Gambrinus' Castle

Whilst the art of brewing is certainly ancient, the science of brewing has changed enormously over the last 200 years.

Ask any brewer today what the two most essential pieces of equipment are in his brewery, and his (or her) response will undoubtedly be the thermometer and the hydrometer. Yet these two items only became available to brewers in the late 18th century, and even then 'real' brewers scoffed at their use.

Biologists had studied fermentation for centuries, but Louis Pasteur only declared that yeast was a living organism in the mid 19th century.

Another significant technological development to affect brewing was refrigeration. The ability to control fermentation and maturation temperatures has a significant effect on the finished beer, but the first mechanical refrigerating device appeared on an experimental level in Germany as late as 1855. For several decades before (and after) this the refrigeration industry concerned itself with shipping large chunks of ice from cold climates, and presumably charging a handsome fee for the service. A shortage of natural ice in 1890 saw demand increase for mechanical means, and in 1910 the first domestic refrigerators became available in Europe. America had to wait until 1918 before the Kelvinator company sold its first automatic refrigerator (in fact it sold 67 of them that year). Of course breweries around the world were among the first large-scale users of the emerging technology, and particularly appreciated it's contribution to the production of the increasingly popular 'lager' style beers.

Brewers today have a great, but still incomplete, understanding of the brewing process. Much of the process can be controlled and predicted, but much remains a mystery to even the wealthiest of brewers. Brewing a truly great beer is still as much art (and sometimes accident) as it is design.

The 'home' brewer has a big advantage over the commercial guys. Where the big breweries must produce consistent, unremarkable (and sometimes downright bland) beers to appeal to the widest audience (or at least, not to surprise them), the home brewer is free to experiment with recipes and techniques in the hope of producing something a bit more special. Nobody questions that Granny's pies are better than the commercially available ones, so why do some people assume that home-brewed beers are inferior to the famous brands?

Perhaps the renaissance of 'home brewing' (years ago, all brewing was 'home brewing') was responsible for casting a dim light on the craft. At a time when home brewing was illegal or just downright cheap, poor quality ingredients and a lack of information spawned some interesting (and occasionally infamous) beers.

While there are surely some thrifty home brewers around, most brewers today have access to (and choose to purchase) the finest brewing ingredients, and a wealth of knowledge and brewing experience is available on paper and on the net. Brewers today can use a combination of ancient and cutting-edge techniques. Many of the new 'microbreweries' which are becoming extremely popular (perhaps due to their beers actually having some flavour) have evolved from home breweries.

The links on the right look at some of the equipment and technologies us small-scale brewers use. Whilst 'microbreweries' use similar systems, the 'mega' breweries often do things a little differently; for example they will often use a generic, liquid 'hop flavour extract' rather than use whole hop flowers. Also, they will usually pasteurise and filter their beer to further 'blandify' the flavour and to improve it's shelf life under poor handling conditions, where smaller brewers will produce a fresher, more characterful product, and hope that it does not get damaged by excessive heat or light.


*Brewing*