Knowledge by the Oz. Issue 4
What is the highest rated local beer?
A local Austin favorite, Atrial Rubicite has built such a fanbase that people are waiting days for this seasonal beer. Primed when the raspberries are most ripe, Atrial Rubicite deserves all of the praise it continuously gets.
Atrial Rubicite is made from well water, barley, wheat, hops, farmhouse yeast, native yeast from the Texas hill country, souring bacteria and raspberries. It’s 5.8% alcohol by volume, has a finishing gravity of 1.005 and is 3.36 pH. It is unfiltered, unpasteurized and 100% bottle conditioned. Atrial Rubicite is our first beer to be packaged exclusively in 500 ml bottles.
Who invented beer?
The age ole question in every bar, tap house, or local brewery creates its own version of tall tales, but while people were no doubt imbibing it much earlier, hard evidence of beer production dates back about 5,000 years to the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia. No matter the exact answer we are appreciating that person each and every day.
What is a "thread"?
A “thread” is a term sometimes used when blending two or more beers together. One of the early uses of the term comes from a story out of the 1700’s…
Once upon a time in a small English pub a patron walked up to the barkeep and asked for a blend of three “threads” of the pub’s offerings: One “thread” of Ale (a young beer that used a mixture of herbs and spices, called “gruit”, instead of hops), one of Beer (a beer made with hops), and one of “Two-pence” (a strong beer with complex flavors from extended aging). How he knew to ask for a “thread” is hard to nail down (perhaps it sounded close to “third” in the accent of the time) but regardless the drink gained favor with the hardworking people of Old England and demand increased for this nutritious and flavorful beverage. Ralph Harwood, an entrepreneurial brewer tired of blending each drink to order, developed a recipe that combined the essence of each individual thread. This recipe had such an appeal that it became the first beer style brewed on an industrial scale (the Porter).