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Your guide to identifying off flavours in beer and how to return or exchange it
There’s nothing like the experience of drinking beer in a pub or taproom. It’s the original setting for
enjoying beer and it’s hard to beat. Sometimes, faults can develop within the beer, somewhere along
the journey that takes it from brewery to glass. If you’re new to beer, or lack experience talking
about how you distinguish between the flavours you prefer and those you don’t, this guide will help
you identify good and off-flavours in beer. If you do experience faulty beer Katie Mather provides
advice on how to return or exchange it.
One of the first things to know about tasting beer is how to tell if it’s bad. But what is bad when it
comes to beer? How can we tell if a beer is off, or if it was meant to taste that way?
There are many, many ways your pint could turn out wrong. It’s all down to what’s known in the
beer world as faults or “flaws”. “Flaws” are unpleasant sights, smells and tastes that just shouldn’t
be in your glass, and unfortunately, every beer has the ability to be ruined by one or two of them!
Good smells:
Malt: toast, fresh bread, chocolate
Hops: white pepper, spice, pine, grass, citrus, stone fruits, tropical fruits
Yeast: cloves, banana, strawberry sweets, pepper
Mixed Fermentation: lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, unripe berries, farmyard
Off smells:
Malt: Butter, caramel, sweetcorn, cabbage, ketchup (or thousand island dressing)
Yeast: old bananas, pear drops, burned rubber, medicinal — from bleach to cough drops, varnish
Bad Storage: skunky-mustiness, damp cardboard, cough syrup, emulsion paint, green apples, baby
sick or old milk, cheese, sweat, mouthwash, sherry
Bad Brewing: Green apples, hot, unpleasant alcohol, tea or red wine texture, powderiness, raw
cereal, pennies, soap.
Looking at these groups of flavours, you can see how they overlap. Some “good” flavours can tip
over into “bad”, and in some styles of beer a flavour or aroma that would normally be considered a
fault actually becomes part of that beer’s character.
It’s all part of the fun of being a beer drinker! There are rules, but there is also the question of
personal preference. Some people love the foamy banana aromas of a weissbeer, some people don’t
like it at all. A lot of it is down to what you feel is right.