MdV: Merchant du
Vin beer e-newsletter –
NEWS, EVENTS, ARTICLES
Both the Celebrator Beer News and
Ale Street News have features about Westmalle Trappist Ale in the current
issues; restaurants & stores are adding it to their beer selections; the
Toronado in
Stuff Magazine reviewed Porters in
the January 2004 issue . . . and selected Samuel Smith Taddy Porter as the
“quintessential porter.”
Tune into the The
Fox News Channel “Fox
Report with Shepard Smith” at
The Hard Liver Barley Wine Fest in
Seattle; a Belgian Ale benefit for a remarkable charity at Café Miranda in
Rockland, Maine; and a fine beer dinner at Oro in San Antonio, TX: Great beer is happening all over the US! Check our detailed events listing at:
http://merchantduvin.com/pages/1_about/news.html
BEER CHAT FROM THE
The beer aficionados gather,
reverently holding a Belgian Ale or Craft Masterpiece. Nods all around, raised eyebrows: “This beer
is bottle-conditioned!”
But what exactly does that
mean? Surely more than a layer of
sediment on the bottom of the bottle!
Carbon dioxide -- CO2 -- is the gas
that gives sparkling beverages their "fizz." Carbonated beverages have CO2 dissolved in
them, and it stays there because of the high pressure in a sealed bottle or
keg. When you open the package, the CO2
begins to leave the liquid because of the lower pressure of the atmosphere:
that's why you get the bubbles, and that's why a carbonated beverage gets flat
eventually.
Yeast produces CO2 (as well as
alcohol) as a by-product of fermentation.
In a fermenting vessel, CO2 bubbles away to the atmosphere . . . Or at
least it did until Dom Perignon accidentally capped some white wine too early
300 years ago. Because the fermentation
was still going on, the CO2 produced by the yeast couldn't escape: it stayed in
the wine, and after the Dom tried it the rest was history. (According to legend, he took a sip and
turned to the other monks saying, "I'm drinking stars!"). For many years, the only way to produce a
carbonated beverage was by using yeast in the sealed bottle to put the bubbles
there.
Most modern beers have the CO2
infused in a large conditioning vessel.
CO2 is pumped in under pressure, and it is forced into the beer where it
stays there due to pressure in the keg, bottle, or can. Trappist ales, abbey ales, some craft beers,
and many homebrews are still bottle-conditioned following this process:
1.
The beer ferments until all the sugars that feed the yeast are consumed.
2.
The brewer adds a specific, measured amount of yeast food (wort, or
other sugar) just at bottling time.
There is still live yeast in the beer, but sometimes brewers also add
yeast at this time.
3.
The beer is bottled (or in the case of cask-conditioned beer, kegged)
and sealed, then kept at a temperature warm enough to allow the yeast to stay
active and consume the wort or sugar.
4.
The brewer waits until this "conditioning" period is over --
usually a matter of weeks -- then chills and ships the beer. The dormant yeast has settled into a thin
layer on the bottom of the bottle.
It's
important to note that a non-significant amount of alcohol is produced during
bottle conditioning. Brewers are really
just after the natural CO2 from the yeast, and only a tiny amount of yeast food
is added before bottle conditioning. But
bottle-conditioning is a classic, time-tested way to put a sparkle in beer:
connoisseurs will sometimes claim that carbonation produced via
bottle-conditioning leads to "softer-tasting" bubbles, and a
bottle-conditioned beer usually has improved shelf life. Buy some bottle-conditioned beers and test
these theories yourself -- just pour the beer gently into the glass, leaving
the yeast behind in the bottle . . . or, remember that brewer's yeast is packed
with B vitamins. You can do what some
Belgians do: pour the yeast into a separate small glass and drink it as a
tonic.
Merchant