The Brew Basement

If you haven’t already seen it, please check out part 1 of this series, where I go through a little background on this study, along with discussing the changes in bitter and sweet flavors it found.

Probably the most puzzling taste BigD noted was the rise and subsequent quick fall of what he called the “Ribes” flavor. […]

The makers of my favorite sushi bar beer, Sapporo Breweries, have recently made an announcement about a new strain of barley they have developed. This new barley is supposed to keep beer brewed with it fresher for longer periods of time. It’s able to do this because it has been genetically engineered to be missing the gene that […]

Just around 30 years ago, back in 1977, a brewing researcher named CE Dalgliesh presented a paper at the 16th European Brewery Convention Congress. His paper was on flavor stability in beer, and it is of interest to us because it is one of the first attempts to track different flavor components in beer as the beer ages. I sure […]

If you haven’t read the first part of this article, be sure to check out Bottle Conditioning (Part 1)
Yeast in bottle-fermented brews can affect your beer in a myriad of different ways. Since the yeast are initially metabolicly active, munching away on sugars in your beer, they can continue producing flavorful compounds well after bottling. It should be noted […]

After you finish this article, be sure to check out the second part of this series on bottle-conditioning. 
Bottle conditioned beers will probably end up being some of the best beers in your cellar. A beer is considered bottle-conditioned when it still has metabolically active yeast in it after the bottling process is complete. Bottle conditioned […]

 
All hail the hop! It’s both a useful and tasty ingredient to your beer. It lends a wonderfully bitter taste to your favorite brew, while at the same time providing a wide range of fragrant aromas. It’s most important effect, however, may be as a preservative agent.
Hops have a unique ability to discourage the growth of bacteria that […]

Solvent flavors are a very common occurrence in aged beers. In higher amounts, solvent flavor is associated with a harsh chemical-like taste in your beer, and definitely not a good thing at all. In smaller amounts however, it can add some pleasing complexity to your brew by lending a tart, almost green-apple like background flavor. […]

If you haven’t already, check out the first half of this article, Beer cellar science: Esters (part 1)
Ironically, bottle-conditioned brews can actually lose these flavors faster then your average mass-produced beer. This is because the yeast in bottle-conditioned beers release enzymes as the yeast start to degrade. These enzymes (esterases) will hasten the ester breakdown […]

Time for more beer science! I know you’re all so excited! Let’s talk about esters.
Esters are a class of compounds typically formed in a condensation reaction (whatever that is) between an acid and an alcohol. Esters in beer are by-products of the yeast fermentation process, which is why they are an important component of a […]

Note: I had originally wrote this post a week or so ago, but somehow it got deleted off of my site. Thanks to Google’s cache, I was able to retrieve it and get it back where it belongs.
 
In my first captivating posting about Diacetyl, I talked about what Diacetyl was how it provides a buttery […]