Soy sauce...

[terrencetheblack]

I'm on the process of developing an imperial stout recipe and decided to taste a few commercial versions before brewing my test batch. There was one thing that I found in 90% of the beers that I drank that I hated: a distinct soy sauce flavor. Is that a normal flavor in the style or something that can be avoided?

[drewbrew86]

Seems like that's pretty common for the style, sometimes it's oxidation though.

[herbaljoe]

It "should" never be there, and in my experience is almost always caused by oxidation after a long period of time (and with temperature fluctuations), as mentioned above. Also, I seem to recall listening to a previous show where someone talked about another cause of it being too much melanoidin malt, mainly in beers like bocks. I probably wouldn't ever use melanoidin malt in a stout anyway though. Would probably avoid munich malt as well.

[brewinhard]

Sounds like you just experienced the classic "umami" flavor that our taste buds can perceive. I also agree that one should not taste this flavor in any stout at all. Most likely oxidation of darker malts.

[BDawg]

+1 on oxidation.

[mike____]

Am I the only one who saw "terrencetheblack" and "Soy sauce" and figured he was announcing the name of his next child?

[terrencetheblack]

Thanks for the input...and thanks for naming my next kid!