Beer History and Django Unchained

I saw these and was more just in awe of the cinematography employed for these shots, than worrying about the accuracy of the time period.

What a great movie.

Interested to see the replies as to whether this is accurate historically

 

Bro, next time you're gonna ruin all the good beer scenes in a movie, go ahead and throw a "SPOILER ALERT" in the thread title. Not cool...

 

I was thinking the same thing.

I'm also interested in the historical accuracy of the beer knife that he uses to cut the head.

 

Not sure but I do know that a buddy and I split a 6 pack of Dale's Pale Ale while watching it. What a kick ass movie!

 

You know you're a beer nerd if that's your greatest concern coming out of that movie.

 

Shut the front door! Beer refs in a movie make it more.
Can't wait to enjoy Django but love the beer notes. Cheers!

 

*patiently waiting for jesskiddens's knowledge bomb*

 

That guy really needs to be on the site's payroll if he's not already.

 

Don't worry, I had all the same questions as you after seeing the movie. I eagerly await factual replies to this thread. Thanks for the post!

 

One of the best films I've seen, I was just happy to see them enjoying beer in it. I can't say it matters if the bottles, pumps, or styles are legit. It's still a killer flick and everyone should see it. It's fun, it's comical and exciting.

 

Because all other parts of movies don't matter, right?

 

Only tiny quantities of Pale Lager were brewed outside Bohemia before the 1880's. In the 1850's the vast majority of Lager brewed in the world was in the dark Munich style. If a beer was golden-coloured, it was more likely to be a Pale Ale.

Not sure when swingtops were invented. In 1858 most bottled beer would hvae been sealed with a cork.

 

also, you know you're a beer nerd when now knowing there are beer scenes you're more likely to go watch the movie

 

1. Lager brewing in the US began in the 1840's but it was primarily heavier/darker German styles, what Geo. Ehret (once the largest brewer in America) described as "a brewage of a deep reddish-brown color, peculiar to heavily-malted beers" in his 1890's book, Twenty-Five Years of Brewing. "Pilsen" or "Bohemian" beers in the US don't become generally available until the 1870's and '80's, with the acceptance of adjunct brewing. US ales of the era would also have been much darker than a "golden pilsner". Glass mugs also sound like an anachronism but I'm not too up on US pre-Pro drinkware history.

2. You can read how draught beer was served in the US before the use of "carbonic gas" to push beer out here Draught beer at the turn of the Twentieth Century in the US but basically they would have had laid sideways with just had a spout driven into a top bung and vented through the side bung. After that (and, so, well after your era) what essentially is today's "picnic tap" was used, pumping air into a keg. I've never found any evidence of an UK-style "beer engine/pump" being used in the US.

3. That "flip-top"(aka among some as "Grolsch-style") closure for beer bottles doesn't become popular until the 1870's and eventually dies out with the invention of the crown cork (1890's IIRC). As Ron notes above, corks would have been the primary closure for bottles mid-19th century. When the "flip-tops" - called Lightning closures - were used for beer, the "white plastic plug" were either metal and, more commonly found today, white porcelain and often were branded with the brewer's name. They're still found in dumps by those who dig for bottles and cans.



Beer bottling in the US didn't really take off until the adoption of pasteurization (popularized by some joke named "Busch" in St. Louis) - again well after the pre-Civil War era.

 

Would they have lagers? Seems hard to ferment one in the desert. Unless it was was like the california common yeast but even then it's more on the lower end of ale fermentation temps. Id imagine beer would be fermented in casks then tapped on the bar, poured via gravity.