mrkristofo
Well-Known Member
So a few weeks ago I took my first shot at a lager. Probably should have gone for something more forgiving, with some nice dark malts to mask any off-flavors...but what's the challenge in that? So I had my hand at a Bohemian pilzner. Simple extract recipe with pilsener extract, carapils for head retention, and saaz for bittering/flavoring/aroma.
After getting through the foul-egg smell, and the intense blowoff, I fixed my airlock and then left town for a few days, with fermentation set at 50˚F.
I came back to some beautifully crystal clear beer, so I racked it to secondary, saved the cake to re-pitch a bit of come bottling time, and siphoned a bit to a glass for a taste. "That's funny...what a strange flavor...nacho cheese? I wonder if that's...nah....better stick it in the fridge and come back to it"
So I gave the glass a half hour in the fridge to let a little bit of yeast settle out, even though I had a haunting suspicion that it wouldn't make a lick of difference. I took another swig, and was just about knocked over with buttered-popcorn-ness. Now personally, I've never been a fan of artificial butter flavor. At all. In fact, I remember being about 6 and puking my guts out when someone gave me a handful of "Buttered Popcorn" Jelly Belly's. Not a good thing on its own, not a good thing in a lager.
I'm leaving the carboy out of the fridge for a day at 60˚F to get rid of this nastiness, and I'll let you know how the flavor turns out. I just thought I'd put it out there that I thought I'd recognized this flavor in beer before, but goddamn, when it's there, you know it. In fact, it's noticeable enough that I almost want to run GC on a sample of this beer, just to see how much of this compound is creating such a flavor...but that's another story.
Here's to giving 2,3-butadione the finger.
After getting through the foul-egg smell, and the intense blowoff, I fixed my airlock and then left town for a few days, with fermentation set at 50˚F.
I came back to some beautifully crystal clear beer, so I racked it to secondary, saved the cake to re-pitch a bit of come bottling time, and siphoned a bit to a glass for a taste. "That's funny...what a strange flavor...nacho cheese? I wonder if that's...nah....better stick it in the fridge and come back to it"
So I gave the glass a half hour in the fridge to let a little bit of yeast settle out, even though I had a haunting suspicion that it wouldn't make a lick of difference. I took another swig, and was just about knocked over with buttered-popcorn-ness. Now personally, I've never been a fan of artificial butter flavor. At all. In fact, I remember being about 6 and puking my guts out when someone gave me a handful of "Buttered Popcorn" Jelly Belly's. Not a good thing on its own, not a good thing in a lager.
I'm leaving the carboy out of the fridge for a day at 60˚F to get rid of this nastiness, and I'll let you know how the flavor turns out. I just thought I'd put it out there that I thought I'd recognized this flavor in beer before, but goddamn, when it's there, you know it. In fact, it's noticeable enough that I almost want to run GC on a sample of this beer, just to see how much of this compound is creating such a flavor...but that's another story.
Here's to giving 2,3-butadione the finger.