Those among us (isn’t that everybody?) who are into beer, are mostly in the game because of the flavor of the beverage. Flavor is a composite of taste, aromas and mouthfeel and is a topic that is always up for discussion.
How the flavor of beer results from ingredients and brewing process is something that I will safe for the Deep Dive into Beer series. It really is coming! There will also be an episode in that series about off-flavors. Then what is this post all about? This is just a short opinion piece about wording, naming and shaming.
Some chemicals impart flavors on beer that I have not yet heard anybody say something positive about. Examples are mercaptane (a thiol, commonly described as an aroma of drain or garbage bin), butyric acid (“baby puke”), or ethyl acetate (with aromas of nail polish or acetone). No strong opinions here, other than that I must say I’d rather not taste them too often, even if that means that recognition becomes more difficult due to infrequent exposure…
Other so-called off-flavors aren’t always that bad, though! Take diacetyl: one of the more famous “off-flavors” that is a bit buttery, butterscotch-, or buttered popcorn-like. I am not a big fan of butter (or dairy in general, actually), but for some beers, this is absolutely fine! First of all, it is a natural product of fermentation, and is generally cleaned up by the yeast itself after fermentation finishes. In German lagers it is unacceptable, and brewers do all they can to prevent it from staying or getting (due to bad hygiene) in there. Czech pilsners, Scotch ale and Kriek fare well by small amounts of diacetyl, even though inhaling a lot of it may cause very serious respiratory problems. For those beers: don’t imbibe through your nose, and it is all good!
Phenols are another source of controversy here. In smoked beers it is phenols that make up the essential aroma. Off-flavors that are caused by phenols are often described as medicinal, or something that supposedly tastes and smells like band-aid. The distinction between off-flavor and a flavor one would appreciate is often times super vague. I myself am a fan of many types of phenols and sometimes that band-aid-like 2,6-dichlorophenol comes very close to a smoky accent. My opinion being that every brew could well use a touch of smoked malts, a bit of such “off”-flavors makes many a beer a tad bit more enjoyable!
Off-flavors can result from bad hygiene or mistakes in just about any part of the brewing process. Indeed, when you don’t aim for them, they are undesirable, at least from the brewer’s perspective. The beer judge in a competition may agree with the brewer, especially if the BJCP Style Guide or any competing list of beer style descriptions mentions their ban explicitly. The consumer, though, may politely disagree. Even though unwanted, perhaps they make the drink more interesting or even, dare I say, better!
The term off-flavor is a terrible misnomer. Off of what? They are spot-on-flavors, sometimes! I’d say we should come up with a term for flavors that are almost uniformly dismissed as bad (and perhaps those that result from bad storage or handling of the beer, so imposed on the beer well after it left the brewery), and a more friendly term for flavors in a beer that perhaps aren’t always aimed for, but can be appreciated by many nonetheless. In the first category, off-flavor is fine by me.
For the second, I propose a contamination of different and flavor: difflavor.
Tasting Craft Beer 
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