Malt liquor
Encyclopedia
North American
North American generally refers to an entity, people, group, or attribute of North America, especially of the United States and Canada together.-Culture:*North American English, a collective term used to describe American English and Canadian English...
term referring to a type of beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
with high alcohol
Ethanol
Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...
content. In legal statutes, the term often includes any alcoholic beverage above or equal to 5% alcohol by volume
Alcohol by volume
Alcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in an alcoholic beverage .The ABV standard is used worldwide....
made with malted barley. In common parlance, however, it is used for high-alcohol beers made with ingredients and processes resembling those in American-style lager
American-style lager
American lager or North American lager is pale lager which is made and consumed in North America. Pale lager originated in Europe in the mid-19th century, and moved to America with German immigrants...
. However, this label is subject to the viewpoint of the brewer
Brewer
Brewer may refer to:*Brewer, someone who makes beer by brewing*Brewer , a disambiguation page that lists people with the surname Brewer*Brewer, Maine, a city in southern Penobscot County, Maine, United States, near the city of Bangor...
, as there are indeed examples of brews containing high-quality, expensive ingredients that brewers have chosen to label as "malt liquors."
Manufacture
Malt liquor is a strong lager or aleAle
Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...
in which sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
, corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
or other adjuncts
Adjuncts
Adjuncts are unmalted grains used in brewing beer which supplement the main mash ingredient , often with the intention of cutting costs, but sometimes to create an additional feature, such as better foam retention.- Definition :Ingredients which are standard for certain beers, such as wheat in a...
are added to the malted barley to boost the total amount of fermentable sugars in the wort
Wort
Wort may refer to:* Wort, the liquid created by the mashing of malted barley to use in brewing beer* Worting, Hampshire, a large district and suburb of the town of Basingstoke, in Hampshire, England....
, and thus the final alcoholic strength produced. These beers tend to be mildly hopped
Hops
Hops are the female flower clusters , of a hop species, Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine...
(that is, they are not very bitter).
Brewing and legal definitions
Malt liquor is typically straw to pale amber in color. While typical beer and malt liquor are both made primarily from barleyBarley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
, water, and hops
Hops
Hops are the female flower clusters , of a hop species, Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine...
, malt liquors tend to make much greater use of inexpensive adjuncts such as corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
, or dextrose. Use of these adjuncts, along with the addition of special enzymes, results in a higher percentage of alcohol than that which is typical for beer. Higher alcohol versions, sometimes called "High Gravity
High gravity beer
High gravity beer refers to specialty beer either craft beers or malt liquors with an increased specific gravity. A beer with an original gravity 1.070 is generally considered to be high. High gravity beers are a traditional expression of beer making in Europe, but only a small percentage of...
" or just "HG", may contain high levels of fusel alcohol
Fusel alcohol
Fusel alcohols, also sometimes called fusel oils, or potato oil in Europe, are higher-order alcohols formed by fermentation and present in cider, mead, beer, wine, and spirits to varying degrees....
s, which gives off solvent- or fuel-like aromas and flavors.
The apparently confusing and inconsistent use of the term 'malt liquor' has to do with the vagaries of American alcoholic beverage
Alcoholic beverage
An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...
regulations, which can vary from state to state. In some states, "malt liquor" refers to any alcoholic beverage made by fermenting grain
GRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
and water; in these states a non-alcoholic beer may also be called a non-alcoholic or non-intoxicating malt liquor. In some states, products labeled 'beer' must fall below a certain alcohol content, and beers that exceed the mark must be labeled as 'malt liquor'. While ordinary beers in the United States average around 5% alcohol by volume, malt liquors typically range from 6% up to 9% alcohol by volume. A typical legal definition is Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
's Rev. Stat. ss. 12-47-103(19), which provides that:
- "Malt Liquors" includes beer and shall be construed to mean any beverage obtained by the alcoholic fermentation of any infusion or decoction of barley, malt, hops or any other similar products, or any combination thereof, in water containing more than three and two-tenths percent of alcohol by weight.
- (Note: alcohol percentages measured by weight translate into larger figures when re-expressed as alcohol percentages by volumeAlcohol by volumeAlcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in an alcoholic beverage .The ABV standard is used worldwide....
, because ethanol is less dense than water.)
History
The term "malt liquor" is documented in England in 1690 as an alternative word for ale. The first mention of the term in North America appears in a patent issued by the Canadian government on July 6, 1842, to one G. Riley for "an improved method of brewing ale, beer, porter, and other maltliquors."While Colt 45
Colt 45 (malt liquor)
Colt 45 is a brand of malt liquor introduced by National Brewing Company in the spring of 1963. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the National Brewing Company and its brands are today owned by the Pabst Brewing Company....
, St. Ides
St. Ides
St. Ides was originally a non-high gravity malt liquor, marketed since the 1980's. Now, St. Ides is a potent brand of malt liquor that is manufactured by the Pabst Brewing Company. The beverage contains 8.2% alcohol by volume, which puts it at the high end even for the high-alcohol malt liquor...
, Mickey's
Mickey's
Mickey's is a malt liquor made by the Miller Brewing Company. It has an alcohol content of 5.8% by volume.Mickey's is widely known for its unique beehive-shaped, wide-mouthed 12 ounce bottle, often called a "grenade" due to its circular waffle design. The original packaging included Irish...
, Steel Reserve
Steel Reserve
Steel Reserve is an American lager brand owned and produced by Steel Brewing Company. MillerCoors is the company listed on Steel Reserves' Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions pages. The drink comes in "Black" and "Silver" varieties, also known as "Triple Export Malt Liquor" and "High Gravity...
, King Cobra, and Olde English 800 are most closely associated with malt liquors in the United States, the beverage itself is older than these products. Clix
Clix Malt Liquor
Clix is a brand of malt liquor made by the Grand Valley Brewing Company in 1937. It is often credited as the first malt liquor brewed in the United States. At Gluek Brewing in Cold Spring, Minnesota, Alvin Gluek had a similar idea in 1942...
is often credited as the first malt liquor made in the United States, granted a patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
in 1948. The first widely successful malt liquor brand in America was Country Club, which was produced in the early 1950s by Brewmaster William Miller of the M.K. Goetz Brewing Company in St. Joseph, MO, and marketed toward middle-class White Americans.
Today, malt liquors are marketed to an entirely different demographic, resulting in a stereotyping of the typical consumer. According to a study by Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science is a WASC accredited, private, non-profit school located in Willowbrook, unincorporated Los Angeles County, California, United States. It was founded in 1966 in response to inadequate medical facilities within the Watts region of Los Angeles,...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, malt liquor is the alcohol
Alcoholic beverage
An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...
of choice of the homeless and unemployed. Beginning in the 1980s, many brands of malt liquor began to aggressively target this market and used popular actors (such as Billy Dee Williams
Billy Dee Williams
William December "Billy Dee" Williams, Jr. is an American actor, artist, singer, and writer.-Early life:Williams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Loretta...
) or rappers in their advertisements; Ice Cube
Ice Cube
O'Shea Jackson , better known by his stage name Ice Cube, is an American rapper and actor. He began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C.I.A. and later joined the rap group N.W.A. After leaving N.W.A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music, and also as a writer,...
, for instance, appeared in radio advertisements for St. Ides
St. Ides
St. Ides was originally a non-high gravity malt liquor, marketed since the 1980's. Now, St. Ides is a potent brand of malt liquor that is manufactured by the Pabst Brewing Company. The beverage contains 8.2% alcohol by volume, which puts it at the high end even for the high-alcohol malt liquor...
. Some rappers vigorously opposed this trend, feeling that malt liquor manufacturers were exploiting the African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
community. For example, Chuck D
Chuck D
Carlton Douglas Ridenhour , better known by his stage name, Chuck D, is an American rapper, author, and producer. He helped create politically and socially conscious rap music in the mid-1980s as the leader of the rap group Public Enemy.- Early life :Ridenhour was born in Queens, New York...
, of the group Public Enemy, took a very strong anti-malt liquor stance and once sued St. Ides over an advertisement that sampled his voice without permission.
Forties (40s)
In the American vernacular, a forty-ounce or simply forty is a glassGlass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
bottle
Bottle
A bottle is a rigid container with a neck that is narrower than the body and a "mouth". By contrast, a jar has a relatively large mouth or opening. Bottles are often made of glass, clay, plastic, aluminum or other impervious materials, and typically used to store liquids such as water, milk, soft...
that holds 40 fluid ounce
Fluid ounce
A fluid ounce is a unit of volume equal to about 28.4 mL in the imperial system or about 29.6 mL in the US system. The fluid ounce is distinct from the ounce, which measures mass...
s (1.18 liters
Litre
pic|200px|right|thumb|One litre is equivalent to this cubeEach side is 10 cm1 litre water = 1 kilogram water The litre is a metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre , to 1,000 cubic centimetres , and to 1/1,000 cubic metre...
) of malt liquor. Malt liquors are commonly sold in 40 oz bottles, as opposed to the standard twelve ounce (355 mL) bottle that contains a single serving of beer. American domestic "malt liquors" tend to be very inexpensive (generally less than $3 for a 40 oz. bottle), although this is not necessarily true for foreign imports that are also labeled "malt liquor."
Examples of malt liquors sold in forty ounce bottles include Colt 45
Colt 45 (malt liquor)
Colt 45 is a brand of malt liquor introduced by National Brewing Company in the spring of 1963. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the National Brewing Company and its brands are today owned by the Pabst Brewing Company....
, Camo
Camo (beer)
Camo is a beer, between 7.5% and 10.5% ABV. It is sometimes referred to as "super beer" or as a malt liquor.Camo is distributed by Miller....
40, Black Fist, Country Club, Olde English 800, Mickey's
Mickey's
Mickey's is a malt liquor made by the Miller Brewing Company. It has an alcohol content of 5.8% by volume.Mickey's is widely known for its unique beehive-shaped, wide-mouthed 12 ounce bottle, often called a "grenade" due to its circular waffle design. The original packaging included Irish...
, Black Bull, Labatt Blue Dry 7.1, WildCat, Molson Dry 6.5/7.5/8.5/10.1, Private Stock
Private Stock (malt liquor)
Haffenreffer Private Stock is a brand of malt liquor formerly manufactured by the Falstaff Brewing Company and currently manufactured by the Miller Brewing Company.It is known for its tagline "The malt liquor with the imported taste"...
, Big Bear
Big Bear (malt liquor)
Big Bear is a malt liquor distributed by the Pabst Brewing Company. Its alcohol content varies depending on location, from 5.7% and 7.5% abv in and 7.0% and 8.0% in Canada. It is typically sold in 40 ounce bottles.-External links:* * *...
, St. Ides
St. Ides
St. Ides was originally a non-high gravity malt liquor, marketed since the 1980's. Now, St. Ides is a potent brand of malt liquor that is manufactured by the Pabst Brewing Company. The beverage contains 8.2% alcohol by volume, which puts it at the high end even for the high-alcohol malt liquor...
, Steel Reserve 211, B40 Bull Max, King Cobra, Jeremiah Weed, and Hurricane. Dogfish Head Brewery
Dogfish Head Brewery
Dogfish Head Brewery is a brewing company based in Milton, Delaware founded by Sam Calagione. It opened in 1995 and produces 75,000 barrels of beer annually. Dogfish Head has been a rapidly growing brewery - it grew nearly 400% in between 2003 and 2006...
has sporadically produced a high-end bottle-conditioned forty called "Liquor de Malt". Ballantine markets its ale in a forty ounce bottle as well.
At least for a brief period in the mid-1990s, some brands of malt liquor, including Olde English 800 and Mickey's, were available in even larger, 64-ounce glass bottles. Forty-ounce bottles are not permitted in some US states, such as Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, where the largest container that a malt beverage may be sold at retail is 32 US fluid ounces.
International
While American malt liquor brands are rarely, if ever, exported to Europe, similar inexpensive high-alcohol beers are available in many areas there; these include the "super-strength lagers" such as Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew in the United Kingdom, and in France the "bières fortes" Amsterdam Navigator, Amsterdam Maximator and Bavaria 8.6; Arboga 10.2% of SwedenThere is a strong tradition of premium high-alcohol beers in Europe, including the Trappist beer
Trappist beer
A Trappist beer is a beer brewed by or under control of Trappist monks. There are a total of 174 Trappist monasteries worldwide ; only seven produce Trappist beer and are authorized to label their beers with the Authentic Trappist Product logo that indicates a compliance to the various rules of...
s of Belgium and The Netherlands, the bock
Bock
Bock is a strong lager of German origin. Several substyles exist, including maibock or helles bock, a paler, more hopped version generally made for consumption at spring festivals; doppelbock, a stronger and maltier version; and eisbock, a much stronger version made by partially freezing the beer...
beers of Germany and Austria, and the barley wine
Barley wine
Barley wine or Barleywine is a beer style of strong ale originating in England. The first beer to be marketed as Barley Wine was Bass No. 1 Ale, around 1870...
s of the United Kingdom. Unlike American malt liquors and super-strength lagers, these are beers known for a full body, a complex aroma, and higher prices.
In Popular Culture
Malt liquor was referenced in the 2001 movie Pootie TangPootie Tang
Pootie Tang is an American comedy film written and directed by Louis C.K. and released in 2001. It was adapted from a comedy sketch that first appeared on The Chris Rock Show. The character Pootie Tang is a satire of the stereotyped characters who appeared in old blaxploitation films...
, directed by Louis C.K.
Louis C.K.
Louis Szekely , known professionally as Louis C.K., is a stand-up comedian, television and film writer, actor, producer, and director...
Michael McTague, author of My Struggle: Coping with Alcoholism, has describes Malt Liquor as "The worst thing to ever happen to me."
The television program Saturday Night Live featured a mock commercial for "Coldcock Malt Liquor" with Tim Meadows, the spokesman, being called "one malt liquor picker." An announcer delivers the tag line "Coldcock. You never see it coming."