[klickitat jim]

Listened to a recent beersmith podcast with Randy Mosher "Historical Beer Myths". Thats going to ruffel some feathers! Dig it up if you have some time. Some of the stuff that caught my ear was that the story of saison being a beer brewed at farmyouses for the season workers... not true. And Anchor Steam... not a steam beer. Its the first American craft beer and they named it Steam.

[dmtaylor]

EDIT:  I see now that he's talking about historical beer styles, not process stuff.  So I digress in the second half of this:

Mosher is awesome.  He's really right, you know.  There's a bazillion myths out there that just never die.  And I know he does, like, a TON of research.  He's read all the old history books and spent a lot of time at libraries, or something.  The rest of us haven't.  Mosher, of anyone, would know the truth.  I have no doubts.  Ron Pattinson, also!

And then there's the process myths, of course, which Marshall Schott, Denny Conn, and others have been working so hard to dispel.  How I brew today compared to how I brewed 10 years ago is.... reasonably different, based on what I've learned.  It's got to be super friggin confusing for brand new homebrewers to try to make sense of anything, when they are handed a copy of Papazian or Palmer as the "bibles", but then they come on forums like this one or join a club, and everyone tells them "oh no, that's all wrong, everything you know is wrong".  It's crazy how much this hobby is growing right now.  Ten years ago, or 20 or 30..... so many friggin myths have been generated in recent history that just might never die because books last forever.  It's going to be a friggin mess 100 or 200 years from now when someone tries to figure out what was known and learned during the American homebrew renaissance of the 1990s and 2000s, because man..... we've totally flip-flopped the common knowledge probably 100 times on 100 different topics.  It's a mess!!

[RPIScotty]

I believe he also hinted at much of the history of the IPA (actual English India pale ale) being heavily marketed.

[klickitat jim]

I think his comments on belgian beer history may be fodder for some heated discussion out there in the interwebs. I was multitasking and not taking notes, but the summary take away I got was that we have it in our minds that all belgian beer has been brewed that way continuously for hundreds of years. But when you look at all the time periods that they were a battlefield or under napoleon,  etc... then look at all the post ww2 influences from england and Scotland and Germany, its not quite as much of an unbroken thread as we imagine.

[RPIScotty]

I think his comments on belgian beer history may be fodder for some heated discussion out there in the interwebs. I was multitasking and not taking notes, but the summary take away I got was that we have it in our minds that all belgian beer has been brewed that way continuously for hundreds of years. But when you look at all the time periods that they were a battlefield or under napoleon,  etc... then look at all the post ww2 influences from england and Scotland and Germany, its not quite as much of an unbroken thread as we imagine.

That's all been said before though Jim. Stan touched on it in BLAM and his Beersmith episode. As a matter of fact, the beers we drink now probably differ from even the pre-WW2 versions. This is of course talking Trappist.

It stands to reason that some of the regional beers are still brewed more or less the same as traditional.

[klickitat jim]

Oh I have no doubt. I haven't read brew like a monk. Theres not too many belgian beers that trip my trigger enough to brew them. Saison is about it.

[RPIScotty]

Oh I have no doubt. I haven't read brew like a monk. Theres not too many belgian beers that trip my trigger enough to brew them. Saison is about it.

Great read. Highly recommended.

[duncan]

Randy also gave a talk during the 2015 National Homebrewers Conference on these sorts of myths. AHA Members have access to the audio and power point presentation. It's the first seminar under 2015.

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/resources/conference-seminars/

[hopfenundmalz]

I think his comments on belgian beer history may be fodder for some heated discussion out there in the interwebs. I was multitasking and not taking notes, but the summary take away I got was that we have it in our minds that all belgian beer has been brewed that way continuously for hundreds of years. But when you look at all the time periods that they were a battlefield or under napoleon,  etc... then look at all the post ww2 influences from england and Scotland and Germany, its not quite as much of an unbroken thread as we imagine.

Jean DeClerck had a huge influence on Belgium Beer after WW2. He is buried on the grounds of Chimay for that reason.

[chumley]

For those interested in dispelling historic beer myths, Ron Pattinson's daily blog is a terrific read.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/

[toby]

Randy also gave a talk during the 2015 National Homebrewers Conference on these sorts of myths. AHA Members have access to the audio and power point presentation. It's the first seminar under 2015.

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/resources/conference-seminars/

I was about to point that out.  He gave the same talk for the Dixie Cup milliconference in October.

[dilluh98]

One thing that caught my ear that I'm sure Mark (S. Cerevisiae) and perhaps quite a few others would very much disagree with... Mosher was talking about brewing lagers and how it's not possible to do in caves in mountains because the temperature of the earth is too warm there. They quoted 56 F.

[toby]

For those interested in dispelling historic beer myths, Ron Pattinson's daily blog is a terrific read.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/

Randy references Ron a fair amount in his talk.

[dmtaylor]

For those interested in dispelling historic beer myths, Ron Pattinson's daily blog is a terrific read.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/

How could I have forgotten Mr. Pattinson?  Editing my earlier post now to include him.

[hopfenundmalz]

One thing that caught my ear that I'm sure Mark (S. Cerevisiae) and perhaps quite a few others would very much disagree with... Mosher was talking about brewing lagers and how it's not possible to do in caves in mountains because the temperature of the earth is too warm there. They quoted 56 F.

Block ice was cut from lakes and rivers and used to drop the temperature more. Block ice can last a long time. I have been in a closed brewery's lagering Keller in at the brewing museum in Bamberg. They packet it with block ice.