[Sca-cooks] RE: small beer , A Primer

[Nick Sasso]

----- Original Message -----
> Phillipa asked:
> > Speaking of which... What is the alcohol content/percentage of
regular beer and of small beer and would current day light beer be akin
to small beer?

From: "Stefan li Rous" <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
> There are likely to be other differances between our regular beer and
the
> medieval small beer, than just the alcohol percentage. More
experienced
> brewers feel free to correct me.
> Most of our modern beers seem to be highly filtered. Particularly for
the
> lower classes, this is not likely to have been true in period. I
suspect
> the small beer was fairly "chewy" with more grain particles and
such.
> Perhaps thicker than say "Coors" or "Budweiser".
<SNIP some good info>
> Small beer seems to have been drunk like we do soft drinks and was
often
> one of the boons given to peasants bringing in the lord's harvest.
> Stefan
> Small beer - it's not just for breakfasts

Here goes a very basic primer on what I know of small ale/beer.  All
grain brewing starts off putting hot water on cracked malted barley to
'extract' the sugars and other things from the malt.  This is mashing,
and is also a part of the alcohol distillation prelude.  After the mash,
the water is run off, and more water is run through the grain 'filter
bed' to extract the converted sugars and other things.  The first batch
of water run through (now called wort) has the most sugars extracted,
and produces the strongest beer/ale.

After that, while your first batch is doing it's thing, you can run
more water through the grain to get a little more sugars extracted (as
well as some other bitter stuff and additional proteins).  This will
give you a far weaker wort, and produces a weaker beer/ale with probably
more tannins and proteins in it that affect the flavor and clarity of
the finished product.  Not exactly what we know as light beer today, but
certainly similar in that it is probably lighter in body and color, and
lower alcohol than a full beer/ale.  It is the frugality of the medieval
producer/consumer that give this . . . don't waste anything you can
possibly use in your daily life.

Modern commercial breweries have developed extraction to an exacting
science that gives them nearly everything they want in the first
running, so the grains are basically spent and not able to give up a
second running for a 'small beer'.  Given the tons of malt the run, they
gotta get every percentage the first time around to make it more
profitable.  Hope this is all useful.

pacem et bonum,
niccolo difrancesco
(details and specifications will vary, this is a general concept
description)