tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post961405562384121213..comments2024-03-27T20:07:51.303-07:00Comments on Shut up about Barclay Perkins: Home brewing in WW IRon Pattinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03095189986589865751noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-69828900392275338542012-11-30T02:18:05.163-08:002012-11-30T02:18:05.163-08:00Chris, it's probably because of the way the ta...Chris, it's probably because of the way the tax on malt was collected, which was from maltsters. There weere complicated rules about how malt was made and exactly when the volume was measured to determine the amount of tax. Excise officials visited maltsters to make sure they were sticking to the rules and paying the right amount of duty.<br /><br />Unmalted barley you could just get from a farmer and consequently avoid the whole taxation process at the maltster.<br /><br />It wasn't just illegal to use unmalted barley in brewing. It was illegal to have any type of unmalted grain in a brewery, except for oats as feed for dray horses.Ron Pattinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03095189986589865751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-80879615279023765542012-11-29T14:59:36.826-08:002012-11-29T14:59:36.826-08:00Ron, after reading about the state of taxing ingre...Ron, after reading about the state of taxing ingredients back then I have a question for you. Why were certain ingredients taxed and not others? For example, I know roasted barley would've been considered illegal as it was unmalted, and no tax was paid on it. But why not just include roast barley among the taxed ingredients? Was it a concern over quality or something else?Chrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-53253367423085310622012-11-29T13:09:19.659-08:002012-11-29T13:09:19.659-08:00Oblivious, yes. That's what is usually meant b...Oblivious, yes. That's what is usually meant by "hard". Great description, isn't it?<br /><br />It sure is :)Oblivioushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04184794716327407609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-19897305662359713132012-11-29T08:30:41.008-08:002012-11-29T08:30:41.008-08:00By the way crag vergis is verjuice made, in this c...By the way crag vergis is verjuice made, in this case, from crab apples or scrumps. Verjuice is a Middle Ages survival, a vinegar-like substance used in cookery and sometimes as a drink, just as strawberry vinegar and similar fruit-based vinegars were sometimes drunk in the summer in some counties. <br /><br />If the small beer that went hard was more sour than verjuice, it was purty sour in that countree, Squire! Then too the Bristol taste in beer was said to be in that direction, so this account accords with that although the date seems somewhat late to observe the practice.<br /><br />GaryGary Gillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-11362964396689795212012-11-29T07:40:12.271-08:002012-11-29T07:40:12.271-08:00The term hard in broadly the sense mentioned has l...The term hard in broadly the sense mentioned has lived on in the States, in the form of the term hard cider. Hard cider is apple juice left long enough to ferment, so is used in contradistinction to sweet cider, meaning apple juice whose sugars are intact. However, any decent hard cider I ever had was acidic and some (e.g. scrumpy in England) frankly sourish, so the older meaning of the term in England surely has some resonance in America in this sense. <br /><br />In other words, the term hard cider doesn't simply mean alcoholic apple juice (a la hard liquor), it has some of the old English meaning of being "stale".<br /><br />GaryGary Gillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-76380544013261279792012-11-29T06:37:38.914-08:002012-11-29T06:37:38.914-08:00Martyn, adding stale beer seems to be what North A...Martyn, adding stale beer seems to be what North American brewers did to their Stouts. Both Amsdell and Labatt did it.<br /><br />I still don't know what to believe about adulteration. I've yet to see a proven case, for example, of opium being added to beer.Ron Pattinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03095189986589865751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-4566993421547961452012-11-29T06:18:05.841-08:002012-11-29T06:18:05.841-08:00That's a late use of 'hard' to mean ac...That's a late use of 'hard' to mean acidic: common enough in the early 19th century, but by 1898 the OED was calling it "Now dial[ect] or slang." The full definition was "Of liquor: Harsh or sharp to the taste; acid; sour from being stale," and it was an admired property in the late 18th and early 19th century in aged porter, so much so that, allegedly, unscrupulous brewers added sulphuric acid to "harden" it:<br /><br />"Sulphuric acid is very frequently added to bring beer forward or make it hard, giving new beer instantly the taste of what is 18 months old." - Andrew Ure, A Dictionary of Chemistry, 1824<br /><br />I doubt that was true, actually: the big brewers were much more likely to add stale, acidic old beer to fresh porter to give it that important 'aged' flavour than H2SO4.Martyn Cornellhttp://zythophile.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-26923092007872801042012-11-29T03:39:30.234-08:002012-11-29T03:39:30.234-08:00Oblivious, yes. That's what is usually meant b...Oblivious, yes. That's what is usually meant by "hard". Great description, isn't it?Ron Pattinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03095189986589865751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-85402326286298385832012-11-29T01:40:21.313-08:002012-11-29T01:40:21.313-08:00" and the big barrel of small ale that got ha..." and the big barrel of small ale that got harder and harder as the summer drew on, until it veritably made one's eyes strike fire to drink it"<br /><br />I presume that are taking about the beer souring?Oblivioushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04184794716327407609noreply@blogger.com