Research Suggests Chinese brewed beer 5,000 years ago,

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Chinese drinkers may have been brewing beer as many as 5,000 years ago, new research suggests.

US and Chinese researchers say they found traces of barley, millet, grain, and tubers used in fermentation.

It was found on pottery discovered in Shaanxi province in northern China during an archaeological dig 10 years ago.

It would be the earliest known instance of beer-making in China and suggest a sophisticated approach.

Published in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study also suggested that barley may have been used for booze before being used for food.

Image copyrightJIAJING WANG

As every home-brewer knows, funnels are an essential piece of kit

The pottery fragments were originally found in an archaeological dig in 2004-2006, but only had their residue analysed by Stanford University researchers in late 2015, confirming earlier speculation by Chinese scholars that they might have been used for brewing.

The find included pots and pottery funnels, covered with a residue of broomcorn millet, barley, a chewy grain known as Job's tears, and tubers.

It also included stoves that could have been used to heat and mash grains, as well as underground spaces that would have kept the brew at a cool, consistent fermentation temperature - and helped stop it going off quickly once it was made.

Image copyrightREUTERSImage caption

While the scale has changed, the basic recipe for beer remains much as it was 5,000 years ago

"The discovery of barley is a surprise," lead author Jiajing Wang of Stanford University told the BBC in an email, as it was previously thought the grain arrived in China 1,000 years later.

"This beer recipe indicates a mix of Chinese and Western traditions - barley from the West; millet, Job's tears and tubers from China."

The latest find would suggest that drinkers in China first began to develop a taste for beer around the same time as people in ancient Egypt and Iran - from where the barley may have come.

The exact taste of the ancient brew will remain a mystery however, as while the scientists say they know what ingredients were used, they don't know the quantities.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-36365967?ocid=socialflow_facebook&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=facebook

Smell your beer. Does it reek of gimmickry?

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by Joe Stange

A couple of weeks ago here, I blurted out an idea that sounded suspiciously refined. Really it was more like an amorphous phlegmatic thing, coughed out while clearing my throat mid-ramble. I barely stopped to marvel at how that loogie has the face of Elvis.

Then an author as accomplished as Stan Hieronymus had to point and say, “I wish I had written this.” As my head swelled I sighed deeply, realizing that I would have to bear the heavy, heavy burden of fleshing this thing out before some marketing whiz swipes it and runs with it and makes a gazillion dollars, and here I would remain, holding up a sign: “WILL WRITE FOR SOUP.”

So let’s talk more about “sincere beer.” It sounds so nice — and it rhymes! — but what is it? How can we explain this thing so that the really bored ones among you can start grassroots campaigns to promote and defend it? (Please don’t.) How can you know if you’re drinking a sincere beer?

Maybe you can’t. We’ll get to that. I’m going to raise a whole flotilla of questions you can ask your next beer. But first, the context: Sincere means honest; it implies simplicity. We might be talking about old-fashioned folk beers, or those that have barely changed in a century or two, but more to the point we’re talking about a reaction to today’s bewildering, disconnected, limitless variety.

Our thirst for variety has convinced breweries to pump out novelty after novelty — always on to the next new thing, the seasonal rotation taken to absurdity — rarely settling down to perfect a drinkable product.

Why improve a beer, after all, if we never drink the same thing twice?

Today a brewer can theoretically produce anything by rebuilding water, getting fresh ingredients from anywhere in the world, and ordering yeast from fetishistic catalogues. But that beer will not necessarily have anything to do with the place from whence it comes. Sincere beer represents a different sort of choice — and we should recognize that it is a choice, not an inevitability. Not modern, but metamodern.

The days when brewers were limited to local water and ingredients and drinkers are gone. Thankfully. But we’re allowed to be nostalgic. On to sincere beer. Trying to define it clearly just strikes me as pedantic. So instead I’m going to raise a whole bunch of questions. Not all are relevant, but Socratic method is more fun.

• Do you know where your beer is made? Are you sure?
• Is the label clear about the beer’s origins? Is it clear about the ingredients?
• How many ingredients are there, anyway? Are they from far away?
• Did it come from a cask spiced with Cocoa Puffs and dingleberries?
• If the beer is made locally, does the name include a foreign city?
• What did that beer cost you? Did you feel it?
• Read all of the label’s text. How many exclamation points do you count?
• Any yeast in there? Is the beer alive, or merely embalmed by refrigeration?
• When it’s done, would you like another?
• Would your grandpa have liked it? Do you think it might still be around for your own grandkids to try one day?

And maybe there is another thing to consider, in an age when any sort of beer can be made and shipped anywhere in the world. For whom was that beer made? Is it for anyone or everyone?There has been much written lately about beer that somehow expresses terroir — or sense of place, or somewhereness. But I think my favorite explanation comes from Tim Webb, who writes (with Stephen Beaumont) the World Atlas of Beer and (with me) the Good Beer Guide Belgium.

“Beer has terroir,” Tim says, “not for the soil where the grain or hops are grown, but for the people in the area for whom the beer is brewed, who shape by their cultural expectations of how that beer will be.”

That reminds me of one of the classic pieces of advice for writers, which I received as a young reporter: Imagine your reader. Name him. Talk to him.

I wonder if many brewers imagine their drinker. The way they’re cranking out new beers, I wonder if they even have time.

http://draftmag.com/beer-terroir-gimmickry/

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What is Diastatic Power?... Definition and Chart.

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by David Ackley
If you’ve been brewing for a while, you’ve probably come across the term “diastatic power” when exploring different malts and learning how to mash. What is #diastatic power? What’s the big deal?

A good "diastatic power" (DP) definition would be that it is a measurement of a #maltedgrain’s #enzymatic content. When grain is malted, enzymes are produced during germination. These enzymes are responsible for converting the grain’s starches into sugar during mashing. Diastatic power is an indicator of the amount of enzymes available to convert those starches into sugar.

In the US, diastatic power is generally measured in degrees Lintner. Malts with enough DP to convert themselves are at least 30 degrees Lintner; base malts can reach as high as 180 or more. That covers the question as to "what is diastatic power". Now here's some actual numbers to take a look at.

Here is a diastatic power chart for some of the more common malted grains:

Malt Degrees Lintner

Briess Red Wheat Malt 180
Briess White Wheat Malt 160
Briess Two-Row Malt 140
Briess Pilsen Malt 140
Briess Vienna Malt 130
Briess Rye Malt 105
Briess Munich Malt 10L 40
Briess Caramel 20-120 0
Briess Chocolate Malt 0
Briess Black Malt 0

For most all-grain beer recipes with a substantial amount of base malt, diastatic power isn’t going to be a major issue. DP comes in to play when brewing with a high proportion of specialty malts or unmalted adjuncts. There needs to be enough DP to not only convert the starches in the base grains, but in the specialty malts as well. One of the reasons American adjunct lagers are so high in two-row malt is that the extra DP is needed to convert the adjunct starches into sugar.

Diastatic power is also important when brewing partial mash. Take for example the grain bill for a partial mash recipe such as this one:

• 6.6 lbs. Light LME
• 1.5 lb. Caramel 40L
• 1 lb. Munich Malt (10L)

We know that the Caramel 40L contributes no diastatic power and the Munich only 40 degrees Lintner. The DP available to convert this mini-mash (simply the average by weight of the grains) is only about 16. This is far below the minimum recommended value of 30. Some recommend aiming for 70. In short, the higher the average DP, the more likely your chances are of a successful starch conversion.

There are several possible solutions for the example above:

1. We could replace the Munich with Vienna malt without a huge impact on flavor and bring up the average diastatic power to 52.
2. Alternatively, we could add 1 lb. of two-row barley malt to the mini-mash, bringing the average diastatic power to 52, as well.
3. We could also “cheat” by adding a small amount of diatase enzyme.

The point is, all it takes is a little tweaking to help make sure the mash has enough DP to convert. The good news is that with a partial mash recipe, the mash represents such a small proportion of the overall gravity that it won’t make a huge difference if it doesn’t. Most of the gravity points will come from the LME.

The next time you brew, calculate your diastatic power and record your brewhouse efficiency. Did you have enough DP for a successful conversion? These are all advantages to know the answer to the question, what is diastatic power.

- See more at: http://www.eckraus.com/blog/what-is-diastatic-power-definition-chart#sthash.fSprMsnk.dpuf

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Chew, Spit, Brew: How to Make Chicha Beer

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Those plants that are more important to the survival of man, or which have stimulating psychological effects upon him, are, in tribal and early Western societies, thought to incorporate a particularly powerful force.” – Mikal Aasved, 1988

Unless you’ve spent some time in South America or follow Sam Calagione and Dogfish Head Brewery, you probably haven’t heard of chicha. What if I told you an ancient beer is made from chewed up corn, spit and a few spices. Would you still make it (or drink it)?

Similar to Belgian beers, chicha is not a single, homogenized drink – there are variations native to each region and group. In fact, other than the use of corn, chicha can be made with different ingredients such as manioc (a woody shrub), wild fruits, cacti, rice and potatoes, among others, native to the particular region it’s brewed. Historians have recreated many traditional versions of the drink, while other modern drinkers tweak and experiment with the fermented beverage.

At the end of the day, it’s entirely up to you what to put in your chicha (and whether or not you want to chew or germinate the maize). The drink that follows is simple, light in body that primarily smells and tastes like corn with a slight farmhouse funk.
Origins of Chicha

Chicha is an ancient beer indigenous to many cultures ranging from the Andes up to what is now the southwestern United States. Somewhere along history, either someone decided it’d be a good idea to chew up corn, spit it out, boil it and then ferment it in a clay pot for a few days until it was ready to drink or someone lost a bad bet.

The drink’s history dates back to around 5000 B.C.E. where there’s evidence of early pottery in the Andean region used as vessels to carry and store chicha. The drink soon played a crucial role in history and civilization. It became a cultural signifier for many Andean groups (i.e. Incas and Aztecs) and was not only central to many economies as a means of payment, but also became important for its intoxicating effects.

For many of the Andean groups, drunkenness was a way to spiritually communicate as well as develop a sense of community and togetherness. Sharing a drink with another person was seen as an act of friendship and understanding. Sound familiar? To better grasp chicha’s significance, we need only look at the Incan Empire for some answers.

Corn was a sacred crop for the Incas. Huge farms were dedicated to the production of corn, primarily powered by the demand for chicha, which was considered a sign of high social status. Recent archaeological evidence suggests that even some Pueblo tribes of modern-day New Mexico, long thought to be teetotalers, were making their own fermented corn drink about 800 years ago. So, arguably, chicha is the most original American beer you could drink. Sip on that idea for a while.

Today, chicha is still an important drink for many in Central and South America. After surviving centuries of Spanish colonial rule and oppression, the tradition of making, sharing and drinking chicha is a source of pride. It’s becoming known worldwide and brewers in many different countries are trying their hands at making their own modern version of chicha. Just like beer styles native to other countries, chicha has become a transnational identity for the Andes and South American region at large. Whether or not you want to drink a beer made from saliva is entirely different question.
Brewing Procedures

Warning: You may experience dry-mouth during this process. Please chew responsibly.

Traditional Method: The first step to making traditional chicha is moistening the maize with water, rolling it into a small ball and placing in your mouth. Work the maize thoroughly with the tongue until it is completely saturated with saliva. The natural enzymes (ptyalin) from human saliva work to convert the cornstarch into fermentable sugar. Then, the chewed up corn (called muko) is dried out. You’ll use two pounds of the cornmeal for this step.

To make the beer, combine the dried out muko with the other pound of raw cornmeal along with any other additives you think would be tasty. For the recipe below, we use squash pulp and prickly pear cactus fruits, but you can use pineapple, cinnamon, cloves, strawberries or limes. Heat the three gallons of water to 150° F (65° C) and add it to your ingredients. Let it stand until cool. Ladle out the top layer of liquid (called upi) and set aside. Next, scoop out the jelly-like middle layer (called misqui kketa) and cook in a pot on the stove until it turns a caramel-like color. While this is cooking, press the grains and other ingredients by using a strainer or a lid to strain the liquid from the grain. Add this liquid to the initial liquid you drew off (upi) and boil for an hour. Once the jelly-like middle layer turns to a caramel-like color, add it to the boiling liquid. Cool the final mixture to 70° F (21° C), pour into a fermenter and add yeast. Allow for fermentation to complete (about a week), siphon into bottles, prime and cap.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds coarsely ground cornmeal
• 1 pound squash pulp (any will do, from pumpkin to winter squash)
• 1 pound prickly pear cactus fruits
• 3 gallons of water
• ale yeast

Modern Method: For those of you who don’t want to sit around for hours chewing up corn (we know who you are), use the following recipe. Crush the germinated corn coarsely and pour in the brewpot with 8 quarts of cold water. Sit and let sit one hour. Bring it to a boil, add the sugar, then lower the heat and simmer three hours (stirring regularly). Add whatever spices you desire at the end of the boil. In this recipe we use cloves but you can use anything from cinnamon to ginger. Remove and let it sit for one hour. Next, strain the liquid into a fermenter using a strainer, cheese cloth or any other method you prefer. Once it cools to 70° F (21° C), pitch the yeast and ferment at room temperature (between 60 and 75° F) for five days. Rack to secondary and ferment for one to two weeks until clarified. Bottle using 1 teaspoon corn sugar per bottle for priming. Finally, let it sit two more weeks after bottling before drinking.

Ingredients (1 gallon)

• 8 quarts water
• 1 pound germinated corn (jora)
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 8 whole allspice or cloves
• ale yeast

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/chew-spit-brew-how-to-make-chicha-beer/

Recipe: Summertime Ginger Ale

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In 1516, the Reinheitsgebot—commonly referred to as the “German Purity Law”—initially went into affect in Bavaria. Though earlier variations of the law were adopted almost half a century before its official enactment on April 23 that year, the law eventually would go into effect across all of Germany.

Among other reasons, the law was originally adopted to control the price of grain used in the brewing process and only allowed brewers to use three ingredients in their beer: water, hops, and barley. The law has since been adapted to modern regulations, but its impact on the history of brewing and beer styles is still renowned today.

In honor of the 500th anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot, the American Homebrewers Association is celebrating its impact by encouraging homebrewers worldwide to brew their choice of two recipes: a Northern German Altbier or a spiced beer.

The Summertime Ginger Ale homebrew recipe uses malt, hops, and water, but also tosses in honey, lactose, and ginger to really throw those Reinheitsgebot purists into a dizzy.

Summertime Ginger Ale | Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer

INGREDIENTS

For 5 Gallons (18.93 L)

• 2.0 lb (0.91 kg) 2 row malt
• 1.0 lb (0.45 kg) Belgian aromatic malt
• 1.0 lb (0.45 kg) clover honey (added to the boil)
• 0.5 lb (0.23 kg) lactose (added to the boil)
• 1.0 oz (28 g) Spalt whole hops, 2.5% a.a. (45 min)
• Wyeast 2565 Kölsch Yeast, or White Labs WLP029 German Ale/Kölsch yeast, or a sufficient yeast starter
• 0.75 tsp (3 g) Irish moss added 15 minutes before end of the boil (optional)
• 2 oz (56 g) fresh chopped ginger added to the boil (15 min)
• 2 oz (56 g) fresh chopped ginger added to secondary fermenter for 7 days

SPECIFICATIONS

• Original Gravity: 1.028
• Final Gravity: 1.000
• ABV: 3.68%
• IBU: 19
• SRM: 6

DIRECTIONS

To brew the Summertime Ginger Ale, mash grains at 152° F (67° C) for 60 minutes. Mash out at 168° F (76° C), with pre-boil wort volume of 6.5 gal. (25 L).

Bring to a rolling boil for 60 minutes, add hops, honey, lactose, and ginger at specified intervals from end of boil. Chill wort to 65° F (18° C) and pitch yeast.

After 5 days, rack to secondary fermenter and age for another 10 days, adding remaining ginger for the last 7 days.

Keg at 2.5 volumes of CO2 or bottle condition with 4 oz (113 g) corn sugar.

Extract Version

Ingredients:

• 2.0 lb (0.91 kg) extra light dry malt extract
• 1.0 lb (0.45 kg) Belgian aromatic malt
• 1.0 lb (0.45 kg) clover honey (added to the boil)
• 0.5 lb (0.23 kg) lactose (added to the boil)
• 1.0 oz (28 g) Spalt whole hops, 2.5% a.a. (45 min)
• Wyeast 2565 Kölsch Yeast, or White Labs WLP029 German Ale/Kölsch yeast, or a sufficient yeast starter
• 0.75 tsp (3 g) Irish moss added 15 minutes before end of the boil (optional)
• 2 oz (56 g) fresh chopped ginger added to the boil (15 min)
• 2 oz (56 g) fresh chopped ginger added to secondary fermenter for 7 days

Specifications:

• 5 Gallons (18.93 L)
• Original Gravity: 1.028
• Final Gravity: 1.000
• SRM: 6
• IBU: 19
• ABV: 3.68%

Directions:

To brew an extract version of Summertime Ginger Ale homebrew recipe, put 2 gallons (7.6 L) of water in the boil pot and heat to150° F (66° C). While the water is heating, put the Belgian aromatic malt into a grain bag and tie off the ends so the grains can't escape.

Once the water has reached 150° F (66° C), immerse the grain bag in the water for 30 minutes. For more information on steeping specialty grains, visit theIntermediate section of Let's Brew on the AHA website.

After 30 minutes, remove the grain bag and let it drip until it stops. Add the extra light dry malt extract to the water and stir until totally dissolved. Bring to a rolling boil for 60 minutes; add hops, honey, lactose, ginger, and Irish moss at specified intervals from end of boil.

Strain wort into sanitized fermentation vessel with 2–3 gallons (7.6–11.4 L) of pre-boiled and chilled water for a total volume of 5 gallons (19 L). Pitch yeast when temperature reaches 65° F (18° C). 

After 5 days, rack to secondary fermenter and age for another 10 days, adding remaining ginger for the last 7 days.

Keg at 2.5 volumes of CO2 or bottle condition with 4 oz (113 g) corn sugar. 

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/summertime-ginger-ale/