WHY YOUR BEER DOESN'T TASTE RIGHT: THE MOST COMMON OFF-FLAVORS EXPLAINED

Everyone has a different idea of what the perfect beer tastes like, but there's one thing most people can agree upon: it shouldn't taste like gym socks.

You're much less likely to receive a bad beer than a botched cocktail or corked wine, but it happens more than you might think. To help better understand the brewology behind why a beer doesn't taste quite right, we chatted with Matt Eggers, a certified ciceronewho runs the taproom at Woodland Empire Ale Craft in Boise, Idaho. Here are nine of the most common off-flavors.

"'Did he really just say baby vomit?' Yeah, I did."

Skunky

This term has become a catch-all adjective for bad beer, but it actually describes a specific taste. When beer is exposed to light, UV rays create a photochemical reaction with the hops that causes a smell that's equal parts wet animal and flatulence. Brown glass bottles help stop this reaction, but green and clear bottles are notoriously susceptible. Companies that stick to clear/green glass are rumored to actually account for skunking in their flavor profile. "A good way to understand this flavor is to pour a good craft pilsner into two glasses and leave one in direct sunlight for a few minutes," says Matt. "The difference is noticeable that quickly."

Boozy

If it tastes like cheap vodka, it's referred to as "hot beer". This defect is most prevalent in beers with high ABVs that were not aged long enough.

Creamed corn or cooked vegetables

Dimethyl sulfide (or DMS) is a result of infection or lazy brewing practices and stinks like boiled cabbage. Watch for it in pale lagers.

Buttery

If your beer tastes like something out of a movie theater (and not one of these awesome, boozy movie theaters), then the culprit is likely diacetyl, which is caused by either a bacterial infection or removing the beer from the yeast too quickly. The most common offenders for this are lagers.

Cardboard

If a beer isn't properly packaged or is moved through multiple temperature fluctuations, it can throw off the oxygen levels. Bottles, cans, and kegs are all susceptible to this, and it results in a flavor that's "similar to licking a cardboard box".

Green Apple

If your beer tastes like a Granny Smith it's probably due to acetaldehyde, a chemical that occurs naturally in the brewing process but is generally consumed by the yeast. This is a sign that the beer might've been rushed and bottled before the fermentation process was complete. Matt says this can also result in a cut grass or latex paint flavor. Bonus facts about acetaldehyde: some blame it for hangovers, and it can cause certain people to turn red in the face.

Baby vomit

"'Did he just say baby vomit, really?' Yeah, I did," says Matt. It's a result of butyric acid created due to poor sanitation at either the bar or the brewery.

Gym socks or stale cheese

The hops have either gone bad or there's just too much of them. The sweaty/stinky flavor is produced by isovaleric acid, the slightly older and less vommity cousin of butyric acid.

Vinegar

"If you've ever opened a beer and thought it would be better used as a salad dressing, you know the problem is infected beer," says Matt. Sour and wild beers aside, vinegar aromas are present because wild bacteria has turned sugars into acids instead of alcohol.

Beer May Actually Lead to Improved Health

By Amanda Schiavo

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NEW YORK (TheStreet) --For years, red wine has been lauded as the singular alcoholic beverage that can be beneficial to your health. In fact, scientists say that a glass of red wine with dinner each night can reduce your bad cholesterol, lower your risk of coronary heart disease, and reduce blood clotting, according to the Yale-New Haven Hospital website.

On the other hand, beer, a drink popular at house parties, ball games, and on summer evenings, has a stigma for making one fat, and contributing to a person's poor health. 

People have been consuming beer for a large part of our collective history. In fact scholars have found circumstantial evidence that supports the theory humans were growing and storing grain for beer before cultivating it for bread, according to Jefferey Kahn, a clinical associate professor at New York Presbyterian Hospital, writing in the New York Times. 

Beer in the ancient world would have been vastly different from what we know today as "its alcohol content would have been sharply limited", the Times article said. 

Through the course of history beer has evolved into an alcoholic beverage used to unwind after a long day, and to bring friends together.

Beer is not likely going to be the first libation that comes to mind when a person wonders what beverage they should be drinking in order to contribute to their overall health.

As it turns out, drinking beer in moderation could be as beneficial to one's health as that nightly glass of red wine.

However, the Mayo Clinic website cautions that "alcohol use can be a slippery slope. Moderate drinking can offer some health benefits. But heavy drinking can have serious consequences." 

The following is a list of 8 reasons why beer drinking in moderation could be good for your health...

 

1. Prevents Heart Disease

Drinking alcohol in moderation can lower your risk of developing and dying from heart disease, the mayoclinic.org says.

Drinking in moderation means one drink per day for an adult woman of any age and men older than 65 years. For adult men age 65 and below that means two drinks per day, the mayoclinic.org added.  

2. Strengthens Bones

Beer has a high silicon content, which is a nutrient that helps to strengthen the bones,Discovery.com writes.

3. Cleans the Kidneys

Have you ever noticed that sudden urge to "go" right after drinking a beer? That reaction is due to the beer's diuretic properties.

Diuretics, also known as water pills, help your body get rid of salt. Diuretics work by making the kidneys put more sodium into your urine, also taking with it water from your blood. This decreases the amount of fluid moving through your blood vessels, and lowers the pressure on the walls of your arteries, the mayoclinic.org writes.

4. Fights Cancer

The hops most commonly used in brewing beer contains a flavonoid compound called xanthohumol, which has been used in the chemoprevention of cancers.

A study in the Molecular Cancer Therapeutics journal says xanthohumol has an "exceptional broad spectrum of inhibitory mechanisms at the initiation, promotion, and progression stage of carcinogenesis."

5. Beauty Benefits

Beer is high in Vitamin B. 

This antioxidant is said to aid in the maintenance of healthy skin and eyes, according to the mayoclinic.org.

6. Improved Brain Power and Creativity

Guzzling down six or seven beers in one night probably won't lead you to make the smartest of decisions.

However, moderate beer drinking may increase your creativity.

Menshealth.com cites a study published in the journal Consciousness and Cognitionthat says when 40 men were given verbal puzzles, those that had a blood alcohol level of .075 solved the problems seconds faster than their sober counterparts.

7. Lowers Chances of Getting Diabetes

A study published on the American Diabetes Association website found that its research "suggests an ~30% reduced risk of type 2 diabetes in moderate alcohol consumers, whereas no risk reduction is observed in consumers of ≥48 g/day."

8. Prevents Stroke
Alcohol consumption can be a tricky thing when it comes to your health. While too much can cause irreparable damage, alcohol in moderation can have its benefits. 

The Mayo Clinic says that "drinking small to moderate amounts of alcohol may help prevent ischemic stroke and decrease your blood's clotting tendency." 

www.Brew-Boss.com COFI Filter and "Squeezing" of Grains

I've had a few people ask the question about the COFI filter and "Squeezing" of grains. The question asked is "Doesn't squeezing the grains extract awful disgusting tannins into my wort?" Isn't grain squeezing bad?

Regarding the "squeezing of the grain" and the general opinion that it is bad but is it really? Actually, squeezing does not extract tannins from the grain bed. Tannins are only extracted when the temperature of the grain bed exceeds 170 degrees F. This article does a pretty good job of explaining this.http://beerandwinejournal.com/tannins-mash

The Brew-Boss COFI does not really “squeeze” the grains. The filter basket weighs about 8 pounds. The actual pressure exerted on the grains is about 0.08 psi (lbs per square inch) based on 12” diameter. What is actually happening is the grains are being forced together to eliminate the space between them where excess wort can hide. The actual grains themselves are not being compresses/squeezed. This pressure is much less than the static pressure of the grains being under 12 inches of wort! The pressure exerted on the grains under just 12 inches of wort is 10 times more (0.89psi) pressure than the COFI grain squeeze pressure. What the COFI does is extract the excess wort from between the grains faster than letting it drain by gravity alone, saving time. As long as you keep mash temperatures below 170F, you really can't get tannin issues and squeezing does not add to that potential. In John Palmer's (world respected homebrew expert) book, under steeping grains, he actually recommends squeezing of the grains!

Also, because the Brew-Boss system is basically a Brew In A Bag (BIAB) systems, you have a full volume mash. So the pH of the wort never approaches the levels discussed in the link provided. So actually, tannins being extracted in the Brew-Boss system would be less than a conventional brew system.

Tannins in the Mash

 by Chris Colby 

Too much tannin your beer can give it an iced-tea like puckering character.

Tannins are polyphenols found in a wide variety of plants, distributed among various tissues. In a later article, I’ll discuss the basic chemistry of the tannins relevant to brewing. (The types of tannins that end up in beer from the malt are different from those that originate in the hops.) In this article, however, we’ll treat them as a group because they are all related chemically, the factors that affect them are the same, and the consequences if they get in your beer are the same. I’ll discuss tannins extracted in the mash today, and cover tannins in the boil over the weekend.

Review and Background Information

As I mentioned in the previous article on the basics of tannins, tannins are present in all beer and in fact are required for it to taste like beer. In excess, however, tannins cause astringency — a puckering sensation, as experienced when drinking tea, due to these polyphenols binding with salivary proteins. As a brewer, we want to avoid brewing beer that is astringent, so we strive to create conditions during our brewhouse operations that allow this. Extracting tannins from plant products is not an all-or-nothing thing. If a tannic part of a plant is in contact with a water-based solution, tannins are being extracted at some rate. The rate is influenced by temperature, pH and time — the same variables that influence the extraction of any water-soluble compound from any solid. (For example, these variables affect iso-alpha acids extraction from hops in the same manner.)

Most tannins in beer come from the malt. Figures vary, but Kunze — in his text  “Technology Brewing and Malting” — gives 80%. However, the hops are also a source of tannins. And, it’s probably safe to assume that Kunze was referring to a German-style beer, rather than an IPA, so 20% may be a lower limit. In addition, spices other than hops and barrels used in aging can add tannins.

Crushing the Malt

As with anything, the more finely you crush your malt, the easier it is to extract things from it. For example, crushing your malt leads to better extract efficiency. On the other hand, it also increases the amount of tannins in your beer. However, the effect is fairly small and — unless you are milling your malt into a powder — it’s best to gear your milling goals towards getting good extraction, while still being able to lauter easily.

Infusion Mashing with Continuous Sparging

No need to freak out, tannin extraction is not an all-or-nothing thing. Time and pH are also factors.

In most beers, the majority of the tannins come from the malt. During mashing, the grain husks and aleurone layers — the parts of the barley malt that contain tannins — steep in water at 148 –162 °F (64–72 °C). A “plain” single infusion mash duration can vary from 20 minutes to 90 minutes, with 60 minutes being very common in homebrewing. (The times and temperatures will vary if the brewer performs a step mash.) During the mash, the pH should eventually settle into the 5.2–5.6 range. At this point, small amounts of tannins are being extracted, but not so much as to be problematic. The mash out raises the temperature to 168–170 °C (76–77 °C), and during subsequent running off of the wort, and rinsing the grain bed with sparge water, the pH of the wort in the grain bed rises.

If the pH rises to 5.8 or above, the combination of heat and high pH will cause tannins to be extracted at an unacceptably high rate. This is the major point in the brewing process at which brewers can keep their tannin levels in check. By keeping the temperature below 170 °F (77 °C) and the pH below 5.8, you can keep tannin extraction during wort collection to a reasonable level. Watch the temperature of your grain bed (the sparge water temperature itself is not the important variable) and quit collecting wort when the pH rises above 5.8. In practice, many homebrewers will have quit collecting wort before this point — especially when making big beers, but not employing an extended boil.

Decoction Mashing

Decoction mashing involves boiling up to one-third of the mash — wort, grain solids, and all — and the mash time is typically longer than a single infusion mash. Even though the pH is (or should be) in the 5.2–5.6 range, decoction mashes yield beers with higher levels of tannins. (In the chemistry article, I’ll discuss which tannins those are.) However, employing a decoction mash does not automatically mean your beer will be astringent. As long as your mash pH is in the proper range, tannin extraction should be limited to an acceptable rate.

Batch Sparging and Other Variants

Proponents of batch sparging often cite low tannin extraction as a benefit of the method. Given the temperature and pH values associated with a single batch sparge — often coupled with not collecting all the wort that could be obtained  from the grain bill — this is likely true. If you collect two sparged batches of wort — three total, and the volume of wort you collect approaches 0.65 gallons of wort per pound of grain — you may want to check the third wort by taking the pH and tasting it.

There are numerous types of mash programs and sparging options. If you have a thermometer and a pH meter, you can check for yourself if you are in the danger zone for excessive tannin extraction. (One thing I wonder about is overnight mashes. This hasn’t been studied because it isn’t done commercially, but the extended time the malt is soaking in hot water makes me wonder about tannin extraction.)

The Bottom Line for Mashing and Sparging

Finely crushing your malt yields better extract efficiency, but also increases the surface area of husk material in contact with wort.

Whatever combination of mash program and lautering method you use, the proof is in the pudding. If you can’t detect any astringency, then your brewhouse procedures are fine for you. If you have someone in your homebrewclub that’s good at detecting astringency, let them sample your beer to get more info. Overly astringent beers are not a common problem in homebrewing, but they do crop up occasionally. Knowing what variables affect them will help you to stay away from circumstances that could result in tannic beers.

In the second half of this article, we’ll see how tannins are extracted from hops during the boil and how tannins are precipitated in the hot and cold break. In a later article, I’ll deal with the chemistry of polyphenols in a little more depth.

The stout matrix

   

http://draftmag.com/the-stout-matrix/

Practically black and forever brooding, stout’s claim to fame is its swirls of cocoa, coffee, char and cola notes extracted from roasted malt. But the style’s ever-expanding with fruit, barrels and hops shining new light into our favorite dark brew.

1. Cocoa conspires with all that dark roast to elevate chocolate stouts to confectionary status.

2. Coffee stouts give a double jolt: The first from real coffee (beans or cold brew!) in the batch, the second from some bonus booze.

3. Beans in the brew give vanilla stouts a floral, high-pitched sweetness.

4. Real bivalves—meat and shells!—lend a distinct brininess to oyster stouts.

5. Funky, fruity Belgian yeast gives Belgian stouts a strangely alluring sweet spice.

6. Blueberries, pineapple, squash; there’s no limit to the sweet stuff brewers will slip into a fruit stout.

7. Smoldering smoked stouts spark a little campfire (via smoked malts) in every sip.

8. Sturdy malts make stouts good for wood. Barrel-aged stouts nap in new vats or ones that once held rum, whiskey or wine; they emerge mature and high in alcohol.

9. A little lactose in the brew gives sweet stouts velvety creaminess and a milky-sweet smirk.

10. Oatmeal stouts augment roasted barley with sweet oats for a chewy, crazy-creamy mouthfeel.

11. Intense roast, complex malts and high alcohol make imperial stouts some of beer’s biggest boozers.

12. Sessionable dry stouts are a step up from porters—and fish ‘n’ chips best friend.

13. Bitter U.S. hops color American stouts with subtle greenness.

14. Like foreign extra stouts but sweeter, tropical stouts dial up their fruit and molasses flavors.

15. Assertive roast headlines foreign extra stouts, but ABVs under 8% keep them manageable.


Want to brew your own stout?  Brew Boss has the system for you!
Cheers! www.brew-boss.com

Do higher-ABV beers get rated higher?

It's a general rule that Americans prefer bold, highly hopped beers. But do we also have a tendency to enjoy styles with higher ABVs?

KATE BERNOT 

It’s a general rule that Americans prefer bold, highly hopped beers. But do we also have a tendency to enjoy styles with higher ABVs? Does this fly in the face of the session trend?

I’m sure there are varying opinions, but it’s all speculation until someone crunches the numbers. Thankfully, there’s a person who did just that. He’s Scott Janish, a homebrewer and general beer enthusiast whose uses data to help tell some interesting stories about beer (both his and others’).

He plotted the average ABV of a beer style against its average BeerAdvocate rating (the average of all the beers in a style category), and found that, for the most part, higher-ABV beers do receive higher ratings. Styles like eisbocks, quads, and Russian imperial stouts are on the high end of both the ABV and average score spectrum, for example.

The outliers are notable, too; goses and berliner weisses tend to score high despite their low ABV, and American malt liquors score low despite their relatively high alcohol content. Give his full graph a look, and even play around with the data set for yourself.

Cheers!  www.Brew-Boss.com

New Technology from Brew Boss - COFI

Brew-Boss.com has developed a new technology we are calling the COFI filter. COFI is an acronym for:

Center
Out
Forced
Infusion

The Brew-Boss COFI filter is an exciting new patent pending technology that optimizes the efficiency of Brew-In-A-Bag (BIAB) type brewing. The filter is manufactured from 304 grade stainless steel mesh which holds the grain during the mash process, but allows water to flow through.




A central infusion tube, that is perforated with a series of flow-matched holes, extends all the way to the bottom of the filter.



During the mash cycle, water/wort is continuously pumped from the bottom of the kettle to the top of the filter, into the central infusion tube, where it is forced through the grain bed. Water passing through the grain bed flows out of the filter to the bottom of the kettle. This Center Out Forced Infusion (COFI) technology assures that all the grain is in constant contact with the mash water and that there are no dead spots. No stirring is required as the system is self agitating and efficiency is thereby optimized. The COFI filter is also very easy to clean, simply invert it in a sink and spray it with your sprayer! Because it is made of stainless steel, it will not rust and will last indefinitely.



The central infusion tube is also connected to a false bottom. After mashing is completed, the elbow fitting at the top of the COFI filter is exchanged with a lifting ring. When removing the filter, the filter is lifted by the lift ring. This brings the false bottom towards the fixed cover, allowing the weight of the filter to squeeze the grain. This squeezing action extracts much of the trapped sweet wort from the grain.




Visit www.brew-boss.com and purchase this new technology for your home brewing!

4 Homebrewing Tips You Won't Find in the Books

Ask any home brewing expert and they will tell you: The best tips on brewing the perfect batch come from real-world experience, which is exactly what four homebrewers are sharing here.

Don't Be Afraid to Experiment With Flavors

"With one exception I've never brewed the same recipe twice," says James Schirmer, an institutional research analyst at the University of La Verne. "I've brewed beers with various spices, chocolate, fruit, and anything that I think may lend itself well to a beer."

Schirmer says one of his most successful batches was a wheat beer brewed with hibiscus flowers. "I got the idea from my mother-in-law, who mentioned one of her favorite drinks is made with hibiscus flowers," he says. After trying it, Schirmer says he immediately knew the hibiscus flavor would meld well with a nice, light, easy-drinking summer beer. "And so I brewed an American wheat-style beer and added some dried hibiscus flowers in the boil," he says.

That beer went on to win the 2012 Samuel Adams Longshot competition. It's available now (under the name James Schirmer's Beerflower Wheat) in the Samuel Adams Longshot Variety six-pack, along with the two other winners of the competition.

Keep Your Hands Away

"I showed my rookie stripes during my very first brew when I stuck my hand in the wort to retrieve the thermometer," says home-brewer Ron Perez, a CAD manager for an engineering firm in Northern Colorado.

What he did is a huge no-no because it can contaminate the brew before even getting it to the fermentation process. "When I started home brewing, I was also pretty lax about keeping all the measuring equipment sanitized and did not use an acid sanitizer to clean the fermenter," Perez says. "As a result, my first batch was a little fruity—a characteristic of contamination."

Keep a Brew Log

"I am a believer in recording data throughout the brewing process," says Scott Klym, who works as an institutional equity trader and has been home-brewing for more than two years. Why? Because if something goes wrong, a log gives him a better chance of identifying the problem and correcting it.

Klym uses a software program called Beersmith to develop recipes and record his brew day data. "I print out a brew sheet and record water volumes, temperatures at various stages, original and final gravity readings," he explains. Then he compares those to the expected values. "If there are large deviations, I can track down what caused the problem," Klym says. "For example, if my temp was too high during the mash, it would alter the original gravity and body of the beer."

Update Your Equipment

"The basic kits and ingredients available today are much better than in the past, but they have limits," says Brent Shelton, an online shopping expert and media relations specialist for FatWallet.com. For really passionate brewers, the goal is to keep improving the process and the results, so upgrading to better equipment and ingredients is a logical step toward custom brewing and possibly competing with other brewers, he says.

First, Shelton says, simply upgrading your boiling kettle will make a big difference in the mash and cook. This is especially true if you buy a glass kettle, which is superior to plastic when fermenting. He also recommends investing in a counterflow system for cooling your batch, which improves the time and accuracy of this process.

"I started out with a five-gallon pale kit from Midwest Supplies, but I've since graduated to more custom equipment, including a grain crusher, an extra burner (saves about an hour per batch), refracometer, better cleaning supplies, tubing and connectors, and an auto siphon — a must!" Shelton says. An electric all grain brewing system from www.Brew-Boss.com will also help make great consistent home brew. 

So heed the advice of the experts. Whether you've been brewing for a while or just getting started, there's always room for improvisation, experimentation, and improvement.