For the common people in the Middle Ages beer was a common beverage. It was safer than water that in the cities often was polluted, while beer was cooked and filtered during the preparation. (*)And beer is nutritious: it contains grain and yeast, and is rich in vitamin B.

In the Low Countries, the beers had a sour taste of gueuze. Originally, just the malted and crushed grain was mixed with hot water, the grain moisture was filtered and fermented. Just about every housemother made fresh beer every week, just like bread was baked. Hence the many breweries and cafés everywhere in Flanders.

To improve the shelf life and taste, (bitter) herbs were added later: "Gruyt or Gruut". The composition varied per region. The landlord knew the mixture and levied tax or duty on it.

Amongst others: gale (Myrica gale), marsh rosemary (Ledum palustre), laser herb (Laserpitium siler) and bay berries (Laurus nobilis) may also sometimes be used sage (Salvia officinalis) and yarrow (Achillea millefolium). The accounts of the grit house in Cologne from 1391 and 1393 also mention anise (Pimpinella anisum), juniper berries (Juniperus communis) and caraway (Carvum carvi) to replace the then no longer available laser herb and refined resin. Those choices are the roots of the many different Belgian beers.

 

Hops was used in Germany from the 13th century as an alternative spice in a (lager) beer preparation. The hop cones were boiled for one hour with the filtered grain moisture (the wort) to release the anticorrosive substances. So a new way of brewing came about with an extra step in the process.


Students of the Wits University in South Africa in 2013 mimicked a 9,000 year old Chinese beer. Centuries ago, a person should have used daily two to three liters of beer, with an alcohol content of less than two percent.

moutenWe first malt barley, this means wetting on a warm, airy floor so that it germinates (12° to 15°C). They grow roots and a ’plume'. Enzymes are formed. Then the barley is dried again (40° to 65°C) and kilned at 80° -85° for lager, and at 115° for dark beer.
Malt grinding: crush into small pieces (not too fine, no flour!). The husks best remain whole, they serve later as a filter. This works easier if you have the malt slightly moistened. Quickly move to the next step.
Mashing: the seizure of approximately 4 liters of water on 1 kilo malt is kept at increasingly higher temperatures for a certain time to release every time other enzymes.
on 40° stir frequent without bringing air in the mixture
on 50°C for 15 to 30 minutes
62 à 63°C, with a rest period of 10 to 60 minutes.
(You can also work reverse, from high to low temperature.)


bierketel stokenFilter while it’s warm (e.g. via a converted cooler) on a perforated plate at 78°C: the pulp mass acts as a filter. You tap at bottom level the wort with a crane or siphon and pour it back on the top onto the filter cake until the drained wort is clear. Do not allow any, or as little air as possible in the mixture. Keep patiently filtering it again.
Then gently rinse the cake with warm water (80 degrees) before he is dry and gets air. Coil sufficiently. More coils gives lighter beer.
The wort is cooked well 1.5 to 2h. Add hops and let it boil for 15 to 60 minutes. Cooking the hop longer makes the beer more bitter.
Allow to settle and cool rapidly among many decantation and aeration.
Add brewer's yeast (wine yeast cannot convert maltose into glucose) starter and let ferment a day or 6. (Lambic Breweries let ferment the mixture spontaneously by wild yeast infection).
Bottling with some sugar to form carbon dioxide and let ripe.
Each phase (and certainly also the quality of the water (about pH 5.6)) affects the character of the beer.

In the early Middle Ages, beer also was flavored with herbs, it was called gruit.
Instead of hops also ivy was used.

Of the hop plant the unfertilized female flowers are used. The cone contains brewing technically spoken components as bitter substances (alpha acids), volatile oils and tannins. It is the bitter substances that give beer its characteristic flavor. These bitter substances also have a preservative effect. By cooking the alpha acids become isomerized, that means more bitter (twice) and more soluble (thirty times).

What is double and triple beer ?

Several explanations for these names came up. They are abbey beers. The ordinary 3 vol % beer for the refectory was made ​​ of one deposit (amount of material). With an (almost) doubling of the raw material was 6 % achieved: beer for guests and sales. Any heavier beers were therefore in imitation called triple (9 %). As even heavier beers are already put quad( ruppel, 9 % +) on the label.
Whether the vessels were distinguished in the Middle Ages with one sign for lager, and double crosses for beer for paying guests.
Lower beers are sometimes called single and have an alcohol content of 4.5 - 5.5.
Table beer has an original wort content between 1 and 4 degrees.

Yeasts are more related to animals than to plants, but are neither. They produce scents that attract insects (such as on fruit) that they need as a taxi to move around.

In the sixteenth century, brewers discovered that they could increase the chance of successful and recognizable beer by using sediment from their previous brew as a starter. So they selected wanted yeast variants that can convert specific sugars, are adapted to the circumstances and with the desired flavors. Yeast was actually so domesticated.

(*) Some sources argue that this is a persistent misunderstanding, a premature conclusion inspired by the fact that water as a beverage is rarely mentioned in historical texts. Even today nobody brags about the water that he drank, cf. social media. And it is rarely on a menu! A Byzantine doctor from the 7th century wrote: "water is the most used in every regime" and that "one cannot find a better drink". Cities provided residents with safe water free of charge via village pumps and aqueducts. London built 'The Great Conduit' in 1245 to bring fresh water from a spring at 4.3km to the city. Originally with wooden pipes, later with lead pipes.

Not one man in a beer commercial has a beer belly.( Rita Rudner)

To achieve a higher alcohol content, we have to distill.
If you have distilled the mash two times you get a tasteless strong alcohol of around 80-85 volume% which is excellent as a base for liqueurs and bitters.

destillerenThe mixture is heated and all vapors are collected and condensed in a (possibly spiral-shaped, which is longer) air- or liquid-cooled pipe (the vapor cools and forms drops).
Make sure that the cooling water in the cooling column flows against the direction of flow of the alcohol vapors. This will always maximize the temperature difference between cooling water and alcohol vapor.
 
During the war illegal distillers used a large brass scale over an open boiler on a low fire and caught and condened the vapors. The scale was cooled with wet cloths. The from the obliquely hung scale dripping distillate was collected. When controlled there was no distillation equipment found. But there was also a lot of vapor, and thus also alcohol lost.

Although the boiling point of ethanol is 78.31⁰C, the flash point is at 12⁰C. The explosion limit is between 3.4 and 19% by volume in air. So make sure to provide adequate ventilation...!!

The basic product defines the taste: vodka (potatoes), gin (​​from sprouted grain made wort) or brandy (cheap white wine), rum (sugar molasses), calvados (apple), sake (rice).

Single malt whiskeys include whiskey (blends) of one distillery.
Blended malt is made from malt whiskeys from different distilleries.


For good stuff you must distil repeatedly: twice for fruit, sometimes three times (for cereals).


‘Effective remedy for hangover : take the juice of half a bottle of whiskey...’(Eddie Condon)
‘The best way to cure a hangover is to drink no alcohol the previous evening.’(Cathy Hopkins)


Freeze-distilling
Fractional freezing is another method to pimp the alcohol content of your brew.
Not only the boiling point, but also the freeze- or thaw point (-114 degrees) is different to that of water.
You can increase the alcohol content of a mixture by freezing it (partially). The not frozen part, or the part that through a sieve first thaws, contains more alcohol. The ice crystals remain in the sieve or filter. You can also siphon the liquid part.

The method is used in Apple Jack (heavy apple cider) and Eisbock (strong beer). A little bit similar to ice wine: before fermentation frozen water is removed, so you get not more alcohol, but more sugar. This work was done in the winter, by putting the stuff outside and skim ice regularly off. So this is also a way to distill without having prohibited equipment in house.


Alcohol is used to disinfect (material) (70% + up!), as fuel (+ 50%), or to conserve vegetables.

You can determine the proportion of alcohol in a measured or weighed distillate which contains water: heat it moderate (possibly ’au bain Marie’(in a water bath)). Certainly not boil it. The alcohol evaporates. The proportion of water remains. So you can control the volume ratio. (water weighs 1kg / l, alcohol 0.8).


'Household tip: with alcohol can you keep everything except secrets.’(Oscar Wilde)



Brewing (beer, wine) is alowed, but distilling spirits is illegal (in Belgium) for two reasons. The government should miss revenues from taxes. You can distill (toxic) methanol. Drinking it can cause blindness or even may result in death.

Alcohol (or ethyl alcohol or ethanol) is made by fermenting sugary liquids and then distilling them. It is a good solvent. Therefore, use insoluble glass, stainless steel or copper in the production.

Methyl alcohol

wijnstokenMethanol (CH3OH, meths or denatured alcohol) is produced during the fermentation of inter alia fruit (especially peels, stems, wood) because of the pectin in it. So in all wine and beer is a small and harmless amount of methanol! By distilling the fermented fruits, the concentration of methanol becoms higher. Because the boiling point of methanol is lower than that of ethanol, all of the methanol will evaporate first. After that, the ethanol and the water will. You distill methanol at 65°C, alcohol at 78°C and water at 100°C.

Fermentation occurs beside methanol other chemical compounds: esters, aldehydes, acetic- and other acids and fusel.

Esters are compounds that arise from acid and alcohol. They are important in the fragrance and flavor formation. They are very common in fruits and essential oil.
Aldehydes are related to alcohol organic compounds on which hydrogen is extracted.
Fusel is a collective name for a group of lower and higher alcohols and their esters.

Poisoning by own distilled alcohol can lead to death. The methanol is converted by the liver into the toxins formaldehyde and formic acid.
The Vietnamese doctors in the Quang Tri hospital, in the province of the same name, bypassed (January 2019) a poisoning: ordinary alcohol or ethanol is first converted by the liver. Every hour the poisonous got a can of beer, so the liver continued to work with the ethanol. The toxic methanol was therefore worked out of the body through the respiration and urine. In the end, the man only left a firm hangover about it.


Prevent methanol

  • If you are using fruits with a lot of pectin (apples and pears) you better can bruise them and presses immediately, without pulp fermentation. Do not use wood (container, spoon, (cutting) board, press..)
  • You can destroy the own enzymes of the fruit by heating (30 minutes at 80⁰C), and after cooling add pectinase (an enzyme powder). In this way, 40 to 90% less methanol is formed.
  • Consider in the second boil the first 1.5 to 2% as the forerun, and discard it.
  • Very slow distillation with a high column.
  • Rather radical: only sugar fermenting to mash, without using fruit.

Alcohol: a liquid good for preserving everything except secrets and brains.

Make simple mash with: 5 kilograms of sugar, 5 grams of citric acid, 10 grams of dietary salt, yeast and 2.5 liters of water.

alcoholdestillerenDissolve the sugar in the boiling water while stirring.
Add the citric stirring and cook for 20 minutes.
You now have dextrose or invert sugar, which is better for the fermentation.
Let it cool down.
Solve a spoonful of sugar water in 0.5 liters of water and stir in the yeast.
Fill a basket bottle halfway with water and add the yeast nutrient.
Then the sugar mixture (on 20-25 degrees), and the yeast. Close with a airlock (bubbler).
Each day, the bottle must be shaken 2 times.
After 4 to 6 weeks, nearly all of the sugar is converted into alcohol.
We now have 20-25 liters of fermented sugar solution (mash).
The percentage of alcohol wil be 12 to 15 percent, more is not possible, because then the yeast cells will die.


‘I have no drinking problem. Except when I have nothing to drink.’(Tom Waits)
‘I always start drinking around noon – in case it would be dark early.’(Richard L. Breen)

"Isn’t it a bit early for alcohol.. ?" "Why? I 'm awake.. "



Cider is fermented apple juice, cut off from air before the end of the fermentation so that carbonic acid remains in the drink. Pear cider also exists.

“The best mix ...: 1/3 sweet, 1 / 3rd sour, 1 / 3rd tart (apples).” (Fruit utilization -1960) “If fruit wines were well preserved, it was because they were rich in alcohol (10 to 15 °). Since the cider has only 5 ° to 8 °, it will not hold as well, unless the tannic acid takes on the task of the alcohol. ...

If we cut an apple and leave it for a while, we notice that the flesh is starting to brown. ... The browner the meat, the more tannic acid it contains. "


amforaBecause an amphora (pottery jug) was porous, the inner previously was sealed with resin. Because the resin enhanced durability Greek winemakers remained adding it to their wines. The typical retsina taste so remained preserved until today.

The alcohol content of wine is 9-12 degrees.
Fortified wines have an alcohol content between 15 and about 22%.




Mead: replace fruit by in (24 l) water dissolved honey (10 kg).

The Romans never drank their wine pure, which was seen as barbaric. He was, as still often when dining in the south, diluted with water.
Also, the wine was sweetened with honey. This delicacy was called mulsum.

The historic city of Tel Kabri (Canaanite region in Israel), was about 3,600 years ago destroyed by a disaster. In the ruins a 3,700 year old collection of (pieces of) about forty ceramic jars were found, that makes this the oldest known winery, it was good for about 3,000 bottles of both red and white wine.

 

A champagne cork is not made in mushroom shape. It is a thick cork which is strongly compressed and then is pressed for 2/3 in the strong bottle neck. Only the protruding part expands again, and is secured with an iron muselet.

If you let the cork shoot out the wine will spray by the reaction from the bottle. What remains is quickly losing carbonation. You so better gently pry up and stop the cork.

In Champagne wine cellars of kilometers long are carved into the limestone soil.


Alcohol is your biggest enemy but the Bible says: love your enemy.