Beer reviewers like to use certain words time and time again. ‘Peppery’ is one that we’ve seen a lot but which has left us nonplussed — what are they on about?
Red Rock’s Rushy Mede organic ale (bottle-conditioned, 4.4%) helped us to get our heads round it.
It’s something like Hopback Summer Lightning but with a spicy, tongue-tingling edge. Nettles? Medicinal herbs? Although we’re not always impressed by organic beers, we really loved this and found it not only illuminating but also a very convincing imitation of a cask ale.
17 replies on “How can beer be peppery?”
Roger Protz is very fond of the terms “peppery hops” and “biscuity malt”.
I wonder if anyone can be bothered to write a script to trawl beer blogs and build a word cloud with the adjectives that are used most frequently in tasting notes?
Goldings hops seem to get described as peppery. I must admit they don’t taste like pepper to me though.
http://www.its-pub-night.com/2009/03/beer-review-generator.html
Well, I understand from one craft brewer I met that some beers like Fantome saison in Belgium has white pepper in it which would make it, you know, peppery. I think a sharp spicy weedy hop, however, is better compared to a specific green like arugula or the taste on your lips after you drive a lawn mower into a ditch of weeds.
Pepper’s a useful word when describing the flavour of lots of wines and beers.
a sharp spicy weedy hop
Possibly the pepperiest beer I’ve ever tasted was a Swiss hemp beer.
I read this last night just after writing about the peppery hop quality of Orval. I’ve had wines that have tasted like fresh green peppers and reds that have a dry, spicy peppery flavour. I think that’s what it is – an almost-savoury, slightly spicy, dryness.
Mark: bingo, that’s it. I was also thinking about the tingle you get from mustard leaves.
I still don’t know what “biscuity malt” means. What kind of biscuits? Jammy Dodgers? Garibaldis?
For me, “biscuity malt” means a Kristall Weizen, the real “champagne of beers”.
No, definitely a grainier, more crumbly biscuit. The Hob Nob, perhaps.
Mmmmmmmm. Hob nobs. I’m off to the shop.
When I describe a beer as “peppery” I refer to the aroma of ground fresh pepper, like what the waiter puts on your food in an Italian restaurant.
There is of course another way beer can be peppery…
Brakspeare’s Organic Ale was very good indeed, and for a long time was the closest thing you could get to a good fresh pint of cask ale (in my local supermarket at least). They’ve stopped making it bottle conditioned, though, and now it’s just a fairly ordinary bottled bitter.
I find Goldings – but mostly Challenger, peppery. I rather like the taste.
Can I just say – that automatic beer review generator is brilliant. Thanks for posting it.
Phenolics created by many Belgian strains of yeast lend a distinct peppery/spicy flavor.