Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.17 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: HS Beer @ 3%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 15 days.
Flavor Description: Moderately sweet lightly roasted malted grain with a strong brandy like booziness to it. Straight malt liquor. A malted base or fermented grape flavor to build on. Solo, this is a lot like vaping a warm tall can of Steel Reserve.
Inhale is sour, with almost lambic hints of dark berries. Exhale is again slightly sour, with a moderate amount of lightly roasted malted grain. It's definitely lightly roasted, like a blonde or pale. I get just a subtle hint of caramel, unlike something deeper like an amber or even a stout. Not really nutty enough for a straight barley, more like a corn blend that you get from macro beers. The "fermented" part here is prominent and boozy, tasting a good deal like a brandy instead of a corn mash type of whiskey flavor with some white grape or deep apple notes to it. I don't get any yeasty or piney hop notes here. The dirtier fermentation and brandy notes start to drag this into malt liquor territory. Builds into steel reserve on your palate pretty quick. You get that brandy funk and sweatiness sticking around for a bit. Moderate density vapor. Sweetness feels pretty natural throughout the exhale, but it again makes you think of malt liquor.
Off-flavors: No plastic or rubber notes, no pronounced "chemical" notes, or anything outright out of place. Not too sure what else to call an off flavor here.
Throat Hit: None? It feels weird to say, but this pretty smooth.
Uses & Pairings: So, you're going to have to think outside the box here.
Since there is no hops or other bitterness, I'd reccomend FLV Yakima Hopps if you want a fuller beer flavor. You're also going to need something for some juiciness and water down that brandy funk, so a small percentage of CAP Cucumber or INW Cactus. Sweetness might be an issue, so FA Bitter Wizard is going to be your friend.
People have also been cramming fruit in beers forever. Dark berries are pretty common. Citruses are also way up there. You then have radlers/shandies that are beer mixes with juices (especially lemonade) or ginger ale. The brandy notes here take me more in the berry direction, but you could pull off citrus if you balanced it right. In the same vein, people also add a lot of spices and florals into beers. Since those tend to be pretty aggresive concentrates, balancing the recipe will be an issue.
Fermented malt flavor and brandy would probably be better in hard cider flavors. FA Fuji/JF Fuji or even better FLV Apple Cider with this would take you most of the way to a boozy apple cider.
The roasted malt with aggressive brandy overtones could also have some use in more savory bakeries, although we are talking small percentages here and someone much smarter than me to figure it out.
Notes:
So the concentration here is going to be key. At .5-1% you get most of the malt with just a bit of than brandy note. That hint of the brandy note is kind of thin and astringent though, so it almost comes across as cheaper and gnarlier tasting. 2% is right about the sweet spot, where that malt is still there, and the booze comes across as something more like a high abv slightly syrupy darker beer, as opposed to straight malt liquor or cheap beer. 3% or over will literally make you homeless.
So, novelty value aside, this is still pretty odd. I can't think of any other concentrates going after this profile and so it's kind of the only game in town. It's definitely not a good beer concentrate on it's own, but it may have some use if you are commited to chasing the specific profile. Just expect to do a lot of work with it to get the good stuff out of it without crossing into tall cans and regret territory.
Second Opinions:
Nope. Some talk about beer vapes here, here, and here.
You are the fucking man! If you'd like a visual and verbal review of someone tasting this flavor at 5% then I encourage you to tune into DIYorDIE's youtube podcast on December 29th. /u/notcharlesmanson
3% is couch surfing, 4% is a van down by the river, and 5% should be like full on sleeping on the sidewalk. Have fun with it.
> 3% or over will literally make you homeless.
Hahaha. Always nice to get some laughs from a flavor review. Please keep up the good work. How do you like FA Joy for some yeast (provided it's balanced with Hops on the other end)? Yes, maybe? or No, too sweet and greasy?
I can't wait!......to stop testing these awful flavors.
LOVE your flavor description. As someone who is a home brewer and craft beer enthusiast, I would be willing to discuss any and all beers with you at pretty much any time.
Ha, thanks. I have to admit my beer day are a couple of years behind me at this point. Miss the hell out of it though. Keep fighting that good fight.
My only fight is choosing IPA, Barrel Aged Stout, or Sour/Gose. IPA usually wins, but I'm a sucker for buying and hoarding BA Stouts, and I'm always down to try a new gose/sour brew.
As well it should. I was always a sucker for IPAs and hoppier pales. Time machine and a desert island, I'd take Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale. That or Pliny the Elder, because holy shit that is good. I sort of landed on the bigger (or former, I guess) microbreweries, just because I always felt like their stuff was a lot more balanced than the small super small run stuff. My taste buds also lined up pretty well with that whole west coast brewing style. I'd try damn near anything though, and usually found something there to love. Except heavy wheat beers. Screw that noise, and that damn banana flavor.
My problem with barrel aged stouts was always the sweetness, pushing into barleywine territory. I like oak but that deep deep roast and sweetness just blew my palate and the alcohol just tasted too hot. I loved Guiness Foreign Extra Stout just because it had the roasty nutty thing going on without all that accompanying sweetness.
Never got super deep into sours, more just out a lack of time. I was always off chasing off whatever hop monstrosity sounded interesting.
Honestly I'm shocked to hear some of the notes, and I kinda want to pick it up now. I think it would be a fun one to have around and it sounds like you could make some good flavor profiles with it.