Howdy people,
Can we just pretend that it hasn't been 8 months since my last post? Insert various excuses here. I'd make some kind of pledge not to do that to you guys again but I've done that before and it didn't work and I don't want to be a liar twice so... all I've got is: sorry!
To be sure- a lot has happened beer-wise since the last post but I don't want to start listing off events like it's history class. Instead I'll just kick it off fresh. Or something.
Okay, so I went to my first "beer meeting" at U-Brew where a bunch of really chill guys and gals get together to share recent beers or other drink they've made and talk about it or ask questions. It was pretty cool and I'm really looking forward to going to more. I'm very new still to brewing and it was pretty interesting to hear about the different approaches and mindsets people have about it. I met a lot of really legit, friendly people whose names I'm gonna just come out and admit to having forgotten (sorry guys, I'll remember after the third introduction probably). There were tons of beers and lots of variety and everyone treated me like a friend which I thought was awesome. You guys rule.
One of the funnest things for me at the meeting is when I got to meet and briefly talk to a man who works for Wyeast labs. The first thing I asked was "do you do tours?" to which I got a prompt and definite "no" which was lame but I guess I can understand that... I guess. When someone commented that a particular beer had a banana-like smell he commented that it was because the yeast they use has a byproduct that is in fact the same aromatic hydrocarbon that gives bananas they're smell. I thought that was awesome! See, of all the things there are to know about brewing and beer in general, the part that remains the most uncertain and... well... mysterious to me is the yeast. I get that the yeast consumes sugar and produces ethanol. That's like beer 101. But there's so much more to it! They also have tons of all these other byproducts (like the aromatics) that are totally unique to the particular strain. So there's aaaallllll this information to be learned about yeast and it's action with various sugars and they're various byproducts which on the one hand is really daunting. Whenever there's a whole topic about which I know almost nothing I tend to get intimidated and shy away from it. But as little bits of information come in there's the hope that I can actually start to understand this stuff and it's those moments that I live for. So yeah. Yeast dudes, yeast. It's paramount.
But back to the guy from Wyeast, I asked him "How in the world do you find out what hydrocarbons your yeast is producing?" Apparently they have a machine that does gas chromatography. Is that awesome or what? Do you guys remember that from chemistry class? You were all like "when are we ever gonna need this?" Answer: Beer. So that's one of the things I guess they do over there is chemical analysis of the byproducts of they're yeasts. Also they do propagation (obviously) of pre-established yeast strains. They in-fact do not do breeding to create new strains there. I wanted to ask where, when or how that happens but like I said I only talked to him for a couple minutes before I was rapt away into some dreamland of viking mead and glorious hummus.
Anyways it was a really good time, I thought I'd share it with you. Okay well that's all I've got for now, I'm nursing a moderately righteous hangover. :)
You're all awesome,
Jester
