Comments on: Monday musing: Beer weeks and beer nationalism

By: Stephen Beaumont

Stephen Beaumont — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:50:33 +0000

Of the cases I am familiar with, most American craft beers caught by the lab with incorrect alcohol contents have overstated their strength. The LCBO allows for minor variances, but in some notorious cases there has been as much as several percentage points of difference. Again from what I’ve heard, the Belgians are more evenly divided between overstating and understating.

I don’t really know much about wine and the lab, Steve, but I can look into it if you’re interested. Drop me a line.

By: Mario (Brewed For Thought)

Mario (Brewed For Thought) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:34:08 +0000

Thanks for the link Stan. I was nervous about the idea of taking beer to a fraternity, but you have to ask yourself, when did you first got into beer? I was a freshman in college (shhh) and Boont blew my mind. From the response I got I can see they had a good time. If we want to further the cause of craft beer, we have to think like the tobacco companies and hook ‘em young (no younger than 21).

By: E.S. Delia

E.S. Delia — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:46:43 +0000

IBU calculation = too much time on your hands. Sometimes these stats get too geeky even for me, so I can only imagine what the casual beer consumer thinks of it. Maybe that’s the exact reason good beer can still be a tough sell.

Do I really care you got your beer tested in a lab? Are my tastebuds rejoicing because you correctly identified an 8-point difference from your original calculation?

How about “is it bitter?” and “does it taste good?”

By: Ron Pattinson

Ron Pattinson — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:53:23 +0000

I’ve heard that it’s common for Belgian brewers to deliberately label their beers with a lower ABV than is actually present. For tax-dodging purposes, I believe.

I always smile when I see IBU figures being thrown around. I’m sure most have never been measured and are not the actual values. It would be interesting to analyse a bunch of high-UBU beers and see just how far off the claimed values are.

By: SteveH

SteveH — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:16:28 +0000

How do wines fair with the LCBO? I’ve heard that they’re often way off their label listings.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:07:54 +0000

There is a limit to high much iso-alpha acid (hop bitterness) can be absorbed into wort. It is highly dependent on original gravity. IAnd icreasing hopping rates does not result in a linear increase in bitterness, at about 60-70 IBU, you get into a situation of diminishing returns.
And also, it should be noted that despite whatever wort bitterness level you start with, 20-30% of that bitterness is lost during fermentation, due to yeast absorbing bitter compounds. Also the pH drop as the wort is converted to beer results in bittering compounds solidifying and dropping out, they become less soluble with lower pH.
Most small brewers are using calculations, and that only provides you with a rough estimate, and most often, this estimates are very high. The only way to determine beer bitterness is by measuring it analytically.
-Mitch

By: Stan Hieronymus

Stan Hieronymus — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:17:09 +0000

Is there a pattern? Always high? Always low?

By: Stephen Beaumont

Stephen Beaumont — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:08:16 +0000

Here’s more grist for the mill, Stan. The LCBO in Ontario has one of the most sophisticated beverage alcohol analysis labs in the world, and tests thoroughly every single product that comes into the product. The worst offenders in terms of incorrectly listed alcohol contents are Belgian and American beers, sometimes measuring way off their listed numbers.