Friday, December 09, 2005

Beer Science

Just in time for Friday (and Smitty's thirst-inducing random 10) comes a look at the science of beer. There's lots of interesting stuff in this fairly short article, but one thing I found fascinating:
Brewing chemists attribute skunky flavor to 3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol, a constituent of skunk spray. This compound arises from a reaction that light triggers within the beer, and the resulting taste can overwhelm other flavors.
1) I didn't know actual beerologist used the term "skunky."
2) How cool is it that beer is skunky due to a chemical found in skunk spray? Now this is evidence of Intelligent Design.

2 comments:

Noah said...

Green and clear bottles contribute more quickly to this phenomenon than brown bottles do. This is not to say that every beer in green bottles comes out this way, but it is why sometimes your Heineken is skunkier than usual. All bottles, but especially your green and clear bottled beer, should be kept out of the light as much as possible.

Check out this article from Beer Advocate:

http://beeradvocate.com/news/stories_read/527/

Otto Man said...

I'm just glad I can call it "skunk beer" and be technically accurate. Because that's my top priority when I get my drink on.