Dogma Is A Funny Thing | Another’s Perspective

Author – Ray Found

Dogma is a funny thing. When examining the dogmas others hold, we see belief, emotion, gaps in rational thinking. We see their post-hoc justifications and explanations as an attempt to rationally justify dogmatic convictions.

Ever notice how we don’t see these things in ourselves?

Our own dogmas feel rational. Justified. Heuristic. Even when not directly proven out by empirical evidence, these beliefs we hold onto so strongly occupy a fortress in our psyche, which we usually fail to recognize. Sometimes we don’t even feel them lurking until they are exposed, for it is difficult to discern our own dogmas from truth. So there they live comfortably, unassailable, and vociferously defended.

Right up until the moment the fortress walls crumble.

This preamble, for certain, could be applied to many things of course, it’s likely you can relate on some level and that’s influencing your idea as to where this is headed. But you’d probably be wrong

This is Brulosophy– we’re talking about beer, of course!

The Brulosophy exBEERiments have been a real inspiration to me, a great example of the scientific method and critical thinking presented in a way that makes it easy to understand and fun to read. With each result that tore down an old myth, I grew somewhat smug, I was the guy who had never fallen victim to these dogmas that pass like gospel on brewing forums and communities, only to be debated with anecdotes and hypotheses (but rarely/never controlled data). These exBEERiments have thus far almost always returned a small or null result and brewers’ reactions often expose those who hold that variable to be of particular dogmatic value.

The results of The Great Trub exBEERiment tested the widely held belief that racking only the clearest wort to the fermentor results in the clearest and tastiest final beer, a conclusion that seems obvious and common sense: less gunk in the wort should mean less gunk in the beer. As we now have seen, that’s not what happened. Some people were able to uncover old/obscure scientific literature on the matter that seemed to validate the xBmt results and provide some possible explanation for why we might see clearer beer, against our common sense, when fermented with higher amounts of trub. This was particularly interesting to me because it somewhat validated my practice of not giving much of a shit about kettle trub entering the carboy. Post hoc rationalization at its finest.

I found the trub xBmt particularly insightful when it came time to examine the possible clarity benefits from transferring to a secondary fermentation vessel. I’d never transferred a beer to secondary, aside from one stalled fermentation that I racked to a smaller carboy with fresh yeast (it worked). I was certainly on team Primary-Only and was excited to have data to back up my claims, as the trub xBmt showed that the commonly cited idea that a beer racked to secondary would be more clear, presumably by getting it away from the trub… well, that mechanism of action had already been busted (and maybe even counter-productive). I confidently expected a null result from the Primary-only vs. Transfer to Secondary xBmt, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Smug as I was about these and other results that validated my own positions, I felt a slight twinge when it came to The Temp At Which We Pitch xBmt results, the one where yeast was pitched into 74°F wort before being placed in a controlled chamber. After all, we’d recently had an “Advanced” Brewer’s Roundtable in /r/homebrewing and I’d fairly confidently suggested pitching below target temperatures.

However, given the time savings such a revelation could have on a brew day, I was still excited about it– now I could give myself permission to skip recirculating ice water through my immersion chiller and get to pitching temps with California groundwater alone. Since the beer would be placed in a cool chamber, it would get to my target fermentation temperature pretty quickly anyway.

Following the pitch temp article, I discussed that this topic certainly warranted further exBEERimentation- how warm could one reasonably pitch and still get similar character as a beer pitched cool? Other folks had other ideas such as fermenting at ambient vs. temp controlled, which I argued was a waste of time since clearly we know what uncontrolled fermentation temps looks like– temps in the beer rise significantly above ambient (5°F to 10°F is commonly cited) and the yeast produce more off-flavors, esters, etc. This is fine if we’re making a Saison and want all that yeast character, but it would be totally out of place on a subtle lager, hybrid, or most American styles. In short, high ferment temps = worse beer. Period.

I’ve only ever made one beer I really didn’t like, The White House Honey Blonde Ale. I fermented it at ambient temp because my fermentation fridge was already full. I was using S-04 and it fermented around 72°F. I hated that beer. I hated it fresh, I hated it after it dropped bright, I hated it when I tried it a year later. It must be that the fermentation temps got too high, we know what can happen…

And then there was the Fermentation Temperature xBmt where half of a batch of May the Schwarzbier With You was fermented at ambient temp indoors while the other, obviously better, half was fermented over 10°F cooler. I was certain the beer fermented at ambient temp would be an ester-bomb, more akin to a dry stout made with a fruity English strain, than the German-style lager it was intended to be.

Now, if someone had asked my advice about making a hybrid-lager at unregulated ambient temperatures, I can tell you exactly what my response would be: Don’t do it. The best you can hope for is drinkable and that yeast needs to ferment much cooler in order to get something resembling a clean lager. At 67°F ambient, exothermic heat is likely to bump temps during the most active phase of fermentation as high as 75°F.

I’ll admit, I actually wanted this xBmt to go the way of the beer fermented with Port’s bottle conditioning yeast. I had built the fortress walls around the importance of fermentation temperature, I was not going to be happy if the warm fermented beer worked out.

As the beer was nearing completion, I received subtle hints that caused me to question my expected outcome. I felt the fortress walls begin to crack, as I was certain this beer was going to be bad to undrinkable.

As you already know, the beer fermented at ambient temp wasn’t bad enough to justify a drain pour.

I received 3 bottles marked with different colored stickers. I would be participating in the tasting panel. Since I was improperly blinded, I enlisted the help of my brother-in-law, Robert, a culinary professional who had no clue about the nature of this xBmt. The beers were poured into glasses marked with the same colored dots and we drank.

With my introductory sip, I expected to easily pick out which of the 3 in the triangle test was different from the others. Given my improper blinding, I thought the beer would still be enjoyable, but noticeably different, because it was, afterall, fermented at least 10°F warmer than the other beer.

Sip. Green.
Sip. Blue.
Sip. Yellow.

Fuck. It isn’t obvious. At all. Time to let these warm a bit, look at them through the light. Smell again. Smaller Sips. Water between beers.

Get it together, I told myself, it should be similar. Just relax and taste. One is different.

Green. That’s the one, green is different. I informed Marshall of my selection via text message while Robert silently considered his options, I watched intently as he studied each sample. Eventually, after much consideration, he tells me, “I think Green is different.”

Hell yes! We both chose the same one. We must have it right. With confidence, I shot off another text to say that Robert also chose green, and that yes, green is my final answer. Within seconds, the following taunting message popped up on my phone’s screen:

You are both done with the survey. Thank you for your participation.

We were wrong. Shit! We couldn’t tell.

I have always been quick to point out that I am near useless at beer tasting, my comments usually ranging from “ugh, I don’t want anymore” to “wow, that’s fabulous!” That being said, I was absolutely certain both Robert and I would perceive a difference. The following day, I was informed a couple BJCP judges had also failed to pass the triangle testing. That made me feel slightly better about myself, though not entirely. And so went the remainder of the exBEERiment, tasters failed to identify the odd-beer-out a statistically significant portion of the time.

I am not going to draw the conclusion from this exBEERiment that fermentation temperatures don’t matter. Not at all. We certainly don’t have the data to support that and there’s no sense trading one dogma for another. This isn’t a flip the tables over, everyone is wrong moment. I’m not rushing to make a big change in my process on this one data point. Nor is it my intent here to suggest that these beers were even truly identical, some tasters did accurately identify them, and I believe there is likely some small yet very real difference here. However, the difference is clearly very subtle, perhaps even insignificant for this particular set of variables. I am certain every one of the tasters who got it right wouldn’t notice a difference if they were served the two beers consecutively and weren’t looking to find a difference. And this alone has really dismantled a portion of that fortress in me, as I genuinely believed I knew the answer to this question without any data. My certainty has been replaced by doubt.

So what are the takeaways? Well, in an endeavor to emulate the smartest people I’ve ever met, I find they always have the fewest answers and the most questions (all genuine, never rhetorical). In that vein, I’m left with these final thoughts:

Fermentation temperature control is heralded by many as the single most important process change a brewer can make, more important than going all-grain, full volume boils, kegging, or even making yeast starters. Maybe we’re wrong? Is this simply the case of something that’s been repeated so many times for long enough that it has become true? How much wider can we open up this idea? How warm is too warm? Why should temperatures produce different flavors? We know there’s a relationship between temperature and yeast activity rate, but why should it change their actual metabolic byproducts (I’d love to talk to the microbiologists about this one)? Are different yeasts impacted differently? Saison and Belgian strains are known for being heat tolerant (I’ve pushed WLP568 beyond 90°F), but are they really that unique?

As for me? I think I’ll try to remember that the fortress being broken is a good thing, I’ll try (and fail) to avoid building new ones and do my best to let down my guard defending the ones that remain.

Of course, I don’t think I have any dogmas, only well-reasoned opinions.

Ray has been homebrewing for about 3 years, he started off with extract and almost immediately transitioned to all-grain. His quest to perfect a hoppy American Amber recipe has been creeping on his now waning passion for Belgian styles, both of which he has brewed many. I began chatting privately with Ray awhile back and it was clear the dude thought critically about things, regularly asking questions that caused me to rethink my planned xBmts and calling-out my own unnoticed conjecture. I’m glad he agreed to write about his experience as an xBmt participant.

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