How were recipes made in the olden days?

[PupThePup]

Today, there's tons of software to make beer recipes. You can make beer recipes on your watch if you want.... It's a commodity (what isn't?).

Today, there's tons of highly modified malt available. It's a commodity (what isn't?).

Today, there's tons of yeast varieties available. It's a commodity (what isn't?).

Experienced all grain brewers know that simple recipes usually equate to good beer.

Question: How were recipes created in the days of yore? (Or were they?)

I think they had no choice but to keep their "recipes" simple (SMASH). They used what they had on hand or what nature gave them. Thus the different styles from different parts of the world.

Question: How did BMC start their recipes? If you compared a BMC from days of yore with one today what would you notice?

 

[iaefebs]

If a man dwells on the past, then he robs the present. But if a man ignores the past, he may rob the future. The seeds of our destiny are nurtured by the roots of our past.



Just some stupid **** to say but your question was great.

 

[reinstone]

trial and error-that is how beer orginated

 

[reinstone]

mainly error-or how do I say-----a great error

 

[LandoLincoln]

Depends on what you mean by "olden days." Beer's been around for thousands of years. You're going to have to be more specific.

 

[reinstone]

mainly error-or how do I say-----a great error

 

[HollisBT]

Trial and error, and math...


Believe it or not, but you can actually calculate out gravity, bittering units, etc by using math, like with a pencil and paper, like the cavemen used to do it.

Also, looking back at beers historically, like you asked about, I think you would see that the recipes changed to keep up with a changing market, prices, and becaue they simply had to (for historical reasons).

The OP in this thread makes me scared that the movie idiocracy is VERY accurate...

 

[reinstone]

caveman, paper, pencil= a picture of a bull drawn on a wall with blood...

 

[theveganbrewer]

Budweiser started when Busch traveled to Europe to study European brewing techniques and came back to the US to tinker around at his father in laws brewery (Anheuser). They were drinking darker beers here at the time but Busch introduced the light lager and it took off from there.

So basically he learned from others, then emulated the and tweaked the recipe. Like HBT without internet

 

[45_70sharps]

Man, that's like asking how did they cook.

They used what they had and came up with stuff they liked.
Some of the beers that you brew today would have been hard if not impossible for some of the people of the past because of what they had around them, just like making pepperoni pizza would have been hard on the Oregon trail.

On the Oregon trail, they had elk and buffalo steaks ( or whatever was available ). That might just be better than a pizza.
The same with beer.
Read some of the old recipes. I believe that Thomas Jefferson's recipe is published. Many others too I'm sure.

 

[charliefoxtrot]

One thing I've found is that if it tastes good before it goes in the fermentor, it tastes pretty good when it comes out too (as long as some little bugger doesn't replace it with vinegar when you're not looking). Presumably trial and error went into the specifics; more grain led to stronger beer, more hops led to less spoilage, etc. But those are easy to figure out.

As for calculating specific gravities, IBU values, or even mashing targets, I've read a lot of old beer recipes and I'm not convinced they were very worried about those things. Most mash schedules were pretty loose, either a pretty loosely controlled infusion or (for the most advanced german brewers) a decoction mash, and you can easily figure out the best temps and times for those after a couple of mashes.

As for all the other elements of brewing, until the 19th century there was very little in the way of specialty grain or hops obsession; mostly brewers just went with whatever they could get locally, and played with it until they got a good result.

 

[fuzzy2133]

so being new to brewing what are the equations to manually calculate IBU's and SRM?

I am a firm believer in don't let technology make you ignorant.

 

[HollisBT]

so being new to brewing what are the equations to manually calculate IBU's and SRM?

I am a firm believer in don't let technology make you ignorant.

http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/04/29/beer-color-understanding-srm-lovibond-and-ebc/

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5-5.html