H.L. Mencken: Homebrewer

[Bill O'Meally]

Interesting article on Mencken's homebrewing practices. Judging from
his notes, the beers don't sound too drinkable. :-) Also, he tended to
bottle WAY too early ("brewed May 28; bottled June 1... brewed June 1;
bottled June 5", etc). No surprise that a number of his bottles
exploded!

He does appear to have made the step from extract to AG brewing, at
least he goes from describing the malt as "cans" to "pounds". And he
also goes from using Fleischmann's yeast (I assume it was baker's
yeast) to cultivated brewer's yeast. I was surprised to find they had
LHBSs in the 1920s!

http://www.citypaper.com/eat/food-features/bcp-hl-mencken-on-brewing-a-drinkable-home-brew-20140909,0,2473826.story

[baloonon]

Bill O'Meally <omeallymd at geemail dot com> wrote in

Post by Bill O'Meally
Interesting article on Mencken's homebrewing practices. Judging from
his notes, the beers don't sound too drinkable. :-) Also, he tended to
bottle WAY too early ("brewed May 28; bottled June 1... brewed June 1;
bottled June 5", etc). No surprise that a number of his bottles
exploded!
He does appear to have made the step from extract to AG brewing, at
least he goes from describing the malt as "cans" to "pounds". And he
also goes from using Fleischmann's yeast (I assume it was baker's
yeast) to cultivated brewer's yeast. I was surprised to find they had
LHBSs in the 1920s!

http://www.citypaper.com/eat/food-features/bcp-hl-mencken-on-brewing-a-
drinkable-home-brew-20140909,0,2473826.story

That was a great piece. For even more, check out this piece from a
couple of years ago:

http://faithfulreaders.com/2012/05/01/h-l-mencken-homebrewer/

The author says he got access to Mencken's papers but couldn't quote
from them because they were embargoed until just now.

It goes on to explain that canned malt extract became very common in the
US during WWI because the agriculture department encouraged its
production as a sugar substitute, and obviously became a backbone of the
home brewing industry during Prohibition.

[Bill O'Meally]

Post by baloonon
Bill O'Meally <omeallymd at geemail dot com> wrote in

Post by Bill O'Meally
Interesting article on Mencken's homebrewing practices. Judging from
his notes, the beers don't sound too drinkable. :-) Also, he tended to
bottle WAY too early ("brewed May 28; bottled June 1... brewed June 1;
bottled June 5", etc). No surprise that a number of his bottles
exploded!
He does appear to have made the step from extract to AG brewing, at
least he goes from describing the malt as "cans" to "pounds". And he
also goes from using Fleischmann's yeast (I assume it was baker's
yeast) to cultivated brewer's yeast. I was surprised to find they had
LHBSs in the 1920s!

http://www.citypaper.com/eat/food-features/bcp-hl-mencken-on-brewing-a-
drinkable-home-brew-20140909,0,2473826.story
That was a great piece. For even more, check out this piece from a
http://faithfulreaders.com/2012/05/01/h-l-mencken-homebrewer/
The author says he got access to Mencken's papers but couldn't quote
from them because they were embargoed until just now.
It goes on to explain that canned malt extract became very common in the
US during WWI because the agriculture department encouraged its
production as a sugar substitute, and obviously became a backbone of the
home brewing industry during Prohibition.

Indeed!

"By 1930, enough malt syrup was being sold each year to produce almost
700,000,000 gallons of homebrew".

A most excellent article. Thanks for sharing.

[baloonon]

Bill O'Meally <omeallymd at geemail dot com> wrote in

Post by Bill O'Meally

Post by baloonon
Bill O'Meally <omeallymd at geemail dot com> wrote in

Post by Bill O'Meally
Interesting article on Mencken's homebrewing practices. Judging from
his notes, the beers don't sound too drinkable. :-) Also, he tended
to bottle WAY too early ("brewed May 28; bottled June 1... brewed
June 1; bottled June 5", etc). No surprise that a number of his
bottles exploded!
He does appear to have made the step from extract to AG brewing, at
least he goes from describing the malt as "cans" to "pounds". And he
also goes from using Fleischmann's yeast (I assume it was baker's
yeast) to cultivated brewer's yeast. I was surprised to find they
had LHBSs in the 1920s!

http://www.citypaper.com/eat/food-features/bcp-hl-mencken-on-brewing-

a-drinkable-home-brew-20140909,0,2473826.story

Post by Bill O'Meally

Post by baloonon
That was a great piece. For even more, check out this piece from a
http://faithfulreaders.com/2012/05/01/h-l-mencken-homebrewer/
The author says he got access to Mencken's papers but couldn't quote
from them because they were embargoed until just now.
It goes on to explain that canned malt extract became very common
in the US during WWI because the agriculture department encouraged
its production as a sugar substitute, and obviously became a
backbone of the home brewing industry during Prohibition.

Indeed!
"By 1930, enough malt syrup was being sold each year to produce
almost 700,000,000 gallons of homebrew".
A most excellent article. Thanks for sharing.

The thanks goes to the original author and the librarian for some
excellent research.

I thought it was interesting that Mencken had the ingredients for good
beer -- hops, malt extract, and yeast from brewers refined by
professional biologists -- but still seemed to be fumbling around quite
a bit, but maybe that was the point. He seemed to have a pretty strong
spirit of exploration, and wasn't deterred by some exploding bottles,
and that's the kind of experimentation I like about the field.

I'm curious what twists and turns home brewing will take in another 60
years -- maybe fusion power will make electricity so cheap people can
instantly chill their wort, or genetic modification will supercharge
yeast, or maybe water restrictions will be so acute people will be
amazed by the way we use so much water to produce a 5 gallon batch.

[Steve Bonine]

Post by baloonon
I'm curious what twists and turns home brewing will take in another 60
years -- maybe fusion power will make electricity so cheap people can
instantly chill their wort, or genetic modification will supercharge
yeast, or maybe water restrictions will be so acute people will be
amazed by the way we use so much water to produce a 5 gallon batch.

It's rather amazing how little the process has changed since someone
stumbled on it in prehistory. I suppose that if we were transported back
into the Middle Ages that the beer we encountered might be a bit vile
compared with what we're used to today. And in recent times we've seen
the phenomenal growth of the craft beer market in the US. But when you
come right down to it, it's still malt+yeast with hops or a similar
addition.

To predict the state of home brewing decades from now we need to examine
why people brew today, and I don't feel that I have a good handle on
that. I suspect that in the beginning, when it became legal, a lot of
the motivation was simply "because I can". Another factor was because
decent beer was so expensive. I wonder how much effect the growing
availability of a good selection of beer at more reasonable prices will
have on peoples' need to brew their own.

[Adam Funk]

Post by baloonon
Bill O'Meally <omeallymd at geemail dot com> wrote in

Post by Bill O'Meally
Interesting article on Mencken's homebrewing practices. Judging from
his notes, the beers don't sound too drinkable. :-) Also, he tended to
bottle WAY too early ("brewed May 28; bottled June 1... brewed June 1;
bottled June 5", etc). No surprise that a number of his bottles
exploded!
He does appear to have made the step from extract to AG brewing, at
least he goes from describing the malt as "cans" to "pounds". And he
also goes from using Fleischmann's yeast (I assume it was baker's
yeast) to cultivated brewer's yeast. I was surprised to find they had
LHBSs in the 1920s!

http://www.citypaper.com/eat/food-features/bcp-hl-mencken-on-brewing-a-
drinkable-home-brew-20140909,0,2473826.story
That was a great piece. For even more, check out this piece from a
http://faithfulreaders.com/2012/05/01/h-l-mencken-homebrewer/
The author says he got access to Mencken's papers but couldn't quote
from them because they were embargoed until just now.
It goes on to explain that canned malt extract became very common in the
US during WWI because the agriculture department encouraged its
production as a sugar substitute, and obviously became a backbone of the
home brewing industry during Prohibition.

Very interesting; thanks to both of you.