American Handy Book of the Brewing, Malting, and Auxiliary Trades/Special American Bottom-Fermentation Beers
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This article represents a section of the classic public domain brewing text "American Handy Book of the Brewing, Malting, and Auxiliary Trades" by Robert Wahl and Max Henius.. See the main entry on this book for general information and a complete table of contents. | 
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[edit] Special American Bottom-Fermentation Beers
Contents |
[edit] Export bottle beer.
At every step from the purchasing of the barley to the proper putting up into packages and storage, of the pasteurized beer, all precautions should be directed toward getting rid of the proteids. (See "Principles of Brewing.")
In a general way, superior material must be used for bottle beer to what is necessary for keg beer, or any brand designed for immediate consumption. The reason is that bottle beer is calculated to be kept longer and under more trying conditions, going quite commonly into residences or otherwise into private use where there are none of the facilities for giving beer appropriate treatment, such as a well appointed bar-room possesses. The adverse influences to which beer is exposed in transit during long journeys also count in this connection.
[edit] Directions for preparing pale or extra pale bottle beer.
Materials: Take only a choice pale malt, well grown, i. e., about 90 per cent of the kernels should have the acrospire developed to three-quarters or the whole length of the kernel, and the barley should contain only a limited number of glassy and half-glassy kernels. The malt should have been stored for three months, having been carefully treated in the dry-kiln by preliminary drying on the upper floor at a low temperature, i. e., not to exceed 100° F. (30° R.), and thorough airing during this process, followed by a final temperature on the lower floor of not less than 167° F. (60° R.). (See "Kilning Operations.")
Use only best quality of rice free from any musty smell and free from foreign seeds, or best quality of grits or flakes containing not more than 1 per cent of oil, nor more than 13 per cent of moisture, or corn starch.
For methods of mashing' and boiling see "Mashing and Boiling Operations."
Fermentation: The wort is pitched with 1 1/4 pound of yeast per barrel at 45.5° F. (6° R.) and temperature allowed to rise to 59° F. (8 1/2° R.), then cooled to 39° F. (3° R.).
The storage cellar should be kept as near to freezing point as possible, the chip cellar between 34° and 36° F. (i to 2° R.).
Storage.—The beer should be stored for three months.
Chip Cellar.—Treat the beer in the chip cellar as usual, but with the exception that sugar Krausen should be employed instead of common Krausen. The Krausen should be prepared and used according to the following method, viz.:
Sugar Krausen.—In 20 barrels of boiling water in hop, or rice-kettle, dissolve 600 pounds of anhydrous grape sugar, boil for 15 minutes, add 30 pounds of fine American or imported hops, boil for 15 minutes more, run into hbp-jack, cool to 55° F. (10° R.), add two pounds of yeast per barrel and allow to come into Krausen. (In about 24 hours a fine white foam will appear.)
Now add to the beer in the chip-cask 10 per cent of these hopped sugar Krausen, or five barrels per 50 barrels of beer, allow to work out of the bung-hole for three days.
For treatment of beer in bottling department see that head.
[edit] Export draught and unsteamed bottle beer.
Where beer is intended to keep for some time without being steamed, as in the case of keg beer shipped out of town or unsteamed bottle beer, certain points require particular attention:
1. The beer should be perfectly brilliant when racked off into the trade package; especially should it contain the least possible number of yeast cells and bacteria.
2. The beer should contain a proper amount of alcohol and as little sugar as possible.
3. It should be stored at a low temperature.
The less alcohol the beer contains when racked, the more sugar the beer contains when racked, the more yeast cells it contains when racked, and the higher the storage temperature after racking—the sooner it will become turbid and form a sediment.
An export draught beer should contain approximately 4 per cent of alcohol.
In order to reduce the amount nf sugar to the lowest possible point:
a. The temperature of the principal fermentation should be allowed to rise to 51° F. (8.5° R.).
b. The beer should be stored for at least six weeks.
c. Krausen with the smallest amount possible—about 10 per cent. Sugar Krausen should not he used.
d. Let the beer work out of the bung-hole for 10 days, filling up with fresh Krausen every day or two. Then fine and keep under five pounds' pressure for four weeks at least before racking.
e. Keep the chip cask cellar at a higher temperature than the Ruh cellar, viz., at 36^-39° F. (2-3° R.).
f. Use warmer Krausen—51° F. (8 1/2° R.)—i. e., pitch the Krausen brew at a higher temperature, 49° F. (7 1/2° R.)- Preferably add to the beer about 5 per cent of Krausen and carbonate it.
g. More chips should be used and the beer fined with more isinglass than usual, and it should then be filtered.
[edit] Malt tonics.
These beers are made of a dark color, some having the general characteristics of a heavy-brewed Bavarian beer, like Kulmbacher, for instance, with a pronounced malt flavor and sweetish taste, a high percentage of alcohol and relatively small percentage of extract; others having the same general characteristics but a low percentage of alcohol and high percentage of extract. The latter type is brewed and fermented like the former, but receives a larger percentage of Krausen, or wort, in the chip-cask.
Malt tonics are generally put up in bottles, attractively labeled and usually distributed by druggists. If such tonics are advertised for use for medicinal purposes and so sold by the retailer in good faith, and not as beverages, and if they really are medicinal preparations, the druggist will not require the United States retail liquor dealer's license to sell the articles. The mere addition of a drug used for medicinal purposes is not sufficient to exempt the dealer. As to such licenses as he may require under state or municipal laws and ordinances, local regulations must be consulted. (See "Legal Relations.")
Materials: High-dried malt with caramel malt, black malt or roasted corn, in quantities to suit color, hops from 1 1/4 to 2 pounds per barrel, according to flavor and degree of bitterness desired.
Strength of Wort: 16 to 18 per cent Balling.
Method of Mashing and Boiling. (See "Pure Malt Beer.")
Method of Fermentation and Storage. (See "Bottle Beers.")
Treatment in Chip-cask: Use from 15 to 30 per cent of Krausen. and if low percentage of alcohol and high percentage of extract is desired, add in chip-cask a corresponding amount of wort.
Treatment in Bottling. (See "Bottling Department.")
[edit] Temperance beer.
By this term certain beverages are known which are intended to be sold in districts where the sale of intoxicating liquors is prohibited. The percentage of alcohol is reduced so as to make the beverage non-intoxicating. (See "Legal Relations.") Such beers are usually produced from a wort of 6 to 8 per cent Balling, containing no more than 4 per cent of reducing sugars.
Materials: Pale malt with or without unmalted cereals or sugars.
Mashing Method: Ward's Lauter-mash method will give good results (see "Mashing Operations") where a brew is specially made; otherwise the spargings of an ordinary brew may be used together with glucose containing a high percentage of dextrin. Add one-half to three-quarters pound of hops per barrel in kettle.
Fermentation: Add three-quarters pound yeast per barrel at 45° F. (6° R.), let rise to 48° F. (7° R.), cool to 39° F. (3° R.), store one week.
Treatment in Chip Cellar: Krausen with 15 per cent of temperance Krausen and treat beer as usual or carbonate.
Treatment in Bottling. (See "Bottling Department.")
[edit] California steam beer.
This beer is largely consumed throughout the state of California. It is called steam beer on account of its high effervescing properties and the amount of pressure ("steam") it has in the packages. The pressure ranges from 40 to 70 pounds in each trade package, according to the amount of Krausen added, temperatures, and time it takes before being consumed and the distance it travels from saloon rack to faucet, etc. Usually 50 to 60 pounds' pressure is sufficient for general use.
Strength of Wort: 11 to 12 1/2 Balling.
Materials: Malt alone, malt and grits, or raw cereals of any kind, and sugars, especially glucose, employed in the kettle to the extent of 33 1/3 per cent. The barley is malted as for lager beers. Roasted malt or sugar coloring is used to give the favorite amber color of Munich beer.
Mashing methods vary greatly. Some brewers employ English mashing methods, but the double mashing methods employed in a great many lager beer breweries, starting with low temperatures, in fact, mashing as though for lager beer with the exception of stopping and mashing at 158° F. (56° R.) until all is converted, will give very good results. But as a rule the initial temperatures are taken about 140° to 145° F. (48° to 50° R.), then to 149° to 154° F. (52° to 53° R.), mash 10 to 15 minutes, and then raise to 158° F. (56° R.) as final temperature.
The raw cereals are cooked and added in the same manner as if conducting a lager beer mash.
The mash is allowed to rest about 45 minutes, and the same precautions taken in running off wort and sparging as in other mashes, the sparging water to be about 167° F. (60° R.).
The hops used depend upon the quality. Of a good quality, three-fourths of a pound per barrel is used and added in the usual way.
The wort is boiled as soon as the bottom of the kettle is covered, and after the kettle is filled, boiling is continued for one to two hours. The wort is then pumped to the surface cooler, and then over the Baudelot cooler and cooled to about 60° to 62° F. (12° to 13° R.). In breweries where no cooling apparatus is used, the wort is exposed over night, or until it is cooled to about the above temperature.
Fermentation: The wort is now run into tubs of the starting tub style and size, where it is pitched with about one pound per barrel of a special type of bottom fermenting yeast, and well aerated. In about 14 hours a thick, heavy Krausen head appears from which the beer to be racked off is Krausened. The temperature of the beer is now about 2° to 3° F. higher, or about 62° to 63° F. (13s to 14° R.) if pitched at 60°. After Krausen have been taken it is run into long, wide shallow vats, called clarifiers, which are made of wood, about 12 inches high. Precautions should be taken that clarifiers, in which the beer stands six to eight inches high, are not too cold, so as to give the wort running out of the tubs a sudden set-back which may check fermentation. This can easily be avoided by sprinkling the clarifiers with hot water previous to letting wort run.
The wort then ferments in the clarifiers for two to four days. Precautions are taken against exposure to sunlight, and the fermentation should not rise too high. The matter which rises to the top is skimmed off continually.
When indications are the same as in lager beers, viz., dark color, yeast well settled, good, clear break, etc., it is ready to be racked directly into trade packages, or if for some reason it is deemed expedient, it may be racked into small casks of 5, 10, 15 or 20 barrels' capacity and kept there at a moderate temperature until wanted, then Krausened and racked off. If racked off directly from clarifiers, the Krausen is added with a quart measure to the trade packages, according to the amount of carbonic acid desired, the weather, etc., usually about five gallons per one general trade package called one-half barrel or 15 gallons, or, in general, about 33 to 40 per cent.
Finings are also added to each keg in about the same proportion as for lager beer. Trade packages are then gone over with a special filling can, filled completely and closed with iron screw bungs, when after two days it is ready for shipment. It should, as a rule, be about 5 or 10 days old before leaving the brewery, when it has attained the necessary pressure. In the saloon it is laid up for two days to allow settling, the bung being opened, as a rule, over night, to allow just a small amount of gas to escape, so as to be able to draw from the faucets without getting too much foam. This is done if drawing directly from keg, while, if using beer apparatus, "steaming," as the escape of the gas is termed, is unnecessary.
If this beer is properly brewed and handled it makes a very clear, refreshing drink, much consumed by the laboring classes. It will keep for some time in trade packages, i. e., from 2 to 6 months, but is usually brewed and consumed within a month or three weeks.
[edit] Pennsylvania "Swankey."
This beer has a local reputation in some parts of Pennsylvania, and is still brewed in Allegheny. It may also be classed as a temperance beverage, containing but little alcohol. Its name is probably a corruption of the German "Schwenke."
The material employed is malt. Balling of wort, about 7 per cent, hops about one-half pound per barrel, and a flavoring condiment like anise seed.
The malt is doughed-in at 167° F. (60° R.), and the mash held at 154° F. (53 1/2° R.) until inverted.
The hops are boiled one to two hours, the condiment about 30 minutes.
The pitching temperature is about 61° to 63° F. (12° to 14° R.). The beer is run into puncheons as soon as the Krausen begin to fall, is allowed to spurge, out, and is topped up every few hours, until the Balling of beer is about 5, when the beer is racked into trade packages and stored at about 61° to 63° F. (12° to 14° R.), until it has raised sufficient life, when the beer is cooled to about 42° to 45° F. (5° to 6° R.) and marketed.
Cream, Lively or Present Use Ale, Still or Sparkling Ale, American Stout, Porter and Stock Ales, American Weiss Beer, Kentucky Common Beer, will be found under "American Top Fermentation Beers."
