Beers brewed with "Natural flavors added" ...

I don't really care. I usually drink anything that sounds good and if I enjoy it that is all that counts.

 

I'm absolutely fine with craft breweries using natural ingredients = real food. But I don't think Artificial Flavors should be allowed or have a place in the craft beer scene. I strongly believe that a lot of breweries lie. For example, Sweet Baby Jesus was artificially and naturally flavored. Now it just says natural, but it's exact the same beer. With odd chemical bitterness. Same with Terrapin beers. Also, Southern Tier beers claim to be naturally flavored, but there's no way.

 

I don't really care about that stuff, just as long as it tastes good!!

 

It does makes me wary. I once had a raspberry blonde that tasted extremely artificial and was very let down.

 

Natural Flavors = Peppermint

 

And I've had this...


And it's got me thinking.. that
I need to know what beers (if any) have this castoreum you speak of. It's kinda weirding me out.

 

no beers have castoreum tincture lol...that raw material was largely phased out a while ago from most things, and you can understand why

 

It makes me more than a little bit suspicious!

 

natural flavors usually consist of a number of raw materials (naturally sourced chemical compounds) that, when combined, provide the overall sensory experience that we would expect from that flavor profile. So for example, if its a hazelnut beer with natural flavorings...that hazelnut flavor is most likely a combination of multiple pyrazine compounds, some chocolate compounds, and then some vanilla and a few other things to round it out. It is then most likely added at the end so that no volatiles are lost to heat or interact with the fermentation process in any way. Artificial flavors differ in that they are made from chemical compounds that do not exist/not obtained from things in nature.
I am not suspicious of natural flavorings (just look at the bottom of the ingredient label of everything you eat), but I do not like it in the beer industry. It seems to me like it is the easy way out rather than actually mastering the challenge of brewing with the actual ingredients.

 

If you're doing super small batch beer, then it's quite easy to say zest a small quantity of citrus for example.

When you start scaling things up, it simply isn't feasible to hand zest a thousand pieces of citrus. This is where you might start seeing the 'natural flavors'...

 

Exactly. Much easier to reproduce results consistently

 

which is why companies like lagunitas might use natural blood orange flavoring, whereas a company like tired hands would use the actual fruit...also contributes to higher prices though

 

When brewers apply for TTB approval of a label, be it keg ring, bottle label, or can, (COLA) the TTB frequently will send the application back, requiring changes to the label and sometimes even a formula of composition or statement of process. However, the frequency of formulas being required has dropped significantly since the TTB now has 100 or so preapproved ingredients.

The brewer then sends this formula or SOP back to the TTB, outlining all contents (in the case of flavorings, who they got it from and which ID that flavoring has) and production steps of the beer, from grinding in to packaging. From this information, the TTB will send the brewer an exact statement that must be included on the bottle label, can or keg ring. There's not always a rhyme or reason as to what constitutes a 'natural flavor', as sometimes that particular flavor is still 'natural' but has not been approved by the TTB as such, yet. Sometimes the flavoring will be already considered 'natural' by the TTB.

Either way, this language of 'natural' vs 'flavorings' vs 'flavors' is just as often bureaucratic as it is factual.

 

Not a concern. I'm strictly Reinheitsgebound.

 

You miss out on so many amazing beers!

 

Last Snow says that and I'm guessing the additional flavor is maple because get a ton of that in scent and flavor

 

because peppermint=peppermint flavor. I do not believe they are brewing/conditioning on peppermint leaves

 

There ain't no ambiguity to mind, "natural ingredients" is pretty clearly defined by the regulatory agencies.

But I often have been curious about what the ingredients were that got used in the food or beverages I was consuming so I did a bit of homework here and there to find out.

As a result I have pretty much become indifferent and don't worry about most of them.