American Chilled and carbonated draught beer

I'm continuing with more from Horace Brown's article on American brewing in the 1890's.

It's a fascinating period, the beginning of highly processed, artificially-conditioned beer. The stuff that now makes up the vast majority of beer worldwide. And it was in the USA that such beer was first developed. Basically what's being described is the classic keg beer, albeit at this time still filled into wooden barrels.

"The ale which, is intended for the cold storage and carbonating process is, in the first place, brewed very much on the same lines as the ordinary "still ale," the processes of mashing and fermentation resembling those of our own country so closely as to require no special attention.

From the racking vessels the ale is run through a refrigerating apparatus of a very simple character, known as the "cooling tub." This consists of a cedar vat, of a capacity in some cases of about 300 barrels, filled with brine, and furnished inside with two copper coils of about 2 in. diameter. Through one of the coils ammonia, from an ice machine, is expanded, so as to keep the brine in the tub at about 24° F., and the ale from the racking vessel runs through the other coil at such a rate as to pass out, on its way to the store vats, at a temperature of about 32° F. The store vats are placed in a cellar kept at 32—35° F., and are provided with air-pipes at the top, connected with a condensing air-pump, by means of which a small pressure can be put on the ale in the vats for the purpose of forcing it through the filters, &c.

The wooden store vats are now being replaced, in some of the breweries I saw, with large steel cylinders, glazed inside with a special glass enamel, which does not show any tendency to strip off the steel plates by alternations of temperature, or even under the action of heavy blows from a hammer.

The ale remains in the store vessels at about the freezing temperature for from two to three weeks, sometimes for a shorter period, and during this time a settlement of the greater part of the remaining yeast takes place, and a great deal of the resinous matters, &c, which would remain in solution in the beer at ordinary temperatures, are also deposited. No fermentation can of course take place, and the yeast becomes to a great extent killed by the low temperature.
Journal of the Federated Institutes of Brewing, Volume 3, Issue 6, November-December 1897, pages 470 - 471.

This sounds rather like lagering, although, of course, the purpose was quite different. For a start, bottom-fermenting yeast would still be active during some of the chilling process. In this case the purpose of the chilling, rather than knocking the rough edges off the beer, was intended to precipitate out the material which would normally cause a chill haze.

You have to wonder why anyone would be hitting their storage vessels with a hammer. Maybe they were just trying to prove a point.

"When ready the ale is forced, by means of air pressure of 10 or 15 lbs. to the square inch, through the "carbonator " and filter. In some breweries it is customary to filter before carbonation, and in others after. I certainly think, as far as my own observations go, that the best result is obtained by filtration after charging with the gas.

The machines used for charging the beer with carbonic acid do not require any special description, as they are very similar in principle to those used in the preparation of aerated waters all the world over. The gas is supplied from steel cylinders charged with liquid carbon dioxide, and the pressure is so regulated as to charge the ale with about 12 to 14 oz. of the gas per American barrel."
Journal of the Federated Institutes of Brewing, Volume 3, Issue 6, November-December 1897, page 471.

Great. Using a technique for making soft drinks to carbonate beer.

Of course, there was no point precipitating out that gunk if you weren't going to filter it out if the beer. So a good filter was essential.

"The beer filter, through which the ale is now passed after carbonation, is a very important piece of apparatus, and it must be so arranged as to take out the very last traces of sedimentary matters, and to deliver the ale to the racking apparatus without loss of gas, and in a perfectly brilliant condition. The filter now most generally used is the "Enzinger," which has the general appearance of a small filter-press. The plates or "rosts" are of gun-metal, and between these are discs of the filtering medium contained in "stuff-frames," the various members of the press being screwed tightly together, just as in an ordinary filter-press. The filtering medium in the stuff-frames is a specially prepared paper-pulp, and when this has become clogged with the fine sediment it is taken out, thoroughly washed and sterilised in a special washing machine, and again cast in the disc form in the stuff-frames, under an ingeniously contrived screw-press.

The apparatus is supplied at either end with a glass "lantern," which enables the operator to see the exact state of brilliancy of the ingoing and out-going stream of ale.

The amount which can be passed through one of these filters without it becoming necessary to re-wash the paper pulp of course depends on the original state of the ale us it comes from the cold-storage vats ; as a rule it only requires attention after several hundred barrels hare passed through.

The ale leaves the filter at a temperature of 35° to 36º F., in an absolutely brilliant state, and highly charged with carbonic acid, and it has now to be racked into casks whilst still under pressure, and in such a manner as to allow of these being completely filled and bunged down, without any "fobbing," or loss of ale or gas.
Journal of the Federated Institutes of Brewing, Volume 3, Issue 6, November-December 1897, pages 471 - 472.

All very fascinating, I'm sure you'll agree. One of the things I never imagined doing, in my young days as an idealistic CAMRA member, was to write at length about how to brew keg beer. One of the important things I've learned since I dived head first into the history pool, is not to make judgements about brewing techniques and ingredients. My job is to explore and explain, not condemn or praise.

Here as a bonus are a few American Ales from around this period. I know, it's a pathetically small list compared to the ones I have for British beers. But The USA isn't the main focus of my research, that's my excuse. You'll note that they are indeed, as stated in the first post of this series, a little stronger than English X Ales.

American Ales 1887 - 1901
Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	FG	Acidity	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1887	Unknown	American Ale	Ale	1067.55	1017.55	0.094	6.56	72.76%
1887	Unknown	American Ale	Ale	1080.15	1012.22	0.382	8.65	83.75%
1887	Unknown, Philadelphia	Ale	Ale	1065.2	1005.9	0.23	7.80	90.95%
1887	Unknown, Philadelphia	Ale	Ale	1067.5	1017.1	0.09	6.57	74.67%
1887	Unknown, Reading PA	Ale	Ale	1078.3	1012.5	0.38	8.65	84.04%
1892	N. Klinger, Whitewater	Ale	Ale	1058.7	1007		6.78	88.07%
1896	N/a	Average of 9 samples	Stock Ale	1068.46	1012.45	0.256	6.94	80.81%
1900	Unknown	American Pale Ale	Pale Ale	1052.65	1013.83		5.01	72.72%
1901	Unknown	American Cream Ale	Cream Ale	1054.98	1008.69	0.144	5.94	83.46%
1901	Unknown	American Sparkling Ale	Sparkling Ale	1055.83	1008.31	0.135	6.13	84.42%
Sources:
"Chemie der menschlichen Nahrungs- und Genussmittel" by Joseph König, 1889, page 836
Wisconsin Dairy and Food Commission
Wahl & Henius, pages 823-830

Next time we'll be going into how to get this icy, fizzed-up beer safely into casks.