27/03/2026
Samwise may enjoy some crispy taters, but in a beer? Keep to the culinary, hobbro!
The "cooked potato" note in lager is from Strecker (also sounds like a character from LOTR) aldehyde called methional that can build up during storage and contribute to the classic "old beer" flavors.
When scientists spiked fresh beer with methional, phenylacetaldehyde, and trans-2-nonenal, the result tasted 72% like naturally aged beer. Translation: those molecules are basically the Nazgûl of staling.
Store beer warm, and these compounds can show up faster than Pippin running off to grab a pint!
So basically, flavor stability, although blamed a lot on just oxygen and time, is more complicated with a cascade of aldehydes that will show up if you don't put out that fire YOU FOOLS! Yeah, that's right. That Morgul blade stab is your fault.
Anyways, happy Friday! Check out the link below for more information on methional!
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf049178l