A Brewing Puzzler

[Thurston Brewer]

My hot water comes out of the tap at 127 °F and I can't touch it without pulling my hand away... Don't even want to think about 150 - 160 °F.

Nonetheless, this is undoubtedly one of the main ways that brewers used to judge their liquor temps.

 

[J A]

I suppose if beer brewing was an household chor the wife most likely partook in, I guess she would of given her daughters instructions in making the family brew and therefore passing on the knowledge in brewing practices to her daughters . I suppose if your wife made lovely beer your household would be packed.

Not wives...men and only men for most of history. Monks refined the process and passed it down through the dark ages, I'm sure.

 

[J A]

My hot water comes out of the tap at 127 °F and I can't touch it without pulling my hand away... Don't even want to think about 150 - 160 °F.

Water temp and air temp are vastly different sensations because of heat transfer efficiency. You can hold your hand in150 degree air or even on a metallic surface much longer than you can hold it in water of the same temp without damage to the tissue.

 

[jeffpn]

Air, I'll buy. But not metal. That's a good conductor of heat. Ever get poison ivy on the inside of your forearm? Resting my arm on the hot metal of the door when driving feels sooooo good on poison ivy. And when I don't have poison ivy, it can get too hot to touch.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Well there ya go JA I thought the women did the brewing back in the day I'll take ya word for it I'll have to give those brewing history clips a Squiz

 

[Thurston Brewer]

I've been doing a good bit of reading on it lately, and it was usually the women who did the brewing when it was done at home. Commercial brewing was different, but until recent centuries the majority of beer and ale were brewed within the household.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Ah that's where I got it . I've also read somewhere that it was more like a meal type thing like porridge due to poor water quality. Could you believe giving your child a light beer to drink when they say their thirsty !

 

[Gerry P]

"Take ten gallons of ale, and a large cock, the older the better; parboil the cock, flay him, and stamp him in a stone mortar till his bones are broken (you must craw and gut him when you flay him); then put the cock into two quarts of sack, and put it to three pounds of raisins of the sun stoned, some blades of mace, and a few cloves; put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find the ale has done working, put the ale and bag together into a vessel; in a week or nine days time bottle it up; fill the bottle but just above the neck, and give the same time to ripen as other ale." - Cock ale recipe, "The Compleat Housewife", 1739.

Men probably took over brewing duties after this was published.

 

[Gerry P]

Ah that's where I got it . I've also read somewhere that it was more like a meal type thing like porridge due to poor water quality. Could you believe giving your child a light beer to drink when they say their thirsty !

Better for them than soda, I bet.

 

[J A]

Resting my arm on the hot metal of the door when driving feels sooooo good on poison ivy. And when I don't have poison ivy, it can get too hot to touch.

More tender areas will feel uncomfortable much faster...yeah, the inside of your forearm will burn like hell if you touch a 160 degree surface. You can probably hold your hand on a 160 degree dry surface for a second or two depending on how calloused up you are. Also the back of your hand is a better way of telling the temp of a surface because it's much more tender. Chefs and kitchen workers get very tough hands and seem to withstand hot surfaces like pots and even very hot water much easier than most folks.

 

[J A]

I've been doing a good bit of reading on it lately, and it was usually the women who did the brewing when it was done at home. Commercial brewing was different, but until recent centuries the majority of beer and ale were brewed within the household.

I suppose I'm thinking more about brewing as a refined process. I agree that most brewing in the home, and probably just about all brewing in the earliest times, would have been women's work.

 

[Thurston Brewer]

Also, in medieval times, wort wasn't boiled (they started boiling it with the advent of hops, which need to be boiled to release the alpha acids). As a result, medieval ale was chock full of proteins in addition to the carbs and other nutrients. It also had to be drunk within four days or it would spoil. Based on modern experiments, when wort was not boiled:

...it started to sour on the fourth day, and was fully sour before it started to really clear.

whereas, if it was boiled (even without hops):

...the ale was clear, and that it has lasted well for at least six months.

so boiling makes it less nutritious, but clearer and it keeps better.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Makes sense to me thirsty when I leave my spent grain in a pot outside to feed to the chooks it doesn't last long before it goes rancid il. Give you three days and it's smelling quite sour and pongy but the chooks still eat it

 

[Head First]

Makes sense to me thirsty when I leave my spent grain in a pot outside to feed to the chooks it doesn't last long before it goes rancid il. Give you three days and it's smelling quite sour and pongy but the chooks still eat it

I dump mine out where the deer can find it. They have it cleaned up overnight.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I learned my lesson on draining wort and grain in the yard, I have moles that chase the earth worms that love anything to do with beer making, my yard has nothing but tunnels under the top layer of grass

 

[jeffpn]

I dump mine out where the deer can find it. They have it cleaned up overnight.

Fatten them up and make jerky and sausage!

 

[Head First]

Fatten them up and make jerky and sausage!

Gotta stay on thread... did the women make the jerky out of that rooster that p#$@ them off after they brewed or before? Think I will make my own jerky too...

 

[Thurston Brewer]

Thread... what thread?

 

[GFHomebrew]

Ha ha history of brewing / jerky making

 

[GFHomebrew]

Gotta stay on thread... did the women make the jerky out of that rooster that p#$@ them off after they brewed or before? Think I will make my own jerky too...

Sounds like she boiled it first with the beer then made jerky out of the beer soaked remains