Among the winos on this board, I figure there ought to
be a few alers, so...

I tried Arrogant ******* ale yesterday, a dark brew.
The only thing I noticed was a strong burnt taste, like
french roast coffee. I can't say it was pleasant, though
at least it got a rise out of my taste buds, unlike Coors
dish washing liquid.

Does this character indicate malty or hoppy?

--
Rich

On 11/7/17 1:59 PM, RichD wrote:
> Among the winos on this board, I figure there ought to
> be a few alers, so...
>
> I tried Arrogant ******* ale yesterday, a dark brew.
> The only thing I noticed was a strong burnt taste, like
> french roast coffee. I can't say it was pleasant, though
> at least it got a rise out of my taste buds, unlike Coors
> dish washing liquid.
>
> Does this character indicate malty or hoppy?

I'm not much of an ale drinker, but it sounds to me like they gave the
malt a dark roast, as they do with Porter and Stout.

HTH
Mark Lipton

--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.cwdjr.net

On November 8, Mark Lipton wrote:
>> I tried Arrogant ******* ale yesterday, a dark brew.
>> The only thing I noticed was a strong burnt taste, like
>> french roast coffee. I can't say it was pleasant, though
>> at least it got a rise out of my taste buds,
>> Does this character indicate malty or hoppy?
>
> I'm not much of an ale drinker, but it sounds to me like they gave the
> malt a dark roast, as they do with Porter and Stout.

Perhaps.

But those normally have a sweet taste, where this had none.
How do they impart that sweetness, anyhow?

--
Rich

On 11/9/17 10:58 PM, RichD wrote:
> On November 8, Mark Lipton wrote:
>>> I tried Arrogant ******* ale yesterday, a dark brew.
>>> The only thing I noticed was a strong burnt taste, like
>>> french roast coffee. I can't say it was pleasant, though
>>> at least it got a rise out of my taste buds,
>>> Does this character indicate malty or hoppy?
>>
>> I'm not much of an ale drinker, but it sounds to me like they gave the
>> malt a dark roast, as they do with Porter and Stout.
>
> Perhaps.
>
> But those normally have a sweet taste, where this had none.
> How do they impart that sweetness, anyhow?

The roasting process breaks down the starch in the grain to give glucose
and other small sugars, all of which taste sweet to us (and which the
yeast converts into alcohol). Whether the ale tastes sweet or not will
depend on how efficiently the sugars to alcohol. It occurs to me that
some of the higher sugars like maltodextrin probably can't be
metabolized by yeast, so maybe they account for the sweetness of Porter
(stout doesn't taste very sweet to me but YMMV). Maybe the roasting
that produces this ale doesn't produce much maltodextrin, or maybe they
add an enzyme that converts maltodextrin to glucose.

Mark Lipton

--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.cwdjr.net

On 2017-11-10 16:29:17 +0000, Mark Lipton said:

> On 11/9/17 10:58 PM, RichD wrote:
>> On November 8, Mark Lipton wrote:
>>>> I tried Arrogant ******* ale yesterday, a dark brew.
>>>> The only thing I noticed was a strong burnt taste, like
>>>> french roast coffee. I can't say it was pleasant, though
>>>> at least it got a rise out of my taste buds,
>>>> Does this character indicate malty or hoppy?
>>>
>>> I'm not much of an ale drinker, but it sounds to me like they gave the
>>> malt a dark roast, as they do with Porter and Stout.
>>
>> Perhaps.
>>
>> But those normally have a sweet taste, where this had none.
>> How do they impart that sweetness, anyhow?
>
> The roasting process breaks down the starch in the grain to give glucose
> and other small sugars, all of which taste sweet to us (and which the
> yeast converts into alcohol). Whether the ale tastes sweet or not will
> depend on how efficiently the sugars to alcohol. It occurs to me that
> some of the higher sugars like maltodextrin probably can't be
> metabolized by yeast, so maybe they account for the sweetness of Porter
> (stout doesn't taste very sweet to me but YMMV). Maybe the roasting
> that produces this ale doesn't produce much maltodextrin, or maybe they
> add an enzyme that converts maltodextrin to glucose.
>
> Mark Lipton

<while we are off topic>

Sometimes brewers will even add dextrin malts for body and sweetness.

Also, the temperature at which they mash the grains, as well as the
water-to-grain ratio of the mash will affect the sweetness in the beer.
Without getting into details of various types of amylase, a higher mash
temperature will favor the production of more brached carbohydrate
chains, which are generally less fermentable, favoring a sweeter, more
malty beer. A stiffer (more concentrated) mash will also contribute
towards this style of beer.

The burnt taste likely comes from the use of specialty grains like
black patent malt or roasted barley.

I looked at the Arrogant ******* website. While many brewers are happy
to disclose the malts and hops they use in their beers, this one
(arrogantly!) refuses to.
--
Bill O'Meally