PALE ALE

by

Scott Morgan

In my beer world I consider Pale Ales to be absolutely tops. The varieties of Pale Ales are endless. There are the hops in your face American varieties, the maltier English types and the lighter Australian versions. Pale Ales are beers that have been localized in the USA and Australia without turning out to be absolutely crap like many light pilsners. After living in the USA I really got hooked onto Pale Ales. The beers are common thread in most micro’s and Sierra Nevada Pale is to die for. There is so much diversity of this beer style in the USA that they put other countries to shame.

The month’s beer is an absolute mongrel. I will use American Hops, English yeast and less Crystal to give a lighter beer. Pale Ales allow for personal choice in ingredients bill, and this month’s beer is an indication of how much you have to play with within the style.

I once had to participate in a ‘team training’ episode for work. It was a truly horrible affair. The theme of the training was ‘Where will you be with Company XX in the year 2000’. The trainer, an over dressed patronizing lady who had the finesse of an Amway salesperson finding a corporate pot of gold, struck quite an indifferent chord with me.

Opportunistic charlatans have to have some smarts about them. Quickly I became public enemy number one to this ‘trainer’ and received grief all day long. I made the mistake of knowing about the theory that the training was based on. Why then did I open my big mouth about it being out-dated and refuted? The things you do!

Where am I going this and how does it relate to Pale Ale?? Well the thrust of the training was to come to an ‘inner peace’ about where we wanted to be with the company. According to the ‘trainer’, my aspirations could only be achieved if everyone in the company acted as "a team". After some really bad ‘team-building’ exercises, which quickly showed how ‘the training’ had not worked, we had to stand in a circle, eyes closed, imagining ‘The Year 2000’. When we imagined where we were in the company we had to step forward. Draw a mental picture of the smiling ‘trainer’ with a glint in the eye repeating "the year 2000…the year 2000…".. and you will have the scene down pat.

Perhaps it was Friday afternoon and I knew that the ‘training’ would be over soon. I don’t know, but it was then that I realized I had no future in the company. My pictorial representation of a career in IT distribution was nothing sort of disastrous. My career was represented by the world’s largest bottle of Coopers Pale one could ever imagine. With beads of condensation running down the side of the bottle, in the dark abyss, this was the most unbelievable shape of greatness ever known by me. Nothing I did shook the image of being dwarfed by this bottle; looking so good I could taste the beer without even a sip. Very quickly I realized I was the last one standing on the outside of the circle, and I slid forward…

3 months later I resigned.

Australia is extremely limited in commercial beer examples for most beer varieties. The blurred often-ambiguous domestic product has come from the corporate dualopoly that exists in Australia. The consumption of small breweries into one of two corporate has killed what had been a diverse and colorful history of brewing in Australia. Looking through Deutsher, one cannot wonder what Australian beer culture would be like if so many breweries had not been snuffed out by brewing giants.

The eastern suburbs of Sydney are my adopted hunting grounds. $12.50 by taxi from most of the better pubs in town and the beaches are near by. Little did I realize that the heritage-listed building that I drive past most days was the main brewery for Resch’s, another victim of the rationalization of Australian brewing. Resch’s name still exists in Resch’s Pilsner and Dinner Ale.

Edmund Resch bought Waverly Brewery, which produced Adelaide Pale Ale, in 1897. The brewery was in financial trouble and in jeopardy of closing. Resch turned the brewery around and three years later bought the NSW Lager Bier Co located in nearby Redfern. The Waverly brewery was shut and operations moved to the Redfern brewery, bringing with it the Waverly’s name. Under Resch’s management the brewery boomed, one of the most popular beers being Resch’s Dinner Ale. If you hunt around this beer is still available.

Resch died in 1923 and his sons took over the breweries management. This was until 1929 when Tooth and Co. bought the brewery. Unlike many brewery takeovers the Waverly brewery was lucky and remained a separate business unit that continued to brew Resch’s signature products. Resch’s Lion emblem also remained on all branding until 1979 when it was replaced with Tooth’s White Horse emblem. Unfortunately when CUB took over Tooth and Co. in 1983 the brewery doors were shut and the land sold off. All that remains today is a façade of a Meriton apartment complex.

Rationale

Like last months beer this beer is based on extract. Mashing is not required for every beer and is great if you have the time. With an MBA and a lot of hours at work, mashing is a rare luxury for me unfortunately.

Pales Ale are also great because the skip to a Bitter or Indian Pale Ale is within reach. The differences are slight shifts in gravity, bitterness and hop flavour. A Bitter differs from Pale Ale by the being served primarily on draft. These draft beers are dry hopped which gives great hop aroma. Pale Ales are mostly served in bottles, making dry hopping difficult. India Pale Ales take a lot more hops again with variances in the malt bill. (Daniels 152-153).

Pale Ale History

Pale Ale does not have a precise beginning in history like Stout or Lager. The origin of Pale Ale is most likely at a time when Ales were referred to as un-hopped beverage with little written records kept about brewing them. Brewing at this time was mostly in the home rather than by large-scale brewers.

Flemish migrants introduced hops and what is now called beer to Britain around 1500. The hopped beer represented a major change in taste for the common British beverage. Popularity continued to grow and at around the 1700's hopped beers outnumbered the un-hopped ales.

At first Pale Ales were more expensive to produce due to the crude brewing practices of the time. Such practice made the production of pale malt and pale beers difficult. Brown malt, which was the base for Porter, was cheaper to produce than pale malt. Porters required long aging periods, which required brewing on a large scale and was not possible in the home. From here brewing shifted from the home to the factory.

Cash flow generated by Porter sales left funds for investment and research by firms into new brewing techniques and technologies. The inventive work lead to the development of the hydrometer and thermometer for use in brewing. These tools enabled better mashing and measurement of results and it did not take long for the realization that pale malt mashes produced much higher yields of fermentable than brown malt if done correctly.

The Industrial Revolution not only bought better brewing methods and huge demand for beer, but also better rail and road transport. Brewers in the Burton-On-Trent regions were now able to easily transport pale beers to large centers to compete with Porter. At the same time Britain was exploring overseas, and an imbalance in foreign shipping rates to the India colony created a new market for Pale Ale export. Ships returned laden from India with spices and silks, but very often went back empty.

With the first the first governor appointed to India in 1774 George Hodgson saw his opportunity to export to expatriates in India. Hodgson's Bow Brewery in east London, started Pale Ale production in 1750. This market quickly proved profitable and grew to in 1800 to 9000 barrels mostly from the Bow Brewery. Hodgson performed some questionable business practices to keep this market share and the competition at bay.

The Burton brewers were at this time large exporters to the Baltic's and Russia. As the Napoleonic wars developed and Russian taxes rose India became a very attractive potential source of revenue. It took till 1820 for the Burton brewers to make in-roads into India and against Hodgson. Hodgsons business practices finally caught up with him and the Burton brewers took advantage.

The main challenge for the brewers trying to export to India was to have stable beer arrive. To do this 2 changes were necessary. More hops were added to the beer to help avoid spoilage and the gravity was decreased for a more fully fermented wort. Both these practices help get the beers across the long ocean voyage. (Daniels 153-154)

Bass was one of the main companies that grew by producing Pale Ale and exporting to India. Bass built 3 breweries in 10 years to cope with demand. By 1889 Bass was the largest brewer of ales. With 21 mash tuns, 2.5 million pounds (15,000 tons) of malt was required to meet demand each week. Production grew to between 600,000 and 1 million barrels of beer per year. (A bit less than my brewery!).

Finally Pale Ale was helped by the introduction of glass drinking vessels. Up until 1845, a heavy tax on glass prohibited widespread use. The reduction in tax on glass in conjunction with the development in mass production techniques meant drinkers had more to worry about. The ability to see the beer drunk drove the trend for lighter beer, which helped introduce finings into beer production to help clarification.

The demand for clear bottled beer helped accelerate scientific applications to brewing process. These applications were pasteurization, refrigeration, filtration and artificial carbonation. Pasteurizing and refrigeration enabled Publicans to side step Real Ale conditioning. (Forster 5-14).

20th Century Pale Ales

Pale Ales of the 20th Century represent more changes to the style. These changes are sliding gravities and the introduction of sugar into Pale Ale recipes. British parliament changed laws in 1847 allowing sugar to be used in beer production. By the early 1900's up to 25% of the fermentables as sugar in many Pale Ales became the norm and continues today. After WWII Pale Ales became noticeable lighter and lower in gravity. Few breweries brewed to the original specific gravities. Today the American examples are closer to the traditional parameters of the style, particularly with the low usage of sugar.

Ingredients

Especially in a full mash beer, good English pale malt makes a huge difference in Pale Ales. I began playing with Hugh Baird malts about 18 months ago and the effect was significant to the malt profile and over-all drink ability of the beer. Check ESB's website for details on obtaining some of this.

British malts because of lower nitrogen and higher modification are easily infusion mashed. Most Pale Ales are mashes in the 66-68C range. Mashes should be quite thick. This beer is also perfect for extract brewing or mini mashing. The extract I use is unfortunately generic. This seems the only down fall of brewing in Australia unlike our friends over the Pacific, where a number of different liquid malt types are available. We are yet to catch up on this part of craft brewing (r)evolution.

Crystal Malt is a usual suspect for this beer. American brewers never seem to have enough Crystal malt in their beers and some recipes have up to 500 gm's. This month's beer though will be using less. I am going for subtlety unlike last month's beer!

Hops and lots of them make for this style. Again American beers are loaded with hops to a greater degree than English Pale Ales. Hop bitterness should be assertive with the whole range of flavors acceptable. Traditionalist will use English hops such as Cluster or Goldings. American interpretations go for hops like Northern Brewer, which I like a lot. Don't be afraid of hops here is all I can say.

So after this introduction, its time to roll the sleeves up and get brewing.

References

Daniels, R, Designing Great Beers, 1996, Brewers Publications Boulder Colorado

Papazian, C, World Of Worts - Heart of the Tide Imperial Porter,

In Zymurgy, Vol 22, No.1 Jan Feb 1999, Association of Brewers, Boulder Colorado.

Papazian C, The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing, 1991, Avon Books, New York.

Protz R, The Ultimate Encyclopaedia of Beer, 1995, Carlton Books, London.