Alcohol in the news; A winning ber from Victory Brewing Company

from the Buzz

A winning beer from Victory Brewing Company
The Golden Monkey is definitely a beer worth trying

My monkey turned golden when I came into contact with Victory. Victory Brewing Company that is, and their beer named the Golden Monkey is the supreme treat I speak of.

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The aftertaste had subtle bitter overtones with a robust sweetness to follow. Standing at a 9.5% ABV, this beer overshadows all of the IPAs (though I am aware that this beer is a Belgian Ale) I have tried with special attention focused on ABV and the amount of bitter overtones during the aftertaste. Some IPAs, or particularly bitter beers, leave a filmy, dry, cotton mouth partially due to the high alcohol content (or high yeast content because extra yeast is added late to a beer to increase alcohol percentage), but the Golden Monkey is a tasty treat that tingles the soul as the alcohol takes effect shortly after a beer or two.

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My only concern with this beer is tied very nicely to my last point; the extra yeast that is added to increase the alcohol content. Now, although the beer’s bitter overtones are drowned out by the sweet fruity aftertaste (creating a unique balance), the extra yeast used to increase alcohol content gathers at the bottom and, if you’re like me and have an issue with texture, can pose something of a problem when enduring the last few sips. But of course, I drank every last drop and felt every bit of tipsy after two.

Ok, lets discuss bottle conditioned beers. Bottle conditioning doesn't necessarily provide a greater amount of alcohol. Bottle conditioning is usually done to provide the carbonation to the beer. It makes the beer alive, and does increase the ABV, but it won't be significant enough to alter the listed ABV of the beer.

You can't just add more yeast to make a beer have a higher ABV, that's not how it works. So, how does yeast work? You've probably heard Andy say that yeast: eats sugar, pisses alcohol, and burps carbon dioxide; that's true. But, yeast is a living organism, so once all the sugar is eaten, the yeast will die. Also, yeast strains are bred to produce certain flavors. Alcohol (even though they piss it out) is poison to yeast. When beer gets to a certain concentration of alcohol (ABV) it will kill the yeast. There are yeast strains that can produce up to a 20% ABV (if all you are doing is mixing sugar with water). These aren't really great yeasts to use with beer. (At Friar Tucks, the higher alcohol yeasts are something like "Rocket Yeast"). The higher ABV yeasts are normally used for making distilled products; not the initial fermented product.

So, if you brew a beer, and add the yeast, you will have an initial period of the yeast eating the sugars, this is the primary fermentation. When the beer stops bubbling (CO2 escaping)(usually about 2 weeks), the beer is normally removed from the dead yeast, and allowed to sit for a bit longer (secondary fermentation). The ABV at this point doesn't go up significantly. If you add more yeast to this product, you will not significantly raise up the ABV of the beer. At this point, most of the sugars have been eaten, and the alcohol will kill any new addition of yeast. In order to add more yeast, you would have to add more sugar, but that's an inefficient way of doing it. It's more efficient to continually and gradually add more sugars to the fermenting beer, and have your yeast evolve in the vessel, than to just add more sugar and more yeast.

Yeast in the bottom of the bottle won't hurt you. If you don't like it, don't pour the bottle aggressively, and don't try to get every last drop out of the bottle.

The rest of the article was good, although there could have been more description of the flavors. He hit the appearance, smell, flavor, mouthfeel, and overall impression. Granted, there's some misinformation, but he's getting better. But he should reduce the adjectives, and focus more on nouns.