually barley) sprout and then toasting it. This is usually already done for you at the brew store. Plus you add either the powdered or liquid malt extract to make the beer (but again it comes from sprouted grain). The chemical structure of the grain transforms and it releases the sugars better for fermentation.

Hops is a bittering agent that helps preserve the beer and is also added towards the end of the boil as an aromatic (that hoppy smell). It is a wonderful thing that adds to the malt.

Now depending on the recipe the hops can vary a lot. IPA are very hoppy (and a few craft brewers do extreme versions). Stouts and porters just have a touch of hops. Brews vary between those extremes.

You can substitute fresh spruce tips for hops. That was a trick in Colonial America.

Craft ales do cost more to make. Try it at home, the ingredients (in volume) are about twice as much as making a mass produced lager or pilsner.

Hops, like all bitter flavors, are an acquired taste. But hey, if you just prefer just the malt, there is always Ovaltine.

Personally, I am more inclined to go straight to good bourbon or scotch (it is concentrated malt). You do not get hops with that, although I use hop infusions to make my own bitters for cocktails.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

ndspinnelli:

Miles Raymond: [while tasting wine] It tastes like the back of a fucking L.A. school bus. Now they probably didn't de-stem, hoping for some semblance of concentration, crushed it up with leaves and mice, and then wound up with this rancid tar and turpentine bullshit. Fuckin' Raid.

Jack: Tastes pretty good to me.


I love that line.