Historical Beer Myths with Randy Mosher - BeerSmith Podcast

Randy Mosher tells us why almost everything we've been told about the history of beer is wrong. In a wide ranging interview, Randy shares why many of our beer stories are actually myths, and shares a history of beer that is much more varied and dynamic than previously thought.
You can find show notes and additional episodes at beersmith.com/blog

[@rozzaziobrown6515]

Randy is a joy and an inspiration

[@MrBeersmith]

He is a national treasure in my humble opinion!

[@echardcore]

Thank you, Brad and Randy. This is excellent. One criticism, Brad. Please display the graphics you cutaway to for longer periods. I have no idea what you are depicting when you display a graphic for 3 seconds while the interviewee is speaking.

[@hilderingpeter]

Another great episode. Thanks. Just thought to share a story I once heard that one of the key reasons for Belgian breweries starting to brew relatively strong beers was the result of the (partial) prohibition on hard liquor they introduced in 1920. As this made Genever (the predecessor to Gin) illegal, brewers responded by brewing stronger beers. Any idea if this could be true? To me, it sounds very plausible.Also funny to hear Randy mention about the Saison from Liege brewed with Spelt malt and yeast from Maastricht (Netherlands). I'm actually drinking a beer right now that I brewed along an historic recipe for Luiks beer (Luik is the Dutch name for Liege), that has in fact a substantial portion of spelt in the grain bill. If my sources are correct, Luiks became a very popular style in the Netherlands a century ago but has since then disappeared (commercially). Lastly, and this is a wild guess, Dutch bock beer is pretty dark and although it probably shares an history with German bock, it is miles away from it stylistically. Could it be that US bock was actually related to the Dutch bock style?

[@klaussemand]

Thanks for the great interview! Btw, a note on the commentaries on porter being reinvented in recent years, if I'm not wrong, Carlsberg breweries have been brewing a more or less unchanged porter since 1895. Cheers

[@willschmit436]

I did a search for "bock" , in hopes of finding a recipe I could tune to match my experiences. It was fun to listen to Randy talk about growing up in Chicago, and the seasonal character of BOCK. My memory (of Chicago) was that Bock was just a darker, maltier lager. It came out in the spring, and typically had some representation of a goat. I may be reading too much into folklore, but it was considered beer that was brewed in the winter (Capricorn) for the spring. As Randy related, we drank Meister Brau, Schlitz, Pabst. The rumor was that they made bock when they cleaned the bottom of the brewery. Of course that was nonsense. My favorite Bock (and one of the last to die) was Huber Bock. We had to go to Wisconsin to get it (or Leinenkugel, Point or dozens of regional beers in 12 oz export bottles in waxed boxes). FWIW, Randy and I were both members of the Chicago homebrewers club in the 90s, but i sincerely doubt he would remember me...

[@santiagokaderian544]

Great interview !

[@johnalbert2102]

When asked about a style that's changed over history, the first thing that cane to mind was "IPA"!

[@williambright363]

Bald Headed beer know it in all its finest.

[@stanlindert6332]

Are there places that reproductions of those old books can be purchased?

[@vinniegiordano3243]

The American Practical Brewer and Tanner can be found on Amazon.

[@juantroncoso3971]

Pudieron ser más generosos y subtitularlo en Español

[@dricedt]

Randy mises all of the jokes

[@williambright363]

stick to your beer brewing expertise if you have any and leave your religious commentary out off of it.