Ask Mr. Wizard

Using Beer Burp to Help Judge a Beer?

TroubleShooting

Noelle Green • Danby, Vermont asks,
Q

Have you ever heard of using a burp to help evaluate beer? I’ve never heard of it before, but I find there are all kinds of interesting characteristics that can be found if my nasal cavity gets a second pass at the beer aromas . . . most notably in big, hoppy IPAs, this is my best tool to assess diacetyl lurking below all the hop oils. Not like I’m purposefully doing this with every beer . . . it’s just when it occurs spontaneously. but I’ve been doing this for years to find hidden characteristics and flaws in beer. Just me?

A

This just goes to show that learning never stops. I can state with conviction that I have never heard or read about this method in decent circles. But I am choosing to tackle this odd sensory evaluation technique because I have noted myself doing this and even discussing with close friends, usually after too many samples of beer have been evaluated. The old hop belch certainly has its own sensory experience.

There are definitely problems with the method. The first is that the sample is not always coming from the cleanest sensory vessel. That occasional diacetyl bump you are detecting could come from the beer, but it can also be coming from that cheddar cheese chilling out in your paunch. In my experience, I have found the cleanest eructations emanate from an empty belly.

Yeah, this is kind of a gross topic, but it’s also interesting. Think about that pint of IPA just hanging out in the internal bota bag waiting to be absorbed. What’s going on down there? For starters, the dissolved carbon dioxide in that beer is going to come out of solution as the beer is warmed. This begins to fill your stomach up with gas. Think about it; the typical half liter (16.9 oz.) of beer contains the equivalent of about 1.25 L (42 oz.) of gas, and the typical human stomach can expand to about 1 L (34 oz.). This means that your belly balloon is probably full and that gas is going to go somewhere.

Besides degassing, that hoppy IPA is down in your body’s own barrel warming up and concentrating beer volatiles in the headspace. Ever cover a beer glass while swirling to increase aroma intensity? If not, give it try . . . or just pay attention to those beer burps because that’s what often naturally follows a beer or two. The interesting thing about this gas encounter of the best kind is the aroma concentration that can occur down there in a clean incubating chamber. It’s like 1, 2, 3, hop eruption! The trained judge will have the mind’s chalkboard cleaned for optimal note taking. Burrrp! Piney, grapefruit peel, linalool, rose water, and pineapple. Darn, I cannot remember those secondary notes. Burrrrp! Coconut, caramel, and, there it is, diacetyl!

I do have a few serious tidbits of advice about this method. Repeating an earlier point, this works best on a clean stomach. I am not implying that any extreme measures are needed, but you don’t want to be doing this after eating spicy foods because, not to ruin it for you, your beer probably does not really have a cumin and garlic aroma . . . that’s dinner! OK, so you need to do this on a clean stomach.

Second pointer is pretty obvious. Do not, I repeat do not use this method in public. And if you do, don’t even think about announcing to the room that you are a hopeless beer geek because that just ruins the reputation of all us respectable, hopeless, beer geeks. No, doing this in public is just plain rude. And it’s equally verboten at a judging table. Seriously, you can lose your brewer’s permit.

Finally, and this one is really, really important. Never, ever admit using this method for any other purpose than pure entertainment. No one wants to hear about your burp-o-meter.

Response by Ashton Lewis.