Comprehensive Sensory Training Kit (AKA off flavors)

[johnrm]

Shipping included, but does not cover any import duty etc.

[Garry]

I don't think there is any import duty once it's less that USD200.

[LordEoin]

Lets go ahead and order this so.
With the current interest we're looking at only about a tenner a head + the cost of a slab of ScheissWasserBrau.
We can sort out the fine details later on.

[Dr Horrible]

What's the update on this - Did ye do a tasting the day of Monochrome?  Or is it all (hopefully) still to happen?

[Garry]

We didn't do a tasting at the monochrome comp. So all yet to happen I guess.

[LordEoin]

It's still in the pipeline but hopefully it'll happen eventually

[HomeBrewWest]

Eoin,
I tried using something like this while working on an embedded controller system for controlling consurmer continuous distillation units down under where its legal. We were getting 95.5% ABV of a max theoretical of 96% (due to azeotropic bond with water) but you could still taste and smell lower and higher impurities.

So I got acetaldehyde (boils at 30 something degrees), propy, butyl, amyl, alcohols etc with boiling polnts of up to about 150 oC and tried to figure out by smell what the impurities were.

Total waste of time! Had to use GC testing in the end.

I thing it was because the individual aromas are all overpowering, and its very hard to differentiate between them.

Another issue is that these fusels don't always dissolve, so some float like a microscopic layer of oil on top. You can see it in home made vodka if you look really hard, but I'd imagine its impossible to see on wine or beer. So some can contribute more top aroma than others.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but personally I'd be a bit sceptical.

[LordEoin]

That's fine if you're trying to simply work out the differences between just different types of alcohol off flavours, but this kit is designed to demonstrate a much wider field of off flavours including :
    Acetaldehyde
    Acetic
    Almond
    Butyric
    Diacetyl
    DMS (Dimethyl Sulfide)
    Earthy
    Mercaptan
    Ethyl acetate
    Ethyl hexanoate
    Spicy
    Metallic
    Geraniol
    Indole
    Isoamyl acetate
    Grainy
    Isovaleric
    Lactic
    Caprylic
    Papery
    Vanilla
    Bitter
    Infection
    Hefeweizen
If you're getting many from that list in a distillery, then there's something very very wrong.

I agree that some of them are probably going to taste very similar, but at least with the little bit of experience you'd be able to identify the main culprits when they pop up in your own beer.
Aparently once you've had a beer that tastes like vomit and baby poo you tend to rememeber the taste of vomit and baby poo for a very long time.
And anyone that finds it difficult to differentiate that beer from one with off flavours of spicy and hefeweizen is probably in the wrong hobby.

[johnrm]

I had enquired about this again in advance of monochrome.
It needs to be ordered online and you need a BJCP ID.
I am still waiting on BJCP ID.

[Will_D]

I am still waiting on BJCP ID.

Aren't we all !

This waiting for the exam results is getting a bit of a stale joke.

Its been almost 6 months since the exam (8th Feb)

[HomeBrewWest]

Ah, taste! Never thought of that. I was trying to do it by smell alone.