Volunteers for BCBS Experiment (Dallas)

How are you planning on doing this? If you're planning on doing a sensory evaluation it's probably going to be really difficult to determine if the beer has an infection since off flavors can manifest in different ways. Unless it's an obvious infection like the beer soured or something a lab analysis is the best way to determine if it's infected.

 

Seems like you could do the tasting blind with the good vs bad storage versions side by side.
Everyone would already be informed of the off flavors people are reporting (tart cherry, metallic, etc.). Then consider that vs standard off flavors from oxidation (cardboard, etc.) while tasting. Or even if you can tell any difference.

 

You'll need to have a control and I'm not sure where you would get that. Without having a control, what is to say there is an issue at all (again, baring anything that is obvious).

I don't like that idea because people will then be searching for those conditions. I recommend doing something similar to how brulosophy.com does his tastings.

 

I'm not sure if you've kept up on the other thread mentioned. @zizouandyuki mentioned there that he would have two BCBS, same bottling date, etc. One stored at cellar temp. One stored at cellar temp and then put at 90F for 7 days. I also suggested that putting a 2014 through the same 90F conditions would also be a control, but nobody's probably volunteering a good beer to possibly ruin.

I was also assuming that people would be informed of the reported issues already and you couldn't help it. But I agree that it would be better to not have any preconceived notions.

The prevailing theory (as suggested by another professional brewer that had similar problems) is that oxidation is causing the off flavors and not infection. Some people suggest it affects every single bottle, while others are skeptical of that. I don't think the bottling dates that seem to be universal (or at least widespread) in Texas have reported issues yet, so this experiment was designed to see if you sped up possible oxidation in what's so far been a good bottling run, if you detect any difference. I still kind of think that 7 days is too little time and you'll end up getting a false negative, but who knows.

 

Open one up and let it sit for a few days, that should give you some nice oxidation. I haven't read the other thread, mostly because I don't care for BCBS at all. However, the two bottles I tried at two different bottle shares were both different.
One was pretty fresh and had a noticeable diacetyl aroma and flavor (I'm not the most sensitive to diacetyl either) and the second bottle was the way BCBS always taste to me, a sweet boozy mess, but no off flavors.

 

I realize now that you're looking for oxidative affects and not infection. The same production date with two different storage conditions should be good for that as long as people tasting don't know which is which. I still recommend the blind triangle tasting method. I don't think that the BBT would really mean much for the tasting because it's completely different. Even if BCBS is infected it could manifest in a different way, sour, thin, phenolic, etc.

 

I have to think that higher temperatures would accelerate both the impact of oxidation and infection. Don't know how you guys separate the two but maybe I'm missing something here?

Some of my BCBS bottles were off. I had a couple 14.3% and one 13.7% and the 13.7% was perfect. The 14.3% examples had some tart notes along with notably reduced flavor and bourbon character.

All things considered, Goose Island had an infection problem this year with the BCBS line. So put two and two together. There really is no need for a brand new hypothesis. Unnecessary, IMO.

 

Probably the other way around.