Topic: Brewing History
Making Pre-Prohibition Beers: Tips from the Pros
Digital and Plus Members OnlyWhen American Prohibition started in 1920 (and earlier in some U.S. states) the doors forever closed at many American breweries. Beer styles changed after the repeal of Prohibition and many recipes were lost forever. But, a number of breweries are now trying to replicate beers from the past, and you can at home too. Brewer:
How Did Hops End Up in Beer?
Digital and Plus Members OnlyPhoto courtesy of Walter Konig There are some 350,000 known plant species on earth, but only one of them, Humulus lupulus, the hop plant, has become the universal flavoring agent for beer. Sure, brewers occasionally use other flavorings in their beers, such as coriander, passion fruit, or orange peel. Statistically, however, the perennial, herbaceous, creeping,
Brewing Historical Porters & Stouts
Digital and Plus Members OnlyI have attempted to brew versions of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century porters and stouts that do not always fit our modern definitions, but are simply good beers in their own right. In other words, you might find it rewarding to brew one or more of them. Although I have tried hard to reconstruct these beers as
Brewing Ancient Nordic Grog
Digital and Plus Members Only“I’m lucky I get to do this,” Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Owner and Brewmaster states in no uncertain terms when asked about one of his latest “archaeobeer” projects: Kvasir. This 3,500-year-old “Nordic grog,” is the seventh beer in a series of brewing collaborations between Calagione and famed fermented beverage archeologist Dr. Patrick McGovern
Historical Homebrew – HammerSmith Ales
Digital and Plus Members OnlyThe history of the city of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is inextricably linked with brewing. At some city festivals, for instance, you might witness the resurrection of 19th-century Moravian city brewer-turned-mayor Johann Sebastian Goundie. In reality, the man behind the kettle is Christopher Bowen, a modern day brewing Renaissance man. A prodigious homebrewer, Bowen has become a
Schwarzviertler — A Shadowy Dunkel From A “Dark Block”
Digital and Plus Members OnlyThis article is about an unusual, very dark Bavarian dunkel called Schwarzviertler that I encountered during my peregrinations through the world of beer. It is made by Braumeister Cornelius Faust of Brauhaus Faust in Miltenberg, Germany, which has arguably one of the most storied and least known histories of any brewery in Germany. The name
Drewrys Brewery: Celebrating History with Cream Ale
Digital and Plus Members OnlyIn 1933, when the United States was deep in the throes of the Great Depression, patience with the thirteen-year-old “noble experiment” of Prohibition had waned. It had turned millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens into scofflaws and provided a huge source of income for organized criminals who were only too happy to cater to the public’s
Origins of Lager Yeast
Digital and Plus Members OnlyThe domestication of barley coincides with the first year-round settlements of early humans, who were previously nomadic. This event occurred in the Fertile Crescent — the region surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and sometimes extended to include the Nile Delta — 6,000 years ago. In this same time period, brewing was invented, as shown
Black is Beautiful: Black Malts
Digital and Plus Members OnlyMy mother’s favorite phrase for a really dark place was “It’s as black as Newgate’s Knocker!” This derived from the infamous Newgate prison where public executions of criminals were carried out in the 18th and 19th centuries. I suppose the connection was that once you went through the door of Newgate you would soon be
Porter Beginnings
Digital and Plus Members OnlyIf you have read any of my other articles in Brew Your Own you will know that I have a great interest in trying to reproduce historical beers. The beer that really sparked my interest was porter, perhaps because it was first brewed in the 18th century in London, the city where I was born.
Tesgüino
Digital and Plus Members OnlyThe Sacred Corn Beer of the Sierra Madre
Prohibition Porter
Digital and Plus Members OnlyA couple homebrewers brewed a real Prohibition-era beer with malt extract from the 1920s.