MdV: Merchant du Vin beer
e-newsletter – Wednesday April 30, 2008: The Story Behind the Beer.
MdV & fine beer in the news
Fine beer &
benchmark imports continue to gain more attention in the media: on April 12,
’08, Orval was “Top Belgian Beer,” in Japan’s Nikkei Plus One newspaper; The
Tasting Panel magazine featured Traquair House Ale, from Scotland, in the
April ’08 issue; the May ’08 All About
Beer magazine mentioned Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout in their “Fade to
Black,” article; we spotted Ayinger Hefe-Weizen and Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal
Stout in the last two issues of new magazine, “Beer.” And congratulations to Westmalle Trappist
Brewery for their bronze medal in the 2008 World Beer Cup.
A
full current news listing is always on our news page;
you
can also check local beer tastings, dinners and festivals on our national events page
and
read previous html versions of this newsletter at our
If
you are interested in beer glassware, clothing and collectables we also have an
online e-store
. . . and we have recently added a couple new items.
Beer Chat from the
Beer
has a deep and rich history; it is produced by a perfect blend of agriculture,
art, science, and magic. Beer is fun, interesting
and often even compelling. Beer is a
topic for great songs, a fulfilling hobby, a symbol of companionship, an
icebreaker, a real treat to the senses . . . and sometimes, a beer is the
In
addition to the pleasures of beer, there are also some great beer stories. Many are the tales of the homebrewer who was
told by friends time & time again: “you should sell this!” There have been traditional regional beer styles
that had almost disappeared (like oatmeal stout, reintroduced to the world by
Samuel Smith’s in 1980). There are new
styles, produced by brewers who push flavor boundaries. There are monks who brew beer, family
recipes, wild yeast, and a trout who returned a gold ring to a princess. (If
you don’t know the Orval story, it’s in an archived e-news, right here: http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/1_about/enews_archive/E_news_July_21_2004_Orval_Trappist_ale.htm/
)
Produced
from a huge range of ingredients and regional techniques, made with skill and
inspiration, beer follows traditions and seasons. It pairs with classic or with innovative
foods. Beer culture is fun, and we
suggest that some knowledge about a brewer can enhance the enjoyment of
drinking beer. Here is a little history
and info about Samuel Smith’s, brewing beer in Tadcaster,
“Est. 1758”:
Every drop of beer brewed at Samuel Smith’s is made with water from the brewery
well. In fact, the brewery has the
original well-digger’s receipt in their archives, and it is that 1758 receipt
that establishes their founding date.
(In 1758, George Washington was 26; Benjamin Franklin was 52, and
Abraham Lincoln would not be born for another 51 years.)
“Yorkshire Squares”: Samuel Smith’s is the only brewery that
ferments all ales in open-topped vessels made of stone, known locally as
“Yorkshire Squares,” and they make the only stone-fermented beers available in
the US. Yorkshire Squares are certainly
not the easiest or cheapest fermentation vessel to use, but they provide the
perfect environment for the Samuel Smith yeast strain due to their shape &
configuration. And as brewers will
confirm, happy yeast makes great-tasting beer.
(We have on our website a detailed scholarly article by Mr. Peter
“Local delivery by horse-drawn
wagon”: In the town of
Look
for more Samuel Smith stories in the next issue, including the early
introduction of organic beers, English pub culture, the American beer scene
when Samuel Smith’s first came in to the
Brewing Terminology: “Gravity” Made
Simple:
What
does the term “gravity” mean to beer folks? Some of us who might not know
may have figured out from context that it has something to do with the beer’s
strength . . .
Water
with sugar dissolved in it is heavier than plain water. The liquid in a
brewkettle (called wort) contains barley-derived sugar, which the yeast later
consumes to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Sugar is the yeast’s food.
So,
unfermented wort with lots of sugar, or a high Original Gravity (O.G.) is
more likely to produce a beer with higher alcohol. To oversimplify
for clarity, more barley = more sugar = more yeast food = more alcohol.
The
numbers come from using plain water at 60 degrees F as a reference.
Water = Specific Gravity 1.000. O.G. for beer worts might range from
1.040 all the way up to 1.100. After fermentation, Final Gravity or
Terminal Gravity might range from 1.006 - 1.020. Why the change? The
yeast consumed sugar from the sweet (and heavy!) wort and produced
alcohol (lighter than water). And the change indicates how much alcohol
was produced, so brewers who know the OG and the FG can determine the alcohol
in the finished beer.
What about OG
in the Balling scale, measured in degrees Plato? Simple -- just a
different reference scale: multiply Plato times 4 and move the
decimal 3 places left to get Specific Gravity; divide SG by 4
and move the decimal 3 places right to get Plato. OG 1.048 =
12 Plato. 14 Plato = OG 1.056.
Merchant