Taste Testing

[CharlieM]

I've been tasting my beer at all stages- after the boil , from fermenting bucket to secondary and at bottling / kegging. What's the consensus on the best time to know if your beers going to be ok or in need of "work"? Or is all three times s good practice?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[dkevinb]

The only time I taste my beer before it's done is when I drink the hydrometer sample as I'm bottling it, and that's just because I want to. I'm not going to "fix" it at that point. I'm of the "leave it alone and it will be fine" school of brewing.

 

[Potamus]

I agree. Tasting it right after the boil won't tell you much because the flavor will change dramatically after fermentation. Once it's fermented out, there's not a whole lot you can do to fix it other than dry-hopping or adding spices. I just taste the sample that I pull for a hydrometer reading and then bottle or keg. Time takes care of most issues.

 

[Yooper]

I taste it at all stages as well. Once you really get experience, you can see where the beer is going by tasting it at those stages.

I've been brewing for a fairly long time- I can taste the wort and say, "Wow- this one is going to be GOOD!" or "Meh, it's not going to be one of my better IPAs, but it's alright", and I'm always close at predicting the final outcome.

 

[metanoia]

Yes, there's not a lot you can change about the final product from tasting it along the way, but that's not the point. The point is to better understand your brewing practice and how you can improve that in the future.

Some people brew for fun and hope that they're lucky enough that the final product is drinkable, and in that case it doesn't matter if you keep tasting notes along the way. But there are others who take the brewing process more seriously, and collecting as many data points as possible - temps, gravities, volumes, weights, visuals, aromas, flavors - can only help to increase the quality of their craft.