Which ingredient affects the taste of beer the most?

[Eadweard]

How about:

Dark beers: malt
Pale beer: hops
Lambics: yeast (and bacteria)

[Graham]

It is all about taste, expectations, and reasons for brewing in the first place. Regretfully, there are an enormous amount of people, even on JBK, that have never experienced a really good beer - they try to replicate the mass-market stuff that they are used to drinking, and do not understand that there is a different world of flavour out there.

It is most evident on the "other brews" section on JBK, where, it seems to me, that it is mostly loopy-juice that those people are striving for. That is quite a different reason for brewing.

I have been challenged on many occasions for my views, but I will never compromise on quality. There are many short-cuts advocated on this site by either impatient or lazy brewers that I do not have any "truck" with, but so be it. As Guinness advertising once said, albeit for different reasons,: "A good beer is worth waiting for".

But one man's nectar is another man's poison, so it all comes down to taste in the end.

[Vossy1]

There's a banquet for people to bite at in there

[Graham]

There's a banquet for people to bite at in there

Yep, but they'll look at the time-stamp and think "Wheeler's been at the pub again - he'll try to back out of it in the morning".

But I am at my most honest when I am pissed. I say exactly what I think. Not good, not right, but there we are.

[Vossy1]

But I am at my most honest when I am pissed. I say exactly what I think. Not good, not right, but there we are.

I totally disagree...in a nice way

I don't have much time for politically correct nicey nicey people.
I prefer to listen to what people say rather than what they don't say

May be a bit boring...but there you are

[Graham]

But I am at my most honest when I am pissed. I say exactly what I think. Not good, not right, but there we are.

I totally disagree...in a nice way

I don't have much time for politically correct nicey nicey people.
I prefer to listen to what people say rather than what they don't say

May be a bit boring...but there you are

But one day I will learn that when I get back from the pub, I go straight to bed. It can be, usually is, a mistake to turn on the computer. There have been a number of times when, the following morning, I've deeply regretted something I've sparked off on the night before.

I'm about to PM you on a different issue. Don't shut down just yet, late as it is.

[BarnsleyBrewer]

But I am at my most honest when I am pissed. I say exactly what I think. Not good, not right, but there we are.

I totally disagree...in a nice way

I don't have much time for politically correct nicey nicey people.
I prefer to listen to what people say rather than what they don't say

May be a bit boring...but there you are

But one day I will learn that when I get back from the pub, I go straight to bed. It can be, usually is, a mistake to turn on the computer. There have been a number of times when, the following morning, I've deeply regretted something I've sparked off on the night before.

I'm about to PM you on a different issue. Don't shut down just yet, late as it is.

I personally like to read your views, pissed or not pissed, keep posting as I think most novice brewers like myself have a lot to learn from your knowledge and expertise at brewing!!

BB

[anomalous_result]

Regretfully, there are an enormous amount of people, even on JBK, that have never experienced a really good beer

I firmly plonk myself in this category and am quite open about it. I'm not even sure festivals are the answer, maybe I'm just trying the wrong beers but still can't remember putting a pint to my lips and thinking it to be the best pint ever, unless you can include those that were awesome through no merit of the beer but simply the friends you were drinking with and the circumstances.

Anyway that's actually why I want to brew, because I've not had my perfect pint.

[/sidetrack]

I don't know what changes a beer the most. All I do know is that there are many variables and many of them are related, eg temperature of fermentation and yeast, water treatment and grain or style. As a result all should be given due attention and controlled sufficiently to create the beer you're after.

I can't work out how to objectively rank ingredients and their effects... a 1 degree difference in fermentation temperature cannot be said top have the same effect as a 6 month old hop or a 24 month old hop or whatever.

[Scooby]

And what about the quality of the said ingredients, that will have a very big effect on the finished product.

[Eadweard]

Nobody has mentioned temperature and carbonation. It just goes to show how little they really matter and that they are a hand that's over played by CAMRA....(I should have posted that at closing time ).

Hmmm...I drank exactly the same beer in keg and cask form yesterday and the difference was very noticable. The cask was much better! I do think CAMRA over do it greatly on the difference between bottled beers that are filtered or bottle conditioned though.

[Buzz]

Whilst I understand why it is hard to choose just one, I voted for Malt.

I've experimented with different hops which have obviously changed the flavour of my beers but, nothing like the first time I brewed with amber malt. For me that biscuity taste was too overpowering, even though I only used 350g in a 5 gallon batch. Not sure I am even going to drink that brew. It's still conditioning but each sample I take puts me off getting stuck in...

[Vossy1]

[richard_senior]

I hate to open up an age old argument here (to difuse or not to difuse), but I think the dispensing equipment has as big an impact as the general recipe.
I can make something almost too hoppy to drink out of a 5Gal pressure vessel.. but when I run it through the beer engine with difuser in, it just tastes great. Sometimes a very subtle recipe can be turned into 'bitter' with the difuser.
In fact.. last year.. I made a beer using lager malt and sb12 (is it? the yeast?) primary fermentation went like a bomb in 3 days. I used 100g of challenger! after primary I added a kilo of sugar and left it under the stairs for a month. It was undrinkable out of the pressure vessel, but through the beer engine!! it was great!

[Martin the fish]

I can't do that quote thing for multiple quotes so.
GW. I think you are quite correct in your first post. Perhaps you should post pissed more often and just laugh at yourself the following morning. Apologise a bit for being pissed and laugh a bit more. What you say about most people on the forum not even sampling the perfect pint-that's probably not far wrong. But then nor is saying it's all subjective. I had two pints of Hogs Back TEA in the Inn on the Pond just outside Redhill, Surrey. They were to me, at that time, perfect ale. I've also had two bottle's of my wedding ale and they were, at that time, perfect.

To me, the biggest influence on how a beer tastes is based on few things.
1/. Did you brew it and do you think it's gonna be great.
2/. Is it famous or well recieved locally.
Then you have to consider.
A/. I like full bodied beers, ales and wines. I don't like many white wines so asking me to taste one is gonna get bad points for that wine.
B/. Why they make it so fizzy? I hate fizzy stuff. Excepty some bubbles. Why it has to be ice cold?
C/. What time of day it is and what season. I can't drink a pint of heavy strong ale on a blistering day here in NZ. But in the winter month's it's the first drink i'd call for. In the sumnmer i like a Pale Ale with a good smack of NZ hops. Or a good cider served cold.

Personally i don't think of one ingredient that effects taste more than yeasts. Same grist, thames yeast. One flavour. Same grist, S04, different flavour. Same grist, Ringwood, different flavour.

All beer is good

[ashbyp]

Nobody has mentioned temperature and carbonation. It just goes to show how little they really matter and that they are a hand that's over played by CAMRA....(I should have posted that at closing time ).

No bites eh?

Well - if a beer is too warm and flat it tastes shite - doesn't matter howgood the malt and hops were. And if it's too cold it doesn't taste of much at all. However, these two variables are so easy to get right that it's not significant to include them in the discussion.