How much can heat affect beer in shipping?

[1987GN]

I got a bottle of a homebrew IPA from a buddy that arrived in the box and was a bit warm to the touch.

When I went to drink it, it tasted like vinegar and was just gross.

I also received a Hunahpu( from the makeup batch for this year ) a while ago that arrived rather warm in the box, and when I went to drink it, it tasted like shitty burnt coffee and grossness. I dont know if many other people had tasted the makeup batch and it was shitty, so I am not 100% on the cause of that one.

My question is how much can heat ruin a beer in shipping? Could this have been the cause of the makeup-batch Hunahpu tasting shitty, and my buddies homebrew IPA tasting bad?

And fwiw, he sent the same homebrew to a few other people and they said it tasted absolutely great. So it was only my bottle (so far) that was bad.

Thanks for the help!

 

[housepants]

Just heating a beer won't turn it to vinegar, but heating a beer that has acetobacter in it will turn it to vinegar much quicker than if it were kept cold.

 

[1987GN]

Just heating a beer won't turn it to vinegar, but heating a beer that has acetobacter in it will turn it to vinegar much quicker than if it were kept cold.

Gotcha.

So you think it could have had something in it, and the heat emphasized the issue?

What about the makeup batch Hunahpu? Any reason why that tasted so much worse than the Hunahpu day version?

 

[housepants]

Gotcha.

So you think it could have had something in it, and the heat emphasized the issue?

What about the makeup batch Hunahpu? Any reason why that tasted so much worse than the Hunahpu day version?

The beer could be fine, but if somehow the bottle didn't get sanitized then you've got an issue.

I can't comment on Hunahpu, haven't had either batch. But, I do know that if there is any oxygen in the beer, which there most likely is, heating the beer will speed up the oxidation process. Oxidation can ruin beer. Think old coffee, old IPAs, etc. Just a little bit goes a long way. Bright citrus and fruit flavors turn to muddled vegetative disappointment.

 

[1987GN]

Thank you for your input. I was truly disappointed with the makeup batch..I am just unsure if it was the batch itself, or my bottle..

 

[kirbmeist]

Had the make up batch with 2 buddies and all thought it was delicious. Tons of cinnamon. One of those buddies drank a different bottle from same batch before that and loved it. I sent BusinessSloth a bottle and I remember he enjoyed it as well. Not sure what was up with your bottle.

 

[Hubarooski]

I opened a batch 2 Huna last week and there were no signs of burnt coffee. Less vanilla but more cinnamon than the first batch. Definitely no grossness.

 

[kirbmeist]

I opened a batch 2 Huna last week and there were no signs of burnt coffee. Less vanilla but more cinnamon than the first batch. Definitely no grossness.

Exactly the experience I had.

 

[1987GN]

You think it was the heat that caused it? Because it definitely did not taste like normal Huna. A lot of burnt coffee and yuck.

 

[pjs234]

Everything I hear is that heat is not going to impact a beer over a short period of time, that it is light that is the enemy. Beer gets shipped all over the country from breweries to package stores in un-fridgerated trucks and that beer does OK. Unless there was already something wrong with the beer and the heat made the flaw worse.

 

[1987GN]

Everything I hear is that heat is not going to impact a beer over a short period of time, that it is light that is the enemy. Beer gets shipped all over the country from breweries to package stores in un-fridgerated trucks and that beer does OK. Unless there was already something wrong with the beer and the heat made the flaw worse.

So my new hunahpu was just a coincidence that it tasted poorly?

I mean it was OK, but had a lot of burnt coffee and did not taste like Huna at all.

My buddies IPA tasted like vinegar and grossness. I had two other people try the IPA, and both said it was gross or tasted off.

 

[Usofar]

So my new hunahpu was just a coincidence that it tasted poorly?

I mean it was OK, but had a lot of burnt coffee and did not taste like Huna at all.

My buddies IPA tasted like vinegar and grossness. I had two other people try the IPA, and both said it was gross or tasted off.

Common side effects of wearing zip up shoes?

 

[1987GN]

Common side effects of wearing zip up shoes?

No wonder it had a weird metallic tinge to it..

 

[pjs234]

So my new hunahpu was just a coincidence that it tasted poorly?

I mean it was OK, but had a lot of burnt coffee and did not taste like Huna at all.

My buddies IPA tasted like vinegar and grossness. I had two other people try the IPA, and both said it was gross or tasted off.

I hear ya, I would feel the same way too. Don't know what to say and you may never have a great answer, but there is a ton of beer floating around with shipping companies, either for trades or commercially and it just seems like we would hear a lot more issues about shitty beer due to heat issues.

 

[Snarf1]

Heat speeds up oxidization and other chemical reactions that degrade beer. Shaking is also bad for some beers, particularly IPAs. Put a bottle of Pliny in your trunk for a week and then drink it side by side with one from the fridge. Maybe we don't hear more about beers that are damaged in shipping because rare beer always tastes good to some people.

 

[coldafpipes]

Shaking is also bad for some beers, particularly IPAs.

Really? What's the science there? (srs)

 

[Snarf1]

Really? What's the science there? (srs)

Stan Heironymus talked about it in his presentation at NHC last year. It's online for AHA members, but I'll see if I can find the info somewhere else or at least in his hops book.

 

[RedCoffee]

This is why I never buy a beer old enough to be in a store. All that time in the shipping truck.

Frankly, once it's been bottled/kegged it's getting to be pretty close to garbage.

 

[LukeAleTime]

This is why I never buy a beer old enough to be in a store. All that time in the shipping truck.

Frankly, once it's been bottled/kegged it's getting to be pretty close to garbage.

I only drink from the bright tanks. If it's even gone through a line, it's already stale.

 

[Gestalten]

FWIW...
"Apart from oxygen concentration, storage temperature affects the aging characteristics of beer, by affecting the many chemical reactions involved. The reaction rate increase for a certain temperature increase depends on the reaction activation energy. This activation energy differs with the reaction type, which means that the rates of different reactions do not equally increase with increasing temperature. Consequently, beer storage at different temperatures does not generate the same rela- tive level increase of staling compounds. Some sensory studies confirm this prediction. According to Furusho et al. (1999), cardboard flavour shows different time courses during lager beer storage at 20 and 30 °C. In the early phase of beer aging, this results in a sensory pattern with relatively more cardboard character when beer is stored at 30 °C compared to 20 °C. This agrees with the findings of Kaneda, Kobayashi, Furusho, Sa- hara, and Koshino (1995b) that lager beer aged at 25 °C tends to develop a predominantly caramel character whereas, at 30 or 37 °C, more cardboard notes are dominant."

[The chemistry of beer aging – a critical review. Bart Vanderhaegen *, Hedwig Neven, Hubert Verachtert, Guy Derdelinckx
Centre for Malting and Brewing Science, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 22, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Received 1 November 2004; received in revised form 4 January 2005; accepted 4 January 2005]

TL;DR: Storage temperature does have a significant effect on the flavor and aroma composition of a beer

 

[stupac2]

FWIW...
"Apart from oxygen concentration, storage temperature affects the aging characteristics of beer, by affecting the many chemical reactions involved. The reaction rate increase for a certain temperature increase depends on the reaction activation energy. This activation energy differs with the reaction type, which means that the rates of different reactions do not equally increase with increasing temperature. Consequently, beer storage at different temperatures does not generate the same rela- tive level increase of staling compounds. Some sensory studies confirm this prediction. According to Furusho et al. (1999), cardboard flavour shows different time courses during lager beer storage at 20 and 30 °C. In the early phase of beer aging, this results in a sensory pattern with relatively more cardboard character when beer is stored at 30 °C compared to 20 °C. This agrees with the findings of Kaneda, Kobayashi, Furusho, Sa- hara, and Koshino (1995b) that lager beer aged at 25 °C tends to develop a predominantly caramel character whereas, at 30 or 37 °C, more cardboard notes are dominant."

[The chemistry of beer aging – a critical review. Bart Vanderhaegen *, Hedwig Neven, Hubert Verachtert, Guy Derdelinckx
Centre for Malting and Brewing Science, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 22, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Received 1 November 2004; received in revised form 4 January 2005; accepted 4 January 2005]

TL;DR: Storage temperature does have a significant effect on the flavor and aroma composition of a beer

I was going to post this when I saw this thread (well, a summary of it).

OP, it's not likely that the heat caused your problem, unless it was really hot. Even at >100F it still takes hours or days to develop noticeable off flavors, though of course that will depend on your perception threshold for the chemicals in question (which can vary a lot).

 

[kscaldef]

I was going to post this when I saw this thread (well, a summary of it).

OP, it's not likely that the heat caused your problem, unless it was really hot. Even at >100F it still takes hours or days to develop noticeable off flavors, though of course that will depend on your perception threshold for the chemicals in question (which can vary a lot).

The IPA turning to vinegar thing I think has nothing to do with heat. But, I also think there's a difference between "noticeable off flavors" and "no longer excellent". I'm pretty convinced from personal experience drinking the same beers at or near the source vs traded for that a lot of IPAs take a solid 0.5-1.0 hit getting shipped across the country.

 

[krislv]

Living in the desert, it's something I've become accustomed to. That being said, I don't think I've had too many beers if any, ruined from the heat. Fortuneatly most of the beers I get from SoCal arrive next day.