Pre prohibition beer

Including Grain Belt???

 

This has been a very informative and interesting thread, thanks to all the knowledgible contributors here.

But seriously if you could combine any animal and beer style to most closely reflect your personality what would it be? Cats and Vermont style dipas right guys? Cats right??? Amirite? Heady vs cats, who wins?

 

The problem with discussing "per-Prohibition Beer" is the same as making general statements about "American beer" or even "Craft Beer" today. Even if we limit it to US-brewed beers post-Revolution, there were numerous ales, porters, stouts and common beers brewed before the arrival of lager yeast in the 1840s.

After that, different US ale styles were developed, German immigrant brewers introduced top-fermenting "weiss bier" and the soon-dominant "lager brewers" brewed numerous styles of bottom-fermented and lagered beers- some with adjuncts, some without. At first the most popular were in the "Bavarian" style and then in the "Pilsner/Bohemian" style. Just the Top 3 US brewers at the turn of the century brewed or had previously brewed these beers with very different recipes- different hops, malts and abv's:

Anheuser-Busch - Budweiser, Faust, Michelob, Pale Lager, St. Louis Lager, Erlanger, Black & Tan, Liebotschaner, Standard.
Pabst – Select, Bohemian, Bavarian, Hofbrau, Export, Red, White & Blue, Century Brau, Kloster Brau, Doppel Brau, Bock.
Schlitz – Budweiser, Pilsener, Wierner, Erlanger, Culmbacher, Schlitz-Brau, Extra Stout,Porter, Extra Pale.

So, what is a "pre-Prohibition beer" recipe? All of them.

 

It is a bit more complicated than that, according to 1903's 100 Hundred Years of Brewing (pg 37 or 52, depending on edition):

I don't think anyone knows where Boca got it's malted barley - or, if like a number (but usually a minority) of brewers at the time, they malted their own. The first malt house in California was started in 1853 in San Francisco - by 1900 there were 5 independent maltsters in SF. But what barley(s) did they malt?

Adjunct usage in the US really took off when the lager brewers of the day attempted to brew the light "Bohemian/Pilsener" styles beer - many of the Bavarian-type lager beers brewed in the US apparently used the available malted barley in the US with no problem.

 

I did not mean to suggest Yuengling doesn't also use Clusters along with Cascades for Traditional Lager:

 

Chevalier is being revived on a pilot scale. It is apparently quite different from modern barley.
https://www.jic.ac.uk/news/2013/04/beer-brewed-from-victorian-barley-variety/
Every town or often village in England seemed to have a maltings. There are so many people living in "the old maltings"

 

Speaking of Chevalier malt, this was a tasty pint.
http://www.bellsbeer.com/blog/363-Bell_s_brews_first_ale_in_100_year_old_wooden_fermenters

Malt flavor was like a French Baguette spread with walnut paste.

John Mallett said if you write a book about malt, then everyone sends you their unique malt to try.

 

@hopfenunmaltz , Just curious, did Bell's ever do anything else with those wooden fermenters?

 

I think they are still waiting for the next batch. I saw those on a tour on Monday, that is what the tour guide said.

 

Tastes do change. Whether they mature is a question open to debate.

But there are a number of historical American brews I would like to have tried. Fortunately, at least a few were still around when I started partaking of beer.

 

Have you tried homebrewing a reconstruction of those beers? if so, how did they turn out?

Cheers!