Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Appendix: On Classification and Measurement

Appendix On Classification and Measurement There are many different ways of classifying beers, for example, by percentage of alcohol, by the protein content of the final product, by the raw materials used, by the brewing method used, and by the price. The names applied to beer are often not helpful since their use changed over time or the name had a specific purpose not always relevant to separating one type from all others (See Chapter ). It is possible to measure the amount of material loose in the water before fermentation and use that as the basis for distinction. If, for example, a liter of liquid weighs . kilograms before fermentation, then it is said to be of . degrees. This measure of original gravity, called OG, the specific gravity at the beginning of fermentation, will not necessarily be proportional to alcohol content. Few beers fall below . OG, that is below . degrees. In some places beer is rated by the amount of sugar in the liquid. The grams of sugar for each  grams of wort are reported as Balling degrees, after the celebrated professor from Prague, Carl Balling, known for his work on brewing after . If measurement is at a temperature of .⬚C. then it is Balling degrees and Plato degrees if measurement is at ⬚C. Alcohol content can be measured by weight or by volume. Both are reported in percentages. Measuring by weight gives a lower figure since alcohol weighs less than water.1 The development of the saccharometer in the eighteenth century and its increasing use in the nineteenth century made it possible to measure alcohol content and so gave governments a new basis on which to tax beer, and for that matter, all alcoholic beverages. The inability to measure alcohol content with any accuracy at all was at the base of most government problems with the brewing industry, its taxation and regulation. Quantities of beer are measured in barrels. Barrel size varied over time and among jurisdictions. Though subject to regulation and surveillance by town officials and subject to efforts at standardization, there were always inconsistencies. Even when a group of towns would agree to regional standards , measurement was not highly accurate nor was control over coopers. There was, as well, the potential for fraud. The great variations in the quantity of liquid contained in what was called a barrel, especially before the seventeenth century, make measuring the activity of the brewing industry difficult.  Appendix A barrel in Hamburg in the fourteenth century, a fass, contained  liters of beer.2 All estimates for Hamburg beer production and shipment are based on that measure, the Hamburg barrel being larger than the barrel in use in many other jurisdictions. For other towns in north Germany, figures are reported directly or estimates are based on a barrel smaller than the Hamburg one and closer to the barrel in use in Holland in the sixteenth century. Various words in forms of Low German were applied to the container including vat or ton or tun. Barrel, on the other hand, came from French, possibly through the use of containers in the Bordeaux wine trade though there the tun was also used to describe the cylindrical container. The barrel in Holland varied between  and  liters. Distinctions were made in some cases between the smalvat, of about  liters, and the grofvat or volle ton, about  liters. There were variations from town to town before the drive to standardize the barrel succeeded, more or less, by the early seventeenth century. The Haarlem barrel or vat was – mengelen or about  liters and so smaller than the sixteenth-century Amsterdam barrel of  liters.3 Smaller divisions existed including half barrels, quarter barrels, and eighth barrels. Governments did not like smaller units since their use reduced the accuracy of taxation. Brewers did not especially like them since more wood and more cooper’s time was needed to make two half barrels instead of one full barrel. For the sake of uniformity and to avoid confusion, the Dutch barrel is assumed to be  liters up to and through the sixteenth century. That choice yields a tendency to overestimate by a small percentage figures for the fifteenth century while being consistent or, in some cases, understating the figures for the sixteenth. For all figures from the seventeenth century the standard barrel of  liters is assumed for the northern Netherlands. Dutch pubs served beer by the kan between . liters and almost  liters. The publican could also sell by the smaller, though not that much...