The "De" Evolution of American Beer?

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fr0glet

Knows not a lot about beer, nor about Devo. . .

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fr0glet

Here is the story:

The lightening of American beer Country's history is written in its suds, from dark lager to low-carb concoctions By Bob Skilnik Special to the Tribune Published September 17, 2003

When most Americans think of beer, they picture a golden pilsner, light-bodied and easily drinkable: Budweiser or Old Style, maybe, or even the multitude of low-calorie/low-carbohydrate light beers.

It wasn't always so. The pilsners of today descend from a much darker beginning. As the biggest growth in the industry continues to be in light beers--evident in the commercial barrage that has returned with the National Football League season--it's interesting to step back and look at how American beer developed. In the 1840s, when the first lager beers were brewed in the United States, they had little in common with our modern pilsners. The early lagers-- beers that benefit from an extended time in cool temperatures (known as "lagering") -- were often dark because they were brewed from erratically processed barley malt. (As with coffee beans, a longer time or higher heat in the kiln darkens the malt and, ultimately, the beer.) They also tended toward cloudiness because of the high protein content of American six-row barley.

At the time, no one seemed to mind. Beer was served in earthenware mugs and a healthy head of foam separated the drinker from what was underneath. But clear glass bottles became common in the late 1800s, revealing lager beer for what it was: tasty, but not beautiful.

Soon, American brewers beat the protein haze problem by substituting low-protein corn and rice for part of the barley. The yeast still fermented these other starches into alcohol, but the cloudiness went away. So too did some of the beer's body, and the first steps toward our light U.S. brews had been taken.

The dawn of Pilsener

Americans weren't the only ones for whom the 1800s were the dark-beer ages. Most beer, whether ale (Britain, Belgium) or lager (Germany, Bohemia) was pretty dark. In 1842, a golden-colored beer was first brewed in Pilsen, Bohemia, the result of light-kilned malt brewed in soft water that prevented darkening. This new style of lager was called Pilsener, later Americanized to "pilsner."

This new beer became popular throughout the neighboring German states, and immigrant German brewers eventually brought the techniques to the U.S.

The marriage of clear glass, corn or rice adjuncts and improved kilning gave rise to the American-styled pilsner beer. This beer was crisper and lighter than its German or Bohemian counterparts because of adjuncts, but it was still an appealing and refreshing golden beer.

World War I and Woodrow Wilson brought about another round of lightening. Wilson decreed in December 1917 that the amount of food materials used for beer be reduced by 30 percent. In addition, beers were limited to an alcoholic strength of 2 3/4 percent by weight. (By comparison, today's American pilsners contain 4 percent to 5 percent alcohol.) Beer brewed in the few years before Prohibition was a far cry from the dark lagers of the 1800s and even from the Americanized version of the Bohemian and German pilsners that had become the style of choice for most beer drinkers.

Nothing could prepare beer drinkers for the Prohibition-era "needle beer," though. Because the Volstead Act, which ushered in the 18th Amendment, permitted "malt beverages" no more than 0.5 percent alcohol, real beer drinkers quickly lost interest. The insipid brews, the result of a de-alcoholizing process, were thin and weak.

Bootleggers got around the problem by presenting saloon and speakeasy owners with tins of alcohol and a supply of syringes. Bar owners would pierce the cork in the brewery-delivered barrel and inject alcohol, boosting levels to up to 8 percent. The beer remained thin and less filling, though, often leading to overindulgence and terrible hangovers. "Needle beer" was renamed "headache beer."

A more flavorful method of adding octane was to replace some of the near beer with a mixture of ginger ale and alcohol. This gave beer a sweeter profile, which some brewers took into account upon the repeal of Prohibition.

When legal beer came back in 1933, American brewers pursued a new demographic: women. Although women had been barred from most pre-Prohibition saloons, a new generation of young women was welcome in the speak-easies of the Roaring '20s, where mixed company enjoyed mixed drinks.

Brewers, hoping to move women away from sweetened highballs, began limiting their use of bittering hops, and reformulated their brands to exhibit a sweeter aftertaste. For example, Milwaukee's Schlitz, once a hearty pilsner, was now advertised as having "just a kiss of the hops," with little of the customary bite that it had before Prohibition.

Light at the end of the tunnel

In the last three decades, "light beer" became its own category, and then the dominant one. It is one of the few segments in the brewing industry that continues to show sales growth. Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light is the best-selling beer in the U.S., and Miller Lite is Chicago's favorite brew.

The nation's craze for low-carbohydrate dieting has spilled over into beer marketing: A-B's latest addition, Michelob Ultra, brags about its scanty 2.6 grams of carbohydrates per bottle. It has taken off in sales.

Robert Bindley, a former executive at the Stroh Brewing Co., said that the light beer category changed the taste and body of even regular beers. "Virtually every brewery has toned down the taste and body of their product line in the last 25 years or so in order to approach some of the characteristics of light beer."

The question is, how far will the industry go with the notion that the lighter the taste, the more of it we will drink? Miller's attempt a few years ago at introducing Clear Beer, a see-through brew with the taste of sweetened seltzer water, proved a clear flop.

Even with the niche popularity of microbrews, it's logical to assume that mainstream American drinkers will keep the lights on, far from the experience our great-grandfathers once enjoyed, in their dark-wood, dark-beer saloons.

A taste of yesteryear

Several brewers have been experimenting with old-time formulas. Some of these beers are all-malt products, similar in taste and body to any number of German imports. Others use corn or rice in addition to malted barley and approach the tastes and characteristics of a late

19th or early 20th Century American beer. The following beers are available in most stores with large beer selections:

Augsburger: Once a staple of Monarch Brewery on Chicago's Southwest Side and later brewed according to a rich all-malt recipe by the Huber Brewing Co., this beer became a Chicago favorite during the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. After changing hands a couple more times, the label was quietly buried in 2000. The Stevens Point Brewery recently picked up the rights to brew Augsburger, and assures Chicagoans that the beer will be brewed as it once was during its time at Huber. "We modified the formula to use 100 percent barley malt, hops, water and yeast," notes Point's master brewer John Zappa. "The result is more of a smooth, flavorful, well balanced lager." Currently being test-marketed in key Wisconsin cities, "Augie" may be in local stores in the near future.

Capital 1900: Created from an old Wisconsin recipe said to be an original Schlitz formula, this pilsner is fuller in taste than a contemporary American pilsner, with a hint of corn.

Huber Premium: Mellow taste with light hops. The brewery lagers its beer for five weeks before it leaves the plant. The average maturation time for many American beers is two weeks or less.

Berghoff Original Lager: Now brewed by Huber, the recipe for this full-bodied beer was purchased from the Berghoff family in 1994.

Point Special Lager: This throwback is quintessentially American, from its choice of "select brewers' grains" (indicating the inclusion of either corn or rice) to its use of American hops.

-- B.S.

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Skilnik is the author of "The History of Beer and Brewing in Chicago,

1833-1978" and "The History of Beer and Brewing in Chicago, Volume II."

Good article - thanks!

JaKe, Seattle "My best advice to anyone who wants to raise a happy, mentally healthy child is: Keep him or her as far away from a church as you can." FZ

Uhhh...older than the telegraph?

Do you use the telegraph online? No. But I do see the parrallel.

fr0glet

Thus spake fr0glet in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Better question would be how would one use a telegraph _off_line. ;)