American IPA and Speciality Grains

[Clibit]

Great story, and isn't it brilliant that one of the Monty Python team had a key role in the birth of the microbrewery!"

I don't think we can blame the Temperance movement for anything that's happened since World War 2! The government has been encouraging lower strength beers for many years via taxation. Allied to a pub culture which suits session beers. It's normal behaviour to knock back several pints quickly. (There are many excellent low gravity ales though). Beer quality suffered from the arrival and rapid uptake of lager probably, poor quality lager, and a resulting change in beer drinking habits in the 70s. Which also saw a huge reduction in the number of breweries, and a move to mass production of beer with quality not an important consideration. I think we collectively forgot what good beer was, and the big breweries re-educated people to drink anything offered to them, via an advertising onslaught. I realise this is a half baked history lesson but it was something like that. Camra sprang up in the 70s in reaction to it all and have gradually changed the landscape, and now we have a new wave of craft brewing which has been fuelled by ideas and hops from America. We owe a massive debt to Camra.

I have started to believe, though, that the cask beer obsession has gone too far, it is too dominant, and that cask beer is very hit and miss. I have no axe to grind. Actually, I have always thought this, but it seemed to be an unavoidable aspect of drinking beer that wasn't mass produced rubbish. I have drunk many very average pints of cask ale, made with little commitment to providing a really good product, or served with no commitment to serving a quality product, or just not looked after, out of ignorance or lack of interest/effort. Always hoping to get a really good pint. The British have been lazy when it comes to food and drink for ages. I have often bought bottled beer in pubs with cask ale.

By making my own AG beer I have become dissatisfied with paying £3 - £4 for a pint of cask beer and wondering if it will be worth the price, and becoming very selective about what I drink and where I drink it. I know where to go, locally, and I know a lot of the brewers and which to buy and which not to buy. And I am now inclined to agree with those who say that cask ale is too dominant. I don't want it replaced by any means, it is a unique and wonderful product, fantastic at its best, but there are now other ways of delivering quality beer that is entirely natural, and is much more consistent. It is good to be pretty confident that the beer you buy will be in good nick - and there are keg forms which are natural and very likely to be in excellent condition, from first to last pint. The UK is now a better place to drink beer than at any time since I was 18, in 1979. But there is still a lot of beer served that I wouldn't waste the money on. And the quality of beer from all the new microbreweries varies enormously.

[Barley Water]

I always thought that the temperance movement over here worked through prohibition while on your side of the world they worked via the tax collector. What news coverage I have seen on that issue over here implies that the government is seeking to reduce so called binge drinking which I perhaps incorrectly labeled a temperance movement. Of course one needs to be careful what one reads and believes so it is entirely possible that I am mistaken.

[Clibit]

The Temperance movement surely played a role in the 19th century, but I think it was more the case that the ruling classes wanted to control the working classes in the 20th century. And the current Tory government has introduced new beer taxes related to the strength of beer, in the last few years. Alcohol is a pretty major problem in British society to be fair. And that's coming from a left wing home brewer. Most UK home brewing involves kits from Wilko bolstered with sugars, with the sole purpose of getting hammered as cheaply as possible. Twas always thus, I think (getting hammered as cheaply as possible, and as true today as it ever was). Ale is deeply rooted in our culture. And drunkenness.

Try this...

http://www.europeanbeerguide.net/beer1917.htm

[YeastWhisperer]

The incredible thing about Peter Austin is that few young American brewers and craft beer drinkers know that he is the reason why East Coast craft ale leans British. They mistaking believe that it is because we were colonies when, in reality, it is because Peter and Alan built the many of the early ale microbreweries on the East Coast. Geary's, Wild Goose, Arrowhead, Magic Hat, Gritty McDuff's, Kennebunkport, Shipyard, and Oliver's were all basically different-sized replicas of the Ringwood Brewery.

By the way, torrified wheat was a staple at Wild Goose. It is one of my secret ingredients when I am brewing a sub-1.050 ale. It definitely increases body and head retention in a lower gravity ale. I used 8.33% torrified wheat in the Anglo-American bitter than brewed last weekend.

[YeastWhisperer]

Most UK home brewing involves kits from Wilko bolstered with sugars, with the sole purpose of getting hammered as cheaply as possible. Twas always thus, I think (getting hammered as cheaply as possible, and as true today as it ever was). Ale is deeply rooted in our culture. And drunkenness.

That's just crazy! Almost everything that was available to amateur brewers when I first started brewing in the early nineties came from the UK. The only extract that was not a British extract was Alexander's Pale Malt Extract. My first two batches were made using English kits. One particularly dreadful kit was EDME's Dogbolter. I can still remember how foul that beer tasted. It was the low-quality dried yeast that we used to receive from the UK that forced me to start culturing my own yeast.

What's wild is how far we were behind British amateur brewers when I first picked up the hobby. There was no such thing as an instant all-grain brewer. One had earn the right to brew all-grain beer because brewing all-grain meant fabricating most, if not all of one's brew house. Today, one can walk into a home brew shop and purchase a complete all-grain brew house and the ingredients necessary to brew all-grain beer before one even knows how to properly clean and sanitize a fermentation vessel.

[orlando]

Today, one can walk into a home brew shop and purchase a complete all-grain brew house and the ingredients necessary to brew all-grain beer before one even knows how to properly clean and sanitize a fermentation vessel.

With greater choice, better quality and much better value. How far you have come!

[YeastWhisperer]

With greater choice, better quality and much better value. How far you have come!

However, easy access to high quality gear has also created an entire generation of amateur brewers who confuse technology with technique. One cannot purchase the ability to make good beer. It's something that has to be earned via study and practice. It's not uncommon to see a new brewer brew a batch or two of kit beer before forking out several thousand dollars out on a full-blown turn-key brewing system only to discover that he/she does not have the chops and/or correct mindset to brew all-grain beer. After a few failed attempts at making all-grain beer, the kit goes up for sale.

[orlando]

With greater choice, better quality and much better value. How far you have come!

After a few failed attempts at making all-grain beer, the kit goes up for sale.

Point me at the ad. I think the expression is " all the gear, no idea".

[Barley Water]

I can tell by his comments that YeastWhiperer is old school as am I. I'll never forget my first homebrewed beer, a can of old UK extract and quite a bit of sugar. God that stuff sucked but if it was designed the get the drinker stupid and it was sucessful. The equipment and ingredients that can be purchased over here was completely unheard of back in the day. I can always tell the old guys from the youngsters; the old guys have bleach holes in all their t-shirts.

[YeastWhisperer]

the old guys have bleach holes in all their t-shirts.

Star San? We don't need no stinkin' Star San!

Some of the old timers have brewing shirts with generous iodine stains and angry wives from using Iodophor.

[hophit]

For my last couple of 8% IPAs I have been using Maris Otter as my base malt with 100g Torrified Wheat, 500g Flaked Oats and 500g Caragold. Mashed at 66C for an hour. Nice and Simple. Really like this combination - it gives me a solid base, a littel mouthfeel (I don't like them too thin) with just a touch of toffee flavour and a relatively light colour, while letting the C hops shine through.