Beer Ageing and Flavour Change with Time

It's mid-week and it's time for some technical insight. Research in the 1970's into the stability of beer flavours led to this chart (attributed to Dalgliesh, 1977) which gives an indication of the beer ageing process. Bitterness drops off over time as the sweetness increases and oxidation starts having an effect after approximately 3 months, when the beer starts tasting stale and papery. There is a link between the temperature that beer is kept at and the rate of quality decline.  Refrigerated beer may be expected to last somewhere between 300-600 days before it starts tasting stale but this drops off exponentially with increasing temperature.  At 25 to 30 degC don't expect your beer to last much longer than a couple of weeks.

Beer is a delicate product and should be consumed as soon as possible after it has been produced. It should be handled with care and kept refrigerated (but not close to freezing temperatures) for improved longevity.  These are all exceptionally good reasons to support your local micro-brewery!

Gold Lion Beer Discovered in Poland

On Monday 27 June 2016 UK Craft Beer was in Poland desperately looking for some good beer. First stop was the locally mass-produced Zywiec, which was terrible but more about that later.  

I did find a gem of a pale lager in Gdansk, Poland and who said all lagers are boring? This one is a work of art. Złote Lwy (Gold Lion) is a remarkable beer made by the family owned Browar Amber, in what they describe as a small to medium sized brewery. 

This beer is golden honey in colour (a bit darker than expected for a 'pale' lager), slightly sweet and with a rich texture and mouth feel. It roars with character and sports a stable head (while others in Europe may appear to be losing theirs). The producer claims a traditional brewing method - we'd like to know more about what this means. It was tempting to think the brewer used wheat (judging by the mane of foam) but the producer claims it is made "solely from barley malt, hop, and Oligocene water." Bold reference to geographically ancient water reserves.

The Polish mass-produced Zywiec was tasted to establish a baseline rather than expecting anything crafty. This mainstream pale lager is produced by a mega producer (one of the Big Four) in massive volumes and it is not interesting at all. It has a bit of a yeasty smell and taste and practically nothing on the hops side to finish it off. Its bland and nothing like a craft beer.

Nene Valley Brewery

Recently I managed to align my diary with a Nene Valley Brewery tour and it was worth the wait!  This has to be one of the most exciting craft breweries I have seen so far. The tour included a personalise talk by the owner, who is also the head brewer, and took in tasting of the raw materials, intermediary and final products, a delightful rub and sniff of the hops, and a good look at the equipment. We were given a reasonably thorough description of the brewing process and a good explanation about what goes into making quality beer and the role that final product packaging and presentation (kegs, vs casks, vs bottles) has on quality.  

In one of my previous posts I said that some of the secrets of modern beer making lie in the internals of the vessels and I got to see some of the juicy details on this tour. I learnt about new things like a hops accelerator (hop-back), a variable speed pump for wort removal, and a direct gas-fired boiler for the hops boiling. I also loved the fact that NVB are using solar PV to heat their water during the day in preparation for the Mash Tun. Their brewing kits is designed in Canada. I have visited several breweries in different parts of the world and there is a common theme with Canadian technology - there must be something significant here that I don't know yet.

NVB from Flickr by The Quaffer

My first impression of the building was 'Wow! What an impressive site'. The site is an integrated-type-warehouse with a Brewery on one side and general purpose retail space around the rest of the edges. There is a fantastic bakery shop and a bike shop.  It's a shrewd piece of commercial engineering and a bit of a coup in terms of planning permission.  Planning permission is usually always very sticky and difficult to manage in the UK, however, this example makes me realise that planning is a local 'thing' after all. If people like what you are trying to do and it is rejuvenating an area that is desperate for some investment, then surprising things are possible (if you've got the cash, of course).  There is also a beautiful water-side restaurant called the the Tap and Kitchen where the brewery beers are on tap.

The tour gave a highly personal insight into the beer making business and reveal a passion for quality.
We tasted the grains and rubbed and smelt the hops.  The highlight was the rare Mosaic that blew me away.  It's a special cultivated hop originally designated HBC 369CV and now trademark protected as Mosaic. There's an insightful link to the flavour profile and aromatic content analysis here. Here's another link discussing hop back vs knockout hops.

In the centre of the picture below is the 'hop accelerator'. I've heard others calling it a 'hop-back'. Here's a link describing the function of a hop-back and the use thereof in home brewing.
The beers benefitting from Mosaic hops are 'Big Bang Theory' and 'Release the Chimps', with the former being one of my favourite beers in the UK by far.

NVB produces a wide range of very good beers and these can be bought in the shop at the entrance to the brewery.

Available on tap

The product range is good and the branding is crisp and professional. An important insight learnt during the tour is that having large brewing vessels doesn't mean anything unless you have a lot of cellar space and even then you risk product quality degrading before it reaches the consumer.  The trick it seems is to balance the batch volumes so as to meet the rate of demand. Some important logistical insight.

My general impression is that this is a brewery that is going places - watch this space!

Father's Day or Beer Day?

Father's day is nearly here and every Brewery man and his retail dog is telling us that what Dad want's for Father's day is a box of beer.  This does make us wonder whether it is father's day or Beer Day!

http://www.beermerchants.com 

https://www.eebria.com 

http://www.beerhawk.co.uk 

Te;; us whether you will be treating the dad in your life to some beer on Father's day. Also let us know whether you've checked with Dad to find out what type of beer he may like!

Flavour Wheels

Living in South Africa more than a decade ago I used to drink Windhoek Larger, which was one of the few non-main stream beer choices available. Sometimes the beer would taste a bit like cardboard to me and it turns out that 'papery' taste indicates that the beer has oxidised and is stale. Recently I've discovered 'flavour wheels', which may help the discerning beer drinker appreciate and understand their beer better.

Simplistically there are two broad-based flavour contributions. One from the malt and other carbohydrates, which make up the foundation of what is fermented by the yeast. The other is the contribution made by the hops, adding bitterness, flavours and aromas. Naturally, flavour wheels have been expanded to cover so many different aspects and I also found a 'Malt Wheel', which may help you decide what components you like or dislike in your beer. 

Get your Craft Beer kicks at the Woolly Mammoth

Although the Woolly Mammoth Alehouse in downtown Brisbane does not have a brewery on site, it is a very exciting Craft Beer destination.

I highly recommend a visit to this gem of a watering hole, where you can learn a thing or two about craft beers. The first thing I noticed after the big, larger-than-life, hairy Mammoth, was the huge tap-wall at the back of the bar.  This has a significant number of craft beers available, and unlike the larger one I saw in Atlanta, this one only has craft beer available (none of that mainstream weak, tasteless stuff).

The most refreshing experience was talking to a highly talented barman who knows a lot about craft beer, which is one of the things most places that sell beer need.  This young gentleman also has an inspiring project that involves specialist mixing syrups that he creates himself that change or enhance a beer's flavour.  His approach is carefully crafted and well thought-out and supported by his years of experience with other products that require a fine appreciation of aroma and flavour (which includes coffee).

The place has lots of space, several beverage services points and a band stand for live music. If you are in Brisbane and you're into craft beer then you need to visit this place. No excuses!

Pirate Invasion

Can a can be good?
My latest discovery of an exceptional beer came in a can by Pirate Life Brewing. This double IPA or IIPA ('Imperial IPA' as it is branded, review here) is rich, full flavour, very hoppy, decidedly bitter and packs a punch with 8.8% alcohol content. It's one of the better beers I've tasted and is the best I've ever tasted coming out of a can by a long way! I have always associated cans with weak, cheap beer but, happily, times are changing.

Quality Concerns
This pirate discovery was a long way away from anywhere that I thought may be able to present decent quality for something as delicate as a craft beer. Quality is always a concern when you're a long way away from a brewery.  However, this manufacturer has done two things right: they've cranked the alcohol content up to about as high as you want a beer to ever go and they've put it in a can. Despite the dubious aesthetics of a tube of metal, cans are actually quite good at maintaining quality. It keeps the beer dark and if sealed with an inert atmosphere (e.g. Nitrogen rather than ambient air) it can slow down any potential oxidation (which makes beer taste stale, like wet cardboard). The high alcohol content also helps preserve the beer and maintain longer lasting flavour stability.

Packaging information
The next delightful discovery was the detail on the packaging, and specifically the little diagrams around the neck of the can describing how this beer was made. They included the type of hops they have used, and this information is becoming increasingly important to me when selecting a beer to drink.  This beer contains Centennial, Columbus, Mosaic and Simcoe hops. I discovered Mosaic recently at a local brewery in the UK (more later) and it is without a doubt one of my favourite types of hops.  It is worth noting that this beer is more of a hops bomb than anything I have eased before. I thought Hop Hash from Sweetwater in Atlanta was impressive at 100 IBU.  This pirate IIPA has an estimated 120 IBU - it will blow your socks off!

This beer had a beautiful head retention.  Wheat was mentioned as one of the ingredients, so clearly they have mastered part of the beer making process.   The distributors are clearly doing something right by getting this all the way up to Gladstone, which is a long way away from this beers home which is Hindmarsh, Adelaide in South Australia.

My overall impression is that this is one of the nicest craft beers I have tasted and it has changed my perception of what quality you can get in a can.