Beer Forum

Has anyone ever had a slight green olive aroma in their dark beers? If so, where is that aroma coming from?

ipaisay wrote:Has anyone ever had a slight green olive aroma in their dark beers? If so, where is that aroma coming from?

Did you boil with the cover on?


Mylo

Yeah, I'd go with DMS too, though I seriously doubt you guys are covering your boil.

I've tasted that similar olive/onion/vegetal flavor in a lot of dark beers in comps. It really is a common enough flaw that I can pretty much expect 2 or 3 out of each flight of porters and/or stouts to have it. I've nicknamed this flaw "dark vegetal" because I've seen that it happens so often.

How fast did you chill the wort? What base malt did you use? Which yeast? Which brands of dark malts? Aeration technique? Did you make a starter? I'm wondering if this is sulphur related and am really wondering what is the best advice to give on the score sheets when I taste it again. Would you be willing to send me some (seriously - with a complete recipe & rundown of your procedures)?

Isn't there a hop variety that can easily morph into onion? Simcoe maybe?

I've detected olive in some dark beers as well. Unfortunately, I have no idea what it really comes from. I don't believe it is DMS -- DMS is vegetal but I've never seen it described before as olive-like. Corn, cabbage, or tomato, yes, but not olive.

And is it, by any chance, accompanied by an odd sort of tartness? Sort of like lactic acid, or even a bit of vinegar, but not quite either one? That's what I remember of the example that I've had with obvious olive character. Not sure if the two flavors are related or not, but in any case, I'd rather not be tasting either one in most beers.

Thanks for all of your responses. I will tell you this, the beer I am referring to is a Commercial Beer! Not my homebrew. However, I bring this up because I have tasted the green olives in other dark beers but never in any lighter beers. I will say that this green olives aroma is not DMS. Although, a DMS stout AKA cabbage stout would be interesting for st patrick's day!

Also, the hops used in this beer are not Simcoe and the onion aroma from Simcoe was only one year from what I have been told and experienced.

Lastly, Olive aroma is just that...the aroma only, and it is subtle.

My coworker recently spoke to a scientist at our county's dept. of Agriculture regarding making olives at home. He was told that commercial green olives are fermented with something like a lactobacillus to give them that slight vinegar-ey flavor. If this is true, I imagine an infection could lead to similar smells.

I got in a fight with my neighbor yesterday over this. I read this post in the morning, and then that night he came over and tried my american stout and out of the blue he mentioned my stout smelled like green olives. I called him an unkind name thinking he was playing a joke on me. But he claimed he hadn't read this thread. So, what ever causes this aroma, I got it going on with my stout!!