Probably making it in limited quantities, and serving it on the spot made some difference.jim wrote:So how did they make good beer 500 years ago when the periodic table consisted of Fire, Water and Rocks?
This is why wine has been around forever. Grapes have self-contatined yeast and sugar where fermentation can begin pretty spontaneously. If you were to gather them and stuff them into a jar and bury it or hide it in a cave for safekeeping, you might come back to find some juice at the bottom that made you feel really nice. Primitive you wouldn't understand what happened but you'd thank the gods that it did.jim wrote:So how did they make good beer 500 years ago when the periodic table consisted of Fire, Water and Rocks?
Beer has been around thousands of years as well. 7,000 according to Wikipedia.haltz wrote:This is why wine has been around forever. Grapes have self-contatined yeast and sugar where fermentation can begin pretty spontaneously. If you were to gather them and stuff them into a jar and bury it or hide it in a cave for safekeeping, you might come back to find some juice at the bottom that made you feel really nice. Primitive you wouldn't understand what happened but you'd thank the gods that it did.jim wrote:So how did they make good beer 500 years ago when the periodic table consisted of Fire, Water and Rocks?
We're not talking most beer though, we're talking specifically about brett, lacto, other long-aged beers that are kept typically in barrel rooms where there is some control over the humidity. These yeast bugs eat up stuff that other yeast doesn't always get to, creating more alcohol by volume in the tank/barrel, which then, under controlled humidity, evaporates out.haltz wrote:Given that most beer isn't aged for that long, even in humid conditions (which you don't want unless they specifically help brett fermentation) you aren't going to see an appreciable change in abv.
If it's low humidity that will raise the abv. It would have to be years in open air or porous containers in high humidity (scary, btw), all while immortal brett strains are [expletive] out alcohol.They get an extended, cool aging in low humidity. The alcohol, which can't form the bonds water can, evaporates out.
Looks like the reason for the low ABV is the low starting gravity. I don't think it has anything to do with evaporation.33anda3rd wrote:Look at Berliner Weisse beers. They age for a looooooooong time. And come in at 2.8-3.5% ABV. They get an extended, cool aging in low humidity. The alcohol, which can't form the bonds water can, evaporates out.
You can scan the BJCP Guide on sours and find a lot of low-alcohol beers, medium tops. Once in a while they'll hit 7-8% but it's rare. The long, controlled fermentation causes alcohol to escape the wort as it ferments.
Also, alcohol will evaporate more quickly from wine than from beer since wine contains a higher percentage of it.haltz wrote:OK, last post. I'm pretty convinced that I'm right about this.
Think about it like this: it's really about how fast the water evaporates due to humidity. At 100% humidity the air is "full" and you'll see condensation. At 0% humidity the air is "empty" and you'll see rapid evaporation of water. This affects the ratio of alcohol by volume and your breakeven point is somewhere between 65-75%. Given that most beer isn't aged for that long, even in humid conditions (which you don't want unless they specifically help brett fermentation) you aren't going to see an appreciable change in abv.
It started because I was surprised to hear that it wasn'tPopeye_Card wrote:You mean it took us at long to figure out that Berliner Weisse's are lower ABV because they have low OG's? So, Brewing 101?