How to Identify Off Flavors in Beer - CHOW Tip

Just like wine, beer can go bad. When you're paying a premium for a good microbrew, it's important to know when your beer tastes right. Sam Merritt, founder of Civilization of Beer, identifies a few of the most common off-flavors.

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TRANSCRIPT
Beer drinkers are becoming much more sophisticated about how they drink their beer and what they drink. And just as a wine can go bad a beer can also have off flavors and aromas. These can be very subtle to very noticeable. The key is that the brewers have not intended these flavors to be in the beer. Look out for diacetyl, which comes out in the beer as a movie popcorn or artificial butter flavor. DMS, which is dimethyl sulfide, that makes the beer taste like cooked corn from a can. The last is oxidation, which makes the beer smell a little bit like wet cardboard or newspapers. Nothing you would want to be drinking.