If you haven’t already, please check out part 1 and part 2 of this series before continuing below.

BigD’s research remains an important benchmark in our understanding of the changing flavors of aging beer. Many, if not all of his findings have been the subject of further research in the field. The declining intensity of hop bitterness over time is now routinely seen in beer of all types, and has become a very well understood process. The rising levels of cardboard flavor Big D noted has also become a key area in beer staling research. This cardboard flavor emergence has been an area of much controversy, with researchers debating the importance of its role in beer staling.

Unfortunately, BigD’s research here is also very limited in some ways. BigD examined only one type of beer, most likely a lager. We would now expect different styles of beer to have very different aging behaviors. BigD also did not examine the effects of different temperatures on the beer’s flavor profile. It has since been shown that storage temperature can have huge effects on the emergence of various flavors. Other variables that weren’t tested for include the levels of oxygen present and the effects of bottle conditioning on aging beer flavor.

Despite the shortcomings, BigD’s findings remain important to us today. Sadly enough, there have been very few studies since on the flavor evolution in aging beer. Most research today concentrates on preserving the flavor stability of beer, in trying to figure out how to minimize the changes (good or bad) that occur to a beer over time. Larger brewers are not interested in maximizing the beneficial effects of aging, they simply want their product to taste exactly the same for as long of a period as possible. The research community has followed suit, concentrating their efforts in this area. We can only hope that the rising popularity of craft beers here in the US will start to swing more of the research into the benefits of aging beer.

Jason

jason@brewbasement.com