I have just opened and tasted a new beer (to me).

The listed ingredients are: Malted barley, malted wheat, German hops, yeast and water.

It has a distinctly banana flavour and aroma. Anyone know the chemistry involved in producing such a beer?

Jing Joh said:

I have just opened and tasted a new beer (to me).

The listed ingredients are: Malted barley, malted wheat, German hops, yeast and water.

It has a distinctly banana flavour and aroma. Anyone know the chemistry involved in producing such a beer?

The flavours are not actually banana, just some chemical that tastes like them that is made by the yeast. Beer is very much like wine making in that every factor of the brewing stage (strain of yeast, fermentation temperature, recipe and ingredient preparation) go towards the final result.

Beer is the new wine, and people are realising the stuff being made by the big brewers is like 70’s chardonay and there is far better out there. (I spent $75 on a bottle of beer last month, it is in my beer cellar waiting for a special occasion)

BTW, what beer is it?

Carmen_Sandiego said:

(I spent $75 on a bottle of beer last month, it is in my beer cellar waiting for a special occasion)

Luckily I have no taste and can buy two cartons of VB for 78 bucks.

Skunkworks said:

Carmen_Sandiego said:

(I spent $75 on a bottle of beer last month, it is in my beer cellar waiting for a special occasion)

Luckily I have no taste and can buy two cartons of VB for 78 bucks.

Enjoy your VB. :)

I can drink cheap beer* in the same way people can drink Moscato and Passion Pop.

• Actually, I can’t. It does horrible things to me, but taste wise it’s drinkable.

In Eric Schlossers Fast Food Nation he talks a bit about the flavour (scent) chemists and the magic they can do by mixing various combinations of molecules. Banana was a favourite one but the codes were one of the first the food flavourists cracked cos it had such commercial appeal in ice creams and shakes.

Jing Joh said:

I have just opened and tasted a new beer (to me).

The listed ingredients are: Malted barley, malted wheat, German hops, yeast and water.

It has a distinctly banana flavour and aroma. Anyone know the chemistry involved in producing such a beer?

Esters. IIRC banana is amyl acetate.

Skunkworks said:

In Eric Schlossers Fast Food Nation he talks a bit about the flavour (scent) chemists and the magic they can do by mixing various combinations of molecules. Banana was a favourite one but the codes were one of the first the food flavourists cracked cos it had such commercial appeal in ice creams and shakes.

And in some other show they turned white wine into ‘red’ with food dye alone – the wine judges described it differently depending on the colour…

(Making various esters is a simple first-year chemistry prac.)

OCDC said:

And in some other show they turned white wine into ‘red’ with food dye alone – the wine judges described it differently depending on the colour…

In Food Nation the scents came from bits of cardboard. He closed his eyes and thought he smelt the best ever hamburger, and of course it was just clear chemicals on a strip of paper.

OCDC said:

And in some other show they turned white wine into ‘red’ with food dye alone – the wine judges described it differently depending on the colour…

Yep. Same thing with tinned peas, the flavour is the same, but unless they enhance the colour removed from the tinning process people don’t like the taste.

And in some other show they turned white wine into ‘red’ with food dye alone – the wine judges described it differently depending on the colour…
——————————————————

Yeah I saw a similar one that set out to prove that sight as well as smell convinces the brain of the flavour.

Skunkworks said:

OCDC said:

And in some other show they turned white wine into ‘red’ with food dye alone – the wine judges described it differently depending on the colour…

Yep. Same thing with tinned peas, the flavour is the same, but unless they enhance the colour removed from the tinning process people don’t like the taste.

Not from my memory.

Tinned peas are overcooked crap, frozen are not far behind them.

Neither has any resemblance to the taste of fresh peas.

Carmen_Sandiego said:

I spent $75 on a bottle of beer last month, it is in my beer cellar waiting for a special occasion)

You have too much money.

I’ll be there next week end. That’s a special occasion.

Fresh peas are far too much work.

jjjust moi said:

Not from my memory.

Tinned peas are overcooked crap, frozen are not far behind them.

Neither has any resemblance to the taste of fresh peas.

Tinned peas, not fresh. Two different colours, one flavour. Two different perceptions of taste. Appearance effected perception of taste.

Looking back my first post re peas was not well written and didn’t represent what the test was about, which was adding colour back to tinned peas after the tinning process. If the colour was not returned people thought it tasted bad despite it tasting the same.

Not a comparison between fresh and tinned.

jjjust moi said:

Skunkworks said:

OCDC said:

And in some other show they turned white wine into ‘red’ with food dye alone – the wine judges described it differently depending on the colour…

Yep. Same thing with tinned peas, the flavour is the same, but unless they enhance the colour removed from the tinning process people don’t like the taste.

Not from my memory.

Tinned peas are overcooked crap, frozen are not far behind them.

Neither has any resemblance to the taste of fresh peas.

The show you are probably talking about is “E Numbers An Edible Adventure” which did the wine and tinned peas thing. 4 episodes, very interesting. One episode was dedicated to flavour and the perception of flavour.

Teleost said:

Carmen_Sandiego said:

I spent $75 on a bottle of beer last month, it is in my beer cellar waiting for a special occasion)

You have too much money.

I’ll be there next week end. That’s a special occasion.

I’ll crack open one of the other special bottles for you. Lambic sours are an acquired taste…

Turning white wine into red wine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rmm-xqRHGw

In my first full time job I was given the best advice I have ever received.

“There is no such thing as bad beer. Only good beer and better beer”.

I’ll get some Fourex and bung it in a Chimay bottle. Then we can do the appearance/flavour experiment. :)

Teleost said:

In my first full time job I was given the best advice I have ever received.

“There is no such thing as bad beer. Only good beer and better beer”.

I’ll get some Fourex and bung it in a Chimay bottle. Then we can do the appearance/flavour experiment. :)

I respectfully disagree.

I’ve made beer so bad that I’ve poured the entire batch down the sink.

It’s still the best advice I’ve ever received.

Teleost said:

In my first full time job I was given the best advice I have ever received.

“There is no such thing as bad beer. Only good beer and better beer”.

I’ll get some Fourex and bung it in a Chimay bottle. Then we can do the appearance/flavour experiment. :)

LOL. A glass of Fourex (along with nearly every other mass-produced beer) will give me a headache all the following day.

For those wondering what the fuss is about, pop into Dan Murphey’s and buy a bottle of Chimay Blue. Go on, treat yourself – Trappist Monks have been perfecting the recipe for hundreds of years and have gotten it right. One of the best beers on the planet and it’s available at Uncle Dan’s.

No snobbery on my part.

I drink a fair bit of Carlton Mid, which is a cheap mass-produced commercial beer. But it drinkable, on a normal Friday night I might have 8-10 cans. Occasionally I have tried slightly cheaper mid-strength beers like XXXX Gold and Emu Draft. The latter made me gag and puke before I got to 10.

Carmen_Sandiego said:

For those wondering what the fuss is about, pop into Dan Murphey’s and buy a bottle of Chimay Blue. Go on, treat yourself – Trappist Monks have been perfecting the recipe for hundreds of years and have gotten it right. One of the best beers on the planet and it’s available at Uncle Dan’s.

pffft, I spend the bit extra and get it direct from the monastery.

Carmen_Sandiego said:

For those wondering what the fuss is about, pop into Dan Murphey’s and buy a bottle of Chimay Blue. Go on, treat yourself – Trappist Monks have been perfecting the recipe for hundreds of years and have gotten it right. One of the best beers on the planet and it’s available at Uncle Dan’s.

Chimay i smy favourite town in Belgium. It had everything you would ever need.. great beer and they close the roads for a motorcycle race on one of the fastest scariest circuits I’ve seen.

party_pants said:

I drink a fair bit of Carlton Mid, which is a cheap mass-produced commercial beer.

Carlton Mid is the only mid-strength beer that does not give me a headache after the third one. Turns out that was the vital clue in working out why beer and I did not get along well. (It apparently uses real hops)

Carmen_Sandiego said:

party_pants said:

I drink a fair bit of Carlton Mid, which is a cheap mass-produced commercial beer.

Carlton Mid is the only mid-strength beer that does not give me a headache after the third one. Turns out that was the vital clue in working out why beer and I did not get along well. (It apparently uses real hops)

All commercial Australian beers use real hops.

I reckon it may be Pride of Ringwood that’s the problem. That’s what they use in VB to give it that nasty, nasty, nasty taste. It’s used as a bittering hop in many Aus beers.

Carmen_Sandiego said:

party_pants said:

I drink a fair bit of Carlton Mid, which is a cheap mass-produced commercial beer.

Carlton Mid is the only mid-strength beer that does not give me a headache after the third one. Turns out that was the vital clue in working out why beer and I did not get along well. (It apparently uses real hops)

That might be it. it’s about the only mid-strength beer I like the taste of. I drink mids so I casn have a few and get up feeling ok the next day. Full strength beers I tend to tip myself over the edge into the do-nothing but sleep it off hangover the next day.

Real hops turned into pellets..

Teleost said:

All commercial Australian beers use real hops.

I reckon it may be Pride of Ringwood that’s the problem. That’s what they use in VB to give it that nasty, nasty, nasty taste. It’s used as a bittering hop in many Aus beers.

Interesting. I was told that most of them use “Hops extract” rather than real hops, but I shall pursue that further.

Where’s beervatar when we need him?

Teleost said:

I reckon it may be Pride of Ringwood that’s the problem. That’s what they use in VB to give it that nasty, nasty, nasty taste. It’s used as a bittering hop in many Aus beers.

Just looked it up, and I am not sure. Some of the beers that use those hops I can drink without a problem. I have worked out that mass produced Tasmanian and SA beers (Coopers, Cascade, Boags) and craft beers are drinkable. Pretty much everything else that uses hops knocks me around.

So what you’re saying, in scientific terms is:

Not enough data.

More experimentation and blind taste testing needed :)

:)

This is what has been suggested is the common factor in all the beers that don’t play nice with me:

http://beerron.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/hops-vs-hop-extract.html

A better description of the process:

http://www.probrewer.com/resources/hops/products.php

I suspect it is some of the residual extraction chemicals that knock me around.

http://www.australianbeers.com/beers/extra_dry/castlemaine_extra_dry.htm

The pale lager has a smooth malty flavour with a crisp hop after taste. This is a quiet beer with fruity esters, so be sure to smell as well as taste. A light-stable hop extract used by Castlemaine allows this dry beer to be bottled in clear class without any detrimental effects to the crisp clean taste.

Interesting.

The banana flavour and scent faded over the length of the bottle and a bitter note increased. Are these chemicals volatile or is it a case of sensory adaptation?

Jing Joh said:

Interesting.

The banana flavour and scent faded over the length of the bottle and a bitter note increased. Are these chemicals volatile or is it a case of sensory adaptation?

Beer doesn’t like light and the aromatics can change if you take too long to drink it in sunlight. (Look up “Skunking”)

What was the beer?

I definitely didn’t take too long to drink it.

HEF by Burleigh Brewing

Jing Joh said:

Interesting.

The banana flavour and scent faded over the length of the bottle and a bitter note increased. Are these chemicals volatile or is it a case of sensory adaptation?

I was gone a while back

Yes and Yes.

Now seriously gone

Skunkworks said:

Carmen_Sandiego said:

(I spent $75 on a bottle of beer last month, it is in my beer cellar waiting for a special occasion)

Luckily I have no taste and can buy two cartons of VB for 78 bucks.

and you are happy to waste your money buying piss?

Carmen_Sandiego said:

I can drink cheap beer* in the same way people can drink Moscato and Passion Pop.

• Actually, I can’t. It does horrible things to me, but taste wise it’s drinkable.

No it is not drinkable.

Skunkworks said:

OCDC said:

And in some other show they turned white wine into ‘red’ with food dye alone – the wine judges described it differently depending on the colour…

Yep. Same thing with tinned peas, the flavour is the same, but unless they enhance the colour removed from the tinning process people don’t like the taste.

Bullshit.

jjjust moi said:

Skunkworks said:

OCDC said:

And in some other show they turned white wine into ‘red’ with food dye alone – the wine judges described it differently depending on the colour…

Yep. Same thing with tinned peas, the flavour is the same, but unless they enhance the colour removed from the tinning process people don’t like the taste.

Not from my memory.

Tinned peas are overcooked crap, frozen are not far behind them.

Neither has any resemblance to the taste of fresh peas.

true. science talks rubbish sometimes. the models used are all wrong.

Skunkworks said:

jjjust moi said:

Not from my memory.

Tinned peas are overcooked crap, frozen are not far behind them.

Neither has any resemblance to the taste of fresh peas.

Tinned peas, not fresh. Two different colours, one flavour. Two different perceptions of taste. Appearance effected perception of taste.

complete garbage.

Skunkworks said:

Looking back my first post re peas was not well written and didn’t represent what the test was about, which was adding colour back to tinned peas after the tinning process. If the colour was not returned people thought it tasted bad despite it tasting the same.

Not a comparison between fresh and tinned.

thanks for reviewing your work..

Skunkworks said:

Looking back my first post re peas was not well written and didn’t represent what the test was about, which was adding colour back to tinned peas after the tinning process. If the colour was not returned people thought it tasted bad despite it tasting the same.

Not a comparison between fresh and tinned.

thanks for reviewing your work..

There is no comparison between peas picked fresh and peas picked fresh and cooked freshly.

Carmen_Sandiego said:

Teleost said:

I reckon it may be Pride of Ringwood that’s the problem. That’s what they use in VB to give it that nasty, nasty, nasty taste. It’s used as a bittering hop in many Aus beers.

Just looked it up, and I am not sure. Some of the beers that use those hops I can drink without a problem. I have worked out that mass produced Tasmanian and SA beers (Coopers, Cascade, Boags) and craft beers are drinkable. Pretty much everything else that uses hops knocks me around.

it is the people who piss in the vat.

Carmen_Sandiego said:

A better description of the process:

http://www.probrewer.com/resources/hops/products.php

I suspect it is some of the residual extraction chemicals that knock me around.

heh, I just said that.

Teleost said:

So what you’re saying, in scientific terms is:

Not enough data.

More experimentation and blind taste testing needed :)

maybe but if you want me not to puke on your carpet, don’t bring most of them near my nose.

Carmen_Sandiego said:

Jing Joh said:

Interesting.

The banana flavour and scent faded over the length of the bottle and a bitter note increased. Are these chemicals volatile or is it a case of sensory adaptation?

Beer doesn’t like light and the aromatics can change if you take too long to drink it in sunlight. (Look up “Skunking”)

The strange thing is that a good Coopers red can stand up to all the bad things one may do to beer and still be drinkable. I’ve tested this theory in all manner of situations. It is not uncommon for me to sit on the same beer for more than an hour in full sunlight. Though there is no way I’d drink any beer after leaving it sit on the dash on a 45ºC day. I have seen other people do it. So there is no accounting for taste in some situations.

A lot of the difference comes down to the the simple fact of put gas in or allow the beer to make its own.

When making comparisons in beer science, one needs to separate the categories of beer making. In many instances there are no comparisons to be made as the test candidates are so different as to be incomparable.
An example would be the Indian beer, Kingfisher. First tasted the imported article at an Indian restaurant. Asked if I could buy it in the shops and was told, “no sir, we import this ourselves.” Later I found it in supermarkets as brewed and bottled in Australia under license. The Kingfisher made in Australia is perhaps drinkable but not a patch on the fully imported beer.

roughbarked said:

Carmen_Sandiego said:

Jing Joh said:

Interesting.

The banana flavour and scent faded over the length of the bottle and a bitter note increased. Are these chemicals volatile or is it a case of sensory adaptation?

Beer doesn’t like light and the aromatics can change if you take too long to drink it in sunlight. (Look up “Skunking”)

The strange thing is that a good Coopers red can stand up to all the bad things one may do to beer and still be drinkable. I’ve tested this theory in all manner of situations. It is not uncommon for me to sit on the same beer for more than an hour in full sunlight. Though there is no way I’d drink any beer after leaving it sit on the dash on a 45ºC day. I have seen other people do it. So there is no accounting for taste in some situations.

A lot of the difference comes down to the the simple fact of put gas in or allow the beer to make its own.

When making comparisons in beer science, one needs to separate the categories of beer making. In many instances there are no comparisons to be made as the test candidates are so different as to be incomparable.
An example would be the Indian beer, Kingfisher. First tasted the imported article at an Indian restaurant. Asked if I could buy it in the shops and was told, “no sir, we import this ourselves.” Later I found it in supermarkets as brewed and bottled in Australia under license. The Kingfisher made in Australia is perhaps drinkable but not a patch on the fully imported beer.

A little reading on the history of the Kingfisher ale shows that there are indeed other factors that come into play when transporting ale over the sea, in barrels.

DO does have a point, in that Australians wouldn’t have any idea about beer in general without importers showing us the many ways that real beer can be made. Many Australian beers are not worth the price. I live here and don’t buy them. There is also the point that many imported beers also fit that same category.. Not worth importing.

Ask the Scots what makes their whisky and they’ll say, “the water, me laddie”.

To put some of this in perspective – the largest beer rating website (ratebeer.com) has nearly 200,000 commercially available beers on their books and people like you and I can taste a beer and go online and rate it The site aggregates the ratings and gives the beer a relative percentile ranking, from 1 to 100 (with a beer falling in the 51st percentile treated as ‘average’)

Our standard “Good Aussie Beers” (Tooheys extra dry, XXXX, VB etc. ) all fall in the first, second and third percentile. (Corona is also on the bottom rung.)

So, why not splurge out of the ‘good stuff’ – Crownies are twice as good, being in the 5th percentile meaning about 95% of the commercially available beers on the planet are still rated better than them.

Australia, the world has spoken – our beer is shit.

But it is not doom and gloom. One of my go-to beers is James Squire 150 lashes and it makes it to 16th. Coopers Green is in the 22nd, Tooheys old is 41st. All still below average.

But Australia can actually make beer. James Squire “Jack of spades” porter is ranked 78th while Little Creatures pale ale is up in the top 5% of beers on the planet at 96.

Good beers are available and affordable, and while I am not suggesting people stop drinking the cheap stuff, I recommend people splurge out a little and seek out something special on occasion. As I have mentioned, large retailers do stock “the good stuff” and if you are in the wine regions, you should seek out a brewery or two as they are producing world-class stuff. (Murray’s Brewing in Skeptic Pete’s neighbourhood is an example)

ps. The original beer that prompted this thread ranks in the 40th percentile. Nice work, looks like a good drop.

BTW, Teleost, get there early enough on Saturday and join in on me cracking the top off some barleywines.

>>The banana flavour and scent faded over the length of the bottle and a bitter note increased. Are these chemicals volatile or is it a case of sensory adaptation?

Are you some sort of metrosexual sandalista? FCOL it’s just a beer mate

Australia’s beer standard is the heavy, so I wonder how our standard beers go within their category. I tried the Coopers Pilsener and their Celebration Ale recently which were both excellent. As they are new I don’t suppose they are rated yet.

Morning punters and correctors, spiffing day in the Pearl of the South Specific.

If the Mens Shed is doing the sausage sizzle at Masters today I’ll keep going to Bunnings.

Riff-in-Thyme said:

Australia’s beer standard is the heavy, so I wonder how our standard beers go within their category. I tried the Coopers Pilsener and their Celebration Ale recently which were both excellent. As they are new I don’t suppose they are rated yet.

Cooper’s 62 Pilsner – 11th percentile with 44 ratings.
Celaebration ale – 40th percentile.

http://www.ratebeer.com/

roughbarked said:

Skunkworks said:

Carmen_Sandiego said:

(I spent $75 on a bottle of beer last month, it is in my beer cellar waiting for a special occasion)

Luckily I have no taste and can buy two cartons of VB for 78 bucks.

and you are happy to waste your money buying piss?

rolls eyes

Carmen_Sandiego said:

Celaebration ale – 40th percentile.

http://www.ratebeer.com/

I thought it was better than that but heavies probably scare most.

Riff-in-Thyme said:

Carmen_Sandiego said:

Celaebration ale – 40th percentile.

http://www.ratebeer.com/

I thought it was better than that but heavies probably scare most.

It actually rates 45th percentile for its style, so if you like it, there are even better available for you to try. :)

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/coopers-thomas-coopers-selection-celebration-ale/174080/’‘

Carmen_Sandiego said:

Cooper’s 62 Pilsner – 11th percentile with 44 ratings.

not surprised with that rating. Great Pilsener….

Peak Warming Man said:

Morning punters and correctors, spiffing day in the Pearl of the South Specific.

If the Mens Shed is doing the sausage sizzle at Masters today I’ll keep going to Bunnings.

What’s a men’s shed?

Carmen_Sandiego said:

Jing Joh said:

Interesting.

The banana flavour and scent faded over the length of the bottle and a bitter note increased. Are these chemicals volatile or is it a case of sensory adaptation?

Beer doesn’t like light and the aromatics can change if you take too long to drink it in sunlight. (Look up “Skunking”)

What was the beer?

Makes “cock smoker” hand motions

;) ;)

roughbarked said:

Skunkworks said:

OCDC said:

And in some other show they turned white wine into ‘red’ with food dye alone – the wine judges described it differently depending on the colour…

Yep. Same thing with tinned peas, the flavour is the same, but unless they enhance the colour removed from the tinning process people don’t like the taste.

Bullshit.

that’s true. they also colour meat cuts to look a brighter red.. colour has a lot to do with perceived palatability

it’s just nice to see we have a new beervater…

Where is The Beervator when you need him? doesn’t he post here anymore?

Arts said:

roughbarked said:

Skunkworks said:

Yep. Same thing with tinned peas, the flavour is the same, but unless they enhance the colour removed from the tinning process people don’t like the taste.

Bullshit.

that’s true. they also colour meat cuts to look a brighter red.. colour has a lot to do with perceived palatability

it’s all true! There’s loads of experiments about food dyes and food. Try giving your kids scrambled eggs (or mashed potato, or any other food they love) and adding a few drops of blue food dye.

Skunkworks said:

In Eric Schlossers Fast Food Nation he talks a bit about the flavour (scent) chemists and the magic they can do by mixing various combinations of molecules. Banana was a favourite one but the codes were one of the first the food flavourists cracked cos it had such commercial appeal in ice creams and shakes.

Great book, that.

Divine Angel said:

Arts said:

roughbarked said:

Bullshit.

that’s true. they also colour meat cuts to look a brighter red.. colour has a lot to do with perceived palatability

it’s all true! There’s loads of experiments about food dyes and food. Try giving your kids scrambled eggs (or mashed potato, or any other food they love) and adding a few drops of blue food dye.

yes, I have added food dye to the kids mashed potato before… they loved mashed potato.. but wouldn’t even try the coloured ones…

and yeah.. the science of food colour is important and strong.

bob(from black rock) said:

Where is The Beervator when you need him? doesn’t he post here anymore?

it’s DO now… the crown has been passed.

Arts said:

bob(from black rock) said:

Where is The Beervator when you need him? doesn’t he post here anymore?

it’s DO now… the crown has been passed.

Don’t pass DO a Crown, he is not into commercial mass produced beer.

Like wine snobs it’s all bullshittery and the difference between a very expensive one and a quite reasonable one is very small.

But hey it’s all image :)

Carmen_Sandiego said:

I can drink cheap beer* in the same way people can drink Moscato and Passion Pop.

• Actually, I can’t. It does horrible things to me, but taste wise it’s drinkable.

I agree.. while the cheaper version are drinkable (although not as ‘smooth’).. the later effects are not the same…. not the same at all.

with alcohol, like food, you get what you pay for. If you just want to get drunk.. then go for gold.. if you want to experience the alcohol.. then go for top shelf.

IME etc yadda yadda

Whilst I find the beer rating websites interesting and informative, I try not to let other drinkers reviews influence my experience.

I also find that higher ratings tend to be weighted by beer style with IPA’s being the flavour of the month. I’m a bit over IPA’s but every Australian brewer seems to be fixated on them to detriment of everything else.

I do not like green eggs and ham

Jing Joh said:

Whilst I find the beer rating websites interesting and informative, I try not to let other drinkers reviews influence my experience.

I also find that higher ratings tend to be weighted by beer style with IPA’s being the flavour of the month. I’m a bit over IPA’s but every Australian brewer seems to be fixated on them to detriment of everything else.

I generally agree. I tend to drink first, research later and have found there are very few beers at the top of the charts I don’t like. And the ranking of a beer can be influenced by perception and ceremony. For instance, there is a beer brewed by monks in a single monastery in Belgium that is only available at that monastery and the coffee shop across the road from it. And you can’t just walk in and buy a carton, you need ring and order it and pick it up at the allotted time. And part of the condition of sale is that you can’t resell it, meaning you cannot buy it anywhere else but the monastery and ebay. All this adds up to a very special beer that is reverentially consumed with ceremony and eagerness, and it ends up as the top rated beer on that site.

Of course, the beer is very likely in the list of the top 100 beers on the planet, but it’s mystique ensures it’s #1 place.

Didn’t we have a beer expert on the old forum?
Maybe we should ask him/her to make a guest appearance here.

Yes. Yes we did. He’s still on facebook (occasionally).

Tamb said:

Didn’t we have a beer expert on the old forum?
Maybe we should ask him/her to make a guest appearance here.

Wasn’t that the Beervator?

bob(from black rock) said:

Tamb said:

Didn’t we have a beer expert on the old forum?
Maybe we should ask him/her to make a guest appearance here.

Wasn’t that the Beervator?

Not sure but it was something like that.

Beervatar.

Michael V said:

Beervatar.

That was him. Thanks

Carmen_Sandiego said:

For those wondering what the fuss is about, pop into Dan Murphey’s and buy a bottle of Chimay Blue. Go on, treat yourself – Trappist Monks have been perfecting the recipe for hundreds of years and have gotten it right. One of the best beers on the planet and it’s available at Uncle Dan’s.

+ eleventy brazzillion.

I store a few large bottles of chinmay grand reserve in the wine fridge and keep them to age for a few years.

Bloody nectar of the gawds.

> Luckily I have no taste and can buy two cartons of VB for 78 bucks.
> I spent $75 on a bottle of beer last month

Shudder. Cannot stand VB. Most new Australian beers start good and then get rapidly worse.

I prefer Rivet lager, 24 cans for $25. It’s just about drinkable.

mollwollfumble said:

> Luckily I have no taste and can buy two cartons of VB for 78 bucks.
> I spent $75 on a bottle of beer last month

Shudder. Cannot stand VB. Most new Australian beers start good and then get rapidly worse.

I prefer Rivet lager, 24 cans for $25. It’s just about drinkable.

VB is my favourite Australian beer :).

The Rev Dodgson said:

mollwollfumble said:

> Luckily I have no taste and can buy two cartons of VB for 78 bucks.
> I spent $75 on a bottle of beer last month

Shudder. Cannot stand VB. Most new Australian beers start good and then get rapidly worse.

I prefer Rivet lager, 24 cans for $25. It’s just about drinkable.

VB is my favourite Australian beer :).

I have to ask (covers eyes), are you fair dinkum?

The Rev Dodgson said:

mollwollfumble said:

> Luckily I have no taste and can buy two cartons of VB for 78 bucks.
> I spent $75 on a bottle of beer last month

Shudder. Cannot stand VB. Most new Australian beers start good and then get rapidly worse.

I prefer Rivet lager, 24 cans for $25. It’s just about drinkable.

VB is my favourite Australian beer :).

best served cold like most Australian beer to mask the horrible taste by numbing the nerves in the tongue first

sibeen said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

mollwollfumble said:

> Luckily I have no taste and can buy two cartons of VB for 78 bucks.
> I spent $75 on a bottle of beer last month

Shudder. Cannot stand VB. Most new Australian beers start good and then get rapidly worse.

I prefer Rivet lager, 24 cans for $25. It’s just about drinkable.

VB is my favourite Australian beer :).

I have to ask (covers eyes), are you fair dinkum?

What other choices are there? swan lager?

>What other choices are there? swan lager?

For standard commercial Aussie lagers, Boags is probably the best.

Arts said:

What other choices are there?

Why, Abbotsford Invalid Stout, of course :)

There are some reasonable Australian beers around, and I must say, that since they’ve moved back to the original recipe I can now actually drink VB again. When they had moved it down to 4.5% it really was undrinkable.

Coopers is Aussie Beer and quite drinkable.. Carlton Draught isn’t bad

Most Coopers is ale rather than lager (although they do make one lager).

I agree boags is better than swan and therefore xxxx vb and any other beer that can spell with words.

sibeen said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

mollwollfumble said:

> Luckily I have no taste and can buy two cartons of VB for 78 bucks.
> I spent $75 on a bottle of beer last month

Shudder. Cannot stand VB. Most new Australian beers start good and then get rapidly worse.

I prefer Rivet lager, 24 cans for $25. It’s just about drinkable.

VB is my favourite Australian beer :).

I have to ask (covers eyes), are you fair dinkum?

Sure.

Got no time for all you beer snobs :)

The Rev Dodgson said:

sibeen said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

VB is my favourite Australian beer :).

I have to ask (covers eyes), are you fair dinkum?

Sure.

Got no time for all you beer snobs :)

I’m no beer snob…

Dropbear said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

sibeen said:

I have to ask (covers eyes), are you fair dinkum?

Sure.

Got no time for all you beer snobs :)

I’m no beer snob…

What’s your position on the VB question then?

Wanders off…..

ta ta you lot.

I’m no beer snob either, I just drink what I like.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Dropbear said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Sure.

Got no time for all you beer snobs :)

I’m no beer snob…

What’s your position on the VB question then?

I’m not a big fan, but I comfortably drink beer on that same sort of price range … Carlton Draught, other “mass produced” stuff..

But seriously, De gustibus non est disputandum.

Redoak

Dropbear said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Dropbear said:

I’m no beer snob…

What’s your position on the VB question then?

I’m not a big fan, but I comfortably drink beer on that same sort of price range … Carlton Draught, other “mass produced” stuff..

Furry nuff then.

Bubblecar said:

>What other choices are there? swan lager?

For standard commercial Aussie lagers, Boags is probably the best.

In a recent beer show in perth, four judges gave the best beer title to Emu Export – unanimously.

As you’re all of a certain vintage, I’d say most of your taste sense seems to have left you…

In fact like most Australians I drink my beer so cold it’s all relatively tasteless

What’s your position on the VB question then?
——————————————————————————————

Well thanks for asking…

I take VB to my trendy, will drink anything advertised for the up and coming new generation, barbecues.

And take a Becks or Blue Tongue beverage to my older, stuck in a rut old time drinkers.

Both choices for the same reason.

So nobody will drink my beer…

Dropbear said:

In fact like most Australians I drink my beer so cold it’s all relatively tasteless

I would hazard money on study proving consuming beer that is near freezing is less toxic than anything warmer…

Mr Ironic said:

What’s your position on the VB question then?
——————————————————————————————

Well thanks for asking…

I take VB to my trendy, will drink anything advertised for the up and coming new generation, barbecues.

And take a Becks or Blue Tongue beverage to my older, stuck in a rut old time drinkers.

Both choices for the same reason.

So nobody will drink my beer…

Good thinking

Dropbear said:

In fact like most Australians I drink my beer so cold it’s all relatively tasteless

The first use if commercial refrigeration was to cool beer in Australia.

In fact like most Australians I drink my beer so cold it’s all relatively tasteless

which for most australian beers is a good thing.

you’d better off just licking that icy brass pole the beer gets funnelled through at the bar

most pubs don’t wash the glasses properly anyway

when I collected glasses at the coogee bay hotel years ago for two weeks (before being infected by a virulent airborne virus that struck me down for 4 months or the reams toilet paper that the pissed young ladies about town used to walk out into the bar area on their shoes or whatever) , the glasses were stacked inside a whirling apparatus that sprayed a tepid black liquid onto the glasses that I later discovered was actually water.

The first use if commercial refrigeration was to cool beer in Australia.

i thought it was meat transport to england.

if you want to know what the end of civilisation looks like stick your head into the “sports bar” there at around 4am

ChrispenEvan said:

The first use if commercial refrigeration was to cool beer in Australia.

i thought it was meat transport to england.

My source is the old UK TV series “The Secret Life of Machines”. I binge-watched it a few weeks ago. Pretty much Australia was one of the few places that no natural ice industry.

Australian lagers are very popular overseas. Fosters (which is not very popular in Oz itself) is one of the ten biggest selling beers globally.

Bubblecar said:

Australian lagers are very popular overseas. Fosters (which is not very popular in Oz itself) is one of the ten biggest selling beers globally.

I can’t buy Fosters locally here.

Britons pay considerably higher prices for Fosters than they do for their own specialty cask ales (“real ale”).

party_pants said:

ChrispenEvan said:

The first use if commercial refrigeration was to cool beer in Australia.

i thought it was meat transport to england.

My source is the old UK TV series “The Secret Life of Machines”. I binge-watched it a few weeks ago. Pretty much Australia was one of the few places that no natural ice industry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83z—znNBcA

petrol mortar

2:50 min

internal combustion engine secret life of machines

>I can’t buy Fosters locally here.

I can’t remember seeing it in the local bottle shop. But it’s nothing special :)

I’m not sure what the current state of play is, but around 10 years ago Fosters was the biggest selling beer in London. On my occasional work forays there the locals were rather surprised that I wouldn’t touch the stuff.

sibeen said:

Arts said:

What other choices are there?

Why, Abbotsford Invalid Stout, of course :)

There are some reasonable Australian beers around, and I must say, that since they’ve moved back to the original recipe I can now actually drink VB again. When they had moved it down to 4.5% it really was undrinkable.

There are some awesome Aussie beers.

Feral brewery in the Swan Valley are doing great stuff, they have a brilliant IPA for when too many hops is barely enough, (Hop Hog) and an imperial stout named after one of our forum members. (Boris) Murrays Brewery around the corner from our Pete’s place has about 8 beers in the “Top 100 beers from Australia”, every one deserving. Stone and Wood in Byron bay make the best summer quaffing beer around with their “Pacific Ale”. And of course there is the Little Creatures Pale Ale.

And all of those except fr probably Boris should be available at Uncle Dan’s.

There are some Tasmanian boutique beers available at our local Providore, but supply seems a bit erratic.

>On my occasional work forays there the locals were rather surprised that I wouldn’t touch the stuff.

The expensive overseas TV ads for Fosters (they don’t even bother advertising it here, sales don’t justify it) always stress its supposed “true blue Aussie” nature, to the extent of claiming “Fosters is Australian for beer”, which would come as a surprise to most Australians :)

sibeen said:

I’m not sure what the current state of play is, but around 10 years ago Fosters was the biggest selling beer in London. On my occasional work forays there the locals were rather surprised that I wouldn’t touch the stuff.

fosters was always a gimmick beer in Britain, the whole selling point was that it was “Australian”

its brewed in Britain in big stainless tanks that can be seen from the major train line heading out of London to the west

Bubblecar said:

Britons pay considerably higher prices for Fosters than they do for their own specialty cask ales (“real ale”).

I don’t :)

I don’t pay anything for Australian beer when I’m in England.

>I don’t :)

I’m sure many Britons wouldn’t touch Fosters :)

But it is enormously popular and probably outsells the real ales by some astronomical amount.

fosters is as true blue as the sweaty gusset of some dinky di true blue short shorts worn by a genuine vest wearing blue collar Australian worker

Bubblecar said:

>I don’t :)

I’m sure many Britons wouldn’t touch Fosters :)

But it is enormously popular and probably outsells the real ales by some astronomical amount.

The last time I was in Ireland what appeared to be one of the largest selling beers was Budweiser.

facepalm

B.C. was a big Fosters fan, but the only one I can name offhand :)

Bubblecar said:

>I don’t :)

I’m sure many Britons wouldn’t touch Fosters :)

But it is enormously popular and probably outsells the real ales by some astronomical amount.

True. I was disappointed to find on a recent trip that what had been my favourite local real ale pub with a very pleasant beer garden had been completely built over with an enormous medium-price, low-quality eatery, and was selling nothing but European and Australian beer.

sibeen said:

Bubblecar said:

>I don’t :)

I’m sure many Britons wouldn’t touch Fosters :)

But it is enormously popular and probably outsells the real ales by some astronomical amount.

The last time I was in Ireland what appeared to be one of the largest selling beers was Budweiser.

facepalm

the irish alcoholic cook I used to work with as a kid used to favour stella artois – when he did come to work in the morning he looked like crap.

jjjust moi said:

In a recent beer show in perth, four judges gave the best beer title to Emu Export – unanimously.

It wasn’t a show, it was a tasting put on by a WA newspaper and the “Judges” included “Sam, a property manager and party girl”.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/emu-export-tops-the-list-for-taste-in-test-by-the-sunday-times/story-fnhocxo3-1226751982445

I’d have liked to have seen the same judges given a sample of similarly priced wines and seen if they voted the Brown Brothers Moscato better than the Grange.

a favourite amongst the brits is cider, cheap, powerful and guaranteed to give you a hammering headache, but nothing to its bastard child “scrumpy” found anywhere outside of London.

Carmen_Sandiego said:

jjjust moi said:

In a recent beer show in perth, four judges gave the best beer title to Emu Export – unanimously.

It wasn’t a show, it was a tasting put on by a WA newspaper and the “Judges” included “Sam, a property manager and party girl”.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/emu-export-tops-the-list-for-taste-in-test-by-the-sunday-times/story-fnhocxo3-1226751982445

I’d have liked to have seen the same judges given a sample of similarly priced wines and seen if they voted the Brown Brothers Moscato better than the Grange.

It’s what tastes best doesn’t it?

jjjust moi said:

Carmen_Sandiego said:

jjjust moi said:

In a recent beer show in perth, four judges gave the best beer title to Emu Export – unanimously.

It wasn’t a show, it was a tasting put on by a WA newspaper and the “Judges” included “Sam, a property manager and party girl”.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/emu-export-tops-the-list-for-taste-in-test-by-the-sunday-times/story-fnhocxo3-1226751982445

I’d have liked to have seen the same judges given a sample of similarly priced wines and seen if they voted the Brown Brothers Moscato better than the Grange.

It’s what tastes best doesn’t it?

No, it is what you like.

Carmen_Sandiego said:

jjjust moi said:

Carmen_Sandiego said:

It wasn’t a show, it was a tasting put on by a WA newspaper and the “Judges” included “Sam, a property manager and party girl”.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/emu-export-tops-the-list-for-taste-in-test-by-the-sunday-times/story-fnhocxo3-1226751982445

I’d have liked to have seen the same judges given a sample of similarly priced wines and seen if they voted the Brown Brothers Moscato better than the Grange.

It’s what tastes best doesn’t it?

No, it is what you like.

You do know what “blind tasting” is don’t you?

jjjust moi said:

Carmen_Sandiego said:

jjjust moi said:

It’s what tastes best doesn’t it?

No, it is what you like.

You do know what “blind tasting” is don’t you?

Yes. But that’s not what I meant. Some things taste better than others, regardless of whether you (or I) like it. The three exotic beers presented to the random sample of people taste better than the one they liked. There is no crime in having unsophisticated tastes.

“deck the halls with post it notes of beer data fa la la la laa, la la la
Christmas is just bait for the communal memory wiping we all spend the year preparing to participate in willingly
la la laaaaaaa……..”

I want to know why 99.999% of kebab vendors haven’t clued into the fact that kebabs are only the perfect accompaniment to alcohol when made with genuine ingredient. I would also like those accursed slabs of processed meat that get passed off in such places banned on completely obvious grounds……

Carmen_Sandiego said:

Yes. But that’s not what I meant. Some things taste better than others, regardless of whether you (or I) like it. The three exotic beers presented to the random sample of people taste better than the one they liked. There is no crime in having unsophisticated tastes.

How did you test this hypothesis?

dv said:

Carmen_Sandiego said:

Yes. But that’s not what I meant. Some things taste better than others, regardless of whether you (or I) like it. The three exotic beers presented to the random sample of people taste better than the one they liked. There is no crime in having unsophisticated tastes.

How did you test this hypothesis?

carefully studied and compared alcohol related arrest records…..

>The three exotic beers presented to the random sample of people taste better than the one they liked.

I don’t know what beers were involved here, but it’s likely that the exotic ones simply had more noticeable taste, so people who like strong and complex flavours would prefer them, whereas those who prefer mild and relatively bland tastes would prefer the mass-produced lager. And the latter tend to be most people. It’s no accident that the most popular beers tend to be mild, fizzy and forgettable. Their flavours have been carefully selected to appeal to a mass market that can’t be doing with things that “taste funny”.