So, you hated the Mango Beer Sorbet

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

I was quite surprised to see the Mango Beer not only make it to the "Better than ceviche" list but apparently get the second highest number of votes. I was initially perplexed. The beer from which it was made went over well and I've gotten a number of compliments on it. I'd started with a homebrew wheat beer kit and added some brewer's mango flavoring. The decision to make it into sorbet came from the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Cookbook, where they mentioned that beer has just the right sugar and alcohol quantities to be dumped into an ice cream maker without further adulteration.

Fortunately for me, I encountered a man who was actively discussing the sorbet when I walked past. He used the phrase "Tasted Rotten" and then talked about the hops probably being at fault. He not only disliked it, but had a good idea as to WHY he hated it. I'd just decided I needed to pick his brain, when one of the people to whom he was speaking pointed at me and said "He made the sorbet." This was about as good an introduction as I could have hoped for.

What followed was an enlightening conversation about where I had gone wrong and where I might go in the future. Before I post some of the ideas that came from that conversation, I'd like to get some feedback from all y'all.

Why did you dislike the Mango Beer Sorbet?

What did you hear about the Mango Beer Sorbet?

What would you do differently?

As you can guess from this post, I intend to revisit the flavor, believing it has potential. No doubt, everyone who tastes the revised flavor next year will be glad of any feedback I get now. :)

Comments

[skreeky]

There were two flavors this year that I actually spat back out.

One was Olive Raisin. It tasted like drinking the liquid off of canned black olives, only nastier. Never even got to the raisins.

The other was Mango Beer. That surprised me enormously, since I have imbibed the exact mango beer in question, with great pleasure. I was completely flummoxed as to what on earth had gone wrong during freezing, or maybe you'd unwittingly used a bad bottle (I assume this happens sometimes).

All I could tell was that the beer had gone bitter. When I say bitter, I don't mean as in "bitter beer" kind of it's-supposed-to-be-bitter. I mean really really spit-it-out bitter.

It's the one flavor fault that I can't tolerate. It's why I'll eat red bell peppers but not green - I'm oversensitive to bitterness. I have thrown away entire batches of soup. There are certain wines I'll dump down the sink due to bitter undertones or finish.

Why I loved the beer and hated the sorbet - you've got a better theory going than I do, that's for sure.

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

On a side note, the next time you find a bottle of wine that's too bitter, let me know. I've started making vinegar and half a bottle of bitter wine could be put to good use. :)