[RBC0503]

I'm working on a small batch of Washington's Small Beer recipe (one gallon). It occurred to me that any carbonation in the original product would be incidental to the process itself (18th century) and likely not deliberate. I could be incorrect though. I want to be authentic in the process (using modern hardware,etc.) but also want a palatable beer. Since I'm not using forced CO2, I could bottle it still, add a low priming mixture or prime it to the average ale or stout level. Any thoughts or experience with this? Thanks in advance.


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[dmtaylor]

If you want to be most authentic in taste but not methodology, why not freeze a little of the wort prior to pitching any yeast, enough to prime the beer once it is ready to bottle?  It might take some mathematics and some practice to get the amount just right, but this would add no ingredients to the beer that shouldn't have been there in the 18th century.

Hope this helps.  Cheers and enjoy.

[Stevie]

They likely packaged with some sugar remaining or added more fermentables from another batch.

[Kevin]

Beers of that era were often stored for very long periods of time in wooden casks/barrels/hogsheads etc. Also the yeasts used were very low attenuating so there were likely plenty of fermentable sugars remaining. Just how much carbonation occurred however I don't know. I am guessing it was fairly low.

[dmtaylor]

I'll bet the carbonation ranged very broadly, and maybe somewhat randomly even, anywhere from zero to thar-she-blows!

[RBC0503]

If you want to be most authentic in taste but not methodology, why not freeze a little of the wort prior to pitching any yeast, enough to prime the beer once it is ready to bottle?  It might take some mathematics and some practice to get the amount just right, but this would add no ingredients to the beer that shouldn't have been there in the 18th century.

Hope this helps.  Cheers and enjoy.

Great idea! Thank you


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[RBC0503]

I appreciate the thoughts and advice. I'm sure their finished product was far from consistent. I'll err on the side of low carbonation for now and experiment in future attempts.


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