Beer Cellaring Science: An Early Study on Flavors in Aging Beer
By jason on Sep 18, 2007 in Cellaring Science, Featured
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 hope his brewing buddies bought him a pint or two at the local pub for his efforts.
One cool result of his research was this diagram in which he graphs different beer flavors against time:
Even though his analysis was only of one particular lager, we can still see some very interesting things happening.
One of the first things I noticed is how Dalgliesh (I’ll call him BigD from now on), noted the steady decrease in bitterness over time. His observation was almost certainly related to the degradation of hop alpha-acids in his sample. This has since been confirmed as a common phenomena in aging beers both by scientists experimentally and subjectively by cellaring hobbyists (through heavy consumption). Please check out my article about hops in beer cellaring.
BigD also noted a rise in sweet flavors and aromas. This is another common occurrence encountered by cellar enthusiasts. Beers that become sweeter with toffee, caramel and other roasty/sweet flavors is seen quite often. What isn’t still apparent is just how much of this gain in sweetness is due to the formation of new compounds, and how much is due to the disappearance of other flavors (like bitterness) that occurs over time.
More on BigD’s work later this week….
Jason
jason@brewbasement.com
I am learning a lot on your site, so I thank you for your insight. I look forward to going back and reading more. Terrific job.
Bill | Sep 20, 2007 | Reply
Interesting stuff in both of the articles, looking forward to the future ones.
dave | Sep 22, 2007 | Reply