Three signs that something is wrong with your beer

Every now and then you’ll try a beer that’s not quite right. You don’t like it, though you can’t tell exactly why – if it’s just not to your personal taste or whether there is something wrong with the beer.

And with so many wacky styles and flavour combinations these days, it can be hard to know whether you should give it another try or send it back.

If you get a vinegar aroma from a beer, this is a sign of infection. In the creation of some Belgian beers, for example lambics or sours, this can be intentional, but as a general rule you shouldn’t be getting an acetic flavour in a beer.

A medicinal taste or a smell like burnt plastic is the marker of phenols, created either by an infection of wild yeast or bacteria, or poor fermentation.

Oxidation can occur if a beer is over-aged or has been exposed to oxygen during packaging. This can have varying effects including making a beer taste and smell like wet cardboard, giving it an intense caramel flavour, or creating thinness and astringency. Haze or a darker appearance can also signal oxidation, unless it’s part of the beer style of course, like a wheat beer.

If in doubt, talk to the bar staff. If it’s a matter of unusual flavours and styles, this should be explained (hopefully in a nice way). If a beer is getting a bit stale or the line needs to be changed, you should be served another, fresher version.

Chances are, if something isn’t right with a beer you are probably not the first to notice – though you might be the first to say something about it, doing the rest of us a real favour.

And one to enjoy I enjoyed a can of Eternal Session IPA by Northern Monk while watching the end of Stranger Things during the week. This is a 4.1 per cent blonde ale with a light body, a good bitter punch and a fantastic woody, tropical aroma.