Ordinary Bitter - what does "mid palate" flavor mean?

[slaman992003]

I recently entered a homebrew competition where I entered my Ordinary Bitter. The beer did ok (3rd place) which was fine. However, I need some help from any of you in terms of interpreting a judge's comments and how I can improve my beer.

The general comment was "well made", "no flaws", but wish "there was more flavor in the mid palate."

My question is, what does "mid palate refer to?" Does this mean...

a) I should increase the flavor hop addition?
b) I should increase the crystal malt character?
c) I should attenuate less? or
d) ??

My recipe was :
OG : 1037 FG : 1011
89% Maris Otter
3.3% Carapils
3% Crystal 90
1.9% Crystl 120
1.8% CaraMunich 48L
1% Sp Roast

9.8 iBU's with EKG added at first wort, 15 min, 0 min -- all 14g
20 IBU's with Challenger added at 60 and 25 min -- all 14 g additions

Any advice as to what this might mean would be appreciated.

[BDawg]

When I think "Mid palate", I'm thinking about the perception during the middle of the time the beer is in your mouth until you swallow. They are the flavors that make up the bulk of the taste while its going down. "Up front" are the first perceptions, "In the back" or "In the aftertaste" are after it's down. You'll notice that you sense different things during the first moment the beer is in your mouth, and then other flavors kick in as your senses adjust, then other sensations afterwards. Try it sometime, you'll see what I am talking about.

Overall the recipe looks pretty nice to me. It's got dark crystal, medium crystal, some medium roast, and a good MO malt backbone. Hops look right, with adequate bittering, flavor, and aroma additions of traditional UK hops. I don't see any holes here ingredients wise.

What yeast did you use? WLP002/Wyeast 1968 would lend a nice fruity ester and help round out the flavor profile. Also, did you go with a low carbonation level (around 1.8-2 volumes)? That also tends to leave a "rounder" mouthfeel and over carbonation can heighten hop bitterness and crispness, detracting from the middle flavors. The only other thing might be age of the hops and malt. If they are old, they can taste subdued or otherwise off.

Not really sure what else I can tell you. There's really not very much to go on here.

Most of us become judges because we love beer and want to both improve our own brewing and help others to do so as well. If he included his email address on the score sheet, email him. I welcome any questions on beers I judge and always provide my email address on the score sheets. So far, only handful of people (all are personal friends) have emailed me on the scores. I wish more people would, as it might help me become a better judge.

HTH-
BDawg
BJCP National Judge

[slaman992003]

The yeast I used was the Burton Ale yeast (WL) and I mashed at 154. One other thing I thought about as I was going through my notes was fermentation. I used a starter; but fermentation was done hotter than I would have preferred (it was actually the motivation to get my fridge setup going...). I fermented it at 74F. It started quickly (8 hours) and was done in less than 48hrs. I don't know if this would give me less esters or more?

My carbonation level I think was about right (fairly low), but I noticed one of the judges said my carbonation was low. It wasn't clear whether this was acknowledgement of the correct carbonation or whether it was too low.

I realize it's tough without tasting the beer. Just trying to get a feel from how others might interpret this. Thanks.

[Thirsty Boy]

I find that I often get a "mid palate" gap in my recipe design. I have generally solved it by introducing more complexity into the malt bill.

So I might take a malt bill with only one base malt, and use two similar different base malts, or use a lighter base malt and introduce a darker base malt to bring it back to where it was. So maybe a 100% pale ale malt beer, becomes 80% pale ale, 10% pilsner/lager malt and 10% amber malt. Or a crystal 40 addittion gets cut in half and then made back up (usually using colour as a guide) some crystal 60 and some crystal 20.

But - your malt bill has a nice grunty base malt in the MO and already seems to have a nice variety in other malts... so thats probably not it in your case.

You could try it with hops as well. I tend to notice hop flavour in the mid palate, so filling that gap with hop flavour might do the trick.

The only other thing I might add in addition to what bdawg said is that you could look at your chloride to sulphate ratio. Adding a little Calcium Chloride and even a little table salt to your recipe can really help to fill out and round off the malt profile. Think how flat a steak can taste till you add a little salt... a light sprinkle and the flavours really start to pop. Table salt is even an easy one to try... put a little pinch in a glass of the beer and see if it makes a difference that you like.

TB