Gordon Biersch Chum dry-hopped Irish Red Ale

Commercial Beer Reviews
1

Gordon Biersch, in San Jose CA, has made a beer to honor the San Jose Sharks hockey team. It is called Chum, and it is an Irish Red Ale. I love the wordplay, but I really don’t like the beer. It has a taste that I really don’t care for. Can anyone tell me what that flavor is and/or where it comes from so I can avoid it in the beers I brew?

From the website at http://www.gordonbierschbrewing.com/styles/chum/ :

This dry-hopped blood red ale features a rich malt bill, complemented by a spicy hop aroma from imported Hallertau and Tettnang hops. A smooth yet powerful beer just like the San Jose Sharks lineup. This ale will leave you circling for more.

I have used Hallertau hops before and they are not the issue. It is either something in the malt bill or the Tettnang hops. I think it is in the malt, but I’m not sure.

2

I have not tasted this beer, but from reading the description, I can venture a guess.  When I see “rich malt bill” I think Munich malt, and some Munich malt, especially the darker varieties, can lead to what I call a “vegetal” flavor in beer.  After having brewed a couple of all-Munich dunkels and bocks and getting that flavor, I pretty much have given up on them. I use Munich much more sparingly these days.

3

Hard to comment without a recipe and without having tasted it.  There are millions of other things in this world more important than this to guess about.

4

Deschutes did a fall beer that was an IPA with a Märzen style grain bill and hopped (and dry hopped) with, IIRC, Hallertau and Tettnang.  I didn’t care for it, and I very much favor both hops.  My impression was that these European “noble” type hops need to be kept subtle.  In a highly hopped and/or dry hopped ale they come off like a bowl of potpourri.

5

My guess would be the dry hopping.  I do not like beers dry hopped with noble hops.  Why, I don’t know.  They have a grassy flavor to them.

I current have a hoppy strong winter lager on tap brewed with a boatload of Saaz, Mittelfruh, and Tetts.  It tastes great.

6

Can you describe the flavor you don’t like? What is it you don’t like about it? That might help us narrow it down.

7

I’m not asking anyone to guess about this. If you haven’t tried the beer, then just ignore the request. It has been 6 weeks since I tasted it, so I don’t remember exactly what it was like, just that I didn’t like it (which is rare for me and beer).

8

I went to the grand opening of San Francisco Beer Week last Friday (2/9/18), and got to taste lots of beer, including some fresh Chum. It tasted nothing like the Chum I had before. I heard a rumor that they had problems with batch-to-batch consistency, so perhaps that was the problem with my first taste. I think it is more likely that the first 6-pack I had was old and going stale. In any case, the fresh Chum didn’t have the taste that I found objectionable the first time I tried this beer.