Phenolic

Mark and I sampled several fine brews Friday evening at our friend Dave's Belgian ale tasting party. To help us novices understand what flavors and textures to look for in each ale, Dave provided some handy tasting notes drawn from well-known beer guides. The notes for the Chimay Premiere described it as a "rich, malty beer with some spicy/phenolic and mild alcoholic characteristics." Phenolic? That adjective struck those in the group with greater retention of college chemistry as an odd word choice, recalling that phenols, in the lab, are used as disinfectants. When Dave looked the word up, he announced that its definition includes terms like poisonous. Aiyee.

Most dictionaries give definitions of phenolic as "of or relating to phenol," which is defined as "a corrosive, poisonous, crystalline, acidic compound present in the tars of coal and wood that in dilute solution is used as a disinfectant; or any of various acidic compounds analogous to phenol and regarded as hydroxyl derivatives of aromatic hydrocarbons."

Ok, aromatic means having a pleasant and distinctive smell. Now that's somewhat promising in terms of phenolic's application to beer (certainly more so than corrosive).

Looking beyond dictionaries for a better contextual explanation of the term, I found Web sites and pages discussing phenolic properties in beer. Apparently, these are tricky flavors, as often if not more often put in the "off-flavor" category as being "medicinal," or smelling or tasting like plastic or Band-Aids. However, when used correctly, they're also noted for imparting a clove-like or vanilla flavor and smell. That seems to have been the point of the tasting notes that Dave had found on the Chimay.

So not only did we come away with newfound knowledge of a delicious Belgian ale Friday night, we also learned a bit of new vocabulary. Mmmm, love that Chimay Premiere, phenols and all.