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2011-07-04T13:53:00.002-05:00

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2011-06-29T20:51:00.002-05:00

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Why bother home brewing beer?

2011-06-04T17:53:00.000-05:00

Brewing beer at home is a popular pastime for many people.
Even in the UK where the public house culture is very strong, home brewing beer has a big following.
Successive governments have increased the tax on buying beer in pubs and so many people have looked to save money by making beer at home.
There are both plus points and minus points to home brewing beer.
The big advantage often cited by those who make beer at home is that they can select their own ingredients.
The reason why this is an advantage is that people who brew beer at home can be sure they are using only good quality ingredients.
For many people this means only using organically grown crops for the ingredients.
By home brewing beer they can be sure that they will drink beer that does not contain any artificial chemicals or additives.

People who home brew beer generally are confident they will have a constant supply of beer, which is especially good for when guests unexpectedly arrive or
a ball game is on the television. As the raw ingredients of beer are simple (they are just water, malt, yeast and hops), a home beer brewer can make beer in
regular batches and store in the garden shed or outhouse. Lots of people find the very act of brewing beer a relaxing act and a stress reducer, even before
they have tasted the fruits of their labour.
However, it is worth noting that home brewing beer is not for everyone. The first big disadvantage is that if you don't brew your beer correctly you could
end up with a concoction that tastes horrible; something that you would not be proud of serving up to your friends. Even if you know what you are doing, just
one mistake could lead to a ruined batch of beer both in looks and taste.
A second negative for home brewing beer is that it takes a lot of time and effort. For most people it is much easier to pop into the supermarket on the way
home from work and buy their beer than to wait for between thirty to thirty five days for a home brew. Beer making takes a long time; around ten to twelve hours
for brewing and over a month for the beer to age.
Home beer making has become easier over the years. In the past at the very minimum it would have been necessary to mix the brew carefully, constantly check the
gravity of the fermenting brew and then at precisely the right time transfer the brew into a barrel or bottles. However things have been simplified by the introduction
of home brewing kits. In most cases these kits have a fermentation vessel that both looks and works like a barrel and this makes the entire process much easier to manage.
The brewing and aging happen in this vessel. It just needs to be kept in a warm place for a few weeks and then when it is ready poor out directly.
The risk of contaminates entering the brew during fermentation and aging is vastly reduced. It is possible to get a whole range of different beer types in home brew kits,
even lager. Home beer making really is a lot easier than it used to be.
For me the advantages of making beer at home far outweigh the disadvantages. The taste of home made beer is pretty unique.
There is a wide range of beer types you can make. You can make it as mild or as strong as you like. You have control over the ingredients you can use.
As you become more experienced you can move from the safety of home brewing kits to making your beer right from scratch. It is a relaxing pastime and provides you
with an immediate topic of conversation when friends come around to visit. All in all home brewing beer is lots of fun. Try it.

Bohemian Pilsner

2011-05-26T19:11:00.000-05:00

Beer Style: lager, pilsner
Recipe Type: extract

Description:
I have a question about a Bohemian Pilsner I'm brewing. Well, I tasted the stuff in the carboy. It's REALLY SWEET, as compared to most brews I've had, and color is a dark gold.

Ingredients:
3.3 lbs. Northwestern Gold ME
4.0 lbs. Alexander's Pale ME
2.0 oz. Saaz plugs (60 minutes-bittering)
1.0 oz. Saaz plugs (30 minutes-flavor)
1.0 oz. Saaz plugs (2 minutes-aroma)
1/2 oz Saaz plugs (dry hop)
Wyeast Bohemian Yeast directly from the pack(no starter)

FG: 1013

Procedure:
I boiled the extract, 1 1/2 gallons water and hops as indicated in the recipe for one hour. Added everything by siphoning into a plastic water jug with 3 gallons cold water. Topped off with cold water. Waited for everything to drop to 65 and pitched the yeast. I let the stuff sit at around 65 for 1 day and then placed it in the back room of my basement where it sits at a nice 45 all day and night.
I racked to a secondary after 12 days (glass carboy) and dry hopped. It's been in the secondary for two days now and I took a SG reading and got 1.013. I had completely forgotten to take an OG reading, but looking at other Pilsner recipies, it seems 1.021 is a common final gravity.

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American Premium Pilsner

2011-05-24T14:50:00.000-05:00

Beer Style: Lager,Pilsner

Recipe Type: all-grain

Description:
For anyone wishing to reproduce "American Premium-style" pilsner beer -- here is my all-grain offering for 5 gallons. This makes a remarkable beer with an incredible Cascade nose and an edge-of-the-tongue bitterness perception -- This is one to convince the 'non-homebrewing' friend that you really know what you are doing!
I hope that some ambitious person with a spare fridge can use this recipe -- it is 100% my own formulation -- if anyone finds something to adjust here, please let me know and I'll give it a try!

Ingredients:
6 lbs Lager malt (I use 2-row, but 6-row is appropriate for the amount of adjuncts)
1 lb Mild ale malt
1 lb Rice
1/2 lb Flaked barley
1/2 lb Flaked maize
4 oz Malto-dextrin powder
3/4 oz Saaz (4.2%AA for 90min)
1/4 oz Saaz (4.2%AA for 30min)
1 oz Cascade (4.9%AA for 2min)
1 oz Cascade (4.9%AA for dry-hopping)
Nottingham Ale yeast (dry -- I know, I NEVER use dry yeast...) or Wyeast #2112 California Lager (optional)

Procedure:
Boil rice for 30 minutes and add grains and water for mash --
First rest at 94F for 30 minutes to help breakdown the adjuncts --
Raise temp to 122F for 30 minutes for protein degradation --
Raise temp to 140F for 15 minutes for better head retention and clarity --
Raise temp to 153F for 45 minutes for starch conversion --
Raise temp to 158F for 20 minutes for complete conversion --
Mashout at 168F for 10 minutes -- Sparge w/168F water at < 6 pH -- Add 1/4 oz Saaz -- boil 30 min -- Add 1 oz Cascade -- boil 2 min -- Force chill (if possible) -- rack to primary and aerate -- Rehydrate Nottingham yeast and pitch at 65F -- Ferment for 4-7 days or until no noticeable airlock activity -- Rack to secondary -- Drop temp to 55F -- Pitch Wyeast #2112 starter (>=400ml) at 55F --
Drop temp to 34-40F for 4-6 weeks (or until you decide to bottle) --

72 hours before bottling:
Add 1 oz Cascade directly to secondary --
48 hours before bottling:
Add your favorite clarifier (if necessary), gelatine, polyclar, etc --
24 hours before bottling:
Raise temp to 60F:

Bottle and let sit at 60F for 1 week, then drop temp back down for either extended lagering (34-45F) or for drinking (48-55) --Boil wort and add 3/4 oz Saaz -- boil 60 min –

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2011-05-22T20:48:00.003-05:00

The Law of Success

American Pre-Prohibition Lager

2011-05-21T12:10:00.002-05:00

Beer Style:	lager, American lager, pilsner, corn, maize
Recipe Type	all-grain
Description: In HBD #1687 a fine upstanding young American known as Jeff Renner (nerenner@umich.edu) wrote at great length about his " *Great Success in Recreating Classic American Pilsner , a Shamefully Neglected Style!*" . I too read Dr. Fix's article with great interest and formulated a recipe for a "corn beer'. I loved it. My thirsty freeloading friends loved it. And I agree with Jeff that red blooded Americans should learn to love it again. This recipe is a direct adaptation from the Brewing Techniques article by Dr. Fix.

Ingredients:

5.00 lb. Flaked Maize
17.00 lb. Pale Ale
1.25 oz. Chinook 13.9% 60 min
2.25 oz. N. Brewer 7.9% 30 min
1.00 oz. Tettnanger 6.2% 15 min
Bavarian lager yeast

Procedure:
Mash schedule = 95 for 15 min., 122 for 30 min., 138 for 15 min., 154 for 45 min., mash out for 15 min. at 164.

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Easy Pilsner Partial Mash

2011-05-20T09:06:00.007-05:00

Beer Style:	Pilsner
Recipe Type	partial mash
Description: Light amber color with a great bitter bite and a hint of sweetness. Aroma - well your kitchen will smell better than a budweiser brewery while bottling.

Ingredients:

2 lbs of pilsner cracked barley 2 row
1 Edme pilsner hopped liquid malt extract kit (comes with yeast)
4 cups of light DME
2 cups of dextrose
1 teaspoon of irish moss
4 1/2 gallons of Arrowhead water
1 10lb bag of ice
3/4 cup cane sugar
One-Step Sanitizer

FG: Should be 6-7% alc. by vol. Primary Ferment: 5 days Secondary Ferment: 2 weeks for aging

Procedure:

Bring two gallons of water and the 2 lbs of grains up to 155 degrees in STEEL (not alum) pot. Mash for at least 1 hour for conversion. Pour in the dry and liquid malt extracts; add the dextrose and one gallon of water, and boil for 30 min. Add 1 teaspoon of Irish Moss and boil another 15 min.

Pour the remaining water into your fermenter along with the ice. Make sure the fermenter is completely sanitized.

Carefully pour the mash into the fermenter over a large fine mesh strainer to catch any solids. The temperature will come out to 70-80 degrees. Pitch your yeast ASAP to avoid contamination. Place bin in a dark warm (70-80 degrees) place and let sit for 5 days.

Boil 3/4 cup of cane sugar with 1 pint of water for 15 min to break it down from a disaccharide to a monosaccharide that yeast can eat. Pour the solution into your fermenter and give it a good stir. Let settle for 7-10 min. Then bottle into sterilized containers, and let sit for another 2 weeks in same spot used for primary fermenting.

Chill to desired temp and enjoy.

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A Pictoral Story: The History of Beer

2011-05-20T08:39:00.007-05:00

By Sean Percival on April 15th, 2009
Downloaded from Manolith

History of Beer

2011-05-18T10:46:00.002-05:00

Beer is one of the world's oldest beverages, with the history of beer dating back to the 6th millennium BC, and being recorded in the written history of Ancient Iraq. The earliest Sumerian writings contain references to beer. A prayer to the goddess Ninkasiknown as "The Hymn to Ninkasi" serves as both a prayer as well as a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people.
As almost any substance containing carbohydrates, mainly sugar or starch, can naturally undergo fermentation, it is likely that beer-like beverages were independently invented among various cultures throughout the world. The invention of bread and beer has been argued to be responsible for humanity's ability to develop technology and build civilization. The earliest chemically confirmed barley beer to date was discovered at Godin Tepe in the central Zagros Mountains of Iran, ca. 3400-3000 B.C. (Chalcolithic/Late Uruk Period).
Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe as far back as 3000 BC, and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale.
Beer produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a domestic scale, although by the 7th century AD beer was also being produced and sold by European monasteries. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, and domestic manufacture ceased to be significant by the end of the 19th century. The development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process, and greater knowledge of the results.
Today, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging frombrewpubs to regional breweries. More than 133 billion liters (35 billion gallons) are sold per year—producing total global revenues of $294.5 billion (£147.7 billion) in 2006.
History
Historical documentation shows that around 5,000 years ago, ancient Chinese civilizations were brewing a beer-like substance known as kui.
In ancient Mesopotamia, clay tablets indicate that brewing was a fairly well respected occupation during the time, and that the majority of brewers were women. The discovery that reuse of the same container for fermenting the mash provided more reliable results was an early one: brewers on the move carried their tubs with them.
The Ebla tablets, discovered in 1974 in Ebla, Syria, which date to 2500 BC, reveal that the city produced a range of beers, including one that appears to be named "Ebla" after the city. Early traces of beer and the brewing process have been found in ancient Babylonia as well. At the time, brewers were women as well, but also priestesses. Some types of beers were used especially in religious ceremonies. In 2100 BC, the Babylonian king Hammurabi included regulations governing tavern keepers in his law code for the kingdom.
Beer was part of the daily diet of Egyptian Pharaohs over 5,000 years ago. Then, it was made from baked barley bread, and was also used in religious practices.
The role of beer in Egyptian society was far greater than just a drink. Often, beer was prescribed to treat various illnesses. Beer was considered to be the most proper gift to give to Egyptian Pharaohs, and it was also offered as a sacrifice to the gods.
Based on historical evidence, it appears that the Egyptians taught the Greeks the beer brewing process. The Greek writer Sophocles (450 BC) discussed the concept of moderation when it came to consuming beer in Greek culture, and believed that the best diet for Greeks consisted of bread, meats, various types of vegetables, and beer or "ζῦθος" (zythos) as they called it.
In contrast to the Egyptians and Sumerians, "beer never played an important role among the drinking customs of the land of Israel." This is the current state of archaeology pronounced by the Jewish Museum, New York and Jerusalem, relating to the practices of Ancient Israelites.
The process of brewing beer grew tremendously during the rise of Christianity. This was primarily because of the roles that monks had in the production of beer. Monasteries were some of the first organizations to brew beer as a trade. Monks built breweries as part of their efforts to provide food, shelter and drink to various travelers and pilgrims.
A large number of Christian saints are patrons of brewing. Saint Augustine of Hippo, Saint Arnulf of Metz, Saint Luke the Evangelist, and Saint Nicholas all are considered to be patrons of brewing.
Emperor Charlemagne, the ruler of the Christian kingdom around 770 AD considered beer to be an important part of living, and is often thought to have trained Christian brewers himself.[19]
As in ancient times, women were the primary brewers during the Middle Ages. Women took over brewing after the monasteries had really established the process.

Early beers
As almost any cereal containing certain sugars can undergo spontaneous fermentation due to wild yeasts in the air, it is possible that beer-like beverages were independently developed throughout the world soon after a tribe or culture had domesticated cereal. Chemical tests of ancient pottery jars reveal that beer was produced about 5,500 years ago in what is today Iran, and was one of the first-known biological engineering tasks where the biological process of fermentation is used. Also recent archaeological findings showing that Chinese villagers were brewing fermented alcoholic drinks as far back as 7000 BC on small and individual scale, with the production process and methods similar to that of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
In Mesopotamia (Ancient Iraq), early evidence of beer is a 3900-year-old Sumerian poem honoring Ninkasi, the patron goddess of brewing, which contains the oldest surviving beer recipe, describing the production of beer from barley via bread.
“Ninkasi, you are the one
You are the one who holds with both hands the great sweet wort...
Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the filtered beer of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.”
Beer is also mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which the 'wild man' Enkidu is given beer to drink. "...he ate until he was full, drank seven pitchers of beer, his heart grew light, his face glowed and he sang out with joy."
Confirmed written evidence of ancient beer production in Armenia can be obtained from Xenophon in his work Anabasis (5th century B.C.) when he was in one of the ancient Armenian villages in which he wrote (Book 4, V).“
There were stores within of wheat and barley and vegetables, and wine made from barley in great big bowls; the grains of barley malt lay floating in the beverage up to the lip of the vessel, and reeds lay in them, some longer, some shorter, without joints; when you were thirsty you must take one of these into your mouth, and suck. The beverage without admixture of water was very strong, and of a delicious flavour to certain palates, but the taste must be acquired.”
Beer became vital to all the grain-growing civilizations of Eurasian and North African antiquity, including Egypt—so much so that in 1868 James Death put forward a theory in The Beer of the Bible that the manna from heaven that God gave the Israelites was a bread-based, porridge-like beer called wusa.
These beers were often thick, more of a gruel than a beverage, and drinking straws were used by the Sumerians to avoid the bitter solids left over from fermentation. Though beer was drunk in Ancient Rome, it was replaced in popularity by wine.[26] Tacitus wrote disparagingly of the beer brewed by the Germanic peoples of his day.Thracians were also known to consume beer made from rye, even since the 5th century BC, as Hellanicus of Lesbos says. Their name for beer was brutos, or brytos. The Romans called their brew cerevisia, from the Celtic word for it.
Ancient Nubians had used beer as an antibiotic medicine.
Medieval Europe
Beer was one of the most common drinks during the Middle Ages. It was consumed daily by all social classes in the northern and eastern parts of Europe where grapecultivation was difficult or impossible[citation needed]. Though wine of varying qualities was the most common drink in the south, beer was still popular among the lower classes. Since the purity of water could seldom be guaranteed, alcoholic drinks were a popular choice, having been boiled as part of the brewing process. Beer also provided a considerable amount of the daily calories in the northern regions. In England and the Low Countries, the per capita consumption was 275-300 liters (60-66 gallons) a year by the Late Middle Ages, and beer was drunk with every meal.[citation needed] Though probably one of the most popular drinks in Europe, beer was disdained by science as being unhealthy, mostly because ancient Greek and more contemporary Arab physicians had little or no experience with the drink. In 1256, the Aldobrandino of Siena described the nature of beer in the following way:
“But from whichever it is made, whether from oats, barley or wheat, it harms the head and the stomach, it causes bad breath and ruins the teeth, it fills the stomach with bad fumes, and as a result anyone who drinks it along with wine becomes drunk quickly; but it does have the property of facilitating urination and makes one's flesh white and smooth.”
The use of hops in beer was written of in 822 by a Carolingian Abbot. Flavoring beer with hops was known at least since the 9th century, but was only gradually adopted because of difficulties in establishing the right proportions of ingredients. Before that, gruit, a mix of various herbs, had been used, but did not have the same conserving properties as hops. Beer flavored without it was often spoiled soon after preparation and could not be exported. The only other alternative was to increase the alcohol content, which was rather expensive. Hopped beer was perfected in the towns of Germany by the 13th century, and the longer lasting beer, combined with standardized barrel sizes, allowed for large-scale export. The German towns also pioneered a new scale of operation and a level of professionalization. Previously beer had been brewed at home, but the production was now successfully replaced by medium-sized operations of about eight to ten people. This type of production spread to Holland in the 14th century and later to Flanders, Brabant and reached England by the late 15th century.
English ale and beer brewing were carried out by separately, no brewer being allowed to produce both. The Brewers Company of London stated "no hops, herbs, or other like thing be put into any ale or liquore wherof ale shall be made — but only liquor (water), malt, and yeast." This comment is sometimes misquoted as a prohibition on hopped beer. However, hopped beer was opposed by some, eg.
Ale is made of malte and water; and they the which do put any other thynge to ale than is rehersed, except yest, barme, or goddesgood [three words for yeast], doth sophysticat there ale. Ale for an Englysshe man is a naturall drinke. Ale muste haue these properties, it muste be fresshe and cleare, it muste not be ropy, nor smoky, nor it must haue no wefte nor tayle. Ale shulde not be dronke vnder .v. dayes olde …. Barly malte maketh better ale than Oten malte or any other corne doth … Beere is made of malte, of hoppes, and water; it is a naturall drynke for a doche [Dutch] man, and nowe of late dayes it is moche vsed in Englande to the detryment of many Englysshe men … for the drynke is a colde drynke. Yet it doth make a man fatte, and doth inflate the bely, as it doth appere by the doche mennes faces and belyes.
Early modern Europe
In Europe, beer largely remained a homemaker's activity, made in the home in medieval times. The oldest still operating commercial brewery is the Weihenstephan (Bavaria) abbey brewery, which obtained the brewing rights from the nearby town ofFreising in 1040. By the 14th and 15th centuries, beermaking was gradually changing from a family-oriented activity to an artisan one, with pubs and monasteries brewing their own beer for mass consumption.
In 15th century England, an unhopped beer would have been known as an ale, while the use of hops would make it a beer. Hopped beer was imported to England from the Netherlands as early as 1400 in Winchester, and hops were being planted on the island by 1428. The popularity of hops was at first mixed—the Brewers Company of London went so far as to state "no hops, herbs, or other like thing be put into any ale or liquore wherof ale shall be made—but only liquor (water), malt, and yeast." However, by the 16th century, "ale" had come to refer to any strong beer, and all ales and beers were hopped, giving rise to the verse noted by the curious antiquary John Aubrey
Greeks, Heresie, Turkey-cocks and Beer
Came into England all in a year.
the year, according to Aubrey, being the fifteenth of Henry VIII (1524).
In 1516, William IV, Duke of Bavaria, adopted the Reinheitsgebot (purity law), perhaps the oldest food regulation still in use through the 20th Century (the Reinheitsgebot passed formally from German law in 1987). The Gebot ordered that the ingredients of beer be restricted to water, barley, and hops; yeast was added to the list after Louis Pasteur's discovery in 1857. The Bavarian law was applied throughout Germany as part of the 1871 German unification as the German Empire under Otto von Bismarck, and has since been updated to reflect modern trends in beer brewing. To this day, the Gebot is considered a mark of purity in beers, although this is controversial.
Most beers until relatively recent times were top-fermented. Bottom-fermented beers were discovered by accident in the 16th century after beer was stored in cool caverns for long periods; they have since largely outpaced top-fermented beers in terms of volume.
Asia
There is pre-historic evidence that shows brewing began around 5400 BC in Sumer (southern Iraq). Some recent archaeological finds also show that Chinese villagers were brewing alcoholic drinks as far back as 7000 BC. However, as with the history of corn whiskey, the production of other alcoholic beverages is often seen as a way to preserve excess grain, rather than an occupation in and of itself.
Documented evidence and recently excavated tombs indicate that the Chinese brewed alcoholic beverages from both malted grain and grain converted by mold from prehistoric times, but that the malt conversion process was largely considered inefficient in comparison with the use of molds specially cultivated on rice carrier (the resulting molded rice being called 酒麴 in Chinese and Koji in Japanese) to convert cooked rice into fermentable sugars, both in the amount of resulting fermentable sugars and the residual by products (the Chinese use the dregs left after fermenting the rice, called 酒糟, as a cooking ingredient in many dishes, frequently as an ingredient to sauces where Western dishes would use wine), because the rice undergoes starch conversion after being hulled and cooked, rather than whole and in husks like barley malt. Furthermore, the hop plant being unknown in East Asia, malt-based alcoholic beverages did not preserve well over time, and the use of malt in the production of alcoholic beverages gradually fell out of favor in China until disappearing from Chinese history by the end of the Tang Dynasty. The use of rice became dominant, such that wines from fruits of any type were historically all but unknown except as imports in China.
The production of alcoholic beverage from cooked rice converted by microbes continue to this day, and some classify such beverages (米酒mijiu in Chinese and Sake in Japanese) as beers since they are made from converted starch rather than fruit sugars. However, this is a debatable point, and such beverages are generally referred to as "rice wine" or "sake" which is really the generic Chinese and Japanese word for all alcoholic beverages.
Some Pacific island cultures ferment starch that has been converted to fermentable sugars by human saliva, similar to the chicha of South America. This practice is also used by many other tribes around the world, who either chew the grain and then spit it into the fermentation vessel or spit into a fermentation vessel containing cooked grain, which is then sealed up for the fermentation. Enzymes in the spittle convert the starch into fermentable sugars, which are fermented by wild yeast. Whether or not the resulting product can be called beer is sometimes disputed, since:
1. As with Asian rice-based liquors, it does not involve malting.
2. This method is often used with starches derived from sources other than grain, such as yams, taro, or other such root vegetables.
Some Taiwanese tribes have taken the process a step further by distilling the resulting alcoholic beverage, resulting in a clear liquor. However, as none of the Taiwanese tribes are known to have developed systems of writing, there is no way to document how far back this practice goes, or if the technique was brought from Mainland China by Han Chinese immigrants. Judging by the fact that this technique is usually found in tribes using millet (a grain native to northern China) as the ingredient, the latter seems much more likely.
Asia's first brewery was incorporated in 1855 (although it was established earlier) by Edward Dyer at Kasauli in the Himalayan Mountains in India under the name Dyer Breweries. The company still exists and is known as Mohan Meakin, today comprising a large group of companies across many industries.
The Industrial Revolution
Following significant improvements in the efficiency of the steam engine in 1765, industrialization of beer became a reality. Further innovations in the brewing process came about with the introduction of the thermometer in 1760 and hydrometer in 1770, which allowed brewers to increase efficiency and attenuation.
Prior to the late 18th century, malt was primarily dried over fires made from wood, charcoal, or straw, and after 1600, from coke.
In general, none of these early malts would have been well shielded from the smoke involved in the kilning process, and consequently, early beers would have had a smoky component to their flavors; evidence indicates that maltsters and brewers constantly tried to minimize the smokiness of the finished beer.
Writers of the period describe the distinctive taste derived from wood-smoked malts, and the almost universal revulsion it engendered. The smoked beers and ales of the West Country were famous for being undrinkable - locals and the desperate excepted. This is from "Directions for Brewing Malt Liquors" (1700):
In most parts of the West, their malt is so stenched with the Smoak of the Wood, with which 'tis dryed, that no Stranger can endure it, though the inhabitants, who are familiarized to it, can swallow it as the Hollanders do their thick Black Beer Brewed with Buck Wheat.
An even earlier reference to such malt was recorded by William Harrison, in his "Description of England", 1577:
In some places it [malt] is dried at leisure with wood alone, or straw alone, in other with wood and straw together, but, of all, the straw-dried is the most excellent. For the wood-dried malt, when it is brewed, beside that the drink is higher of colour, it doth hurt and annoy the head of him that is not used thereto, because of the smoke. Such also as use both indifferently do bark, cleave, and dry their wood in an oven, thereby to remove all moisture that should procure the fume...
"London and Country Brewer" (1736) specified the varieties of "brown malt" popular in the city:
Brown Malts are dryed with Straw, Wood and Fern, etc. The straw-dryed is the best, but the wood sort has a most unnatural Taste, that few can bear with, but the necessitous, and those that are accustomed to its strong smoaky tang; yet it is much used in some of the Western Parts of England, and many thousand Quarters of this malt has been formerly used in London for brewing the Butt-keeoing-beers with, and that because it sold for two shillings per Quarter cheaper than Straw-dryed Malt, nor was this Quality of the Wood-dryed Malt much regarded by some of its Brewers, for that its ill Taste is lost in nine or twelve Months, by the Age of the Beer, and the strength of the great Quantity of Hops that were used in its preservation.
The hydrometer transformed how beer was brewed. Before its introduction beers were brewed from a single malt: brown beers from brown malt, amber beers from amber malt, pale beers from pale malt. Using the hydrometer, brewers could calculate the yield from different malts. They observed that pale malt, though more expensive, yielded far more fermentable material than cheaper malts. For example, brown malt (used for Porter) gave 54 pounds of extract per quarter, whilst pale malt gave 80 pounds. Once this was known, brewers switched to using mostly pale malt for all beers supplemented with a small quantity of highly-coloured malt to achieve the correct colour for darker beers.
The invention of the drum roaster in 1817 by Daniel Wheeler allowed for the creation of very dark, roasted malts, contributing to the flavour of porters and stouts. Its development was prompted by a British law of 1816 forbidding the use of any ingredients other than malt and hops. Porter brewers, employing a predominantly pale malt grist, urgently needed a legal colourant. Wheeler's patent malt was the solution.
The discovery of yeast's role in fermentation in 1857 by Louis Pasteur gave brewers methods to prevent the souring of beer by undesirable microorganisms.
Modern beer
Many European nations have unbroken brewing traditions dating back to the earliest historical records. Beer is an especially important drink in countries such as Belgium, Germany, Ireland, and the UK, with nations such as France, the Scandinavian countries, Poland, the Czech Republic, and others having strong and unique brewing traditions with their own history, characteristic brewing methods, and styles of beer.
Unlike in many parts of the world, there is a significant market in Europe (the UK in particular) for beer containing live yeast. These unfiltered, unpasteurised brews are awkward to look after compared to the commonly sold dead beers: live beer quality can suffer with poor care, but many people prefer the taste of a good live beer to a dead one. While beer is usually matured for relatively short times (a few weeks to a few months) compared to wine, some of the stronger so-called real ales have been found to develop character and flavour over the course of as much as several decades.
In some parts of the world, breweries that had begun as a family business by Germans or other European émigrés grew into large companies, often passing into hands with more concern for profits than traditions of quality, resulting in a degradation of the product.
In 1953, New Zealander Morton W. Coutts developed the technique of continuous fermentation. Coutts patented his process which involves beer flowing through sealed tanks, fermenting under pressure, and never coming into contact with the atmosphere, even when bottled. His process was introduced in the US and UK, but is now used for commercial beer production only in New Zealand.
In some sectors brewers are reluctant to embrace new technology for fear of losing the traditional characteristics of their beer. For example Marston's Brewery in Burton on Trent still uses open wooden Burton Union sets for fermentation in order to maintain the quality and flavour of its beers, while Belgium's lambic brewers go so far as to expose their brews to outside air in order to pick up the natural wild yeasts which ferment the wort. Traditional brewing techniques protect the beer from oxidation by maintaining a carbon dioxide blanket over the wort as it ferments into beer.
Modern breweries now brew many different types of beer, ranging from ancient styles such as the spontaneously-fermentedlambics of Belgium; the lagers, dark beers, wheat beers and more of Germany; the UK's stouts, milds, pale ales, bitters, golden aleand new modern American creations such as Chili Beer, Cream Ale, and Double India Pale Ales.
Today, the brewing industry is a huge global business, consisting of several multinational companies, and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. Advances in refrigeration, international and transcontinental shipping, marketing and commerce have resulted in an international marketplace, where the consumer has literally hundreds of choices between various styles of local, regional, national and foreign beers.
United States
Prior to Prohibition, there were thousands of breweries in the United States, mostly brewing heavier beers than modern US beer drinkers are used to. Beginning in 1920, most of these breweries went out of business, although some converted to soft drinks and other businesses. Bootlegged beer was often watered down to increase profits, beginning a trend, still on-going today, of the American palate preferring weaker beers. Consolidation of breweries and the application of industrial quality control standards have led to the mass-production and the mass-marketing of huge quantities of light lagers. Advertising became supreme, and bigger companies fared better in that market. The decades after World War II saw a huge consolidation of the American brewing industry: brewing companies would buy their rivals solely for their customers and distribution systems, shutting down their brewing operations. Breweries and imports have become more abundant since the mid 1980s; the number of breweries has been claimed as being either over 1,500 in 2007 or over 1,400 in 2010, depending on the source.
Mythology
The Finnish epic Kalevala, collected in written form in the 19th century but based on oral traditions many centuries old, devotes more lines to the origin of beer and brewing than it does to the origin of mankind.
The mythical Flemish king Gambrinus (from Jan Primus (John I)), is sometimes credited with the invention of beer.
According to Czech legend, deity Radegast, god of hospitality, invented beer.
Ninkasi was the patron goddess of brewing in ancient Sumer.
In Egyptian mythology, the immense blood-lust of the fierce lioness goddess Sekhmet was only sated after she was tricked into consuming an extremely large amount of red-coloured beer: she became so drunk that she gave up slaughter altogether and became docile.
In Norse mythology the sea god Ægir, his wife Rán, and their nine daughters, brewed ale (or mead) for the gods. In the Lokasenna, it is told that Ægir would host a party where all the gods would drink the beer he brewed for them. He made this in a giant kettle that Thor had brought. The cups in Ægir's hall were always full, magically refilling themselves when emptied. Ægir had two servants in his hall to assist him; Eldir [Fire-Kindler] and Fimafeng [Handy].
In Nart sagas, Satanaya (Ubykh [satanaja], Adyghe [setenej], Ossetian [ʃatana]), the mother of the Narts, a fertility figure and matriarch, invented beer.
See also
Jofroi of Waterford a 13th-century Dominican who wrote a catalogue of all the known wines and ales of Europe, describing them with great relish, and recommending them to academics and counselors.

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