Meant to say...the beer supplied by our neighbour to toast his new terrace the other night had an unusual feature...a champagne cork. Apparently it is a 'modern French classic'
It is only 6.5% ABV... that's nay potent [well it is a bit more than 90 shillings, admittedly] but there was always a great brewing tradition in France.... until the Great War... when, like the UK, everything went downhill fast!!
The corked bottle was always the preferred method for a keeper... the bottle can be kept on its side... a crown cork rusts through if you do that. If on the yeast, any brew will keep for many years, providing the cork doesn't dry out. Some Belgian brewers have a belt and braces approach... a standard cork and then a crown cork. And as for gravity... well, in the barn we have Tripel Karmelite at 10.5% ABV, Sammiklaus [Austrian] at 21% ABV... a Durham Brewery "Desolation" at 10% ABV... please note that ABV is as the bottle was corked... on the yeast it will still have worked... and dependant on the priming it can be up to 1.5% stronger!!!
It's potent stuff looking at the label... 4 pints of that and ..............
ReplyDeleteIt is only 6.5% ABV... that's nay potent [well it is a bit more than 90 shillings, admittedly] but there was always a great brewing tradition in France....
ReplyDeleteuntil the Great War... when, like the UK, everything went downhill fast!!
The corked bottle was always the preferred method for a keeper... the bottle can be kept on its side... a crown cork rusts through if you do that.
If on the yeast, any brew will keep for many years, providing the cork doesn't dry out.
Some Belgian brewers have a belt and braces approach... a standard cork and then a crown cork.
And as for gravity... well, in the barn we have Tripel Karmelite at 10.5% ABV, Sammiklaus [Austrian] at 21% ABV... a Durham Brewery "Desolation" at 10% ABV... please note that ABV is as the bottle was corked... on the yeast it will still have worked... and dependant on the priming it can be up to 1.5% stronger!!!