I am a medical imaging student and will be performing an experiment to determine the effects of radiation to beer flavor and aroma. There will be 1 control, 1 low dose and 1 high dose(high dose will be exposed to multiple doses rather than one large dose). My question is on how to record the results during taste testing. My first thought is to use the standard BJCP score sheet and do a triangle test, but if someone here can guide me to a better idea I would appreciate it.
hmm. is there as issue out there with radiated beer? or you just doing it because…
What type of radiation? What’s the hypothesis? It’s hard to know what to ask the tasters to record unless we know what you’re trying to find out.
Ha, only if you leave your beer out in the sun. Just a class project
We will be using X-ray machines to measure the effects of higher doses of X-rays and report our findings. I guess you could think of it as the same as UV light but on an extreme level. This is just a fun project to see if radiation will skunk the beer
Interestingly, not the first mention of beer and radiation. The US Govt exposed beer to nuke tests to determine if beer and soda remained safe to drink after an explosion (aka emergency potable water)
Found this same link this morning which made me decide to do it. I need to present the results in class so that’s why I was asking for advice on recording tasting notes. I’m not trained to taste off flavors, but I can tell you when a beer taste shitty
By the way, Denny & Drew. Can’t wait to hear the whirlpool results. My next pale ale will be based off your findings.
We’re getting in those results right now!
This is how we teach people to do this sort of thing. (http://www.experimentalbrew.com/experiments/about_triangle_testing)
Usually just a short tasting form is needed.
As a CT/Xray tech, I wish I’d had a project like this in school. What beers are you using out of curiosity? I would have one of them be an IPA with lots of hop aroma - hop aromas can oxidize in a matter of seconds in the sun. Might be interesting to see what happens here.
I’m assuming the experiment will be performed with homebrew?
If the doses don’t skunk the beer- which it may very well do, then perhaps a new method for beer pasteurization could be developed.
The old govt test revealed quality issues with some of the beer after exposure to an atomic blast and all its varied wavelengths. Far more Grays than any old tube is gonna give.
For really nice high dosage how about running the beer through the scanner?
Side test: How many Grays does it take to kill all the microbes? We may wind up with yeast cells as big as your fist ;D
Now let the nuclear beer names flow.
Frenchman Flat IPA
Area 51 Brewing Company
Alamogordo Pale Ale
White Sands Belgian Wit
Roentgen Rye
Sievert Schwarz
Three Eyed Frog Festbier ?
Erythema Red Ale?
KvP Kolsch…
mAs IPA. (Doesn’t make sense but sounds good ::))
3 Mile IslandPA
Curie’s Cream Ale
Chenobyl-hopped Pils
OK… we need to stop lol ;D
Nice work, Euge. Erythema Red Ale is pretty solid.
My first thought was homebrew, a double IPA that went wrong that I have been holding onto for one year. Or I have some bottles of obsidian stout in my fridge. I like your idea of an IPA, would give immediate results.
Hell yea these are awesome names. Mas IPA makes complete sense to me, who doesn’t want more mas 
Barium brown
Yeah, mAs IPA is pretty killer, too. However, Barium Brown is a deal breaker 100% of the time. Sad to say, been there, done that. ;D