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Revvy

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
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I forgot that I started this thread a long time ago. I've been collecting links over the years because of my interest in beer history as well as research for the book I'm doing on the breweries in Michigan's thumb. I'm going to pull all my links together in this thread for you guys. I'm gonna put them in initially in no particular order, but over the next few days put them in some form of chronological order. Hope you find these helpful. If you have others pm me and I will add them.

Kai Troester's site on German Brewing Techniques.

Beer in the later 1800's in the New York area
http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8633

http://www.beerhistory.com/library/

http://www.falstaffbrewing.com/interest.htm

http://www.falstaffbrewing.com/ballantine_ale.htm

"American Beer - 1908, A series of "Letters to the Editor" sent to the New York Sun newspaper." All about beer and the brewing industry in NY in 1908

http://jesskidden.googlepages.com/19082

Draft Beer in 1903
http://jesskidden.googlepages.com/draftbeerin1903

The Brunswick Pilsners (Pre-prohibition) with recipes
http://brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue2.1/jankowski.html

Here's some good info on porters and the development of that style.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/historical-porter-some-recipes-199576/

This is a great site on English Brewing styles.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/search/label/Let's Brew

Here is some of my ancient brewing info..

You might find this interesting.

The Yeast of the Ancients
(It's kinda new agey, but has some interesting info that could provide hours of interesting googling.)

Why brewing ancient Egyptian-style beer is so popular & how to make it


The maltose falcons had a great article on brewing with Bappir, but it looks like they're redoing their site and the old links don't work.

Found it http://archive.maltosefalcons.com/recipes/20051002.php

Some of my stuff is on that is here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/brewing-bread-209505/#post2459997


Here's a bit on Partigyling for instance. http://***********/component/resource/article/2021-parti-gyle-brewing-techniques

"The Good, The Bad, and the Belly: The Facts About Ancient Beer."


The Hymn to Ninkasi outlines the oldest brewing technique recorded. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/ne...er-saved-world-221520/index2.html#post2599137

Bronze age Irish Brewing info

If you find thread interesting and helpful, hit Prost. Maybe it can be stickified.

A thread on early New York Ales.
 
Revvy said:
I didn't know that Ballantine's produced the first american IPA, and what sounded like a great american ale. I wonder if anyone's come up with clones of them, since we'll never get to taste them, especially how they evidently used to taste before all the corporate takeovers and such.

.

I recall reading here (HBT) that someone met a Ballentine local old-timer and tried to recreate some style of theirs, using this guy's input, without much success.

EDIT: The Falstaff move was the kiss of death form what i read.
 
beergears said:
I recall reading here (HBT) that someone met a Ballentine local old-timer and tried to recreate some style of theirs, using this guy's input, without much success.

I googled looking for some recipes, and only found one, and it didn't seem all that great (I think it was made with a can of cooper's extract.)
 
Here's an interesting recipe... George Washington's Beer...

George Washington's Recipe for Beer


George Washington was a devout beer lover. In particular, he was fond of the dark, English-style brew known as porter, and always demanded that an ample supply of it be kept on hand at Mount Vernon, his Virginia estate. However, it was not porter, but rather "small beer," for which Washington once recorded an early recipe. Preserved in the manuscript collections of the New York Public Library is a notebook kept by Washington, which includes the following hand-written recipe.


"To Make Small Beer

Take a large Siffer [Sifter] full of Bran Hops to your Taste. -- Boil these 3 hours then strain out 30 Gall[ons] into a cooler put in 3 Gall[ons] Molasses while the Beer is Scalding hot or rather draw the Melasses into the cooler & St[r]ain the Beer on it while boiling Hot. let this stand till it is little more than Blood warm then put in a quart of Yeat if the Weather is very Cold cover it over with a Blank[et] & let it Work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask -- leave the bung open till it is almost don[e] Working -- Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed."



Which reminds me of the Rich Wagner Historical brewing program in PA, as chronicled on youtube.



Some little puff piece on it.



More about Rich Wagner's work
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art64142.asp
http://pabreweryhistorians.tripod.com/trackingleg.htm
http://historiccamdencounty.com/ccnews116.shtml


A huge site on Pennsylvania Brewing history
http://pabreweryhistorians.tripod.com/

Google books

Yuengling: A History of America's Oldest Brewery

Pennsylvania Breweries By Lew Bryson

New York Breweries By Lew Bryson

A history of beer and brewing
By Ian Spencer Hornsey, Royal Society of Chemistry (Great Britain)


Cincinnati's Brewing History
By Sarah Stephens
 
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American Handy Book of the Brewing, Malting & Auxiliary Trades, Wahl & Henius, 1902.

Origin and History of Beer and Brewing, John P. Arnold, 1911 (reprint 2005)

The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened, Kenelm Digby (take at look at the HTML version, it has illustrations)

Also search BeerBooks.com. They have a lot of rare & historical brewing books.[/QUOTE]

The work of Patrick McGovern is fascinating as well. He's the one who advises Sam Caligione on his historical beer recreations.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...irst-for-beer-spark-civilization-1869187.html

http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520267985

Looks like he has a blog http://www.penn.museum/sites/biomoleculararchaeology/?page_id=69

Here's some more stuff on the King Midas and Bappir bread brewing

Here is a downloadable MS Word article and recipe for another version of it http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...sg=AFQjCNGHRX-RzNMG7wHQCMH1hbf16sm8PQ&cad=rja

Theres also the Beer from King Mida's Tomb, that Dogfish Head Replicated, "Mida's Touch" you're interested in the history, here's some articles on the original discovery and the deconstructing of the ingredients and reproducing the funeral feast.

http://www.penn.museum/sites/Midas/intro.shtml

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3469/is_45_53/ai_94673455

Here's some stuff on historical brewing in North America

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/historic-brewing-bethlehem-pa-126996/#post1434880

Here's my walk through of the original Labatt Pioneer Brewery in London Ontario.

Here's some brewing instructions for the UK in 1861 http://brewery.org/brewery/library/Per1861UK.html

This is an archive of historical brewing technique articles as well. Interesting one on Brunswick pilsners which I never heard of and were hoppier than the BMC of today. http://brewingtechniques.com/library/history.html

This is a really cool archive of brewing techniques magazines, which actually does cover historical technigues. CLick on each issue, and there's a few articles in each archived online. I just read a good one in issue 3 or 4 on porters through time. http://brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues.html
 
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Wow, thanx for keeping this up to date, I haven't seen over half of these links!! Oh and glad to see you're back at it Revvy, brew on sir:mug:
 
Shut up About Barclay Perkins is a pretty awesome. Clearly not about American beer, Ron's site European Beer Guide is full of awesome too.

[Edit] Now I'm reading Brewed in Detroit. The Four Polish Brothers chapter is missing some pages (or at least they're not available). I wonder if a local library would have a copy.
 
The Library of Congress archives online has some interesting things on beer in their arcihives, including these instructions for homebrewing from the 1950's

001dq.gif


Click on this to bring you to the actual page that you can further click on to actually read. Click here.

This is a hoot- Scientific testimony on beer. [From speech of Senator J. H. Gallinger, January 9, 1901.

A full recipe...
Forbes' improved system for the manufacture of ale, beer and porter of the finest quality and flavor ... George W. Forbes, brewer, 180 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio [c. 1887].

The law that deprives the citizen of his whiskey, rum, gin, or beer, deprives him of his liberty. Liberal democratic ticket ... Boston Cochrane & Sampson, Printers. 9 Bromfield St.
 
Here's an interesting recipe... George Washington's Beer...[/URL]

I brewed a beer based on this recipe on Presidents day. The beer is in Primary right now and will get bottled this coming weekend or next. What I learned was Yards Brewery in Baltimore, MD was commissioned to replicate Gerorge Washingtons porter recipe. I contacted the brewery and they shared the ingredients.

This is the recipe a friend I came up with based on Yards recommendation:

10.50 lb American Two Row Pale
0.75 lb Black patent
0.60 lb Roasted barley
0.50 lb Chocolate
0.25 lb American Crystal 60L
5 tsp of molasses
Hops:
1.00 oz Chinook [12.0%] (60 min)
0.75 oz Willamette [5.5%] (20 min)
Yeast:
Dry Yeast

I don'tnow how closely this actually translates to the original but it was fun doing the research and trying it out.
 
Wow! lots of good info here. I'm gunna have to look at some of these. I found the germanbeerinstitute.com on my own. Good read on the history of their beers. But also a by-style description of each & how to properly pronounce them too. I might just try the Egyptian one. Maybe even the Midas. So little time,so much to know!:rockin:
 
Wow! lots of good info here. I'm gunna have to look at some of these. I found the germanbeerinstitute.com on my own. Good read on the history of there beers. But also a by-style description of each & how to properly pronounce them too. I might just try the Egyptian one. Maybe even the Midas. So little time,so much to know!:rockin:


The local place I frequent just had Midas Touch on tap. I really liked it. What I most liked about it was they had it on for Saturday night which is $2.50 pint. American Micro night when normally it would have been ~$7.00 a pint.

:mug:
 
Yikes! 7 bucks a pint? I haven't been bw3's in a while,but I guess the prices have really gone up. Still like to try some though.
 
Revvy, do you ever find older articles to be intentionally obfuscated? I have found this with woodworking descriptions from pre 1900, as I understand, due to the guild system and the desire to keep trade secrets secret. A lot of times it is pretty humorous. I've actually seen an article about an old french woodworking text with woodcut prints depicting totally fake techniques and tools.

I haven't had a chance to read any of your links yet, but I'm curious.
 
Revvy, do you ever find older articles to be intentionally obfuscated? I have found this with woodworking descriptions from pre 1900, as I understand, due to the guild system and the desire to keep trade secrets secret. A lot of times it is pretty humorous. I've actually seen an article about an old french woodworking text with woodcut prints depicting totally fake techniques and tools.

I haven't had a chance to read any of your links yet, but I'm curious.

I haven't come across anything like that in terms of brewing, but I haven't read everything...I know what you're talking about. I don't know enough about the guild system in terms of brewing, and it seems like a lot of early brewing was done first by housewives, or the women in society so I don't think they were much for that.

I know some of the stuff is lacking in details...but I think that's just because people were less sophisticated in some ways. I have a couple of old mead making links on my home computer, that I have to add to this list when I get back to my computer where the instructions are something like "Boil the honey for the length of time it takes to walk a farmer's field and back." Of course in the 15th century there weren't really wrist watches. So it might be more that than obvious protecting of guild secrets.


Now you got me curious though. I bet it was right under my nose and I never noticed it before.

:mug:
 
Revvy, My porter recipe based on George Washington's porter recipe turned out great! Deep dark brown almost as dark as a stout with a nice thick brown head. Taste is fantastic. I may have to put this in my regular rotation of beers to brew.
 
Prohibition Brewing information and recipes.

I posted this several years ago.....Stuff I found on the web.

Around 1975 or '76, the first time I got interested in brewing, I bought a can of the mysterious Blue Ribbon malt syrup. The label invited me to write to Premier malt products for a recipe book, and I did. A few weeks later it arrived: a well-produced, four-color print job with recipes for using malt syrup in cakes, cookies, biscuits and the like, but not a word about making beer. A few weeks later a plain brown envelope with no return address appeared in the mail. Inside were two mimeographed sheets of beer recipes---including this recipe.
Ingredients:
1-3/4 pounds, sugar
1 can, Blue Ribbon hop-flavored malt syrup
yeast
Procedure:
Dissolve sugar and malt syrup in 6 quarts of hot water. Stir until dissolved. Pour 14 quarts of cold water into a crock that has been scoured with Arm & Hammer baking soda and rinsed with clear water. Add hot solution of malt, sugar, and water. The temperature should be about 65F. Dissolve a cake of compressed or dehydrated yeast in a small quantity of luke warm water (about 8 ounces of 75F water) and add to crock. Stir thoroughly. Cover crock with clean cloth and allow to ferment 4 or 5 days. Skim off foam after first and second days. Siphon beer into 12 ounce bottles. Before siphoning, place a scant 1/2 teaspoon of sugar into each bottle. Cap and allow to remain at 60-70F for 7-10 days. Cool and consume.
Things to remember: Cleanliness of utensils, including bottles, siphon hose, crowns and crock is essential for good results. Wash everything in soda solution or detergentbefore and after each batch. A 7 or 9 gallon crock can be used to prevent messy foam-over.

Many consumer failures can be averted by using a starter consisting of: 1 package of yeast, 2 ounces of sugar, 1 pint of 72F water. Let starter stand for 3-4 hours before mixing into crock with malt solution.

The story of that can be found in this episode of Basic Brewing Radio for 2008.

February 14, 2008 - Homebrew History
Charlie Papazian shares a bit of homebrew history 30 years after legislation legalizing home brewing passed Congress. Also, home brewer Robb Holmes talks about brewing when it was breaking the law.

Click to listen- mp3

Here's some more of the recipes from those days...

Here's some of the "Prohibition Pilsner" recipes that were discretely mailed to people who wrote to the blue ribbon malt extract company....They came in plain brown envelopes with no return address and were simple mimeographs.

Blue Ribbon 1

Blue Ribbon 2

My Daddy's Beer Recipe

Al Capone's Recipe (AG)

Al Capone's Prohibition Beer

Another one
Prohibition Chicago Style

Back at the beginning of Prohibition in the early '20s, the Pabst Brewing Company gave up; stopped brewing beer and sold its breweries. The buyer was a guy named Pearlstein who started a business called Premier Malt Products and used the breweries to make Blue Ribbon malt syrup, "for cooking." You could get the syrup with, or without, hops flavoring.

And by God, the cookbook suggests that plenty of dishes that would be oh so much better with a little malt syrup in them: breads and donuts and muffins, of course. And malt loaf, malted chocolate pudding, malted pecan pie, spaghetti and meatballs (with malt), macaroni and cheese (ditto), and even cheese omelets with malt.

All well and good. But what they forgot to mention in the cookbook was that you could use Blue Ribbon malt syrup to make, uh, beer. At home. During Prohibition.

tested_recipes_with_blue_ribbon_malt_extract.jpg


And it was a huge seller. "Ah, yah, I'll take a three-pound can of that fine malt syrup. With the hops flavoring. My wife she sure does make them fine malt, uh, PANCAKES, yah!"

When Prohibition ended, Pabst bought back the breweries and resumed making Pabst Blue Ribbon and other frothy alcoholic favorites. But they kept making Blue Ribbon Malt Syrup, too, because some people kept making their own beer, and other people actually did bake with the stuff.

Pabst unloaded Premier Malt Products in the '80s to private investors, and it soldiers on as a supplier of malt sweeteners and malt products to food processors and bakers. And, yes, the (ahem) "malt beverage industry." Just so you know.

White Bread.
3 quarts sifted flour
1 quart lukewarm water
2 cakes compressed yeast
½ tablespoon sugar
1 ½ tablespoons Blue Ribbon Malt Extract (hop flavored or plain)
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons lard or melted butter.
Dissolve yeast, sugar, and Blue Ribbon Malt Extract in lukewarm water. Add lard or butter and half the flour, beat until smooth. Add salt and balance of the flour, or enough to make dough that can be handled, knead well. Place in greased bowl, cover and set aside in a moderately warm place until light, about one and a half hours. Mould into loaves. Place in well-greased bread pans, filling them half full. Cover and let rise until double in bulk. Bake forty-five minutes to one hour at 400o F. If a richer loaf is desired, use milk in place of all or part of the water.

Soft Gingerbread

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspooon cloves
1 tsp each ginger and cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Blue Ribbon Malt Extract (malt flavored or plain)
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup boiling water
2 tsps soda
2 beaten eggs

Sift the dry ingredients together. Mix the molasses, shortening, Blue Ribbon Malt Extract, and water thoroughly with the boiling water. Add the beaten eggs. Add to the other ingredients, mix well. Bake in moderate oven at 325 degrees F until done -- about 45 minutes.
 
I don't see this book listed The private brewer's guide to the art of brewing ale and porter, John Tuck, 1822

This is the oldest homebrewing book I've read. It was published five years after the introduction of black patent, of which he was not a fan.

Today's malts are so much different that I think it is impossible to reproduce historic examples without malting your own.
I have already observed, that the real flavour of porter, as originally drank, is completely lost; and this by pale malts being introduced.
 
If I need info real quick for a review or something I just hit up Wikipedia with the beer style name and I have always gotten great info from there. Its nice because if you need it and you are not at your PC you can always hit up the Wikipedia app on the phone
 
Can't believe I missed this thread until now! When I get home tonight and finish bottling a batch with my dad, I will look up some of the materials from my "Brewing Sciences and Technologies" class last semester and see if I have anything to add. I wrote a paper on the reputation of American Beer and how prohibition affected it so I will look at my works cited on there as well!
 
Can't believe I missed this thread until now! When I get home tonight and finish bottling a batch with my dad, I will look up some of the materials from my "Brewing Sciences and Technologies" class last semester and see if I have anything to add. I wrote a paper on the reputation of American Beer and how prohibition affected it so I will look at my works cited on there as well!

That would be awesome!!!!!!!!
 
I can actually access my paper from when I turned in a digital copy so I am looking at it. My favorite line:
. In combination with refrigeration, the pasteurization stabilized the beer for a long enough period for breweries to start using railroad transportation. Pasteurization was applied to beer 22 years before it was adopted for milk by the dairy industry!
 
wow, revvy and everyone else who contributed. i just stumbled on this thread (while searching for info on al capone beer) its going to take me weeks to go through all the sites listed here.

i can see my favorites list getting bigger.

thank you so much.

i love the history of beer


cheers
brew on
 
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