Interesting U.K. Article on 1907 Brewing in U.S. and Canada

[G.M. Gillman]

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10 ... 7738204883

I'll comment in a subsequent post and readers' comments are welcomed of course.

Gary

[G.M. Gillman]

This article offers many points of interest, of which I found the most salient as follows:

1) In 1907, ale of the classic 1800's type which had its roots in England - strong, stored for months in cask, dry-hopped, was going out of style. The writer described the taste as "harsh". Many of our modern craft ales have reverted to this type of old practice. Thus, I would think, just to take one example that springs to mind, that any modern cask-aged IPA or DIPA might resemble these beers that were fast going out of vogue in 1907 (both in North America and the U.K.).

2) The lower-gravity traditional ale was called "present use". It was ale made for quick consumption, given a short warm-conditioning to increase its CO2, and apparently not served ice-cold. This type of beer also was not liked by the writer, having in all the breweries visited an "old yeast" taste (perhaps stale flavours from the warm storage or some other off flavour. I'd be interested in comments on what this taste might have been).

3) The new ale being developed, bright chilled ale, was top-fermented but received a period of cold storage and was filtered bright to resemble lager beer. (Lager classically is cold-aged to round, condition and clarify it and usually served very clear excepting only certain local German specialties like keller bier). Thus, the new ale, which brewers saw as their salvation against the lager tide, was a hybrid of lager and ale. The mass-market Canadian ales such as Labatt 50, Alexander Keith IPA and Molson Export Ale are surely of this type. All this type of beer made in 1907 in Canada would however have been all-malt and probably used more hops than equivalent beers today.

3) American beers used large amounts of adjunct (rice or corn) in the mash. In 1907, Canadian brewers still used all-malt. The writer felt that Canadian beer was superior for this reason and specifically mentioned ales tasted in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto on this account. Even when Canadian brewers started to adopt cereal adjunct, they used less of it than the Americans, into the 1960's. The old saw of the pre-craft era that Canadian beer was better than American beer probably was a vestige of the time when Canadian and American production methods were essentially similar except for Canadian beer being all-malt and, later, higher-malt than American beer.

4) The author tasted in Toronto imported U.K. bottled beers, probably Bass and maybe Guinness. He found them cloudy and a little sour - nothing like the beers at home. An early example of beer not travelling well.

The strategy of Canadian eastern brewers to adopt what became known as Canadian sparkling ale did work for another two generations. But finally, even this attenuated form of ale yielded, largely, to the blandishments of lager.

Gary

[markaberrant]

Nice find, thanks Gary!

[JeffPorter]

When I click on the link, it just says, "Forbidden"...

[G.M. Gillman]

Jeff,

The Institute of Brewers has put out all its journal issues online. If you search "brewers journal Wiley", it should come up, and then search in the box on the right, "1907 American Canadian", it should come up first. It's called "Practical Notes on a Visit to American and Canadian Breweries".

Gary

[midlife crisis]

Very interesting (though, like Jeff, I cannot access the actual article, at least on my iPad). In 1907, what technology would be in use in order to produce the new style of bright, cold fermented ale? I'm specifically thinking - how did they chill it? Were these beers only produced in the colder seasons?

[G.M. Gillman]

They had all the basic technology of today.

Gary

[midlife crisis]

I'm confused. There was certainly no such thing as a refrigerator - hence the "ice box". However, on a commercial level I have no knowledge whatsoever of the possibilities. Could you elaborate?

[G.M. Gillman]

Midlife, there was much more than the icebox in 1907. Mechanical refrigeration was well-established, as was pasteurization.

Gary

[G.M. Gillman]

Try this link:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10 ... d27ddc94c8

This is a publicly accessible site, it should work..

Gary

[Craig]

That didn't work for me either, but this does:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 2196.x/pdf

[G.M. Gillman]

Thanks for that and Midlife and others hopefully will take a look.

Gary