Trivia question...

This type of ale was "first brewed about 1720" and was originally called 'brown beer'. It was created "chiefly on account of the aptitude of pale beer becaming stale". I was generally drank "by the labouring class of men, and from the strength it was brewed, and by the age it kept, it was almost impossible but active and laborious people to drink and digest it".

"The real flavour [this type of ale], as originally drank, is completely lost; and this by pale malts being introduced. As the old practice will hardly again be taken up, suffice it to say, our ancestors brewed [this type of ale] entirely with high dried malt."

(- from The Private Brewer's Guide to the Art of Brewing...", 1822)

This type of ale is commonly brewed and enjoyed by many on this forum. What is this type of ale called???

Porter

What do I win?

I read a long time ago that Porter was the "working man's" beer. As a matter of fact, I'm having my first bottle of a batch I brewed back on September 24. It's only my second attempt at an AG Porter since my first try was a dumper. The bad Notty yeast I used only got it down to 1.025, and to me it was undrinkable. This one is nice...1.059->1.016 with S-05.

Funny - I was just rereading this chapter in Designing Great Beers this AM...

That's very interesting. Thanks!

KayaBrew said:

Porter

What do I win?

I read a long time ago that Porter was the "working man's" beer. As a matter of fact, I'm having my first bottle of a batch I brewed back on September 24. It's only my second attempt at an AG Porter since my first try was a dumper. The bad Notty yeast I used only got it down to 1.025, and to me it was undrinkable. This one is nice...1.059->1.016 with S-05.

Click to expand...

Nice! It's interesting to read these ancient texts. The complaint of the author is the original porters were brewed with high dried malt and not pale malt...I wonder if high dried malt is available? Otherwise, the original taste of Porter which was brewed about 300 years ago will forever be gone.

Also, what's interesting is the recipes to these old ales have a larger grain & hops bill compared to our recipes today. It seems we are making lite ales/beers today compared to what our ancestors drank:

"Three bushels of malt and 2-1/2 or 3 pounds of hops are sufficient to make 36 gallons of ale of good quality...One pound of hops to each bushel of malt in operation is sufficient in all cases".

So check this out: A bushel of barley is 48 pounds (x3 =144 pounds).

So if we were to make a 6 gallon batch from the original 36 gallon recipes above, divide by 6:

144 pounds of barley/6 = 24 pounds of barley
3 pounds (48 ounces) of hops.6 = 8 ounces of hops
(yeast amount not given)

I wonder what the alcohol content of that 6 gallon batch would be...?

DY

by john tuck...