Re: [CH] V6 #197 putting out fires

Andrew Hood (hoodtoo@iprimus.com.au)
Fri, 9 Jun 2000 23:41:25 +0930 

This has really piqued my interest as a homebrewer.
I've brewed beers with chilli added to the brewkeg right from the start and
it has not made much of a difference to the taste of the beer, just the
aftertaste, a lingering burn.  Traditionally, a lot of the taste of a beer
has to do with the constiuent ingredients, these being barley, hops, malt
and yeast.  Of all of these only the hops contains any oil that is worthy of
taking note of, and, as mentioned in an earlier post, not much when compared
as a percentage of the total volume.
Anybody that knows much about beer knows that oil/fat of any sort is not a
good thing for beer, particularly after it has been served (ever seen a
woman wearing lipstick sip a beer, kills the head so fast it's not funny
(knuckledragging comments aside).  Even a trace of lipstick left on a glass
after it has been washed will do the same and if the kids use my beer
glasses to drink milk out of they are under a death sentence (confined to
house all week and have to do jobs when told)).  Hops are used mainly as an
aromatic in the brewing process and they do contain some oil, so, does the
capsiacin bond with the hop oil in the brewing process or not, and if not
are the hop oils capable of combining with capsiacin in the mouth/throat at
a rate such that they are able to reduce the burn felt in the unfortunate
(?) subject (or do they merely accentuate the whole sordid debacle).
I will undertake a research project to find out the percentage of oils of
all descriptions contained in the beer, whether these oils are able to be
bonded with capsiacin, under what conditions this bonding might occur, and
any possible outcomes from such bonding.  I will report my findings back to
the list but it might take a while as I will be doing it on a part time
basis, principally from the net, and my chemistry tends to be overwhelmed by
my brewing (or the results thereof) occasionally.
Wish me luck and I will catchyalater

Andrew

PS: Winter in Adelaide, just finished a fortnight with the coldest temps for
15 years, snowed for the fourth time in 150 years, and the orange habs still
got pods, Roccoto planted four months ago still growing, and Thai's down the
driveway got enough pods to look like christmas trees.  Go figure!

> > Will Lowe wrote:
> >
> > >IPAs, being particularly hoppy, contain lots of hop oil.
> >
> > The amount of oil is insignificant, even in dry hopped cask
> > conditioned beers.
> > Cameron

Hack/slash

> Are you sure?  Although Rolling Rock isn't hoppy.  Is it possible that
some
> constituent might be acting as a soap, for instance?  The kind and method
of
> brewing might influence this. The amount of soap-like molecules required
to
> dissolve and remove the capsaicin would be some relatively small multiple
> (enough to form a micelle?) of the number of moles of capsaicin, no?  (My
> chemistry is strictly a spectator sport...)  Otherwise what is the
> mechanism?  If one eliminates the flushing action of an oil what's left?
A
> couple possibilities would be an interaction with the capsaicin receptor
> (doubtful, but important if true); or some chemical reaction with the
> capsaicin (same comment).  Or what?  Alcohol content per se would appear
to
> have little influence.
>
> At any rate, as was said elsewhere, beer and chili beat the hell outta ice
> cream and chili!
>
> Riley
>