I would normally transcribe the text, but, you know what? I don't really feel like doing it. I'll soon be adjourning to the settee with DVDs of American Dad for the rest of the day. So here are scans instead.
Fascinating, isn't it, how the change in the nature of British beer changed the type of infection it was most vulnerable to. The source is the "Brewers' Jornal 1940" page 893.
Very interesting from a number of standpoints. It seems a rather conclusive argument for the cask breather, for one thing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it suggests that the old stock beers when properly aged may have been more typically sharp (in the sense of a scrumpy cider, say) than anything vinegar-sour as such. The hallmarks of sound old beer were likely tartness and maybe some Brett character (not mentioned in the article probably because beers were not stored long enough by the 1940's to attract this quality).
I like too the way the article was written. The language is confident, elegant but clear, with cadences as smooth as a mild dark ale. It has, to a non-Briton, a sound typical of an earlier era of British professional/academic writing.
Gary
What I found most striking was the statement that the lower OG beers didn't produce as much CO2 in the cask. i.e. that stronger beers produced enough gas to effectively be their own cask breather.
ReplyDelete1880 - 1940 the prose is clear and unambiguous. I quite like the style, too.