Replacing Continental/American brewing terms to bring back UK brewing terminology

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Interesting point, especially as the KJ Bible and the first colony in America are at almost exactly the same time. Bibles would certainly have been the mainstay of literature in those days . And in this case you're right. But it doesn't make sense to me to say that one strand of the language has evolved or changed while the other strand hasn't. Certainly there'll be some usages that have been taken across the Pond that reflect usage in the Old Country. That's a far cry from saying that modern American English is a Snapshot of 17C "British" English.
Nobody is saying that. Our point is that where words differ it is wrong to assume that it is the US usage which has changed. It has sometimes but not always.
 
Whilst many of the weird and wonderful brewing terms derive form Germanic tongues, many are native English words that have either fallen out of common speech, or come to mean other things.

In England, only ale (without hops) was brewed until about the 14th century, the continental style beer (with hops) was imported for German nobles and mercenaries and it took over a century before they became accepted and the norm. German brewers set up in England to fulfil the demand for beer and brought their practices and terminology with them.

In early public houses, the brewster (female) would have brewed with all wooden vessels except one, which was made of copper and used for boiling the wort and known as a copper. Barm is the old English word for yeast, (along with Goddisgoode) but it is often defined as the foamy head on top of fermenting beer, which can be cropped to mix into bread dough. As barm has fallen out of common use, the German term krausen has adapted to fill its place. Wort comes from the old English word Wyrt (which probably accounts for its pronunciation) meaning root or herb and would have referred to the plant materials used in flavouring the old ales.
 
Has anyone read Bill Bryson's book "Made in America ". It argues that the language taken to America by the early English settlers still exists there but has changed in Britain. Obviously ignore the spellings which was a one off in the late 1800's.
I have just finished re-reading his book on the English language "Mother Tongue". Modern English contains words from over a hundred other languages, sometimes mangled to suit English speakers, sometimes intact and have often kept their original meaning whereas they now mean something else in their native language.

Spelling and pronunciation of English words have wandered over the centuries, but since the advent of printing spelling has been more stable. The early settlers to America would have spoken more alike modern day Americans than modern day English, because this process continues more quickly here than across the pond. An example of this was the fashion among the eighteenth century upper class to put a broad 'ah' sound in words that had a shorter 'a' sound, such as grass, path and dance. This practice was adopted by much of the other classes in southern England and is still prevalent south of the Watford Gap, but unknown in the US (outside Boston, where it was taken to extremes). Today there is far more variance in accents across a few hunderd miles of England than across the whole United States and Canada.
 
As barm has fallen out of common use, the German term krausen has adapted to fill its place.
I woinder if "barm" still is used in breweries like Tim Taylors or Theakstons. Long before I even heard the term "krausen" the yeast top used to be called a "rocky head". Just to be sure this wasn't a "false memory" I googled "rockly head of yeast" and this came up:

What Is Krausen? Krausen is both a verb and a noun used to describe the fermentation stage of brewing beer: Noun: The foamy, rocky head of yeast that forms at the peak of fermentation. ... This is usually done to condition or naturally carbonate the beer.Aug 15, 2019
Krausen in the Beer Brewing Process - The Spruce Eats


So at least I haven't lost the plot yet. Come to think of it, I used to take groups to the Dorchester Brewery (Eldridge Popes) and was always amazed by the thick layer of yeast on top of the open fermenters, which, according to the guide, a mouse or a rat could run over with no danger of sinking. So I'm not moved yet from my opinion that "krausen" is a later term. Of course, with the advent of "continental" yeasts that don't have a thick head, the term starts to become redundant.
 
Wouldn't the early settlers have still spoken like from where they came from for a while?
If American settlers came from say, Britain,why did they develope an accent?
It's true you can pick up some traits if you move to an area but there were no accents there to mimic or pick up.
I wonder what the "true" native tongue of Britain sounded like... ancient Celtic?
 
Wouldn't the early settlers have still spoken like from where they came from for a while?
If American settlers came from say, Britain,why did they develope an accent?
It's true you can pick up some traits if you move to an area but there were no accents there to mimic or pick up.
I wonder what the "true" native tongue of Britain sounded like... ancient Celtic?
They may have amalgamated an accent and dialects from a variety of British regional and Irish amongst the settlers.
 
Wouldn't the early settlers have still spoken like from where they came from for a while?
If American settlers came from say, Britain,why did they develope an accent?
It's true you can pick up some traits if you move to an area but there were no accents there to mimic or pick up.
I wonder what the "true" native tongue of Britain sounded like... ancient Celtic?
Most of the early settlers came from East Anglia and the West Country to get away from Religious persecution. Also regional accents in the UK do change at the turn of the last century Liverpudlians didn't have a scouse accent and spoke like other Lancastrians.
 
I tried to find out why we use German brewing terms. I'm sure we got them from USA but I'm not sure when, why or how. This is interesting......


View attachment 25840

In English, dumb means mute, but in US English it means stupid as it comes from the German word dumm

Yes indeed. There was a wave of German migration to the US after the failed revolutions of 1848. They were called the 48ers, and many Germans settled in the Midwest states. One of them, Adolphus Busch, started a brewery in St Louis in 1852. The rest, as they say, is history.
 
Yes indeed. There was a wave of German migration to the US after the failed revolutions of 1848. They were called the 48ers, and many Germans settled in the Midwest states. One of them, Adolphus Busch, started a brewery in St Louis in 1852. The rest, as they say, is history.
I wish he hadn't. Vorsprung durk technik and all that but Busch' offerings are a retrograde step.
 
Nothing to do with brewing but I've always found the explanation, 'getting the sack' from your job interesting. From what I've read you got the sack to put your tools in if you got dismissed from your job
 
I could never imagine not speaking with my accent.

Funny thing is, it changes with your environment. I lived in the south east of England for 13 years. My friends and family back in Australia thought I'd developed an English accent, but no one in England would mistake me for anything other than Australian (OK, maybe Kiwi).

I left the UK six years ago, but now when I read a book to my young fella, I do notice I pronounce certain words in a "northern" fashion, especially the "a" vowel: grass, past, last etc. I put this down to spending a lot of time with a good friend from Harrogate over the years.
 
I'm from north Wales but wherever I travel in the UK( except Liverpool) people presume I'm from Liverpool due to the very un-welsh accent I must have..
 
I'm from north Wales but wherever I travel in the UK( except Liverpool) people presume I'm from Liverpool due to the very un-welsh accent I must have..
I had a colleague from Buckley and he always described his locality as Scouse Wales.
 
I've managed to re-find an online article I read a while back, that lists the derivation of many brewing related terms.

Technical Terms in Brewing
Notable that that the definition of Barm makes no reference to foam, yet Krausen specifically mentions actively fermenting wort. So, quiet easy to see where both my have been used interchangeably if one was to be taking yeast of the top of actively fermenting wort to prime something.
 
Very interesting to learn that Krausen was used in UK as early as 1925! Albeit not commonly.
 

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