I remember back to when I brewed my first batch of beer. It seems like yesterday; however, over two decades have elapsed since that faithful day. Much in the world of home brewing has improved dramatically during the last twenty years. An improvement that comes readily to mind is ingredient quality. Those of us who were participating in the hobby during the first home brewing boom can attest to having to work with hops that were often brown and malt that was past its prime. Small-scale brewers used to receive macro brewer cast-offs, and home brewers received the macro cast-offs that small-scale brewers rejected. While poor ingredient quality and selection are a thing of the past, there are areas of home brewing that have changed very little in the last twenty years. One such area is an understanding of fermentation byproducts. We have transitioned from a hobby with an incomplete understanding of fermentation byproducts that fermented at room temperature to a hobby that uses temperature-controlled fermentation chambers to mask our incomplete understanding of fermentation byproducts. The topics covered in this blog entry are fermentation byproducts and the role that they play in beer flavor.

TLDR - BIG TAKEAWAY - A quick plea to brewers everywhere - for the love of all of everyone - label if your beer uses grapefruit in it. Turns out there's a chance of it causing some nasty side effects. (Actually for that matter - be kind to everyone and label your beers with anything outside the core four.) Edited to add - Taking feedback from various parts of the community and adjusting language to be less hyperbolic Not that long ago, grapefruit was an American breakfast staple.