WSJ: Cooking up Beer that Travels

jcarson83 · 09-04-2009, 01:17 PM

Revolutionary Ferment: Cooking Up Craft Beer That Travels - WSJ.com

Interesting article. I'm surprised they didn't mention much about what causes beer to stale.

jcarson83 · 09-04-2009, 02:20 PM

Read it again. "Drastically cutting the amount of oxygen let into the liquid while the ingredients were mashed and boiled". What? Never heard that before.

Sigafoos · 09-04-2009, 02:47 PM

Beer is 'highly perishable' and 'goes bad quickly'? 'Beers usually lose flavor after less than three months.' '(though darker beers with high alcohol are an exception, maturing to produce a port flavor)'

When will people hire someone to write about beer who knows what the **** they're talking about? Reducing the amount of oxygen introduced during mashing and boiling? Now maybe I've missed something, but don't we need to aerate after the boil because it all boils off?

dasBuhbuh · 09-04-2009, 03:17 PM

Note: Redacted.

Pivzavod · 09-04-2009, 04:40 PM

Some of the true experts on here should reply with a comment on WSJ to set the record straight. Aeration is key for our process and a lot of Belgians get better with age. The breweries they are using in this study must be making some whacky brews

**weirdboy** · 09-04-2009, 04:52 PM

There is nothing wrong with the article. Listen to the Brew Strong interview with Charlie Bamforth. Large breweries are in fact taking measures to prevent any oxygen getting into the beer throughout the entire process, because even in malting they believe that the oxygen forms compounds which are precursors to spoilage later on after packaging.

That's why New Belgium did that study with adding olive oil to the yeast instead of aeration; they want to find a way to reduce exposure to oxygen and improve shelf life.

Quote:

I'm surprised they didn't mention much about what causes beer to stale.

They did mention some things that they believe causes beer to stale:

Quote:

Sunlight spoils the flavor by weakening the effect of the hops, letting a sulfuric, cardboard-tasting compounds take over the taste. Fermentation in the bottle and waste from bacteria can wreak havoc (though darker beers with high alcohol are an exception, maturing to produce a port flavor).

Quote:

Ms. Collin analyzed how Trans 2 Nonenal, the chemical responsible for giving older beer a cardboard taste, behaved in the bottle. She came up with a solution -- drastically cutting the amount of oxygen let into the liquid while the ingredients were mashed and boiled. "She looked at the beer industry through the eyes of a flavor expert," says Jérôme Pellaud, a brewmaster at Anheuser, who worked with her at the time.

Scimmia · 09-04-2009, 07:16 PM

You say there's nothing wrong with the article when you quote a part that says that sunlight produces cardboard tasting compounds?

**weirdboy** · 09-04-2009, 08:05 PM

OMG call the fact police. It does in fact cause a "sulfuric" taste that skunks beer so I'll let the cardboard thing slide.

What I mean is that the gist of the article is in fact correct, and big breweries are in fact looking to reduce the introduction of oxygen throughout the brewing process, etc. If you're going to nitpick a single sentence out of the article, then you're just looking for excuses to rip on "mass media" for misrepresenting your hobby.

But, don't take my word for it. There is an hour+ long interview with Dr. Charles Bamforth on Brew Strong podcast (topic is HSA) from 1/26/2009. He goes into excruciating detail about this very topic. He comes to different conclusions than Ms. Collin, however.

Scimmia · 09-04-2009, 08:34 PM

As I said, that's only one of many misstatements.

**weirdboy** · 09-04-2009, 09:13 PM

OK, so why don't you enumerate every misstatement in the article, then we can have a real discussion instead of just pissing on it without really examining the issues.

Also, don't say "that's what I said" if that isn't actually what you said. The entirety of what you posted in this thread prior to my reply was as follows:

Quote:

You say there's nothing wrong with the article when you quote a part that says that sunlight produces cardboard tasting compounds?

I see nothing in there about "many misstatements" so don't get anal retentive and condescending with me.