Aging a beer...in 30 minutes?!

So, the LHBS I work at has a product there called the Perfect Sommelier. There's a lot of people who go to the store and swear by it. If it works for wine, would it work for beer? I'm thinking beers that would benefit from aging, of course. Assuming your big brew is done carbing and ready to age, maybe this could take some months off before you drink it? It may only work with a wine's chemical make up or it may not even work at all. I dunno...

How does that thing work?

And how come you haven't already tried it, you work there for crying out loud.

From that website -

""We had a customer ask to try out the Perfect Sommelier. He had placed an order for a couple of bottles of the new Stone Imperial Russian Stout and when he picked them up he thought he would try 'aging' one of the bottles. I'm happy to report that after 30 minutes on the 'PS' the stout tasted like it had been aged a few years. What an incredible product!"
Papago Brewing Co.

Well, there you have it. The only downside is that you can only do a bottle at a time. Seems too good to be true, really.

I understand it works by a circulating magnetic field or something along those lines.

This sounds a little too good to be true, and I suspect that's because it's not true. I've read their blurb about how "a true magnetic field" causes tannin molecules to lengthen, and it sounds like pseudoscientific nonsense. Especially the bit about how the earth's weak magnetic field is responsible for the aging process in wines.

Actually, here's someone who's tried it - he doesn't rate it:

http://www.winelabels.org/artps.htm

And there's a review on Amazon from a guy who did a double-blind comparison and found it made no difference.

I don't doubt that if you give people reason to believe that one glass of wine (or beer) will taste better than another, then they may well perceive it as tasting better. But that's not because of magnets, it's because of psychology. In which case, there's no reason to spend money on magnets.

They don't actually work. I heard about these from Harold McGee or someone like that. I'll find the book later today and post what I find.

They're supposed to increase or mellow out (I don't remember which) the tannin flavor of wine, which is typically associated with age. As a result, it throws the wine completely out of balance.

Honestly, the manager at the LHBS (where I work) can age a wine in about 2 minutes by oxidizing it. Just this past Saturday, a client came in with a Chianti that smelled like farts, I tried tasting it, but it was too sick to even swallow. He grabbed a wine glass (with an almost spheric shape) and put a tiny bit of wine and made small circular motion on a table. The wine inside was swirling quickly around and after 2 minutes, the wine was actually drinkable. Basically it oxidizes the wine, which is one of the reactions that happen in aging.

Now, I've never tried it with beer... But I may well give it a go this evening with beers that have the green taste.

mrfocus said:

He grabbed a wine glass (with an almost spheric shape) and put a tiny bit of wine and made small circular motion on a table. The wine inside was swirling quickly around and after 2 minutes, the wine was actually drinkable. Basically it oxidizes the wine, which is one of the reactions that happen in aging.

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As I understand it, that's not oxidising the wine, that's letting musty aromas dissipate - it's the same reason why wines are decanted, so that they can "breathe". Oxidising is a slow and gradual process that gradually introduces sherry-like flavors into the drink. I don't know of any way in which you can speed up oxidation. There's a little bit about it in the wiki.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Oxidation

Danek said:

As I understand it, that's not oxidising the wine, that's letting musty aromas dissipate - it's the same reason why wines are decanted, so that they can "breathe". Oxidising is a slow and gradual process that gradually introduces sherry-like flavors into the drink. I don't know of any way in which you can speed up oxidation. There's a little bit about it in the wiki.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Oxidation

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+1...letting wine breathe is aeration, not oxidation. Its kind of like when people swish wine around in their mouth. You want some air molecules to replace wine molecules. Once that happens, more aroma/flavor can be detected by the drinker. Oxidation takes much more time, but can be sped up somewhat but storing the wine in warmer temps. Since its a chemical process, it happens sooner under warmer conditions. The downside is that all processes will speed up, including unwanted ones...

Danek said:

This sounds a little too good to be true, and I suspect that's because it's not true. [snip] But that's not because of magnets, it's because of psychology. In which case, there's no reason to spend money on magnets.

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+1,258. What complete bollocks! Anyone who actually professes to believe this hokum is either paid to do so or is suffering from psychosomatic response.

Think about it - Blind testing shows no difference between treated and untreated, but people who see the product in use relate they perceive a difference. One wishes to see a difference (or not) and experiences exactly that which they wish to experience, where the truly scientific, blind experiment shows that the product has no effect.

Next thing you know, f&$^king Billy Mays will be shouting at me from my telly about "Crappy or stale, corked and all, Perfect Sommelier improves them all!", and I'll have to pull an Elvis.

As the erudite poet Flava Flav once said, "Don't believe the hype."

Cheers,

Bob

It certainly does sound like a placebo effect.


TL

"It might be a placebo, but it's a powerful placebo."

Considering the number of times it has been demonstrated that telling people a wine has a high price makes them rate the wine higher. Even telling them it comes from a "good" area changes their perception. I've put two-buck chuck's wine in "good" bottles & most winos I know can't tell the difference. Some can, but not many.


Beer can be speed-aged by pumping it through a large pile of yeast. This does the cleanup of esters and intermediary fermentation products in minutes rather than weeks.

This is the silliest damn thing I have seen in a while. I really hope no-one has bought this... and if you have I don't apologize if you feel silly. The only thing that makes a difference is the fact that you are quasi-decanting the wine for the correct 15-20 minutes. Major placebo effect going on here. If you have a young wine, decanting will help significantly (I know this is a debated topic, but now you know where I fall) by oxidizing the wine slightly and allowing it to breath. Yes, technically it is aeration because it is air diffusing into the wine not pure O2, but all the same the oxygen is oxidizing the wine slightly to allow it to mellow and open up. This especially helps with homebrewed wine. I have found that a longer decanting period can have a major impact on a home-made wine.

Soulive said:

+1...letting wine breathe is aeration, not oxidation. Its kind of like when people swish wine around in their mouth. You want some air molecules to replace wine molecules. Once that happens, more aroma/flavor can be detected by the drinker.

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This is true, but aeration/oxidation is tamato/tomato, the result is a smoothed wine. If you decant a very old Bordeaux, for example, if you don't pour and drink it within, say 25 minutes of opening the bottle, the wine will be oxidizing so fast you are in jeopardy of loosing the bottle. I have experienced this first hand, so no it isn't a tall tale.