Period Bottling techniques for be...soda.

[big muddy mess]

Hello all, I dabble in homebrewing and have a question pertaining to bottling of beer in the 1860's. How was it done? I saw where a "certain person" is making repro ale bottles and am trying to see how bottles were sealed. I guess one could cork it like a wine or use wire and a cork. But, just wanted to know if anyone would share some research on the subject instead of me just speculating. So, if you have any info or could at least point me in the right direction i would appreciate it.

Thanks,

[Mike_Schramm]

Dustin,

Looking at his bottles, I would say cork and wire, but is just a guess based on the necks.

Crown cork's bottle caps were not patented until 1892, so that is a no go.

Why not use a wood firkin or barrel? Same principle as bottles with the priming solution and there is documented instances of the boys liberating barrels.

[Mike_Schramm]

More than you might ever want to know about bottles.

Www.sha.org/bottle/glossary.htm

There is a nice shot of a 1900 wire and cork in a beer bottle. Neck is similar to that guy's bottle.

[33rdaladrummer]

Extreme Brewing by Randy Mosher has some photos of 19th century ale bottles as well as some period recipes. It's really quite the book for someone interested in brewing and its history.

In the 19th century, most beer would be stored in wooden casks, although most people today would find that very impractical, to say the least. But where there's a will, there's a way. If interested, you might look into breweries in the U.K. that still use wooden casks. There are probably only a few still in existence. I found an article not long ago about the last master cooper in the U.K. who makes casks at a brewery full-time. There is a ranking system in the coopering trade (apprentice, journeyman, master?) and aparently there is only one master left. That might say something about the difficulty in even obtaining a suitable cask. I know that some breweries in Flanders (northern Belgium) age their beer in oak casks as well.

I think that bottles of beer would be a luxury for civilians, much less soldiers. Then again, you can't have good beer without proper sanitation. I can only guess as to how a non-professional would do with a wooden cask.

[Matt Woodburn]

Ask Justin Runyon. He just brought three small wooden barrels of home brew to our 15th Iowa adjunct for Shiloh that were at the sutler where we had the big barrel of whiskey. He brews all the time. We served different stuff all night out of barrels. He knows his stuff and makes good beers, ciders and pearies.

[33rdaladrummer]

Interesting...

I would be curious to learn if the beer was transfered to the small barrels shortly before being served instead of having secondary fermentation (aging for several weeks) occur in the same barrel it was served from, as was the traditional practice. That might one way around the extra "oakiness" of a relatively small barrel and the risk of "funkiness" associated with poor sanitation.

[Spinster]

Will,

I've made ginger beer in the small 2 and 10 gallon barrels. My biggest problem was wiring down the tap and bung corks so as not to loose the fizz. I use a pretty fast receipt that runs off in a few days.

Whether for water or small beer, I always 'shock' the barrels before use and rinse well with scaulding water.

Nobody's complained about the taste.

But that may come under the same heading as there is no bad food if somebody else cooks it over an open fire.......

[33rdaladrummer]

Well with soda, you're just trying to get a little fizz and keep it sweet. With beer you're trying to convert the sugars into alcohol (and some CO2). Brewer's yeast does it in the best tasting-fashion but wild yeasts and bacteria (present before sanitation) will do it too, with much less palatable results.

I am definitely intrigued though.

[Spinster]

Will

I used plain old bread raising yeast. I imagine brewers yeast would give a higher alcohol content.