Does pasteurization affect the taste of imported beer?

Any transportation affects the taste of beer.

I had on good authority from both an Irishman and a Scouse I worked with that Guinness was no longer Guinness if it was more than 15 km from the brewery. I've never had it any closer than London, and that already tasted substantially different from my home of Vancouver (compared with product imported from Ireland rather than Guinness brewed locally under license, which tastes vastly different from either).

Corona beer has to be served with a wedge of lime in Vancouver to cover the skunky taste. However when I tasted Corona in Sarasota, it was just a standard lager.

Delirium Tremens in Gent is delicious. In Vancouver it has lost much of the malt flavor.

Many beers are already pasteurized at the source. However there is no quality control during bulk shipping, which could take weeks on a boat and/or train and/or truck, and suffer many temperature cycles.

 

Do you know for a fact those beers were not pasteurized at the breweries for all of the packaged beers? For example, all bottled and canned Budweiser beers are pasteurized (draft Bud is not pasteurized).

Cheers!

 

@chiduke if we tell you the secret, do you promise to stay here and remain a faithful follower of our online beer cult?

 

Even in beers that are Pasteurized in their normal markets, in the industry there is usually a low level 'in market' Pasteurization, and a much higher 'export level'. The more Pasteurization, and you're already at disadvantage for flavor, but lower risk of spoilage. And all that before it get shipped extensive distances, which as noted usually is not kind to beer.

With regards to Guinness in London, they actually own the brewery outright, so its not under licence, but it actually uses a completely different brewing process than at St James Gate; it doesn't even ferment with the same yeast. My personal experience tells me that Guinness in Ireland, especially Dublin is not an experience you get elsewhere.

 

I'm not so sure that this is a USDA requirement (or any other governmental authority), but pasteurization would extend the shelf life which can be very helpful for imports that take slow boats to get here. It's likely voluntary by the breweries that do it. (I tried looking for a regulation but I'm not patient enough to wade thru all of those government regulations.) Maybe @jesskidden has the answer.

 

I am not an expert by any means and don't know a whole lot about the industry. But I can tell you from my own experience, a German beer here in the States tastes quite different from the "version" you get in Germany. I grew up on Bitburger Pils, literally! The brewery is about an hour away from my hometown. I don't care much about Bitburger Stateside but when I am visiting home I always look forward to a Bitburger "Stubbi" (the classic stubby bottle). It tastes so good!
Asking the local beer distributor, he said it is because of the pasteurization. Any exported beer, bottle or keg, is pasteurized.

 

I have not been able to discern a difference between pasteurized and non pasteurized examples of the same beer. BA yeti for instance

 

yes, yes YES

 

I did a bit of a test of this myself when I was in Vienna. I frequented a pub which got the unpasteurized tank version of Pilsner Urquell shipped in straight from Plzen. I drank that on draft, and then compared with cans found at the grocery store in my neighborhood. Even the unpasteurized version was fruitier and richer-tasting than the cans, and the cans tasted like an entirely different beer than what I had in the US from the bottle. I still haven’t gone to Plzen to have it absolutely fresh, though.

 

I would be willing to bet that the bottled German beers you drank in Germany were pasteurized. German beer retailers demand an extended best by/shelflife for the beers they sell (e.g., 1 year best by duration) and the breweries need to take steps accordingly.

@Snowcrash000 @boddhitree

Cheers!

 

Depends on the method and extent of pasteurization. I pasteurize my barrel aged beers and I find the slight difference to be a positive in stouts and barleywines. I do batch pasteurization with a pretty high level of pasteurization units. Flash pasteurization with a low PU has minimal effect. The higher the PU, theoretically the better the shelf life so some breweries pasteurize Light beers a little too much for my preference. Warsteiner is a Pils I like and drink frequently, but it tastes over pasteurized to me. Weihenstephan Helles is probably pasteurized but I don’t taste anything to it that makes me think it would taste different if it was just filtered and not pasteurized at all.

 

Do you have any thoughts on the topic of Fernsehbiere (e.g., Bitburger) and pasteurization? Do you think that Fernsehbiere beers are pasteurized for the domestic German market (in order to improve shelf life)?

Cheers!

 

Weedy, what are your thoughts about packaged AAL beers (e.g., Budweiser, Tecate, etc.) and how pasteurization impacts the flavor qualities of those beers? Do you think they taste better on draft (i.e., unpasteurized)?

Cheers!

 

Interesting! My question then is, why does it taste so different?

 

To the question: Why do European imported beers taste different in the US?

My answers are:

• European imported beers are too old: sitting at the export warehouse(s), long journey across the sea, sitting at the US custom warehouse and other distribution warehouses along the way.
• Rough journey (agitation on boat, etc.) is detrimental to certain gentle beer styles (e.g., lower gravity Pale Lagers, Kolsch, etc.).
• Exposure to high temperatures along the journey (e.g., non-refrigerated containers, hot warehouses, etc,).

FWIW I have pretty much stopped purchasing imported bottled/canned European imports of Pale Lagers, Kolsch, etc. due to the above. I have had good luck with draft versions (because they are kept refrigerated, have expedited transport?).

I am fortunate that I live in an area where there are many US craft breweries that produce high quality German beers (e.g., Helles, German Pilsners, etc.). I can purchase those beers very fresh and they are brewed to high quality.

Cheers!

 

Hmm, I have heard of this differentiator before. Weedy (@honkey), did they teach you about this packaging difference when you attended Doemens?

I know that some US breweries would conduct sterile filtering (e.g., Piels Real Draft) vs. pasteurization. More information below:

"Sterile Filtration, a form of filtration fine enough to remove spoilage organisms. For beer, “sterile filtration” is understood to reduce yeast and beer spoilage organisms to extremely low levels, such that the packaged product will last for its intended shelf life,..."

Why a brewery would use one method for bottling (sterile filtration) but pasteurization for canning is something I am unfamiliar with.

Prior to hearing about the sterile filtering aspect I would have opined that the difference in shelf life of a bottle vs. can was due to oxygen ingress over time. Bottled beer, via the cap liners, permits oxygen to ingress over time which leads to oxidation (beer staling). Cans are totally impervious to oxygen ingress and in comparison much more resilient to oxidation in this regard. The 'wild card' here being that both bottles and cans have comparable TPO (Total Packaged Oxygen) values at the time of packaging (which should be achievable).

Cheers!