How Did The Brewer Of Olde Pull It Off?

[shadders]

Well after 3 years off and nearly 2 months of dismantling, scrubbing, soaking, remantling I finally got do an AG yesterday. It was tricky, forgotten a lot of tricks and all the idiosyncracies of my hear. I really struggled to hit my target mash temp and it got me thinking...

There's an awful lot that go wrong in the whole process and we have a LOT of help from modern equipment. So how did they deal with it all in the pre-industrial age and still manage to produce a fairly consistent brew? Imagine doing an AG brew without any of the following:

Thermometer
Gas burners or electric heating elements
Taps and hoses
airtight containers


Here's a few problems I can think of in the process...

Mash Temp:
- Two problems here. How to heat the mash, what type of vessel? And how to guess when you've hit target temp? I presume the most controllable way to heat would be to use a separate HLT and heat that water. If you put a fire under the mash vessel it would be very hard to stop applying heat. But thermometers where invented at a particular time and before that time there was no way to measure temp other than sticking your finger in and counting how many seconds until you say 'ouch'.

Sparging:
- this one's got me fuddled. When were taps invented? I guess they could have used false bottoms. Or did they just tip the whole mash through some kind of strainer.

Boiling:
- again I guess it's just a bloody big camp fire under the kettle?

Cooling:
- no idea? Before copper pipe I imagine heat exchangers would be rather difficult to build.

Sanitation:
- This includes not just cleaning and sanitising fermenters but keeping them that way.

Aeration:
- this one's easy, just throw in a constipated duck and keep poking it with a stick to make it paddle.

Temperature control:
- I can only guess this is location dependant. I 've read somewhere about lagers being produced in caves where the temp stays nice and stable.

Any beer historians around that can shed some light on how they did it? It's a credit to the brewers of olde that they managed to pull it off and consistently make a good product.

 

[Yob]

Well after 3 years off and nearly 2 months of dismantling, scrubbing, soaking, remantling I finally got do an AG yesterday. It was tricky, forgotten a lot of tricks and all the idiosyncracies of my hear. I really struggled to hit my target mash temp and it got me thinking...

There's an awful lot that go wrong in the whole process and we have a LOT of help from modern equipment. So how did they deal with it all in the pre-industrial age and still manage to produce a fairly consistent brew? Imagine doing an AG brew without any of the following:

Thermometer
Gas burners or electric heating elements
Taps and hoses
airtight containers


Here's a few problems I can think of in the process...

Mash Temp:
- Two problems here. How to heat the mash, what type of vessel? And how to guess when you've hit target temp? I presume the most controllable way to heat would be to use a separate HLT and heat that water. If you put a fire under the mash vessel it would be very hard to stop applying heat. But thermometers where invented at a particular time and before that time there was no way to measure temp other than sticking your finger in and counting how many seconds until you say 'ouch'.

Sparging:
- this one's got me fuddled. When were taps invented? I guess they could have used false bottoms. Or did they just tip the whole mash through some kind of strainer.

PROBABLY DIDNT

Boiling:
- again I guess it's just a bloody big camp fire under the kettle?

YEP

Cooling:
- no idea? Before copper pipe I imagine heat exchangers would be rather difficult to build.

PROBABLY DIDNT

Sanitation:
- This includes not just cleaning and sanitising fermenters but keeping them that way.

PROBABLY DIDNT

Aeration:
- this one's easy, just throw in a constipated duck and keep poking it with a stick to make it paddle.

:lol:

Temperature control:
- I can only guess this is location dependant. I 've read somewhere about lagers being produced in caves where the temp stays nice and stable.

YEP.. CAVES

Any beer historians around that can shed some light on how they did it? It's a credit to the brewers of olde that they managed to pull it off and consistently make a good product.

They probably didnt... yes they were making "beer" (but not as we know it Jim) but nothing to suggest that without the processes we use now, they were making wiked infected beers for a long long time.. well thats my take on it anyway

True historians may offer a more informed opinion.

[edit] Ive got a photo at home of an old piece of brewery equipment, (some sort of heat exchange from memory) will try and find it and upload tonight.

 

[Howlingdog]

[post="0"]Link[/post]

 

[Yob]

[post="0"]Link[/post]

link broken

 

[shadders]

[post="0"]Link[/post]

Linky not working?

 

[A3k]

Hi Shadders,

here's my attempt to answer a few.

Mash: I rember reading somewhere that mash temps were done by mixing certain amounts of boiling water with room temp water. at certain ratios it worked better than others. Kinda similar to a decoction to raise temps. or maybe they just did the decoctions.

Sparge: used lauter tuns I assume.

Boil: fire

temp control: I've been in those caves in Plzen. but this was before ages ago. they had a beer open fermenting in a cave, so it must have been arount 8-11deg i assume. But they also talked about sections where they'd lager the beers in the caves. But i think they put lots of ice down there as well, so it must have been different sections.

Cheers,
Al

EDIT: i'm probably answering from different points in history. By the time they were using caves in Pilsen, i reckon they would've had thermometers to help with the mash. Plus, by this time they knew what yeast was, and i assume bacteria. They would've had a pretty good idea of sanitisation. Earlier than this though, before they new what yeast and bacteria were, the beer probably would've been as iamozzibob said.

 

[ekul]

I don't think getting the right mash temp would have been all that difficult. Think of baristas today, the ones that have been doing it for ages don't need thermometers, they know when its the right temp.

 

[Howlingdog]

Linky not working?

Try this http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2008/08...-butt-beer.html

 

[big78sam]

I seem to recall a thread on here a couple of years ago where some British homebrewers attempted to make a beer using no modern equipment. IIRC they posted on here as they thought it might be of interest to us. I can't seem to find the thread. Does anyone remember it?

 

[Fents]

Rule of thumb for Mash Temps :lol: to hot your thumb would burn! hahahahaha

 

[googe]

I ashum It would have been alot of trial and error. Smells, sight, sounds, textures, taste.


Cheers Greg

 

[fawnroux]

G'day shadders.

I watched a documentary a while back on the history of beer in America. There was one scene where the doco maker went and watched some Amish (or something similar) brew some beer. It was by no means an in depth look, it probably was only a couple of minutes in the film, but it was a cool scene none the less. The women brewed all the beer in big pots over a fire, then they just chucked in a whole heaps of dried hops. Thats about all I can remember. I'll try and hunt down the name of the movie a post the link here.

Also, try reading a book called Sacred Herbal and Healing Beers. Its a really interesting book with some in depth history of fermented beverages.

 

[fawnroux]

It's called

The American Brew - A Rich and Surprising History of Beer

A good and interesting documentary

 

[Wolfy]

So how did they deal with it all in the pre-industrial age and still manage to produce a fairly consistent brew?

I think this is the key point, from all I have read and heard it was 'beer' but not beer as we know it, and it was neither consistent or always 'good'.
Back then it was more magic, art and folklore than the science we use today.

 

[big78sam]

I'd imagine mash temps could be more accurate if you boiled water in one vessel and transferred to a second vessel and assume a temperature of 100 degrees. I'd think by feel you could get a fair idea of temperature of room temperature water and then do a simple calculation of how much boiling and cold water would need to get the right temperature for the mash.

A bit of trial and error and you could get the ratios or boiling to cold water right. Some minor adjustments could be made if you felt the room temperature water was a bit hotter or colder.

Sparging - the strainer method may have been used. Or even some sort of BIAB!

Boiling - I'd guess just use a fire

Cooling - no chill is the only way I could see it would work. or slow chill if you placed your vessel in another bigger container with cold water

Sanitising - maybe boiling water would be the easiest.

I have no idea really, this is just how I'd do it. I can see a few batches lost to infection though...

 

[barls]

Rule of thumb for Mash Temps :lol: to hot your thumb would burn! hahahahaha

i though the rule of thumb was when it was almost the same temp as blood it was good to pitch yeast or stir it with the rod of bubbling not to be confused with the other rod

 

[Nick JD]

Sparging - the strainer method may have been used. Or even some sort of BIAB!

The liquor was separated from the grist using fabric long, long before some clever cookies in Australia came up with it. It's a carry-over from cheese-making traditions where cloth is used to separate the curds and whey.

 

[Bribie G]

interesting read

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Mash temperatures - blood temperature equals feelingnneither hot nor cold when you stick a finger in. Mash into blood temp water, take 1/3rd of the volume and decoct it - protien rest, take one third and decoct it - sacch rest, take one third and decoct it, dextrin rest. Done. Much the same can be done with boiling water additions.

Lauter - at its simplest, a barrel/drum/trough with holes or slats in the bottom and lined with straw, grass, reeds or as nick points out, coarsley woven cloth. Or if you are talking really old beers - not at all, you ferment with all the chunks in there.

Boiling - fire under a fireproof pot. Hot stones into a non fireproof pot. Or not at all.

Cool - basically no chill, or use a cool ship, or use stuff like cascading the wort down a "washboard type" surface (which also did for aeration

Aerate - splash

Sanitise - boiling water and/or not at all. No one even knew about germs till pretty modern times. They just knew that the beer spoiled faster if you didn't clean the vessels. They would have used soap and water or a some more or less rustic variation thereof.

ferm temp control - brewing is a winter sport in most places that dont go in for beers that are always sour. And cellars are always pretty constant in temp - which is why in commercial breweries, the fermenting rooms/buildings are referred to as cellars. Thats where it was traditionally done.

 

[Infinitee]

Clay/hide/gut boiling pot.
Well insulated coals for stable heat.
Fabric/bunched grasses to strain.

I seem to recall toasting buns with cracked barley and water was one of the more ancient methods.

As for thermometers and gas, well some modern AG brewers like myself don't bother with such implements.
A feel for what makes a good wort, a taste indicative of sugar levels or fluking it and repeating the process ad infinitum would narrow the margin for error.

Trial and error may seem base, but pay enough attention to it and you can continually refine your recipe.

I'm not saying I, nor the ancients had 100% brauhouse efficiency ... but when your feeding the purged grist to your livestock its not essential.

I for one do not doubt that many brewers from 5000BC, 500AD and 1500AD all had consistently awesome brews.
I also don't doubt many people screwed up alot and had a lot of infections, but that doesn't mean you can't scroch your thumb sensing 70degrees C. ^_^

As for sanitation ... pfffffffffffft.
Infection is the mother of invention.