Bi-Centennial Brewing Challenge

georgemilbrandt · Post by **georgemilbrandt** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 6:55 pm

C'est What is challenging local professional brewers to make early 19th century style beer for our Summer Beer Festival during Ontario Craft Beer Week http://www.cestwhat.com/beer.asp#bicentennial.

I am soliciting help from the local home brewing community to run a similar challenge for amateurs, perhaps leading up to having the winning brew produced professionally in time for Toronto Beer Week.

Any suggestions and/or volunteers are welcome.

zachariaIPA · Post by **zachariaIPA** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 7:03 pm

Hey George, I'd be interesting in volunteering/collaborating in something like that. PM me with your contact info!

Cheers,
Zack

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 7:31 pm

Awesome!

Molson's was established in Quebec in 1786, so there was commercial brewing reasonably close.

They were probably getting hops from New York:
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cor/humulus/hum ... l#history4

Here's a clip from 1831:
"If any person with a competent knowledge of brewing would commence in York or on the lake within 10 or 20 miles it would be an absolute impossibility not to succeed all are anxious to obtain the beverage they have been accustomed to added to which it is a well known fact to every one that all who have commenced even without a knowledge of it have not merely succeeded but actually saved fortunes Maltsters also much wanted there being a great difficulty to obtain malt which is chiefly made by the brewers for their own use the recent emigrants would brew if they could get malt Hops are very inferior to English from the little care paid to the growth of them and are chiefly imported from the United States price"
http://books.google.ca/books?id=zAeEfEAddsUC&pg=PA98

I'll see what else I can dig up... but I think commercial operations (not just homebrewers) were probably making reasonable ales with hops, malt and sugar adjuncts.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 7:34 pm

By 1866 things were looking good:

"Ale and Beer The improvements recently introduced into the brewing of Ale in our leading breweries which render Canadian Beer equal to that of England should enable our brewers to export largely It is true that we import some of our hops but wo grow a surplus of a finer barley than that of the United States and this should give us a greater
advantage over American Brewers American Ale is sent to the Spanish
Islands in bulk ie in barrels of about forty gallons English Ale is
principally imported in bottles"
http://books.google.ca/books?id=-OckAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA168

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 7:45 pm

We were certainly growing barley then (it would've been all 6-row in Canada):
http://books.google.ca/books?id=R6gNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA204

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 7:54 pm

Here's some info on early American Brewing:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=5BMZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA3

We would have been importing hops from the UK (and maybe Bavaria) as well.

Actually, there were probably quite a few brews imported from the UK. Here's some examples of what Ron Pattinson has dug out of the archives (he's recreated brews with Fullers, Pretty Things, etc):
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/search?q=lets+brew

Some idea's from Durden Park as well...
http://www.durdenparkbeer.org.uk/Publications.htm

Ex. Brakspears March strong ale, which was over-hopped and brewed in March for use in the summer when brewing stopped. Pale malt for an OG of 82, with 1.25 oz Fuggles per imperial gallon (4.54L).

Or maybe a nice strong October Ale, which may have been the precursor of the original IPAs:
http://zythophile.wordpress.com/false-a ... -to-india/

Of course there was a lot of porter back then, but it was before Wheeler's 1817 patent for black malt, so they used diastatic brown malt, which isn't available today (though you could roast your own!). Some of them did have a portion of brown with amber & pale though, so an approximation could be done.
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2010/ ... black.html

The East India Porter is quite interesting (I've brewed a mid century one with black malt), but our imports wouldn't have been quite as strong or hopped as much:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=NDUNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA512

Okay, I'm done geeking out about historic brewing for now... but I'd be happy to do a little research or provide some more ideas.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:30 pm

Homebrewing back in the day... people certainly made use of available ingredients, but some were fortunate to basically brew all-grain like some of us do today...

Homebrewing in 1768:

http://books.google.ca/books?id=iGZHAAA ... frontcover

1758:

http://books.google.ca/books?id=-u8TAAA ... ng&f=false

"The difficulty is nothing, the time required is only a few days in a year and the inconvenience not much: the advantages are very many. The saving in money is near half in half; and the housekeeper is sure that nothing but wholesome ingredients have gone into the liquor, which he never can pretend to know if he buys it of a brewer. Most people have been desirous of brewing at home but they have been deterred by their thinking there was some mystery and secret in doing it well; and that there required a great"

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:03 am

The actually banned sugar adjuncts in the UK for 1811... so any of those beer shipments would've been all-malt (maybe some caramel for colour):

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2008/ ... -1850.html
http://books.google.ca/books?id=NDUNAAAAYAAJ

icemachine · Post by **icemachine** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 8:05 am

Always wanted to do a Brown Porter - looks like a good reason

http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2010/04 ... -like-.../

Lardner’s remarks about beer engines echo a passage from John Mason Good’s Pantologia: A new cyclopaedia, published in 1813 (and which itself was nicked by several later writers, including Rees’s Cyclopedia of 1819 and Frederic Accum in 1820). Apologies if you read this recently but it fits in to this narrative:

The flavour of the draught porter in London is almost universally obtained by compounding two kinds, the due admixture of which is palatable, though neither are good alone. One is mild, and the other stale porter; the former is that which has been lately brewed, and has rather a bitter mawkish flavour; the latter has been kept longer and is in some degree acid.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 10:51 am

For a 'local' hop flavour, Goldings and cluster might be good. There was a lot of unintended cross-breading back then.

From the 1851 Great Exhibition:
"Hops from Canada of excellent quality and described as the best that have ever been imported from that country were also exhibited. If these had had less of the flavour technically called the currant leaf they would have been still more valuable."

I wonder if that "currant leaf" flavour is what we now refer to as gooseberry (or cat pee?). Early Cluster hops?

This info on the "Canada hop" is interesting (1899):
http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/h ... -hci.shtml

"The Canada hop or Canada Red, so-called because
the roots come from Canada, is known by its red vines,
fruit rather below medium size; the strobile is firm, of
a golden color, and mild, agreeable flavor. It is per-
haps the hardiest of all hops, and seldom winterkills
in New York state, when other kinds may be ruined.
It is a fair bearer under indifferent culture, and a good
bearer under good culture. The hops are leafy and
rather difficult to pick clean, which probably accounts
for the dispute as to the flavor and quality of the Can-
ada hop. "It is of rank flavor and disliked by
brewers and dealers" when moldy, unripe or overripe,
or when mixed with leaves, etc.; but picked clean in
its prime and properly cured, the true Canada hop is of
fine flavor and color, though perhaps not as good as
English Cluster. The popularity of Canada is due
mainly to the fact that it ripens nearly a week later than
Cluster and can stand on the vines fully., a week after
the date that Cluster must be picked. The roots are
also cheaper.

A false Canada, or roots of an inferior quality,
has been spuriously sold. It is such hops that are
usually "so rank in flavor and disliked by the trade"
as to be a commercial failure. The term "false Cana-
dian hops" is not recognized in Canada. It is a fact,
however, that Canadian hops are so disliked in Eng-
land they cannot be sold there. John A. Morton says
Canada produces mainly three kinds: "A hop that
grades very similar to the best growth in Franklin
county, New York, another akin to English Cluster,
but with a slight Bavarian flavor, and a third variety
very similar to Pacific Coast hops." "

KwaiLo · Post by **KwaiLo** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:08 pm

Thanks for the info Derek, sure gives me a few ideas for the challenge.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:36 pm

A high gravity 'Mild' would be great, simply for the confusion factor!
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2008/ ... -mild.html
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2009/ ... -mild.html

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:54 pm

In my excitement, I skimmed over this part of the post:

"For this exercise, we are looking for beer that derives significant flavour characteristics from adjuncts."

In Canada, spruce tips & maple syrup would've also been used by the early settlers.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 3:46 pm

icemachine wrote:Always wanted to do a Brown Porter - looks like a good reason

http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2010/04 ... -like-.../

Lardner’s remarks about beer engines echo a passage from John Mason Good’s Pantologia: A new cyclopaedia, published in 1813 (and which itself was nicked by several later writers, including Rees’s Cyclopedia of 1819 and Frederic Accum in 1820). Apologies if you read this recently but it fits in to this narrative:

The flavour of the draught porter in London is almost universally obtained by compounding two kinds, the due admixture of which is palatable, though neither are good alone. One is mild, and the other stale porter; the former is that which has been lately brewed, and has rather a bitter mawkish flavour; the latter has been kept longer and is in some degree acid.

Something else for you to follow-up...
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2010/ ... orter.html

I think Gary has had some discussion about acidity on BT as well...

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 7:28 pm

In 1812 there must've been a lot of British imports for the soldiers, and quite a bit of homebrewing going on...

http://books.google.ca/books?id=1gR6AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA593

"The following appears in the Kingston Gazette April 19 1817 after stating that a Pearl and Pot Barley Factory is to be established in Ernesttown. It is said this is the first establishment of the kind we recollect to have heard of in Upper Canada we have seen some of the barley and think it equal to that imported Such domestic manufactories ought to be encouraged by the community.

The first Brewery and Distillery established in Upper Canada was built by John Finkle of Ernesttown on his own place. He also kept for many years the only tavern between Kingston and York Mr Finkle also built the first Masonic Lodge of Upper Canada at his own expense upon the town plot of Fredericksburgh."