Olden Days Beer?

[rodwha]

I had read, many moons ago, how in the olden days somewhere there was problem with the water source and they made ~2.5% beer. Is this right? Can anyone steer me in the direction to learn a bit more?
I'm a bit curious about that and would like to brew a tiny batch just to see what it was like.

 

[Stauffbier]

A lot of Europeans did this in the past. German children would drink 2%(ish) beers with breakfast in many families...

 

[landshark]

I've brewed a 2.8% beer. was a Kolsch I had horrible efficiency with. Just tasted weak to me. Decent for a really hot day. That's about it.

 

[yodalegomaster]

I am making lot's of session beers, Like a Mild split into 5 batches. or a light blond with fruit extract, nothing over 3.0. from a ten gallon batch to 25 gallons of session beer. I just did one with a huge difference in hops that took some fooling with, but it works. I made 10 gallons of Kolsch and 15 gallons of pale\IPA all out of the same brew day. All session beers!

 

[iambeer]

I really like session beer as well. I brewed two dark english milds as a learning exercise and since then I have decided I will be brewing many different types of milds if I can help it. Most recipes I have looked at appear to be english malty types. There's definitely a challenge worth checking out in trying to make a beer tasty but low ABV.

 

[TopherM]

Check out the history of saison/farmhouse ales:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saison

 

[unionrdr]

You could also search for small beers. That's what they were called in colonial times. A common table beer that was drunk during the day by all,including children. It was safer than the water to them,being Europeans. It was made from the second runnings of the mashed grains.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

I had read, many moons ago, how in the olden days somewhere there was problem with the water source and they made ~2.5% beer. Is this right? Can anyone steer me in the direction to learn a bit more?
I'm a bit curious about that and would like to brew a tiny batch just to see what it was like.

Yep, it was commonplace back in the middle ages, and even earlier to make a low ABV "table beer" with the poor quality water. These were different from the typical drinking ales of the time (gruit type ales in the middle ages) and were served as thirst quenchers, in leu of the unsafe water.

 

[rodwha]

I'm interested in making a very small batch to try just to see what it was like.

 

[evrose]

I'm interested in making a very small batch to try just to see what it was like.

Oh that's easy. Just go buy a six-pack of Bud Light, mix it with 30% toilet water to dilute it down and give it an Earthy, gritty taste, let it sit in the sun for a few months, serve warm.

Bam, Medieval Table Beer.

 

[j1laskey]

Pretty Things is a fantastic Boston based brewery that has done this with great success. Here are some links.

http://www.prettythingsbeertoday.com/wp/

http://www.oldbeers.com/

 

[rodwha]

"Oh that's easy. Just go buy a six-pack of Bud Light, mix it with 30% toilet water to dilute it down and give it an Earthy, gritty taste, let it sit in the sun for a few months, serve warm.

Bam, Medieval Table Beer."

What I would have figured the norm would have been.

My friend seems to believe it wasn't carbonated, and claims most beers, especially German, were not.

 

[unionrdr]

It's currently thought that carbonation 1st occured when folks would get some beer to take home i9n ceramic bottles with stoppers or the like. By the time it was poured,it had some carbonation. Medieval Europe. I tend to agree with this type of scenario in the basic sense.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Oh that's easy. Just go buy a six-pack of Bud Light, mix it with 30% toilet water to dilute it down and give it an Earthy, gritty taste, let it sit in the sun for a few months, serve warm.

Bam, Medieval Table Beer.

There's a novel idea.

OP, traditionally, small or table beers were made with the second or subsequent runnings from a higher gravity brew. That 'small' beer was then hopped or spiced in a separate boil. In medieval times, they didn't use hops to flavor beer. Juniper, heather, henbane, yarrow and many other herbs and spices were used. According to this wikipedia article, some of these flavorings were mildly narcotic and thus enhanced even a low ABV beverage.
I've been wanting to do a gruit ale, not necessarily a small beer, but one using no hops and malts that're more typical of the malt they used several hundred years ago. Lotta good information out there on how to go about this.