Please be sure to check out my previous posts in this series: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Welcome to the next-to-last post in my series on why high alcohol beers age so well. On Thursday I’ll wrap the series up by summarizing the conclusions of the previous five posts and adding some of my thoughts of my own. In the meantime, here’s my last possible reason that high-ethanol beers age so well:

5. Ethanol Inhibits Some Reactions - The rate of certain staling reactions slows down in the presence of ethanol. The more ethanol is present, the slower the rate of staling.

Unfortunately, there’s been very little research done regarding the anti-staling effects of high abv% (alcohol by volume) in beers. Since the scientific community seems to focus their aging/anti-staling research on mass-market / low strength lagers, this really isn’t a big shocker. So in order to gain some illumination on the topic, let’s turn away from beer and take a look at how ethanol is used as a preservative in the food industry.

There are many practical applications of ethanol as an anti-staling agent in food. It’s been found that if baked products are coated with a thin layer of ethanol, their shelf life is increased dramaticly. Ethanol is also commonly spritzed into packaged goods before they are sealed for it’s anti-staling (and anti-microbial) effects. Ethanol seems to be a great protector from the staling effects of oxygen in these products, and there is quite a large body of research backing this effect up.

So where does that leave us in beer? Studies done in 1998 and 2000 by ML Andersen and LH Skibsted have identified the radical-trapping power of ethanol in beer. Ethanol reacts with oxygen radicals in beer to form a new radical called 1-hydroxyethyl . This ethanol radical will eventually degrade into a variety of compounds, the most common one being acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde can lend a taste to beer that is can be called cidery, green apple, or just tart. It is one of those flavors that can add a beneficial complexity in small amounts, but not one you would like in larger doses.

My personal take on all of this info is that because ethanol is a great radical scavanger, it is able to protect flavor compounds in beer from damaging oxidative reactions. Oxidative by-products of ethanol can also provide a bit of complexity in an aging brew. However, this protective effect can be a negative thing in the long run from too much build up of cidery, tart, green apple tastes.

Jason

jason@brewbasement.com

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