UltimateBeerQuest

Well I have always wondered why when you open some beers you get a smell that is quite similar to sticky buds, not that I have ever inhaled, just smelt it at parties.

Now I know the answer, apparently hops is a member of the same plant family as marijuana, ie Cannabinace.

There are chemical similarities between hops and marijuana, but the resins are distinctly different. In the 1960’s grafts were attempted between marijuana and hops in an attempt to produce a legal version of marijuana, but the resins didn’t cross the graft.

The above though isn’t the only reason you get the skunky smell its also due to the fact that some hops  have noble varieties which impart a pleasant grassy plant-like and spicy note to the aroma profile of some beers which is common in many Continental Pilseners.

These noble varieties can cause defects caused by isopentenyl mercaptan in the beer being exposed to light and this in turn produces the weed smell.  The light exposure is most commonly caused by beers being bottled in clear or green bottles.

Apparently Heineken is well known in the US to have the above properties, there goes my theory that Heineken had a secret ingredient just like Coke used to have :) 

This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 10:37:32 and is filed under Fabio's Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.