A British brewer describes Belgian beers in the 1880s

I love those descriptions of British brewers' and drinkers' encounters with Belgian beer. They're unanimous in their views: they taste dreadful.

To be fair, their opinions mirror my own on first encountering Belgian beer. Many years ago at a Great British Beer Festival in the late 1970s. "Is it supposed to taste like this?" was my reaction to Lambic. It just tasted like beer which had gone incredibly off.

While we're on the topic of Lambic, let's see what the authore thought of it:

"A beverage in great demand in the neighbourhood of Brussels, and which is also regarded in a very favourable light in Antwerp, and more especially at the Salon de degustation in the Exhibition is known as Lambic. The chief peculiarity, but certainly not the principal recommendation of this very remarkable ale, is to be found in the fact that not less than three and and sometimes as many as five years are required for its preparation. It is very low in gravity, and in that respect its consumption is possible to be commended; no yeast is added to the wort after it has been boiled, but it is allowed to undergo a spontaneous fermentation by storage iu unbuuged casks, in a cellar probably more remarkable for the number and variety of fortuitous germs floating about it, than for its cleanliness. That some stray yeast-cells find their way into the casks, and alighting upon a favourable medium, multiply with rapidity, is easily conceivable; but it will scarcely be urged, that the fermentation is purely alcoholic. Indeed, the difficulty, from an English brewer's point of view, will probably be to decide as to whether the aroma be attributable to casks winch have grown musty in the service, to butyric acid, to acetic acid, or to genuine putrefactive fermentation. In any case the combination is nasty; and it would be easier to induce an English farmer to cultivate a taste for olives than for lambic."

Holmes' Brewing Trade Gazette - Wednesday 01 July 1885, page 13.

Not exactly a ringing recommendation. Interesting that he says it's very low gravity. I've only a couple of analyses of 19th-century Lambic and one is 6.5% ABV.

Now he takes his axe to Faro:

"The second runnings of lambic wort are probably designed to develop a liking for this extraordinary article, for they are retained for the preparation of a beer known as Faro, which is practically intermediate between the running ale of the estaminets and lampic. Faro is not entirely fermented spontaneously, but has a small quantity of yeast added to it. When finished, it very much resembles a weak solution of hydrochloric acid. It may be tonic, but is not palatable, at least from our point of view."

Holmes' Brewing Trade Gazette - Wednesday 01 July 1885, page 13.

Not sure I've ever seen it mentioned before that some yeast was added to Faro. I don't think comparing Faro to hydrochloric acid is meant to be a compliment.

"A still more extraordinary product is that known as Biere Blanche. To the uninitiated it is not unlike workhoouse gruel in appearance, and, if one may judge by reports, there is not such a very great dissimilarity between the flavour of the two articles. If white beer be bright it is considered worth the drinking; but so long as it remains thick, it is consumed with evident relish. Your readers will not be surprised to learn that white beer is not adapted for store purposes, when they are told that it is with scarcely any hops, and that only half the wort is boiled, the remainder being conveyed direct from the mash-tun to the cooler preparatory to fermentation. Before pitching, it is mixed with the half that has been boiled, and to which a few hops have been added. This unique beverage has the colour of ginger beer, but is somewhat thicker in consistency. It is no exaggeration to state that the teetotal party might render good service to their cause by introducing white beer into England."
Holmes' Brewing Trade Gazette - Wednesday 01 July 1885, page 13.

Fair to say that he wasn't impressed with Witbier. Workhouse gruel: what a lovely description.

Amazing to think that some of these beers are so highly regarded nowadays.

The CO2 content of Porter

In response to a question about the CO2 content of 1890 Truman Export Stout, featured in yesterday's Let's Brew, here's yet another bloody table.

Have to rush. My curry is burning.

Brewing in Leuven in the 1830's

I know. This horse is nearly dead. But beating it is such fun. Yes, it's another of David Booth's little treatises on continental brewing again.

As you would expect of Belgium, the brewing method is slightly eccentric. They used air-dried rather than kiln-dried malt, which makes Pieterman a Weissbier by the naming convention of the day, despite being 100% barley. This type of beer used to be brewed all the way from Belgium to Berlin. Now it's usually only found in Belgium and Berlin.

Booth uses delightful understatement when he says of Belgian brewers "they are no ardent lovers of cleanliness". What A polite why of saying they're filthy bastards.


METHOD OF BREWING AT LOUVAINE.

The beer of Louvaine is famed throughout the Netherlands, and its sale constitutes the principal portion of the trade of the place. The city contains twenty-four Brewers, some of whom manufacture three hundred barrels a-week.

In malting, they follow the worst possible plan. They have no kiln, nor do they ever use any fuel in drying the malt. Whatever be the season, it is done by the air alone, hi large lofty attics, which form a part of every brewhouse, and are made use of solely for that purpose. In the cold winter months, they, of necessity, are unable to malt. They make use of no malt, except what is made from barley; which always remains very tough, and is never separated from its dust. In general, they are no ardent lovers of cleanliness.

The plant, with a few exceptions, is similar to that of an English brewhouse. They not only employ two coppers, but also two mash-tuns. The coppers are near to each other, and on a level with the tuns. There are five separate coolers, by which they are enabled to divide the worts, so as to make strong beer, table beer, and small beer, from the same gyle. The strong beer is of two kinds, Pieterman, and White Beer. The former is brown-coloured, pretty strong, and has a mixed taste of bitter and sweet: the other is sweeter, but much weaker; and both are not only turbid, but Hi.lc.1f, in the utmost sense of the word. We shall begin with an account of


THE PROCESS OF A BREWING OF PIETERMAN.

They take, first, seven quarters and a half of barley-malt, and seven and a half of raw wheat, finely ground and mixed together, and fill them into eighteen large sacks. Then they take seven quarters of finely-ground raw wheat, and fill them into sixteen small sacks. From these materials, they produce forty barrels of strong Pieterman, thirty-five barrels of table beer, and twelve barrels of small beer, by the following management :—

The mash-tun No. I is half filled with cold water, into which are put the eighteen large sacks of grain; and when the whole is well mashed, as much additional cold water is let on, through the trunk, as fills the tun to within tvo inches of the top. Several wicker baskets are now pressed down among the goods; and the cold worts are thus got out, by means of brass pails, and put into the copper No. 1. Cold liquor is turned twice upon the goods in succession, and taken out in the same manner, to be carried to the copper No. 1; by which means it is now half-full.

The mash-tun No. 1, with the goods, is now filled to the brim with boiling liquor from the copper No. 2. After mashing some time, the heat of the goods being 108 degrees, the wort is got out, as before, by means of baskets, and likewise carried to the copper No. 1. Into this copper, also, the sixteen small sacks of finely ground wheat are now emptied, which fill the copper to the brim; and a fire is immediately lighted under it.

Boiling liquor is turned a second time on the goods in No.l, from the copper No. 2; and, after mashing, the wort is taken out and put temporarily into the mash-tun No. 2. A third mash of boiling water is now made of the goods in the mash- tun No. 1, raising the heat to 182 degrees. By this mash the copper No. 2 is emptied; and immediately receives the wort which was stored in the mash-tun No. 2, by which it is half filled. Twelve pounds of hops are added to this copper, which is then covered.

From the mash-tun No. 1 the last hot wort is exhausted, in the same way as before, and put (for a time) into casks prepared for receiving it; and then the goods are all turned out of the mash-tun No.l, into the mash-tun No. 2, which had been previously washed and accommodated with a false bottom. Hitherto, of course, the worts have been all turbid, without having acquired any sweet taste.

During all this time the copper No. 1 (containing the cold and first warm wort, as well as the seven quarters of raw wheat) is roused continually, and heated so very slowly that it requires nearly four hours to bring it to boil. After boiling an hour, the fluid portion of this thick mash is drained out, by means of baskets, and turned upon the goods in the mash-tun No. 2; leaving in this copper, No. 1, merely the cuticles or bran of the wheat. Over these cuticles the wort that was stored in the casks, as above mentioned, is pumped, and then left to boil.

The wort in the mash-tun No. 2, after being stirred a little, at a heat of about 170 degrees, is now run off, and, being very pure and sweet, is, without adding hops, pumped directly into two of the coolers; and the wort from the copper No. 2 (which, after having boiled two hours along with the hops, had been emptied into the mash-tun No. 1, where it had stood three hours and settled pretty clear) is likewise pumped up, but on a separate cooler. The copper No. 2 is now employed in heating liquor.

The wort which was turned upon the wheat-bran, in the copper No. 1, after having boiled two hours, is now drained out with baskets, and turned upon the goods in the mash- tun No. 2; and the copper No. 1 (containing only the wheat- bran) is again filled with boiling water from the copper No. 2. The tun No. 2, after mashing (heat about 175 degrees), is drained of its worts, which, now pure and sweet, are put into the empty mash-tun No. 1. The contents of the copper No. 1, bran and all (having begun to boil), are turned over into the mash-tun No. 2, mashed at a heat of about 180 degrees, and, the worts draining from it pure, are pumped into the copper No. 1. The copper No. 2, instantly after being emptied of its boiling liquor, was filled with the worts that stood in the mash tun No. 1.

Both coppers being now filled with pure worts, are mixed up with hops; twenty-six pounds being put into No. 2, and thirteen pounds into No. 1. They are covered, and, after boiling six hours, are cast into separate coolers.

The whole of the worts are cooled down to 70 degrees before letting them down to the yeast: that portion which was pumped up from the copper No. 1 (about twelve barrels) is reserved for small beer; and the other worts are separated into the requisite proportions of strong beer and table beer, in which the mixture of the worts from the other four coolers is made from the Brewer's taste with regard to strength; he having no saccharometer, or other similar instrument, to direct his judgment.

The forty barrels of strong beer (Pieterman) are let down into a tun with eight-and-a-half gallons of yeast. This yeast is very white, and retains something of the sour taste which is peculiar to all the beer that is brewed at Louvaine. As soon as the worts in the tun have been well mixed with the yeast, they are drawn off into casks, standing on end and holding about a barrel and a half each, in which the fermentation commences and finishes in a period of between forty- four to fifty hours.


METHOD OF BREWING WHITE BEER.

The White Beer is brewed nearly in the same manner as the Pieterman, except that the quantity of hops is one-fourth less; neither are they allowed to boil so long with the worts. The whole quantity of grain made use of is the same; but the kinds and mixture are different. The eighteen sacks are filled with two-thirds of barley-malt, one-sixth of raw wheat, and one-sixth of oats, all ground fine; and the sixteen small sacks contain three-fourths of raw wheat, and one-fourth of barley-malt. The brewing consists of one entire gyle, and the quantity produced is eighty-two barrels.
"The Art of Brewing", by David Booth, 1834, chapter IV pages 45-48.