This is a record of recent guidelines used for hosting Dr. Beer ® Seminars.

In the never ending task of perfecting the substances and levels used the guidelines differ slightly over time. Comments are provided to help you and us guage our success.

 

General Info on how to do this:

Normally use a light relatively flavorless beer in recappable bottles that was free of original defects. usually Carling Black Label, and more recently Bud Light. They are relatively cheap, and of the many comparable cheap beers (why trash good stuff) are the most defect free. The improtance of a fresh beer to doctor can not be stressed enough. Remeber to keep undoctored reference samples for side-by-side comparison during the session.

Non-drinkable samples were made with non-food grade chemicals. If you have access to FDA approved additives, these if added in appropriate quantities (no guarantee is made of the toxicity of the above specified levels, you'll have to check this out and take responsibility on your own) are probably drinkable.

You'll need one bottle of doctored beer for every few people (assume 2 - 3 oz per person). You'll need bottle caps to recap after adding substances. Whenever possible all substances should be added less than 24 hours before, except for skunky and oxidized which need advance prep as indicated. In addition to beers for doctoring you'll need 8-16 oz reference beer for each person.

Prepare samples as noted. The order listed is the serving order used. The idea is to do the strongest nastiest ones toward the end. Splitting this into 2 sessions is not a bad idea as the palette can get saturated and tired. The full range of samples takes 2-3 hours. Be sure to have some type of plain munchy like french or italian bread and water (hopefully not skanky water) for palette cleansing. Basically you can proceed similar to competitions or other tasting events.

It is a good idea to serve these blind. Let people try to guess what they are tasting then after a minute or two tell them. Many people will pick this up. Stress the fact that flavor perception is devoid of the additional cues like sight that allow perceptual recognition. The idea behind doing this is to train and refresh (strengthen) the cognitive association between sensing and being able to assign (correctly) a descriptor to that sensation.

Feedback is encouraged. It will help us revise this program. Good Luck.

Jay Hersh aka Dr. Beer®

drbeer@doctorbeer.com

U.S. Mail:

Jay Hersh

aka Dr. Beer ®

4 White St

Arlington, MA 02474

Harpoon Brewing 2/11/97

Reference Beer == Carling Black Label size = 12 oz. long neck bottles ul - micro Liter ml - milli Liter

 

Flavor/Aroma

Amount

Drink

Comments

Alcohol

15ml pure ethanol

Y

  

estery/-fruity

250ul banana extract

100ul Strawberry extract

75ul Lemon extract

75ul Orange extract

Y

strawberry still a little strong, try adding other fruit

flavors to increase complexity and move away from indentifiabe signatures flavors

nutty

75ul Almond Extract

Y

same level as always didn’t come across well today though

diacetyl

90ul butter extract

Y

  

Stale

open bottles to air, recap, heat under heater for 5 days

Y

  

clove

4 eyedropper drops clove extract

Y

a little strong this time

phenol

12mg

N

  

Sulfury/Sulfitic

45 mg Potassium Metabisulfite (K2S2O5) delivered as 150 ul of premade solution

N

strong this time, drop back to 38mg next time

DMS

0.10ul (made by diluting 50uL pure DMS to 50ml w/ pure ethanol, then adding 110ul of this to each bottle)

N

maybe a little weak, could got to .11 or .12 ul

Lactic

380ul 85% DSP Lactic Acid (i.e. food grade!!!)

Y

  

Sour (acetic)

3 ml white wine vinegar

Y

could maybe drop by .5ml

Astringent

1/2 tsp tannin in 50ml water 10ml of this added per bottle

Y

caused gushing but produced a reasonable

astringency esp. in the aftertante

Grassy (hoppy)

50ul Hop Oil Extract

Y

weak

Skunky

Previously dark strored, fresh Molson in sun 3 days

Y

  
       

Comments

Also consider a sample with Gypsum and one with Calcium Carbonate added to demonstrate water characteristics

4 White St. 2/8/98

Reference Beer == Lionshead size = 12 oz. long neck bottles ul - micro Liter ml - milli Liter

 

Flavor/Aroma

Amount

Drink

Comments

Alcohol

15ml pure ethanol

Y

  

estery/-fruity

250ul banana extract

75ul Strawberry extract

75ul Lemon extract

60ul Orange extract

Y

drop all but banana back to 30ul

nutty

75ul Almond Extract

Y

  

diacetyl

90ul butter extract

Y

  

Stale

open bottles to air, recap, heat under heater for 5 days

Y

  

clove

4 eyedropper drops clove extract

Y

a little strong this time

phenol

12mg

N

  

Sulfury/Sulfitic

37.5 mg Potassium Metabisulfite (K2S2O5) delivered as 150 ul of premade solution

N

  

DMS

0.11ul (made by diluting 50uL pure DMS to 50ml w/ pure ethanol, then adding 110ul of this to each bottle)

N

  

Lactic

380ul 85% DSP Lactic Acid (i.e. food grade!!!)

Y

  

Sour (acetic)

2.5 ml white wine vinegar

Y

  

Astringent

1/2 tsp tannin in 50ml water 10ml of this added per bottle

Y

strong try cutting back some

Grassy (hoppy)

75ul Hop Oil Extract

Y

move up in order

Skunky

Previously dark strored, fresh Molson in sun 3 days

Y

  

Experimental

Gypsum

1/8 tsp.

Y

worked well

Cambridge Brewing Co.

Reference Beer == Lionshead size = 12 oz. long neck bottles ul - micro Liter ml - milli Liter

Flavor/Aroma

Amount

Drink

Comments

Alcohol

15ml pure ethanol

Y

  

estery/-fruity

250ul banana extract

30ul Strawberry extract

30ul Lemon extract

30ul Orange extract

Y

  

nutty

75ul Almond Extract

Y

  

diacetyl

90ul butter extract

Y

  

Stale

open bottles to air, recap, heat under heater for 5 days

Y

  

clove

4 eyedropper drops clove extract

Y

a little strong this time

Grassy (hoppy)

65ul Hop Oil Extract

Y

  

phenol

12mg

N

  

Sulfury/Sulfitic

37.5 mg Potassium Metabisulfite (K2S2O5) delivered as 150 ul of premade solution

N

  

DMS

0.11ul (made by diluting 50uL pure DMS to 50ml w/ pure ethanol, then adding 110ul of this to each bottle)

N

  

Lactic

380ul 85% DSP Lactic Acid (i.e. food grade!!!)

Y

  

Sour (acetic)

2.5 ml white wine vinegar

Y

  

Astringent

1/4 tsp tannin in 50ml water 10ml of this added per bottle

Y

  

Gypsum

1/8 tsp.

Y

  

Skunky

Previously dark strored, fresh Molson in sun 3 days

Y

  

BFD. 11/14/98

Reference Beer == Bud Light size = 12 oz. long neck bottles ul - micro Liter ml - milli Liter

 

Flavor/Aroma

Amount

Drink

Comments

Alcohol

15ml pure ethanol

Y

  

estery/-fruity

300ul banana extract

30ul Strawberry extract

30ul Lemon extract

20ul Orange extract

Y

  

nutty

90ul Almond Extract

Y

  

diacetyl

90ul butter extract

Y

  

Stale

open bottles to air, recap, heat under heater for 5 days

Y

  

clove

3 eyedropper drops clove extract

Y

a little strong this time

Grassy (hoppy)

80ul Hop Oil Extract

Y

  

phenol

12mg

N

  

Sulfury/Sulfitic

37.5 mg Potassium Metabisulfite (K2S2O5) delivered as 150 ul of premade solution

N

  

DMS

0.11ul (made by diluting 50uL pure DMS to 50ml w/ pure ethanol, then adding 110ul of this to each bottle)

N

  

Lactic

360ul 85% DSP Lactic Acid (i.e. food grade!!!)

Y

  

Sour (acetic)

2 ml white wine vinegar

Y

  

Astringent

1/8 tsp tannin in 50ml water 10ml of this added per bottle

Y

  

Gypsum

1/8 tsp.

Y

  

Skunky

Previously dark strored, fresh Molson in sun 3 days

Y

  

George Fix indicates 175 ppm is flavor threshold for acetic, try using this to calculate appropriate volume.

 

Mass. Brewers Assoc.. 4/7/99

Reference Beer == Bud Light size = 12 oz. long neck bottles ul - micro Liter ml - milli Liter

 
 

Flavor/Aroma

Amount

Drink

Comments

1

Alcohol

15ml pure ethanol

Y

  

2

estery/-fruity

300ul banana extract

30ul Strawberry extract

30ul Lemon extract

20ul Orange extract

Y

  

3

nutty

90ul Almond Extract

Y

  

4

diacetyl

90ul butter extract

Y

  

5

Stale

open bottles to air, recap, heat under heater for 5 days

Y

  

6

clove

3 eyedropper drops clove extract

Y

  

7

Grassy (hoppy)

80ul Hop Oil Extract

Y

  

8

phenol

12mg

N

  

9

Sulfury/Sulfitic

37.5 mg Potassium

Metabisulfite (K2S2O5) delivered as 150 ul of

premade solution

N

  

10

DMS

0.11ul (made by diluting 50uL pure DMS to 50ml w/ pure ethanol, then adding 110ul of this to each bottle)

N

  

11

Lactic

360ul 85% DSP Lactic Acid (i.e. food grade!!!)

Y

  

12

Sour (acetic)

1.75 ml white wine vinegar

Y

levels lowered a little per (1)

13

Astringent

1/8 tsp tannin in 50ml water 10ml of this added per bottle

Y

  

14

Gypsum

1/8 tsp.

Y

  

15

Skunky

Previously dark strored, fresh Molson in sun 3 days

Y

  

(1) George Fix indicates 175 mg/L (ppm?) is flavor threshold for acetic, which after some math Joyce believes is 1.25ml per 12oz.