But, rather than providing answers, it’s provided more questions. Because the acidity level is all over the shop, from 0.196 to 0.85%. That is, from mildly tart to pretty damn sour. Without any apparent pattern. What does it mean?
One slight problem is that what’s listed is specifically lactic acid. Any acetic acid that might have been present isn’t included. I know from analyses performed in the 1970s that considerable amounts of acetic were present in Berliner Weisse. Less than the quantity of lactic acid, but present nonetheless.
Where I can see a pattern is in the OG, which seems to have fallen from the mid-1040s in the 1870s to around 1032º by the end of the century. Which is about the same as today: 8º Plato. There also appears to have been an increase in the degree of attenuation. 78-80% is extremely high for a late-19th century German beer.
| Berliner Weisse 1878 - 1898 | |||||||
| Year | Brewer | OG | FG | ABV | App. Atten-uation | lactic acid | CO2 % |
| 1850 | Unknown | 1032.5 | 1015.92 | 2.13 | 50.12% | 0.85 | |
| 1878 | Unknown Potsdam | 1045.3 | 1013.8 | 4.08 | 69.54% | 0.60 | 0.388 |
| 1878 | Unknown | 1050.9 | 1013.3 | 4.89 | 73.87% | 0.51 | 0.321 |
| 1878 | Unknown | 1044.9 | 1012.8 | 4.16 | 71.49% | 0.55 | 0.293 |
| 1879 | Unknown | 1042.7 | 1017.5 | 3.25 | 59.02% | 0.32 | |
| 1879 | Unknown | 1040.2 | 1012 | 3.65 | 70.15% | 0.30 | |
| 1884 | Landré, A | 1041.0 | 1014.8 | 3.39 | 63.90% | 0.717 | 0.338 |
| 1884 | Landré, A | 1036.5 | 1010.4 | 3.39 | 71.51% | 0.829 | 0.302 |
| 1887 | Aktein-Brauerei (formerly H. A. Bolle) | 1018.6 | 1009.5 | 1.18 | 48.92% | 0.363 | |
| 1888 | Unknown | 1039.0 | 1011.8 | 3.53 | 69.74% | 0.234 | |
| 1892 | Unknown | 1031.5 | 1006.9 | 3.19 | 78.10% | 0.198 | |
| 1898 | Unknown | 1032.5 | 1007.1 | 3.30 | 78.15% | 0.31 | |
| 1898 | Unknown | 1032.4 | 1006.2 | 3.40 | 80.86% | 0.264 | |
| 1898 | Unknown | 1030.2 | 1005.5 | 3.20 | 81.79% | 0.279 | |
| 1898 | Unknown | 1029.0 | 1008.2 | 2.70 | 71.72% | 0.196 | |
| Source: | |||||||
| Wahl, Robert and Henius, Max (1902) Composition Of Beers in American Handy Book of the Brewing, Malting, and Auxiliary Trades, pp 823-830, Wahl & Henius, Chicago. | |||||||
| König, J (1903), Bier in Chemie der menschlichen Nahrungs- und Genussmittel by Joseph König, 1903, pp 1101 - 1156, Julius Springer, Berlin. | |||||||
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10 comments:
I thought theses analyses measured total acidity and expressed it as 'equivalent to x% lactic acid', so they can be used to calculate the pH: http://edsbeer.blogspot.com/2011/04/acidity-to-ph-ready-reckoner.html
Do we have a contemporary bias towards conformity? One of the curses "style" imposes is the suggestion that brewers in the past were seeking to brew like each other as opposed to stamping each their own mark.
Ed,
good point. That's what that = sign means, isn't it?
But, in terms of perceived sourness, wouldn't a greater amount of acetic acid make the beer taste sourer?
I should use that calculator of yours. Shit. Even more stuff to do.
Is interesting how the acidity levels vary though, isn't? Could it be connected with the age of the samples?
Ed,
you don't get down to pH 3.1. Finish the bloody table off.
Actually I see that table was for acidty as acetic acid. Fortunately I put my calculations in anther post (http://edsbeer.blogspot.com/2011/04/calculating-ph-of-old-beers.html) which mentaldetal kindly tidied up to the following equation:
pH=LOG(SQRT(B5*A5/100))*-1
where B5 is the dissociation constant expressed as a decimal and A5 the acidity value as a percent (the figure published in other words).
For acetic acid B5 would be 0.000175 and for lactic acid it would be 0.000138.
Different acid would definitely have different flavours, but I make 0.85% lactic acid pH 2.96 so shockingly sour whatever any other flavours were.
Wouldn't you expect a beer that contained Brettanomyces and was laid down for months or years to eventually be very highly attenuated?
Barm,
yes. As were 1970's examples of Berliner Weisse.
Is there any evidence that Berliner Weisse contained Brettanomyces?
Lars Marius Garshol,
loads of evidence. They've isolated at least 15 starins.
Alan,
brewers in a certain region temnded to brew quite similar beers. That was certainly the case in London. Though there were big differences between the beers from different regions.
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