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Thursday, 15 October 2009

Younger's competition

I bet you can't guess what I'm doing at the moment. That's right. How on earth did you know? I'm working my way through William Younger's logs.

Rather than keep telling you stuff (lectures are so boring) I'm going to set you a little test. To see if you can work it out.

OK, let's go. This was at the back of Younger's log for 1880 - 1881:


I'm pretty sure I know what was going on. But only because I read about the practice a couple of weeks ago. I probably wouldn't have had a clue if I hadn't.

As I'm about to publish the next volume in my Mini Book Series it seems like a good time for a competition. The first correct answer will win a copy of "War!".

7 comments:

  1. The Beer Nut15 October 2009 at 02:14

    Are they fermenting each batch at two different temperatures -- one ambient, one heated -- then taste-tasting at the end prior to blending into the finished beer?

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  2. Ron Pattinson15 October 2009 at 02:19

    Beer Nut, you're sort of on the right track. But there wasn't any blending going on.

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  3. mentaldental15 October 2009 at 03:51

    Heating a portion of the wort to sour it and then mixing back into the unsoured wort to "bring it forward"?

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  4. Ron Pattinson15 October 2009 at 03:57

    Mentaldental, that's not it, either.

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  5. Graham Wheeler15 October 2009 at 04:16

    At first glance it looks like the "forcing tray", as they would have called it in 1881, that is; the accelerated stability testing of beers by holding samples at a high-ish temperature, optimum for bacterial growth, for a few days to see how long the beer lasts.

    On second glance, however, it looks more like testing pitching-yeast soundness, by doing a forcing-test on yeast to determine from which gyle the recovered yeast is best suited for re-pitching in the next batch of beer. Pitching with infected yeast will, of course, infect every beer in the brewer's range.

    Pity that I am not very good at deciphering brewer's scrawl. I'd make a good brewer though, because I've got the proper handwriting for the job.

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  6. Ron Pattinson15 October 2009 at 05:07

    Graham, it looks like a forcing tray to me, too. I just happen to have just read Horace Brown's lecture, given in 1916, where he reminisces about 50 years as a brewing chemist. He describes "forcing" in small casks to look for yeast problems.

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  7. rod16 October 2009 at 03:55

    This kind of forcing to test for the presence of bacteria in the beer, and therefore its stability, how long it will last etc is still done in modern breweries of course, by placing samples in an incubator. Samples are then put under the microscope and taste tested.
    Of course if you're going to pasteurise the beer anyway you don't need to bother with this.....

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