American beer styles of the 1930’s - Half and Half

This is the last of my short series on pre-war, post-Prohibition American beer styles. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve wondered when the hell it’s going to end.

When I saw Half and Half, something immediately came into my mind. And it was totally wrong. I’d thought something like a Black and Tan. Here’s what Half and Half really was:

“Half and Half
Brewing custom in America since repeal has popularized the half and half mixture, for which purposes the mixture of American stock ale with the American mild Pilsener beer gives a very satisfactory result. Such beer will have an ale character subdued considerably by the beer and pleases the palate of many consumers. (See analysis on Half and Half Type Beer.)”
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, page 173.

So it was really a mix of Ale and Lager. Wasn’t that also called Cream Ale? The idea being, as described, to tone down the Ale character and produce an easier-drinking beer. It makes me wonder what other blending was going on.

Now here’s a question. Did they ever parti-gyle in the USA after Prohibition. I’ve evidence for a simple sort of parti-gyling in the Vassar records from the 1830’s, where Single Ale and Double Ale were often brewed together. But in the Amsdell records from around 1900 there’s no trace of the technique. Was the technique dropped when the German influence began to take hold in American brewing?

Presumably, as with Vienna Lager, the blending was done after maturation and lagering. If you can remember back that far, Mild Pilsener had an OG of 11.95º Balling and Stock Ale 16.32º Balling, meaning a 50-50 mix would give a gravity of 14.135º Balling. Or just about exactly the OG for Half and Half in the table below.

What else can I say? Nothing much, really. So I’d best shut up. Something I very rarely do.

HALF AND HALF
Reported by Wahl Institute, February 22, 1936
This beer is composed of the following substances, reported in percentages or pounds per hundred:
Alcohol (by weight)	4.55
Real extract (dry substance)	5.1
Carbonic acid	0.53
Water	89.82
	100
The real extract (5.1) is made up of the following substances:
	In Percentage	In Percentage
	of the beer	of the extract
Acid (lactic)	0.117	2.3
Acid salts	0.153	3
Protein	0.453	8.88
Ash	0.141	2.76
Sugar (reducing)	1.528	29.96
Dextrins	2.708	53.1
	5.1	100
The following are important brewing figures:
Specific gravity of beer	1.012
Original balling of wort	14.2
Apparent extract of beer (balling)	3.05
Real attenuation	9.1
Fermentable sugar in the wort	10.63
Apparent attenuation	11.15
Alcohol (by volume)	5.69
Percent of extract fermented	64.1
Percent of extract unfermented	5.9
Percent of sugars in original wort	74.8
Percent of non-sugars in original wort	25.2
pH value	4.4
Total acidity	2.7
Carbonic acid by volumes	2.7
Amylo dextrins	none
Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, page 179.

I was going to say that was it for the Wahls’ book. Then I remembered there was something about beer colour that caught my attention. But after that we will be able to move on/ to another article about brewing in 1930’s America. Then there’s the Wahl and Henius book from 1902 that I’ve been OCRing. So lots, lots more about the USA to come.