No one sets out to make a bad beer. When we brewers sit down to work up a recipe, we can be almost comically optimistic about the likely result. We may well draw up a plan to create precisely the beer we want, using processes we’ve honed over hundreds of batches, and taking care to consider all of the steps necessary to avoid the pitfalls and perils waiting for us, in terms of off-flavor creation. Despite these best intentions and our conscientious plans, though, we often indulge blind spots in flavors and impressions that are predictable and intrinsic to the malts we’re using. One of the most common examples might be DMS in Pilsner malt, but that’s really just the tip of the iceberg.
It’s not that we don’t know what our malts taste like, necessarily—instead, it’s that we read the headline and ignore the rest of the story. Few malts only taste like one thing, and just like some love the bright fruitiness of Simcoe while ignoring the sulfuric, catty addition caused by thiol, most of us are guilty of getting (and passing on) more than we bargained for in the malts we include in our grist. This article will outline some of the secondary (or even tertiary) flavors and effects to be on the lookout for the next time you put together a new recipe or update an old one!
Light and Sweet
Starting with the palest of pale malts, let’s talk about Pilsner malt. A common feature of far more than just the Pilsner styles, Pils malt is often described as providing a light and grainy flavor, which of course it does. You might also see descriptions of it as “lightly sweet” or “honey-like”—don’t write off those descriptions.