A panel of amateur beet tasters at Washington State University recently demonstrated that malted barley can have a range of desirable flavours, as well. In the study, researchers recruited a panel of around 100 craft beer drinkers to taste some so called SMasSH beers – beers brewed with a single barley malt and single hop. All beers contained the same hop variety (Tahoma) but each had a malt from a different barley genotype (genetic makeup). Trained tasters can distinguish such taste differences easily, but even the untrained panel could taste the difference among five different barley varieties.
