Ferulic acid is a precursor to 4-Ethylguaiacol, a compound responsible for a lot of traditional Brett character in beers. I was doing some reading (on wikipedia) and read that navy beans have the highest ferulic acid content of any beans. So this leads to my super dumb question: has anyone tried to increase the funkiness of a brett beer by adding ingredients that are high in ferulic acid other than barley? Such as flax seed, navy beans, Centaurium erythraea, etc.
Unconventional Ferulic acid sources
- Thread starter brwagur
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MileHighBrewer
Well-Known Member
As opposed to just doing a 125-ish deg acid rest? Something tells me you will get more then just the desired acid in a mash with beans. Who knows, though, you might be onto something
interesting. but what does that amount look like, compared to what can be gained by an acid rest? how much bean would you need to add to your mash to have a noticeable impact on ferulic acid content, and how will that affect the other aspects of the beer? not sure i want the taste of beans mixed in there...
then there is the question of how the beans would need to be prepared. soaked and pre-boiled (sort of a cereal mash), maybe?
Yeah, that's a really good point so I did a bit more research:
Navy Beans contain about 266 ppm of ferulic acid.
Barley is variable but according to this abstract, on they low end it contains 624 ppm.
Soooo, you're right. Barley contains more feluric acid then any beans. There may be other sources, though, that are higher.
jnacey
Well-Known Member
I've moved to doing a ferulic acid rest in the 109-113F range on almost all of my Brett-secondary beers. Most turn out to be pineapple bombs. I don't know if MORE ferulic acid would really be a good thing.
Is the pineapple ester a breakdown product to 4VG or ferrulic acid? At least in regular yeast ferments, the 4VG is clove.
Yeah, shouldn't pineapple be from ethyl butyrate? The rest could be producing butyric acid, but I thought it was usually a product of bacterial fermentation.
jnacey
Well-Known Member
Perhaps pineapple was the wrong descriptor. I tend to describe the combination of fruitiness and some barnyard character that way.
The ester is the breakdown product of 4VG.
Esters are combinations of acids and alcohols, 4-VG is a phenol. They shouldn't be connected.
4-EG and 4-EP are much more in the funky than fruit direction. Barnyard, Band-Aid, smoke etc. Seems like just a coincidence that the low temperature rest is leading to beers with a fruity flavor.
