Moving Along - Thesis Proposal

Finally got the proposal for the thesis (nearly) finalized and the ball rolling on getting a committee formed. Here's the abstract:

On The List: A Multidisciplinary Study of the Musical Open Mic Night

Abstract

One of the most significant contributions to the global culture that the United States has made in the last century has been its musical traditions. American vernacular musics such as rock & roll, blues, hip-hop, jazz, and country can be found almost anywhere in the world that commercially recorded music has travelled. Traditional conceptions of audience-performer identity have been challenged in this music through community-based, participatory events known as open mic nights. During these events, the artistic output of the participants in the community is developed and consumed. Additionally, the physical and cognitive space in which the community ritual of the musical open mic is adapted to better suit the needs of the community. In a national artistic environment in which the traditional boundaries between artistic producers and consumers are changing, it is of utmost importance that academics and both formally trained and amateur musicians gain an understanding of the musical open mic night as a vehicle for American musical community.

This paper argues that analysis of musicological, spatial, and ethnographic forces reveals that OMNs are structured to reflect the cultural priorities and geographies of their participants. Using data-gathering methods from the disciplines of ethnology, anthropology, musicology, and historiography, this paper will provide observation and analysis of the dynamics at work within participatory arts communities in two cities in Texas. By doing so, this paper aims to make a significant contribution to the academic and professional literature on American vernacular music and provide suggestions for ways they can be used within a wider analytical framework for observing creative communities.

4/18 - Brew Day

Today was brew day. Went extremely successfully. There is certainly something to be said about playing tunes and brewing beer for a class project.

Here are some photos:

The grist (mixture of malted grains)

The Brewmaster and Apprentice strike the grist once the water is boiling.

Stirring the grain to keep the temperature even

Checking the temperature

Hops added. Boiling the wort.

Blessing the wort with tunes.

Label

The next day: Fermentation coming right along. 

Building the Recipe

Much of the research I've been able to find on the history of porter and stout styles in Ireland, as shown in previous entries, has been in industry journals or homebrewing blogs and websites. When settling on a particular style to brew for this project, however, there were certain constants in both the academic and industry scholarship on the history of modern beer styles in Ireland and the UK.

To review, the beer now known as "porter" was first recorded as a distinctive style of beer in 1721 brewed by commercial brewers and pub owners in London, England. The style was carried over to Ireland in the late 18th century, where it began to be brewed by Arthur Guinness at his brewery at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Beamish & Crawford founded their brewery dedicated to porter styles in 1759 in Cork City. Guinness would become the largest brewer of beer in the British Isles, dominating the market for beer in Ireland and Britain throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries when tastes shifted to lighter ales and lager beer styles. Porter brewing begins to fall out of fashion in the UK at the onset of WWI due to restrictions on raw materials necessary for the brewing process and all but completely dies out by WWII due to continued restrictions and shift in public demand to lighter styles. However, Irish and American brewers both continue to brew porters and stouts throughout this period. Guinness finally ceases to brew porter in 1974 and shifts only to its stout styles. The Beamish & Crawford brewery produced their porter until 1960 and stout until its acquisition and ultimate closure by Heineken in 2009.

There seems to be a consensus among the scholarship I have read that the base of porter grists (grain builds) consists of pale-malt barley. I have also read in almost all of the sources I have used for this project that Irish porter and stout brewers such as Guinness used the Black Patent Malt as for both color and for a smoky flavoring in the beer following the invention and patenting of the drum roaster in 1817. This patent black malt was used in combination with brown malt, which was used to varying degrees by both English and Irish brewers in porter recipes for its flavoring and coloring. Brown malted barley in the 18th and 19th centuries was comprised a large percentage of the grain bills of porter brewed in Ireland and the UK. Historically, it is believed brown malt was kiln-fired in smaller batches than what modern brewers typically produce, leaving enzymes in the grain intact which allowed conversion to fermentable sugars in the wort. However, modern brown malt is produced in the drum-roasting process and contains no enzymes. Because few sources are available to describe the exact process of how brown malt was produced in order to leave the enzymes in the grain intact and still get the dark brown color and texture, it is used in conjunction with pale malt to ensure conversion of the fermentable sugars. This recipe, I believe, should emulate a similar account of what the Guinness brewery used shortly after the introduction of black patent in the 1820s.

Hops are not native to Ireland and were likely brought over to Ireland with the same brewers who brought the brewing equipment and porter. Thus, the bulk of the hops used in this recipe are known as Fuggles, a traditional English hop with an earthy, less-refined flavor spectrum than some of the more noble hop varieties such as East Kent Golding. Northdown Hop will also be used for aroma, to help balance the bitter and sweet flavor spectrum, and to be in keeping with the historical brewing tradition of using what resources were available.

The yeast used in this recipe is actually an English strain from a brewery in Essex. I am using this yeast for several reasons. For one, the local homebrew store was completely out of Irish ale yeast. That aside, however, I am attempting to emulate in this recipe a recipe closer to the period when porter was still essentially an English brew style that was in the process of being appropriated and experimented with by Irish brewers. Moreover, Essex yeast is characteristically most similar to Irish ale yeast of the English yeast strains.

Thus, the recipe I am using takes all of these into consideration and uses a mixture of all three varieties of malted barley: pale, brown, and black patent with Fuggles hops and Essex ale yeast.

Turn of the Century Irish Porter (Robust Porter)

Makes 3.5 US Gallons

Grist

6.3 lb Malting Company of Ireland Pale Malt
.7 lb UK Brown Malt
7 oz UK Black Patent Malt

Hops
1. 5 oz Fuggles
~ .8 oz Northdown

Yeast
White Labs WLP022 Essex Ale Yeast

Original Gravity (O.G.): 1.057
Final Gravity (F.G.): 1.018
Expected ABV: 5.15%
Expected IBU: 42.59

Update: 4/12

The past month has been pretty crazy with writing papers, getting ready for conference presentations, and preparing rep for upcoming concerts. Now that several of these are finished, however, I can make some serious headway on fleshing out some of the materials in this journal and adding new ones to it.

The plan thus far:

1. Go back and revise previous entries
2. Add new information on historical documentation and historical recipes
3. Choose a historical recipe to brew, preferably to be completed by the final day of class to share with the class

Possible historical recipes to emulate:

Guinness circa 1800s
Beamish-ish
Historical Dry Irish stout

3/14/2015 - History of Porter and Stout

Porter and Stout are some of the most recognizable beer styles in the world. This is in due in no small part to the role the Guinness brewery has played in the global beer market since its inception in 1759. However, while the names "Porter" and "Stout" have both changed meaning over time, originally referring to the alcohol strength of a beer and shifting to flavor profile, the styles and methods of brewing have remained relatively constant since their initial development.

Foster: Brewing Porters and Stouts

- "First recognizable style of beer"
- created by London commercial brewers
- despite long decline in London, continued to be brewed in several fashions in Ireland, USA, and Baltic area
- Originally made from a specific type of malt
- Anecdotal evidence for first porter recipe (1722) made as a mixture of different strength beers at the Old Blue Last pub in Shoreditch, East London by Ralph Harwood.
----Ale, beer, twopenny
---- dubbed "Entire"
---evidence disputed.
- Swiss visitor to London in 1726 spoke of porter as drunk mostly by the working class. Transportation of goods throughout the city executed by "porters," hence the name.
- Early to mid-eighteenth century brewers likely used a mixture of brown (darker color, less enzymes and fermentable sugars) and pale malts to create worts of optimum fermentability by yeast.
---Documented evidence of this as normal practice after 1780.
- 1759 Arthur Guiness begins brewing at St. James's gate, Dublin, Ireland
--begins with only brewing ales
-London-produced porter still dominates Irish market in 1770s.
-- Beamish & Crawford found Cork porter Brewery in Cork, Ireland in 1792, overtaking production of Guinness until 1833.
- Guinness begins brewing several variations of porter in 1799
-- Town Porter, Country Porter, Superior (later "Extra Stout") and West India Porter (Foreign Extra Stout) sold in the British West Indies
--Lesser porters (Small abv) known as "single stout" and Superior known as "double stout"
- invention of drum roaster in 1817 to produce black malt, eliminating the need for brown malt and porter colorings and setting the stage for stout style to be widely produced.
--Guinness uses black malt later that year
- By 1880, 53 percent of Guinness's production is exported to England and Scotland
--Bulk of that is Extra Superior Porter (What we would now call Double or "Extra Stout")
-Use of the term stout to denote a style of beer rather than its strength common by 1850
- By 1860, Guinness' annual production amounted to 140,000 Irish barrells (almost 175,000 USB)
- 1864, Guinness brews 53% of the total Dublin output of beer and accounts for 45.5% of Irish trade with England
- By 1914, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (FES) is viewed as a tonic or nourishing health drink in the U.S. and accounts for 70 percent of total American beer imports.
- Outbreak of World War I in Europe causes restrictions on both raw materials and brewing supplies in the US and UK.
---No restrictions in Ireland
- By 1936, Guinness owns breweries in both NYC and Park Royal North London
- Tastes in beer consumption in England shift to lighter beers and porter brewing essentially dies in England by WWII.
- Stout continues to be produced in Ireland (Guinness, Murphy's, and Beamish) and by niche brewers in London.
- Revival of Porter and Stout styles in 2000s by micro brewers in the UK and North America.

1 March: Archaeological Evidence for Brewing

I have come across several articles discussing the history of brewing in Ireland. One in particular surveyed some archaeological evidence describing possible dates historians know brewing to have taken place and shed light on some of the methods by which brewing was performed.

Irish brewing techniques may have been developed out of the mead-brewing techniques imported from the Basque region of Spain around the 14th century. According to a letter to the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, ancient brewing and distilling implements have been found preserved in bogs throughout Ireland. These include wooden troughs of different shapes that may have been used for steeping grain, as well as quern-stones that are thought to have been used for milling. Additionally, oaken, pronged forks and oaken spades of similar construction have been discovered. These are believed to have been used during the steeping process of creating fermentable wort via mashing malt. During the mashing process, these would have been used to prevent clumping of the grains as a means of ensuring even extraction of fermentable sugars (malts).

Sketch of an early Irish brew-paddle used during the boiling of the mash to prevent clumping, and thus even extraction of fermentable sugars and enzymes. Made of bog-deal. 

Sketch of an early bog-deal brew-spade. 

24 Feb 2015

- Preliminary research of brewing history of Ireland has not turned up much of the specific information I'm looking for (recipes, chronological timelines, etc.) May also need to change search terms/search locations

    - databases, trade journals, books

- Looking for information on climate, agriculture, ingredients for brewing that are native to the country and therefore may have been used for brewing.

Ireland climate

According to the Irish Meteorological Service, the climate of Ireland is primarily influenced by the Atlantic ocean. As a result, extremes in temperature in Ireland are rare. The average annual temperature of the island is 6ºC (43ºF) and between 150-200 days of the year with more than 1mm of rainfall. The hills and mountains close to the coasts of Ireland help to alleviate strong winds from the Atlantic inland.

Agricultural production of Ireland

Introduction

This is the introductory post to a blog documenting the experiences of a West Texas native researching the history and practice of brewing in Irish culture. I am writing this blog as a research journal component to a creative project for a graduate seminar in Irish folklore at Texas Tech University culminating in a two-week field trip to Western Ireland. The plan is to regularly update the blog with posts regarding the progress of research, notes on my findings, and plans for the final product.

First, however, a little bit about myself. My name is Jakob and I am a Master's of Music candidate in the Musicology department of the Texas Tech University School of Music. My main areas of concentration are in American vernacular music, traditional music of the British Isles, and music of the Caribbean. I graduated from Tech in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts in Music specializing in traditional Irish fiddle and a minor in History.

American craft brewing has been a bit of a side-interest of mine in recent years. I have become increasingly interested in home-brewing, serving as somewhat of an apprentice to a friend of mine who has a good deal of experience with craft beer and home-brewing. This hobby is what lead me to the idea of doing a related project for this seminar.

My hope for this project is to investigate the role that brewing played in the history and culture of Ireland. Brewing and pub culture are a significant part of the popular culture of Ireland and followed the Irish ex-pat community to Britain and North America. It is my goal for this project not only to improve my own skills and knowledge of this particular craft, but also to add to my understanding of the Irish history and folk knowledge systems surrounding the craft as well.

Some of the initial questions I'm hoping to answer:

When and why did brewing become a significant factor of Irish foodways?

How did the importance of brewing in Irish culture evolve over time?

What types of beer have been and/or remain a significant part of this tradition?

What ingredients (grains, malts, yeasts, etc.) were used and why those specifically?

Who introduced the tradition?