OT: slops in beer

Not really sure of the how and why. Just what I remember being told at school.

At one time small beer was drunk by most - including kids. Very low alcohol content but safer than the water available then.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)
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It is my understanding that heating the water to scalding, before mixing up the brew, is what made it safe(r) to drink, as the heat killed off many disease organisms.

Reply to
S Viemeister

Yes.

Reply to
S Viemeister

I think communion wine at 15% is supposed to make it OK to use a common chalice.

Reply to
Max Demian

Ah. OK. So why go to the bother of making small beer - especially for the kids?

You certainly can't brew at those temperatures - you'd kill the yeast. It works best at warm room temperature.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Not always if you believe this tale.

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One of the Brewers who served the area mentioned was called Strongs, they pinched the inscription off the gravestone to promote their beer at one time.

Here sleeps in peace a Hampshire Grenadier,

Who caught his death by drinking cold small Beer, Soldiers be wise from his untimely fall

And when ye're hot drink Strong or none at all.

G.Harman

Reply to
damduck-egg

Hmmm. One supposes they let it cool. But then why would they have known to boil it in the first place. Hmmm again.

Reply to
Tim Streater

No need to empty it down the sink. You collect it all in the "spoilt beer" barrel and send it back to the brewery. They can then have HMRC assess the alcohol content of it and issue a refund on the duty paid.

Reply to
John Rumm

No, you heat the water to about 60C, then pour it over the malted barley to extract the sugars, and *then* boil it to sterilise. Then you have to cool it down to fermentation temperature before adding yeast (via heat exchangers to recover heat).

Reply to
newshound

Tied pubs pay 80p/pint according to a recent BC1 programme

Not sure what you mean by that, but to have diluted cleaning fluid sold as beer twice in a pub I only visit occasionally when holiday in UK is more than incompetence.

Reply to
Martin

There was a recent court case involving undiluted cleaning fluid being served to somebody as beer recently.

Reply to
Martin

Ah, that starts to make more sense. But how did beer makers know to do that before bacteria were known about? Did they just discover that step of the process by accident? Or did they *not* know about it and their beer tended to spoil? Or did they do something else entirely?

Reply to
Tim Streater

You're both right...

The boiling water is put on the malted barley to extract the sugar and other components.

That's cooled and the yeast added, then fermented.

That's the first wash, leading to the strongest beer as there's plenty of sugar. IIRC that would be the men's evening beer. Too strong to be drinking that on a hot day in the fields.

The more boiling water is used on the barley to get a 2nd beer. This is something that could be drunk throughout the day being a lot weaker (less sugar, less alcohol).

Once more and you have the small beer - think of using a tea bad 3 times. I have no idea how string that was - probably not very - hence suitable for kids.

I have no idea why noone realised that it would be sufficient to just boil the water and drink it after cooling (or perhaps they did!).

Reply to
Tim Watts

To extract the contents of the malted barley :)

Reply to
Tim Watts

In message , Martin writes

I believe that was one of Father Jack's favourite tipples (Harpic?).

Reply to
Ian Jackson

Where on earth was this? I've been pubbing it large since 1973 and have never in all that time seen such a thing.

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

You're getting confused with gin.

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

He votes Labour so that tells us everything we need to know about his intelligence level.

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

You presumably went to one of those crappy Labour-run secondary moderns, Plowperson.

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

However, simply being silver helps to kill many bacteria!

Reply to
polygonum

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