TOPIC:

That kit tang, which I think is actually quite distinctive, has nothing to do with poor yeast or sugar additions (although those things certianly don't help the flavour either) and everything to do with liquid malt extract. This is borne out by the fact that, in my experience kit tang is present in LME based extract, hop and steeping grain brews, while absent from DME based extract brews.

That kit tang is the result of the LME oxidizing in the can, so even if you use all malt and a better yeast you cannot avoid that flavour. Having said that, a really fresh kit would have less of it and a beer with strong flavours might help conceal it I suppose.

Thanks for explaining that Sbillings.

So far we have 6 who think they could differentiate them. If you have 4 beers, 2 kit 2 non kit on average you should at random get 2 right. I doubt everyone will get all 4 right. So how confident are people? I'd say the average mark would be over 3 anyway.

That's the second explanation that I've heard for the root cause of "extract/kit tang" now.

The first explanation I heard said that its a result of the increased malliard reactions that happen from brewing with extract and not performing a full boil.

I wish I could say that I've tasted (or at least could recognize) kit tang... I did stumble upon a "Dr. Beer" kit on the internet ages ago that would allow you to add a few drops of some substance into an otherwise fine beer and it would simulate/create the taste of several "off flavours" in beer so that you, as a taster can learn to identify them. Not sure if "kit/extract tang" made that list, but it would be interesting...


Adam

I wouldn't say that maillard reactions are responsible for kit tang at all. The process you describe would certainly be responsible for wort darkening, but maillard reactions are responsible for flavours in some all grain beers which never get that kit tang.

I have personally taken 7 litres of first runnings from my mash tun and boiled it down to 2 litres then added it back to the main wort in order to encourage maillard reactions and kettle caramelisation and I didn't get anything like kit tang from my all grain wort.

"sbillings":1014y7fa wrote:
That kit tang is the result of the LME oxidizing in the can[/quote:1014y7fa]

would the manufacturers using a different container material change that?

I think it's just the fact that it is liquid that makes it more susceptible to oxidation, not the packaging. That's what I have heard anyway and what I have tasted seems to bear out the LME oxidation theory.