Flavor

Looking for some new creative avenues to explore, or want to try something special for your next holiday seasonal? Randy Mosher shares some insights into why botanicals have always been important to beer—plus, strategies to help you use them successfully, today.

Infusing beer with fruit and other flavors between the tap and the glass isn’t just a relic of a time when craft beer was less mainstream—and, often, more fun. It’s also something you can do at home, today. Ready to get acquainted?

In the world of brewing, we can precisely measure and define certain things—and those things don’t have a whole lot to do with how we smell, taste, and feel about beer.

Reach for a bottle of local craft cider and embrace the flavors of autumn with this dish, which pairs well with sides such as butternut squash, sweet potatoes, or roasted turnips.

When it comes to building your malt bill, go smarter, not harder. Here are some key insights from two award-winning brewers on purposeful malt choices that can elevate beers, not muddle them.

Flavor extracts and WONFs—additives “with other natural flavors”—could both have a place in the making of a great fruit beer, says Urban Artifact’s Bret Kollman Baker. But it helps to have a deft hand and clear communication with your supplier.

Third Eye co-owner and head brewer Kelly Montgomery makes the case for freshly roasted cacao nibs and using real vanilla extract in combination with vanilla beans to capture a rich chocolate flavor in stouts.

From layering malts to selecting and infusing adjuncts, Third Eye co-owner and head brewer Kelly Montgomery lays out their medal-winning approach to planning and brewing rich, flavorful stouts.

Once derided as cheap adjuncts, sugars have become useful, flavorful tools for today’s creative brewers.

From the weather at the farms that grow the ingredients to every aspect of brewing and on to the climate in which we enjoy it, temperature affects beer profoundly. So, whether you’re gulping an ice-cold one in the desert or sipping a snifter by the fireside, let’s ponder beer’s ethereal, delicate nature—whatever the season.

From cocoa to coconuts via lactose and long boils, brewers are shaping today’s dessert stouts for easy appeal. Just don’t say they’re easy to make.

Sometimes known as “kettle caramelization,” the Maillard richness of a boil reduction can add deeper malt flavor to any beer you brew—even if it’s not Scottish.

Julian Shrago, co-owner and brewmaster at Beachwood Brewing in Los Angeles, explains how he first thinks about the flavors he wants in a beer before he begins thinking about ingredients.

One of the most beautiful things about beer is the product of sound brewing, proper service, and an unlikely convergence of chemical phenomena. But how much do you really know about what makes great foam? Let’s feed your head.

Great Notion lead brewer Lara Hargrave offers some useful advice for using flavor extracts, graham crackers, almonds, and more in your pastry- and dessert-inspired beers.

Lara Hargrave, lead brewer at Great Notion in Portland, Oregon, runs through several of the adjuncts they add to their pastry stouts, including some useful tips for flavor and practicality.

Lara Hargrave, lead brewer at Great Notion in Portland, Oregon, takes us on a journey through the production of big, whimsical, indulgent, nostalgia-inducing dessert-inspired stouts.

We know that we can get better at smelling and tasting beer, but how does it work? From Tasting Beer author and sensory guru Randy Mosher, here are some insights to help us identify and better understand our own strengths and weaknesses.

Popular in South Asia, this hulking tropical fruit with a sweet, creamy flavor may have something unique to add to the conversation.

Modified yeast strains and products such as Phantasm have unlocked the massive aromatic and flavor potential of thiols. Now, brewers are learning how best to tame that power in service of balance and nuance.