Shut up about Barclay Perkins: The CO2 content of Porter

Thursday, 7 January 2010

The CO2 content of Porter

In response to a question about the CO2 content of 1890 Truman Export Stout, featured in yesterday's Let's Brew, here's yet another bloody table.

Have to rush. My curry is burning.

14 comments:

Bailey said...: What beer are you having with your curry?; 7 January 2010 at 11:26
Ed said...: When you're back from your cury what's the co2 expressed as?; 7 January 2010 at 11:27
Kristen England said...: These look to be percentages (g/l). the conversion to volumes is basically multiply by 2. These all seem quite low.; 7 January 2010 at 11:57
Ron Pattinson said...: Bailey, St. Bernardus Prior. It's a very mild curry.; 7 January 2010 at 12:42
Ron Pattinson said...: Ed, I believe that's percentage by weight.; 7 January 2010 at 12:43
Bailey said...: We had water with ours in the end but we're going to the pub in a minute.; 7 January 2010 at 12:51
Adrian said...: "These all seem quite low."

I agree. Taking your multiplication factor of 2 into account, the beers shown vary from basically flat as tap water to barely shimmering.

Certainly nothing near what I would consider "effervescent" or providing "a good, lasting head."

The only thing that's fairly straight forward is that German beers appear to have twice as much C02 as British ones.; 7 January 2010 at 13:21
Anonymous said...: That Braunschweiger Mumme looks like a meal in its own right: an 18th century British source describes Mum as being strong, which that one clearly is not …; 7 January 2010 at 13:30
Ron Pattinson said...: Adrian, "German beers appear to have twice as much C02 as British ones." That's not what I see in the numbers. The beers with the highest CO2 content are a couple of German top-fermenters. The lager beers aren't any higher.; 7 January 2010 at 14:03
Ron Pattinson said...: Zythophile, Mumme had a huge OG but incredibly low attenuation. I don't know if it was ever high in alcohol. Descriptions make it sound more like treacle than beer.; 7 January 2010 at 14:05
Jeff Renner said...: It's grams per 100 ml, not liter, or percentage by weight, as Ron said.

Typical modern German lagers have CO2 content of 0.45%, or 2.3 volumes, according to Eric Warner book "German Wheat Beers," the only source I know of for homebrewers that uses percent CO2. This seems a much superior way of specifying CO2 content than volume.

So the Barclay und Perkins London Porter, at 0.16%, would be 0.82 volumes, a bit less than what is often cited as typical cask conditioned beer, i.e., one volume, which is often also stated as being saturation.; 7 January 2010 at 14:28
Tandleman said...: You wouldn't get easily pissed in Braunschweig would you?; 7 January 2010 at 16:17
Kristen England said...: Yes, sorry, mispoke. g/100ml.

Again, these all seem very low, even the Berliner is low.; 8 January 2010 at 09:34
Ron Pattinson said...: Tandleman, you wouldn't starve, though. And they probably drank two-handed with a spirit, too.; 8 January 2010 at 09:59