Malty Flavor

[Cinnamon Kitty]

The thing is, beers are much like teas, in that there are many different types depending on the hops, grains, and yeast used, as well as whatever else is added during the brewing process. I would suggest trying different styles, like a stout, a porter, an IPA, a brown ale, a lager, an amber ale, wheat beer, etc. If you can find a microbrewery in your area that does tastings, those are the best places to learn and sample.

[scruffmcgruff]

Definitely try all of the different varieties; I love some and absolutely hate others. So, while some people will recommend hefeweizens and Belgian style beers, I can't stand them. Something about the yeasty flavors, I guess. I find strong malts (and hops, to a lesser degree) pretty easy to get along with, in comparison.

A couple of approachable yet somewhat flavorful (compared to most macro brews, anyway) beers are Newcastle (a brown ale) and Negra Modelo (a dark lager, not sure about the technical term). Not my favorites, but they are some of the least "offensive" beers.

[Herb_Master]

I like boddingtons...it is considered to be creamy, I guess thats what this pic is all about
But it can be a touch bitter. I love it though.

Sadly no longer brewed in Manchester, I have never found it bitter,

It was a bit odd one year in the mid 1970's, tasted absolutely awful for 4 months until the brewer discovered it was due to faulty Isinglass (fish bladders) they were import from the far east!

[teanoob]

Wow thanks guys I think I have enough beer recommendations to last me a few months now

I had no clue there are so many different types of Beers out there. The only beer I tried was Budweiser and well suffice to say it was a pretty short trial

[teanoob]

Just to add, the first Darjeeling tea I tasted was very bitter as well and I wasn't sure if that's how it's supposed to taste or if i just brewed it too long.

Sneakers: Apologies for hijacking your tea thread and turning it into a Beer discussion

[hooksie]

Nothing wrong with a beer thread.

My darjeelings aren't bitter, so perhaps try less time when steeping.

[mgregg128]

The malty flavor of beer comes from the malt that is the fundamental ingredient of beer. Malt is made from sprouted barley which is then dried. The sugars in the sprouted grain are malt. When beer is made, these sugars are dissolved out of the dried grains in a warm water bath (the 'wort') and then fermented with yeast. Most finished beers in fact do not smell or even taste particularly malty (though there are a few), which is kind of unfortunate because the aroma of malt is wonderful. If you have ever eaten malt balls or had a malted milk shake, you know what malt tastes and smells like because it's the same stuff that beer is made from.

The old (pre-Unilever blend) of just-made PG tips tea was a particularly malty, or could be when fresh. It smelled very much like the liquid stuff that I'd make when starting a batch of beer when I used to brew, only less sweet. While I'm certain there is no actual malt in PG-tips, the aroma is very similar, pretty much identical, and came as a surprise when I started drinking PG-tips regularly. It was my favorite daily tea.

Then Unilever bought PG-tips and altered the blend. Now PG-tips is (in my opinion) nearly flavorless and the pleasing malty aroma is long gone, replaced by a rather rancid linseed oil smell. In fact, I joined Teachat just to see if anyone might know of an alternative that is similar to the old style PG-tips and has a notable malty aroma when brewed.

Anybody have suggestions? Thank you!

[john.b]

The obvious answer is going to be to try Assam orthodox teas, which are described as malty. The problem with that suggestion is that to me they're not malty in the same sense. Malt is used to describe one specific taste aspect but it's not the same as you've described. I mentioned that in a review not long ago, surely not the first time:

http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co ... eview.html

It almost goes without saying, and it's repetitive since I've already said it, but "malt" tends to be used in a range of different senses. Malt in ovaltine or malted milk milkshakes, or Whoppers, is smooth and sweet, like a transitioned and sweetened form of mild grain (what that is, I think). This malt is closer to a slightly dry mineral tone, with some overlap in the two, but also a little like rust. That's also where it "meets" the pine aspect, which is in between pine needles (maybe red pine, to put a tree to that) and pine cones.

If decent Assam is already familiar this distinction is already clear; if it's not it would be hard to place it without trying one. This "tippy" version is a bit different than that one, but it's hard to say if it's better or worse, since it's just different.

https://www.halmaritea.com/teas/halmari ... p1-clonal/

http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co ... -grey.html

I've had tea before that reminded me of malt in the other sense, that tasted a lot like malted milk balls, like ovaltine, or fermenting grain. It's almost never expressed as a primary flavor aspect, in the sense the tea tastes mostly like that. I remember I thought that about a winter harvest oolong that probably had a bit of roast I drank many years ago, so far back I probably couldn't pass on a lead (5 years ago, maybe). To be honest it's hard for me to have faith in my own impressions with the limited experience I had back then. It's more typical for people to describe related oolongs as having a pastry-like quality, which isn't far off that, but it's not usually primary.

I'll pass on two more leads, something else to consider. Neither is going to lead directly to a tea that tastes mostly like malt but if you have good tolerance for reading it would amount to a lot of exposure to how other styles of teas go, which do overlap to some extent. The first relates to one of my favorite general ranges of Chinese black tea, which are often softer, richer, and sweeter than black teas from almost anywhere else, a comparison of three versions from the same vendor. The second is a roasted oolong, more along the lines of what I was describing, a very different tea, but it does express malt as that overlaps with toasted pastry.

http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co ... -hong.html

http://drinksbeansandleaves.com/Vietnam ... f86b0df487