A promised, more crazily-strong Truman Ales from the 19th century.Beers made stronger for Export? Take a look below. The second-weakest beer is Export Ale. I have a suspicion where the idea that export beers were stronger came from. After WW I. I've found plenty of export beers in the logs in the 1920's and 1930's. They have the gravities of pre-1914 beers. Brewers continued to make the old-style beers for foreign markets as they weren't liable for UK tax.
Guinness, that's a good example. Until 1916 Extra Stout and Foreign Extra Stout had the same OG: 1074. FES is still about the same, while Extra Stout is a puny 1042 or so. (How can you have a Stout with a gravity below 1055? Guinness Extra Stout is a travesty and doesn't deserve to be called Stout.)
Oh yes, note that the Pale Ale was the weakest beer at 1067. Not very popular, either. There were only a couple of brews a year. X Ale, the ordinary Mild of the day, was an impressive 1078. As the 19th century progressed, the gravity of X Ale dropped to 1055, but Pale Ale stayed much the same, at about 1065.
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2 comments:
Guinness Extra Stout is a travesty and doesn't deserve to be called Stout
Whoa, Ron - next you'll be saying an IPA of 1036 OG doesn't deserve to be called IPA
Zythophile, you're the only one to have spotted my spot of irony.
How fickle style is. I hear the Brewers Association now has 140 different styles. But they still haven't noticed traditional weak British IPA. That should be 141 Brewers Association.
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