Until the 18th century, malt was "kilned" over wood fires making
most beers dark brown or black, and contributing significantly to
the pollution in cities like London. The use of coal allowed
brewers a little more control, but it was not until coke, a
bi-product of coal, was introduced as a fuel that pale malt could
be made. Pale malt yielded more sugar than black malt. Because
the Thames was polluted, soft water was drawn from wells, ideal
for dark beers, but yielding unpleasant flavor to black beers
unless they were blended with the paler beers made by country
brewers who had access to hard water. These country brewers also
bought dark beers from London and aged them in large oak casks.
After aging they sold them back to the London brew pubs as highly
desirable, "stale" (aged) beer. Home brew houses then began to
blend the black, pale, and stale beers and the result became
known as "three threads", a corruption of "three thirds." Ralph
Harwood's Bell Brewhouse, one of London's original common brewers
and was the first to market an already blended beer to other
pubs, called "Entire". It is believed that he blended his own
black beer with purchased pale and stale. Since it saved
publicans the chore of blending their own three threads, it
became an immediate success and the beer style of choice that was
sold by London's train porters. Ultimately the style became known
as Porter. As brewing moved away from the brew pub to common
brewers, Harwood's creation became London's great contribution to
beer. As the British Empire expanded, "Porter," later known as
"Stout Porter," then simply "Stout," became the world's most
widely distributed beer style.
In order to brew a beer in keeping with the original style but
still distinctly American, Pike acquired oak Bourbon barrels last
year and filled them with Pike XXX Extra Stout in April 2008 to
be blended back. Pike Head Brewer, Drew Cluley, describes the
beer as "complex and chocolaty with a great vanilla wood
overtone."
On Monday, November 24, 2008, Pike Entire, in wax-dipped 22 oz.
bottles, will be released. It will have very limited availabilty
at the Pike Pub and in select bottle shops, primarily in the
Seattle area. A few quarter-barrels will be released for sale on
draft. The Pike Pub will tap its one and only quarter-barrel of
Pike Entire on Friday, November 28.
The Pike Brewing Company is a family-owned gravity flow craft
steam brewery and pub in the heart of Seattle next door to the
entrance to historic Pike Place Public Market. Founded in 1989,
it was one of the earliest American craft breweries to offer
styles like Imperial Stout, IPA, and Barley Wine.
Beer Articles
