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What’s up, beer geek! This is The Beer Scholar 6-Pack weekly newsletter, a short clean email featuring 6 bulleted links with brief descriptions for each.

Howdy, beer geek! This week I finished recording the Beer Flavor & Evaluation section of the upcoming online course for the CC exam. I'm about to start on the much larger Keeping & Serving section. Onward and Upward! To Narnia and the North. 

As always, here are 6 dope links for your Friday 6 Pack. Enjoy.

TBS 6-Pack

GUESS WHAT MAKES WEED “SKUNKY” 

New Family of Cannabis Aroma Molecules Identified by Avery Gilbert. The authors of the study say: “…the primary source of the traditionally objectionable odor of cannabis…” (LOL) appears to be (drumroll) 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol! Recognize that one? If you’re a Cicerone you better. It’s the compound created when a beer is lightstruck and develops a “skunky” aroma. Now I’m wondering if 321MBT (I usually write it as MBT or 3MBT…shrug) is also found in hops with those so called “resinous” aromas. Hmmm. 

DESCRIBE BEER BETTER

Getting Specific & Describing Beer Flavor by Mark Dredge. Myself and recently minted Adv Cicerones Scott Fielder and Chris Crowe (get to know us! — Meet The Beer Scholars) have talked a lot about this over the last year — systematizing better ways to describe flavors in beer by starting at the general descriptor and going down a decision tree to finer and more evocative descriptors. It’s challenging but effective description is critical for sensory pros, in QC, for beer marketers, and certainly for anyone who is aiming for the higher Cicerone levels. Mark Dredge does a nice job of digging in on it here. 

FORGET WHAT YOU WERE TAUGHT ABOUT HOPPING DURING THE BOIL

Why Most Beer Brewers Today Use a Single Boil Addition by Brad Smith. We're taught that hops added near the start of the boil are for bittering, hops added partway through are for "flavor," and hops added late are for aroma. This has always been questionable. Turns out, loads of hops' volatile aromatics are lost from being boiled even a few minutes. What to do? (I posted this on the Beer Scholar Facebook page earlier this week, which you should go follow if you do Fb.)

EXACTLY WTF IS ASTRINGENCY 

What is Astringency and How Do We Perceive It? By Jacob Webster-Jones for Science Meets Food. It’s easily confused with the taste of bitterness, but astringency is a mouthfeel. That you knew. Want to know more? It’s weird science that’s still being figured out, but it involves proteins, saliva, your trigeminal nerves, and pH.

WEST COAST IPA EVOLUTION

West Coast Bias by Doug Veliky for Beer Crunchers. West Coast IPA has evolved quite a bit over the last decade, even if it hasn’t been the focus of innovation. Hazy IPA and a few other styles have had that moment in the sun status. In this little thought piece Doug breaks down his take on West Coast IPA. I’ve been doing the beer thing for a long time, have observed these shifts, and agree with his take. 

HOLY MOUNTAIN PRINTING

Holy Mountain Printing. Yep, not the beer company. These folks’ schtick is “black shirts, black metal, black coffee.” I really like their tees and often find great ones on their sale page. Enjoy the hunt. 

Have a lovely weekend, y'all!

Chris