 |
 |
Hawaiian Beer and Prohibition, at Uncle Ken's Corner Table
Aloha Everyone!
11/16/08 - I was thinking about the process for brewing beer the other day, not because I wanted to become a home brewer of pale lagers or ales, but because while I was cleaning out my parent's home one day, I found some equipment which I couldn't figure out. The most puzzling of the items was this thingey, shown below, which looked like a thermometer with lead buckshot weighing down the bulb. What is this thing, I wondered.
A Hydrometer or Sacchrometer. This is an instrument used to determine the amount of residual sugar in a liquid, namely, in the liquid brew where the sugars in barley malt are being converted to alcohol, when making beer. This is what I found in our basement clutter.
I remembered the tales my dad told me of the Prohibition Years (1919 to 1933) during the era of the 18th Amendment when the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages was banned. He was a shortstop on the HELCO Commercial League Baseball Team in Hilo during those years. The League was made up of teams from the Gas Company, Telephone Company, Hawaii County, etc. Part of the obligations of the players was to invite the rest of the guys over to their homes, in rotation, for heavy pupus and drinks after their weekend games. Since no alcoholic beverages could be sold in stores, and all bars and saloons were shuttered, the only access folks had to beer or wine was to brew it themselves. Illegal, of course, but everyone did it.
My dad told me how he had to read up on how to brew beer, and set up the equipment in the basement of our house in Hilo, so that he would have beer to serve the players. And that's what I had uncovered as I cleaned out the basement clutter. That instrument shown in Figure 1, is called a Hydrometer, or more specifically, a Sacchrometer, which allows you to track the fermentation process of the beer, and to determine when the beer is ready. You calculate the alcohol content of the beer by how far the Sacchrometer sinks or how high it floats, vertically, in the fermenting beer, both at the start and end of fermentation. The Sacchrometer measures the sugar level of the brew and how much has been converted to alcohol. You strain and filter the brewed liquid, and there you have Beer! Just put in bottles, chill and serve.
My mom was never happy about having a Junior Capone as a husband, but she dutifully prepared the sashimi, sliced abalone, broiled fish, tako (octopus slices with miso sauce), namasu (cucumbers in vinegar dressing), nishime, teriyaki beef and musubi (rice balls) for the ball players. My mom suggested orange juice or sodas , but those beverages just didn't have a celebratory ring to them. So beer it was. And by the end of the evening, the players were happy and content, win or lose.
The ingredients for beer were mainly the right kind of yeast, barley malt, hops and pure water, with sugar or other ingredients optional. I don't know where the players obtained the ingredients for making the beer, since your intent and purpose would have been pretty obvious if you went out looking for barley malt and hops to buy. But most of the local law enforcement turned a blind eye to home brewing for personal consumption. The hops could be grown in your back yard. It's a climbing vine with small pine-cone shaped blossoms (the hops) about the size and shape of Poha (cape gooseberries). See Figure 2 for a picture of Hops on the vine. The hops impart tannins which preserve and clarify the beer, and give the beer it's aroma, dryness and the typical bitter flavor. The more Hops, the more bitter the beer.
Prohibition just didn't work. Folks found ways to make homemade beer and wine. Beer is a beverage which is best when it is drunk fresh, so home-brewing was a perfect way to gain access to fresh beer. So when the 18th Amendment was repealed, manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages resumed right away.
A Hops Vine with hops ready for harvesting. Adding Hops during brewing gives the beer the typical beer flavor and the bitterness associated with beer.
Today, the two basic types or categories of beer are Ales and Lagers. Ales are typically darker in color (although there are pale or amber ales), with a stronger more full-bodied flavor. Ales often go by alternate names like Porter, Pale Ale, Stout, Amber Ale and Brown Ale. The Stout Ale is the strongest flavored ale because its barley is dark-roasted before fermentation (think of Stout Ale, as you would think of Black Espresso Coffee). Ales originated in England so beer drinkers in the Colonies and the early U.S. drank mostly Ales due to our nation's English heritage. If you lived in America in the 1600's to early 1800's, you would have drunk an Ale.
Then in the middle of the 1800's, there was a large influx of German immigrants to American shores. Germans are known for their Lager Beer, and immediately started brewing the lighter lagers similar to their homeland. Americans loved the lighter lagers, and quickly shifted their preferences from Ales to Lagers. Most lagers are light in color and mild in flavor. They go by names like Light Lager, Pilsner, American Pale Lager, Bock Beer and Dark Lager (the richest and darkest of the lagers).
American's top selling beers today are all Lagers. The latest ranking of beers show Bud Light in first place, followed in order, by Budweiser, Miller Lite, Coors Lite, and Corona Extra. Lagers also top the popularity lists of other countries, too, like Heineken (Netherlands), Corona Extra (Mexico), Labatt Blue (Canada), Tsingtao (China) and Asahi Super Dry (Japan). These national favorites are all Lager Beers.
Americans tend to prefer light lager beers. Do you recall a few decades ago before Coors Beer was available in Hawaii, the number one request from local beer drinkers to friends going to the mainland was "Bring back a case of Coors!" The baggage claim carousel of every flight from the mainland, had at least some cases of Coors Beer going round and round.
in Japan, most of the beers are Dry or Extra Dry, meaning they ferment it longer, with a different yeast, giving Japanese beer less sugar and more alcohol than traditional U.S. beers. This gives Japanese beer a crisper, drier and slightly more bitter taste than American beers like Bud Light, Bud, Coors or Millers. Yet, to get the true taste of a Japan beer, you might have to go to Japan, since the major brands sold in the U.S. are brewed in Canada (Asahi and Sapporo) and in Los Angeles (Kirin).
Some remnants of Prohibition still exist in our country where states, counties, cities or townships have enacted various restrictions on the sale of alcoholic beverages. Until 1987, the state of Kansas prohibited the sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks by the glass, I recall that in the old days, when our United Airlines flight path took us over Kansas, the flight attendants came around and collected all beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks, and wouldn't dispense any further drinks until we were out of Kansas airspace. A sobering experience!
So if you're wondering whether you could brew some beer or wine in your home today, the answer is "Yes". In 1978, President Carter signed a bill legalizing home-brewing for the first time since Prohibition. Anybody want a slightly used Sacchrometer?
That's my thoughts on beer from the Corner Table.
UNCLE KEN
