What does beer taste like? That depends on the beer. A barrel-aged stout isn’t going to have a lot in common with an Italian pilsner, and neither of those will much resemble a Kriek lambic. Still, scientists are learning more and more about how the brain processes flavor with each passing year; we shouldn’t be surprised that some of that research would focus on a certain type of fermented beverage.
According to findings presented this month at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society, drinkers tend to fall into one of two categories based on the beer they prefer. As Jenna Ahart reports for Nature, scientists enlisted the help of 135 participants and had them try 18 different lagers; Ahart describes the two distinct groups that formed from the participants as “responding more than the other to certain chemical compounds.”
This led some drinkers to prefer what she describes as “stronger flavours” while others gravitated towards “mellower-tasting beer.” The two groups ranked certain beers in direct contrast to one another — in other words, a lager that was near the top of one group’s rankings was likely to be at the bottom of their counterpart’s list.
The Actual Best Beer Cities in the United States
Many towns claim to be “Beer City, U.S.A.,” but which ones actually deserve the title?It’s a striking reminder of how subjective taste can be — and how one drinker’s beloved pint can be another’s swill. These findings on what flavors can entice certain drinkers could also be useful as breweries work to develop new non-alcoholic beers.
Earlier this year, the journal ACS Food Science & Technology published a paper about the uses of “non-traditional yeast” in creating memorable non-alcoholic beer; other scientists are exploring the role of rice in those beverages. There’s a lot more to learn about how our brains register tastes, and this new research creates plenty of opportunities for breweries large and small to build on that work.
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