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The higher the abv, the higher the pressure on yeast, yes. But from what I can tell, at least by the time brewers were recording their recipes using hydrometers
by soundwave106 10y ago
The higher the abv, the higher the pressure on yeast, yes. But from what I can tell, at least by the time brewers were recording their recipes using hydrometers, beers up to around 10% were very possible.
For instance, Brew Your Own references some strong stout beers made in 1868 (recorded by a "G. Amsinck") here. (http://byo.com/bock/item/1623-when-stout-was-stout http://byo.com/bock/item/1623-when-stout-was-stout)
I plugged the OG (original specific gravity) and FG (final specific gravity) into a specific gravity to alcohol calculator, these are the results:
Dublin Stout: OG: 1.092, FG: 1.019 (ABV: 9.6%)
Treble Stout: OG: 1.096, FG: 1.031 (ABV: 8.0%)
This is not typical -- the Dublin stout is more like a strong export style. Ray Daniels in "Designing Great Beers" provides both more references from G. Amsinck as well as a table derived from "The American Handy-Book of the Brewing Malting and Auxillary Trades" (1908). For more common "porter", the ranges was more typically, say OG: 1.06 FG: 1.02 (about 5% roughly).
Ray Daniels' book likewise references historical Scotch ales similarly. At the high end, massive Scotch ales were present in the nineteenth century (with OG in the 1.120 range, FG in the 1.050 range, and an ABV of 9%). Also more common Scotch ale too.
It is true that by modern standards many of these beers would be relatively sweet, not as fermented.
I personally would guess that even without pure cultures, if you used a fairly simple and probably even known technique back then -- make a big beer, and put that big beer on top of the yeast cake of a finished small beer -- 10% is pretty doable. (The 20+% some craft brewers can go for, however, is probably not. :) )
- throwaway91111 10y agoHmm, I think time frame is at play here--I had forgotten the early modern constraint! Nonetheless this is a great resource for more reading--cheers!
- soundwave106 10y agoYeah... it's a pity (an understandable one in way) that I couldn't find more older more technical brewing books scanned online for quick reference. But at least some resources quote them. There's definitely a fair bit of older brewing books sitting in dusty corners of certain libraries that would be interesting to read. :) This modern printing of a book from 1785 (https://www.amazon.com/Hydrometrical-observations-experiments-brewery-Baverstock/dp/1140735802 https://www.amazon.com/Hydrometrical-observations-experiment...) for instance would've been interesting to view to get a perspective from a century earlier (at least for British porter). Unfortunately I can't find a digitized version online, but querying on that book led to this link, (https://books.google.com/books?id=GSTnBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT24&lpg=PT24&dq=Hydrometrical+Observations+and+Experiments+in+the+Brewery,+1785+First+Edition&source=bl&ots=Ag9jcqkL5p&sig=TOvFkq69We5ncQH3mXCQ2z2poLQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjy5vi_me_RAhVCb5oKHX6FCckQ6AEILTAE#v=onepage&q=Hydrometrical%20Observations%20and%20Experiments%20in%20the%20Brewery%2C%201785%20First%20Edition&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=GSTnBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT24&lpg=P...) does quote a 1784 porter at OG 1.071 FG 1.018 (about 7%). The full reference would probably be more helpful to determine a better picture of the historical range back then. I believe the hydrometer only came into use in brewing science in the mid to late 1700s; before then, data definitely would've been a lot sketchier.