Have a beer for lunch today...

[mreye]

...it's the 73rd Anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition.

 

[mreye]

Wait! I may have bad information here. Awww, hell celebrate it anyway!

[FlaSoxxJim]

Wait! I may have bad information here. Awww, hell celebrate it anyway!

 

Plus, you have to have 2-3 beers for lunch to get the % alcohol of a pre-Prohibition brew.

 

Start drinkin!

 

[Texsox]

Plus, you have to have 2-3 beers for lunch to get the % alcohol of a pre-Prohibition brew.

 

Start drinkin!

 

   

 

Really? What is the history of alcohol content and why has it changed?

[FlaSoxxJim]

Really? What is the history of alcohol content and why has it changed?

 

The pre-Prohibition beers were all generally in the 5-9% range, so they were roughly double what the standard American megas run today.

 

For the most part, the drop in alcohol has little to do with any post-Prohibition temperance inclinations and everything to do with the bottom line. Bigger beers (more alcohol) cost more money to make because they require more grain and take longer to ferment and lager. Some authorities trace a good bit of the grain scrimping to WWII rationing, which makes a lot of sense.

 

This is also where over-reliance on adjunct cereal grains (corn and rice) started to take hold, although adjuncts were part of most American pre-Prohibition lagers as well. Pound for pound, the adjuncts are cheaper than the malted barley, but the real reason for adjunct use was because American 6-row barley produces a much coarser tasting beer than 2-row European counterparts so the grain bill had to be cut enough to lose that coarse flavor.

 

With the dropping of the malt % in the grain bill did come a cost savings, however, and so the trend has continued to be to go for less and less malt and more and more cheap adjunct. A couple of style profile problems have been the result. First, corn and rice don't contribute to the beer body to the same degree as barley, so American beer developed its characteristically thin body and mouthfeel. Second, thin-bodied, light colored beers (color comes from the % of malt and the degree of kilning of the malt) don't stand up well to the power of the hop, and so hopping rates and corresponding bitterness values also were reduced in time.

 

For a hophead like me, this of course sucks ass.

 

Finally, you can add substantially to the megabrewer win-win (less barley AND less hops = low production costs) by factoring in the greatly expanded beer drinker demographic all of these changes offered. Women and beer wimps who couldn't tolerate the strength/flavor/bitterness of pre-Prohibition Americal lager now had a watered down, weak, and underhopped product custom-made for them.

[YASNY]

LOL. I guess I'm a beer wimp.

[Texsox]

The pre-Prohibition beers were all generally in the 5-9% range, so they were roughly double what the standard American megas run today.

 

For the most part, the drop in alcohol has little to do with any post-Prohibition temperance inclinations and everything to do with the bottom line.  Bigger beers (more alcohol) cost more money to make because they require more grain and take longer to ferment and lager.  Some authorities trace a good bit of the grain scrimping to WWII rationing, which makes a lot of sense.

 

This is also where over-reliance on adjunct cereal grains (corn and rice) started to take hold, although adjuncts were part of most American pre-Prohibition lagers as well.  Pound for pound, the adjuncts are cheaper than the malted barley, but the real reason for adjunct use was because American 6-row barley produces a much coarser tasting beer than 2-row European counterparts so the grain bill had to be cut enough to lose that coarse flavor.

 

With the dropping of the malt % in the grain bill did come a cost savings, however, and so the trend has continued to be to go for less and less malt and more and more cheap adjunct.  A couple of style profile problems have been the result. First, corn and rice don't contribute to the beer body to the same degree as barley, so American beer developed its characteristically thin body and mouthfeel.  Second, thin-bodied, light colored beers (color comes from the % of malt and the degree of kilning of the malt) don't stand up well to the power of the hop, and so hopping rates and corresponding bitterness values also were reduced in time.

 

For a hophead like me, this of course sucks ass.

 

Finally, you can add substantially to the megabrewer win-win (less barley AND less hops = low production costs) by factoring in the greatly expanded beer drinker demographic all of these changes offered.  Women and beer wimps who couldn't tolerate the strength/flavor/bitterness of pre-Prohibition Americal lager now had a watered down, weak, and underhopped product custom-made for them.

 

 

Thank you. Why didn't US producers just grow 2-row barley? When the wine industry was threatened with vine disease, they imported European vines and grafted.

[mreye]

Thank you. Why didn't US producers just grow 2-row barley? When the wine industry was threatened with vine disease, they imported European vines and grafted.

You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?

[FlaSoxxJim]

Thank you. Why didn't US producers just grow 2-row barley? When the wine industry was threatened with vine disease, they imported European vines and grafted.

 

Some specialty brewers – all on the west coast that I can think of – are growing domestic 2-row now. But 6-row is a really hardy variety and vastly more tolerant of eastern US growth conditions than 2-row, and just don't think it was worth the trouble to try to grow a tough crop when the native variety would do with some modifications to the brewing process.

 

And it's for that reason that I don't dismiss all adjunct American lagers out of hand as inferior by definition – especially historic pre-Prohibition recipes.

 

Beer brewing has always been about using what you have on hand and being resourceful, and in large part letting your environs dictate the beer you brew. Czech pilzner is the perfect beer for the chalky water, undermodified pale malt, and subtle noble saaz variety hops that could be pumped, malted, and grown in that place at that time. Likewise, the permanently hard water of the Burton river would make brewing pilsner impossible, but it was the perfect water for a hop-inclined pale ale brewed with a more modified malt that would lend to its own pH adjustments in the kettle (enzymatic sugar conversion only occurs in a narrow pH range).

 

I could go on with the list, but the point is that these world classic beer styles are the end products of a long history of tinkering and adjusting recipes and brewing processes until they matched the local situation so as to give rise to THE endemic beer style of a region.

 

For America in the 19th century, the correct endemic style was a lager roughly in the pilsner style, but using a portion of corn in the grain bill to offset the coarsness of a base grain that was locally available and reasonably priced. This was the essentially commercially extinct style now known as pre-Prohibition American lager.

[Texsox]

Cool. I assume then that you have specialty grains available as a small home brewer that would not be feasible in a larger, or should I say lager, scale? Do you also make adjustments to your water?

[WilliamTell]

Happy anny, too bad I'm not 21.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Cool. I assume then that you have specialty grains available as a small home brewer that would  not be feasible in a larger, or should I say lager, scale? Do you also make adjustments to your water?

 

Yes and yes. The beauty of homebrewing is that you don't have to do things simply out of necessity for economic reasons. Like a lot of homebrewers, I originally got into it in college because I was lured by the prospect of making my own beer cheap. Very soon, though, you realize that the considerable time you put into it dwarfs the quarter a bottle you can save, and so what is the point of scrimping when you can make outstanding beer for just a little bit more money.

 

So, yeah, if I'm brewing English ales I'll get imported Brit 2-row and crystal malts, Brit hops, and even use one of several readily available Brit liquid yeast strains. For west coast American ales, I'll use American-grown 2-row pale malt, cascades or other west coast hops, and the "Chico" liquid yeast strain Sierra Nevada uses in its pale ale.

 

I adjust my water as I need to, depending on the style. For Brit and American ales I bring the pH down in the mash with food grade phosphoric acid, then use a couple teaspoons of gypsum to harden the water to bring pH back up and to accentuate the hop bitterness a little. For light European styles I'll use chalk in the kettle for pH correction so the hops are not made overly astringent. For dark beers, the acidity of the roasted grains are sufficient to do their own pH adjusting in the mash....

 

It's a damn drunken geekfest. With the move, I'm out of brewing until I can rehab a small barn behind the house and set up the brew works. My plan is to build an unattached garage in the next two years with a loft office and the back 1/3 of the ground floor being a dedicated brewing space with plumbing, venting, and refrigeration for fermentation/conditioning purpose-built. That will be so phenomenally cool. Now, all I need is the $25K to make it happen.

[Kid Gleason]

Hey Jim...PICK MY BEER FOR THE EVENING!

 

(I've had all of these, but I'll let you decide which I should enjoy this night)

 

Bear Republic Racer 5 (HIGHLY hopped IPA, but it is a bomber, so...well...you know)

Sierra Nevada Stout

North Coast Old No. 38 (Stout from the Gods of the Imperial Stout Old Rasputin)

My cousins home brewed IPA named Dead Spider

Celebrator

 

Orrrrrrrrr...possibly my buddy will be bringing over a bottle of Stone Arrogant Bastard.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Hey Jim...PICK MY BEER FOR THE EVENING!

 

(I've had all of these, but I'll let you decide which I should enjoy this night)

 

Bear Republic Racer 5 (HIGHLY hopped IPA, but it is a bomber, so...well...you know)

Sierra Nevada Stout

North Coast Old No. 38 (Stout from the Gods of the Imperial Stout Old Rasputin)

My cousins home brewed IPA named Dead Spider

Celebrator

 

Orrrrrrrrr...possibly my buddy will be bringing over a bottle of Stone Arrogant Bastard.

 

Mmmmmm mmmm....

 

Well, Kid, I see a good big beer session in your immediate future. if I had a lineup like that and a friend or two to quaff with I'd just go ahead and hit 'em all! If there was a chance of not getting through everything, then leave out the Sierra stout (you need to save something for breakfast, right? )

 

I'd crack your cousin's IPA and the Racer 5 (which I have not had the pleasure of trying), then move on to the stout(s), then do the doppelbock (while rumpling and fettishing the neat plastic goat-thingy that comes on the Celebrator bottles – they make good Christmas ornaments, btw). Then I would give my wife the secret signal that she should get really mad at me for something, forcing my friend to beat a quick retreat, but making sure he leaves the Arrogant Bastard behind.

 

Then, I think you should carefully box up the Arrogant Bastard and put it in the mail to me...

 

If I could only have one of the above, I'd jump right to the Bastard.

[Kid Gleason]

Well, the Bastard will be next door, but it may not make a showing at my house...yet.

 

Big Beer sessions are a bit of a normal occurance around me. My next door neighbor, who is also my best friend and the guy I work with, is also a HUGE beer freak. He has the Racer 5 on kegerator in his basement bar. He has a full bar right now and recently stocked it with $600+ worth of fine beers for the basement bar opening bash, where a local bar even provided us a keg of Delirium Noel...for FREE!!! He ended up with a ton of beer left over. I also have a dedicated beer fridge that is usually very well stocked. I also have some Hacker-Pshorr Weiss (need to try the others only available in Germany), Franzenkahner, La Traape Quad, Westmalle Triple, Grimbergen, Lakefront Brewery, St. Bernardus Abt 12, Blue Moon (just O.K., but it is the wifes), New Belgium 1554, Summit Oktoberfest, Great Divide Denver Pale Ale...and I am now drawing a blank. So yeah, if you are in the Chicago/Milwaukee area, stop on by for a beer fest!

 

My Celebrator Goats are starting their own damn country...

[FlaSoxxJim]

My Celebrator Goats are starting their own damn country...

 

I can't bring myself to toss them out either. If they are not hanging on the tree at Christmas, they live on an old 1950s Schlitz tap handle that sits up with my stein collection.

 

I remain envious of your beer cellar. The divirsity of my beer stocks is at an all-time low while I move into the new house. I can only take comfort in the knowledge that I probably have the biggest stash of this year's Celebration and Big Foot in the state, and that will have to hold me for a while.

[Kid Gleason]

Oh man, I was only able to grab a little Celebration this year! Wonderful stuff! Did you ever get their Harvest Ale? It actually is better than the Celebration! Problem though is that they don't bottle it.

Edited April 8, 2005 by Kid Gleason

[FlaSoxxJim]

Oh man, I was only able to grab a little Celebration this year! Wonderful stuff! Did you ever get their Harvest Ale? It actually is better than the Celebration! Problem though is that they don't bottle it.

 

What is this Harvest Ale of which you speak:?!?? No, I have not had the pleasure, and need to do something to fix that. A fall seasonal offering I assume? Maybe Clark Street Ale House will have it on tap when I'm in visiting later this year.

 

Down here in the beer wasteland we are lucky to find Sierra Pale on tap, and we'll only see Celebration and Bigfoot on tap at beer festivals. Last year the Beer Gods smiled on me and lucky and they pitched the Sierra tent right next to the Unibroie Quebac tent at the Orlando festival. Needless to say, I parked it and stayed there for an hour.

[Kid Gleason]

It is indeed a seasonal. A bar by me had it on tap a few months ago. It is not quite a double IPA, but it is dang close. It is one for the Hop Heads for sure.

 

Actually...I have never had the Bigfoot. The same bar had Bigfoot, but I missed it.

[FlaSoxxJim]

It is indeed a seasonal. A bar by me had it on tap a few months ago. It is not quite a double IPA, but it is dang close. It is one for the Hop Heads for sure.

 

Actually...I have never had the Bigfoot. The same bar had Bigfoot, but I missed it. 

 

Bigfoot is Huge. It's a full-on barleywine strenghth, which has been coming in at just above 10% abv the last few years. I like an Anchor Foghorn or a Rogue Old Crustacean XS fine when I come across them, but I think Bigfoot is THE west coast exemplary version of the style. It's as complex as almost any old ale/berleywine you can find, possibly with teh exception of a vintage Thomas Hardy.

 

It's really well hopped (90 IBUs!), but the malt behind it makes it a really well balanced beer. I love the perle (more recently paired with magnum) bittering hops of their pale, but you can't make a west coast beer with this much malt and not go with some higher alpha varieties, so there's lots of chinook and centennial in the bittering hop addition. It's finished with cascades (of course) and centennial, and generously dry-hopped with all three varieties.

 

All that alcohol and all those hops make this a good cellering beer. And in fact I have a little bit from each of the last 5 years still stashed away. I used to like the 1-2 year old vintages best, but I've taken a decided turn to the bitter side of the Force and now nothing beats the current vintage straight from the bottle or tap.

 

It's released only once a year, in February, so get your beer store to put aside a case for you next year. It will be right up your alley.

 

What do you think of the Dogfish Head 90? I think it's a pretty spectacular beer in its own right, and happily it's one we now see with some regularity down here.

[Kid Gleason]

I like the Dogfish. I know some buddies of mine have tired of it, and go in spurts as to which the like the most, the 60, 90 or 120. I wallow in the Belgium stuff more than the US IPA critters. Granted, I try to keep some of most styles in the DBF for those nights where I have no idea what I want, but when I get a little extra money I find I look to the land of the Monks and Abbeys more than the US micro. So long story short, I don't dabble with the IPA from Dog too much. I do LOVE their Raisin D'Etre (or however you spell it) though. The small version, not the 20+ABV monster.