Palmer suggests a 2-dimensional flavor spectrum of fruity/malty bitter/sweet to characterize beer styles. Eg pilsner is malty-bitter, while IPA is fruity bitter Weisen is fruity-sweet and dark beers are malty-sweet. Kolsch, he put right in the center. Lots of this is from his gospel, too.
Hops: Certainly I associate hoppy with bitter, but cold hopping (eg after the fermentation break) is a favorite of mine because it gives fruity smell without as much bitterness. This means in flavor space, the hop vector is a diagonal from [malty sweet] downward towards [fruity bitter] with some variation in proportion based on when you add the hops. Boil the hops to extract bitterness but lose the aroma, & conversely.
Tannins: astringent. come from hops, grain husks, wood. High pH and high temp, canonically > 170 encourage them. They can precipitate out (hence the benefit of lagering). In brewing pilseners and lagers, low buffering capability of the malt makes tannins a risk. Distilled water is recommended (but we have pretty good water here on the front range.)
Sweet: comes from high temperature mashing, when alpha enzymes randomly chop carbohydrates into indigestible lengths (& beta is deactivated), or especially from caramelized malts. So for example, to avoid sweetness in pilseners, mash cool and don't use any caramel malts.
Fuseols: taste like "hot" alcohols or solvents. I once had a beer that tasted like turpentine. Further conditioning cleaned it up though, as the yeast digested the alcohols. Caused by exuberant early fermentation, eg overly warm temperatures.
Body: comes from proteins. Oatmeal (with a protein rest) or from most grains, keep the protein rest short so you don't break down what's left in the grain.
Sweet: comes from high temperature mashing, when alpha enzymes randomly chop carbohydrates into indigestible lengths (& beta is deactivated), or especially from caramelized malts. So for example, to avoid sweetness in pilseners, mash cool and don't use any caramel malts.
Fuseols: taste like "hot" alcohols or solvents. I once had a beer that tasted like turpentine. Further conditioning cleaned it up though, as the yeast digested the alcohols. Caused by exuberant early fermentation, eg overly warm temperatures.
Body: comes from proteins. Oatmeal (with a protein rest) or from most grains, keep the protein rest short so you don't break down what's left in the grain.
Fruity: comes from esters, from yeast. Ale yeast & warmer fermentation tends to fruity, lager yeast and cold fermentation leans more to "clean"
Vinegar: Bacteria.
Vinegar: Bacteria.
