Wort vs beer

[An Ankoù]

If fermentation begins spontaneously, who is responsible?

The brewer for letting his kit and or wort become infected.

 

[bwible]

I would say its not beer until
1) it has some significant % of intended alcohol in it
2) and you can drink it.

 

[bwible]

Ethanol is not an ingredient. One does not add alcohol to make beer. It's a byproduct...

Cheers!

Yes but even if I’m making coors light I’m looking for 4%. .25% is not beer

 

[bwible]

So I lead to the question “is NA beer really beer then?” I think alcohol has to be included in the definition of beer. There were a couple breweries who survived prohibition making na beers. Now if beer was illegal but they were allowed to brew na beers, then na beer didn’t fit the legal definition. At least at that time.

 

[randal-c]

Hmm... I already know the exact position of the wort/beer and I really don't care about its momentum.

This is why I named my brewery Decoherence

 

[mac_1103]

Decoherence occurs when I drink the wort that has become beer. The probability of this outcome is 1. So it is actually not decoherence at all.

 

[PCABrewing]

Hmm... I already know the exact position of the wort/beer and I really don't care about its momentum.

If you open a can of what you expect to be beer and a cat springs out, would you care about it's momentum?

 

[PCABrewing]

The brewer for letting his kit and or wort become infected.

But it may have been intentional..

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

So I lead to the question “is NA beer really beer then?” I think alcohol has to be included in the definition of beer. There were a couple breweries who survived prohibition making na beers. Now if beer was illegal but they were allowed to brew na beers, then na beer didn’t fit the legal definition. At least at that time.

I agree with this, but I also believe that a lot of NA beer does contain a very small percentage of alcohol.

 

[An Ankoù]

But it may have been intentional..

Indeed. Would that make him or her any less responsible?

 

[BrewZer]

If you open a can of what you expect to be beer and a cat springs out, would you care about it's momentum?

It depends -- is the cat dead or alive?

 

[worlddivides]

I've often heard that phrase that goes something like "Brewers make wort. Yeast make beer." So would you be able to consider wort "beer" just by adding yeast to it when the yeast haven't even done anything yet? I think that beer is the product of what yeast do to the wort. The esters, the alcohols, the various flavor compounds, the biotransformation or whatever. Simply adding dead yeast to a beer that never end up fermenting it or adding viable yeast that just haven't done anything yet does not suddenly transform wort into beer. In fact, if you drank the wort before adding the yeast and then drank the wort after adding the yeast, they would taste 100% the same with zero detectable differences because there literally was no difference. On the other hand, tasting the wort at that point (regardless of whether there is yeast in it or not) and then comparing it to 4 weeks later after the fermentation was completely done, they would taste nothing alike. Beer is the result of wort having been fermented by yeast (and potentially other microorganisms as well) and I doubt anyone could convince me otherwise. Even non-alcoholic beer is usually just regular beer that has had most or all of the alcohol removed from it.

 

[shoengine]

It depends -- is the cat dead or alive?

Burying the lede...

 

[marc1]

If it gets you drunk, it's beer.

If it gives you diabetes, it's wort.......

Smoothie sour - I see no reason why a beverage cannot do both

 

[whoaru99]

So I lead to the question “is NA beer really beer then?” I think alcohol has to be included in the definition of beer. There were a couple breweries who survived prohibition making na beers. Now if beer was illegal but they were allowed to brew na beers, then na beer didn’t fit the legal definition. At least at that time.

NA beer is generally defined by having 0.5% or less.

0% is alcohol-free beer.

 

[whoaru99]

Or, it's both.

Perhaps most importantly in the context asked by the OP. Except it was left open so both works.

 

[worlddivides]

NA beer is generally defined by having 0.5% or less.

0% is alcohol-free beer.

It differs from country to country. In Japan it's under 1.0%. I know in some it's 1.0% and in others it's 0.5%.

 

[whoaru99]

I believe that's the definition in the UK. In the US and Japan, I'm pretty sure the definition of non-alcoholic is "under 1.0%."

I'm pretty sure it's 0.5%

I know with certainty that is the case in the state where I live.

 

[worlddivides]

I'm pretty sure it's 0.5%

I know with certainty that is the case in the state where I live.

Yeah, I looked it up. It's 0.5% in the US. In some countries it's 1.0%. Apparently in a lot of European countries such as Italy and Finland it's under 1.2%. Not sure why it's 1.2% and not 1.0% in those countries. In Norway it's 0.7%.

I'm not sure why I remember it being 1.0% in the US when apparently it's been 0.5% since the Volstead Act in 1919.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

After 58 posts the OP must have given up by now.

Interesting thread and responses though.

 

[BrewZer]

I've often heard that phrase that goes something like "Brewers make wort. Yeast make beer." So would you be able to consider wort "beer" just by adding yeast to it when the yeast haven't even done anything yet? I think that beer is the product of what yeast do to the wort. The esters, the alcohols, the various flavor compounds, the biotransformation or whatever. Simply adding dead yeast to a beer that never end up fermenting it or adding viable yeast that just haven't done anything yet does not suddenly transform wort into beer. In fact, if you drank the wort before adding the yeast and then drank the wort after adding the yeast, they would taste 100% the same with zero detectable differences because there literally was no difference. On the other hand, tasting the wort at that point (regardless of whether there is yeast in it or not) and then comparing it to 4 weeks later after the fermentation was completely done, they would taste nothing alike. Beer is the result of wort having been fermented by yeast (and potentially other microorganisms as well) and I doubt anyone could convince me otherwise. Even non-alcoholic beer is usually just regular beer that has had most or all of the alcohol removed from it.

There's a whole world of gueze and lambics that insist brewers don't even need to add anything to their wort to get beer.

 

[Broothru]

It depends -- is the cat dead or alive?

Both. Or perhaps, neither.

 

[Broken Crow]