Beer, oxygen, and taste

[fretlessman71]

So now that I'm in the place with more microbreweries per capita than just about anyplace else on the planet (read: God's Country) I've been getting brewery-fresh beer in growlers from time to time. But I've noticed something that doesn't make much sense....

When I first pour a pint off the top, it doesn't taste right. I can't really describe it other than it tastes like my ale turned into a lager right before my eyes. The second one tasted just like the first - not bad, mind you, just not what I had in mind for my 90 Shilling. I set the growler back in the fridge, and wasn't able to get to it again for a day or so. When I finally poured another pint, THIS was the taste I had been missing all that time in Tennessee! And this was after it had sat with a layer of air on it for at least 2 days!

I explained what had happened to the person behind the counter at the brewery, and they looked at me like I wouldn't know good beer if it came up and introduced itself.

Has anyone else had this problem/situation? What's going on?

[steveh]

Have you experimented by tasting a sampler at the pub as you're getting the growler filled, then another sampler from the growler at home to compare?

How often have you experienced this phenomenon?

S.

[fretlessman71]

I haven't yet, but I've had 90 Shilling on tap many, many times... do you suppose something could be "unclean" about my growler? I bought the jug at the same time I got the beer, so I went on the assumption that they had cleaned it for me, you know?

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by fretlessman71
I haven't yet, but I've had 90 Shilling on tap many, many times... do you suppose something could be "unclean" about my growler? I bought the jug at the same time I got the beer, so I went on the assumption that they had cleaned it for me, you know?

Was your sense of taste(and or smell) affected the day you first tried it? Too many hoppy beers, nasal congestion, burned tongue, etc?

For me, somedays my sense of taste is better than other days due to the above kind of conditions.

[Beaver]

I notice the complete opposite. The first glass or two from a growler rocks. But if I leave it sitting for a day or two after that, it gets rather stale.

[fretlessman71]

Originally posted by Fast_Eddy
Was your sense of taste(and or smell) affected the day you first tried it? Too many hoppy beers, nasal congestion, burned tongue, etc?

For me, somedays my sense of taste is better than other days due to the above kind of conditions.

I noticed nothing out of the ordinary - wasn't sick, hadn't had any bites of too-hot pizza, nothing. Since I'm getting the distinct impression that everyone HERE thinks I'm nuts as well as the brewery, I ought to give them another chance and see if it really WAS just the day.

[kevin]

How can you open a growler, then put it back in the fridge for later? When I crack one open it's Asta La Vista Baby!!

[fretlessman71]

I like to SAVOR my beer. Plus I have a pretty low tolerance - after the 2nd beer I can't taste it as well, and would rather wait until I can. Sometimes we forget that the more we drink, the less flavor we perceive. (We're also pretty damned broke right now... I get to live off of a reasonably bad batch of IPA I made a month or two ago for the next 2 weeks. I can't even afford to send out beer I owe people! :()

Oh yeah... that's hasta la vista. Mi esposa linda es de Honduras y el Sur de Florida, y me senti obligado a corregir te!

[kevin]

Fret,
I still got that 90 Schilling you sent me last year, plus the LH Porter.

When you get back and rolling we'll have to do another exchange.

[steveh]

Originally posted by fretlessman71
I haven't yet, but I've had 90 Shilling on tap many, many times... do you suppose something could be "unclean" about my growler? I bought the jug at the same time I got the beer, so I went on the assumption that they had cleaned it for me, you know?

I'd like to go on that assumption at brew-pubs too -- but you know what they say about assumptions... My home-brew club used to meet at a local brew-pub (now closed because they didn't roll with the changes) once a month. I walked in, went to the bar, and got a glass of their amber lager - it was tasting great that night so one of the other members suggested a pitcher. Well, the first glass that was poured from the pitcher tasted nothing like the glass I'd received straight from the tap - overwhelming iodine!

Well, we went back to the bar with the pitcher and I asked the tender if they were sanitizing the pitchers with iodifor. "Um, well - we dip 'em in this mix of brown stuff?" Yeah, well you're not rinsing them off well enough after the dip. Of course, this led to an argument with the bar manager and, well...you can guess the rest. The manager tasted samples from both pitcher and tap and he (obstinately) couldn't taste any difference - yeah, sure.

At least now the growler is in your hands and you'll know for sure about its cleanliness when you bring it back.

S.

[stronk]

If you were storing the growler in the fridge, it may just have been that it was too cold. Once the beer had been exposed for a couple of days, the proportion of volatile compounds would have risen (from, as you say, oxidation) and the beer would have a stronger taste/aroma even if served cold.

But I'm sure you're aware of the temperature effect... the only other thing I can think of is the the beer being too green. If it was served in cask form (drawing oxygen into the 'keg') at the bar, it usually needs a bit of time to slightly oxidise in the keg to taste its best. That's a large element of the special flavour of British cask ales.

[fretlessman71]

They had a cask conditioned stout that they recommended AGAINST putting into a growler because it would basically be "flat beer". Does this make any sense to any of you?

Cleaned and rinsed my jug and went back for a different beer, and it's GREAT right out of the growler this time. Could there have been something funny in the jug when I purchased it the first time?

BTW, Beaver... the Cutthroat Pale Ale is KILLER. You gotta try it!

[stronk]

Maybe it was a chlorine-based cleaner residue. It's not entirely unfair to say that some bad lagers have a taste reminiscent of tap water (which has chlorine in it). Well, it doesn't matter now that it's all fixed.

[fretlessman71]

Well, let's HOPE so... it's pretty disappointing to spend $6 on a 1/2 gallon of your absolute FAVORITE beer and have it turn out so-so, you know what I mean? I'd like to know what I could do to prevent it from ever happening again, and maybe I just have to do things myself (you know... the RIGHT way) in order for my beer to survive.

OTOH, this doesn't really explain why it tasted BETTER after a day or two... and by "better" I mean "like I remembered it".

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by fretlessman71
...

OTOH, this doesn't really explain why it tasted BETTER after a day or two... and by "better" I mean "like I remembered it".

Yeah this is the part I kinda keyed in on. It seems to me to be the "human" factor. Of course, I absolutely could be wrong.