How Was Beer Served In The Old Days?

[spudfarmerboy]

Was thinking the other day about how beer was served in Australia years ago. Did we use those beer engine thingies the poms still use for their real ales? I suppose what I am getting at is, before gassing up everything with CO2, how did we get the beer from the cellar to the bar?
Also, was the beer more commonly an ale as opposed to the lagers CUB make today? If so, when did lagers take over?
If anyone can point me to a book with the history of Australian brewing and pubs with this sort of information I would be very appreciative.
Cheers
Spud

 

[Phoney]

I've always wanted to know the temperature that their beer was able to remain in the pub cellar throughout the Aussie summer before the advent of refrigeration 60-odd years ago... Surely during heatwaves the serving temperatures couldn't have been much less than ~30C. :blink:

 

[Bribie G]

No beer engines that I'm aware of. I believe that ales died out by the early 20th Century. Refrigeration was common early on, it was invented in Australia (in Geelong actually) for the export meat trade way back in the 19th C and got adopted by brewers very quickly indeed.

I've lived in historic areas such as Maryborough QLD and Bundaberg and even the 120 y.o. pubs don't have cellars. The beer was held in a refrigerated room, usually behind the bar (so could serve two or three bars centering in onto that area) and commonly the beer pipe just came through the wall with a side basher tap or two.



As in most states the pub only offered one beer on tap (XXXX, Bulimba, Macs, Tooths) there was no need for a decal or a counter mounted font. Everyone knew what was on tap.

So CO2 didn't have to push it far and the barmaid was in full view so full measure was assured. CO2 serving was in common use in Europe since end of 19 th century so probably imported into Australia early on (hence no beer engines in Europe)

Until the 60s wooden casks were still universal, they can hold pressure.



Smaller country pubs and for weddings and club meetings etc the beer could be served straight from the cask on gravity, as they still do at the Breakfast Creek Hotel in Brisbane. My FIL can remember beer served that way in a Macs Pub in Rockhampton in the 1950s with wet towels draped over the barrels.



When metal kegs came in they were still just metal copies of the wooden shape and still had a spile hole for this purpose, you still see the kegs around in places like some home breweries
In the 80s they were all replaced by the modern giant-can-o-grog design.

 

[Leigh]

If you look at the Vic Beer label Collectors Society (http://www.vblcs.com/) website, Lagers were first produced in the late 1800's in Vic, alongside ales.

Looking at the history on VB's website, when cans came out in the 1960's, VB was labled "Victoria Bitter Ale".

 

[Phoney]

Excellent post Bribie! According to wiki, refrigeration use was widespread in breweries by the 1870's. There are a few pubs around where I live that were built before then. I wonder if they managed to keep serving beer throughout summer or if they switched to rum etc when the weather was too hot?

 

[Bribie G]

XXXX heavy, until a few years ago, was still labelled "Bitter Ale" but the Ale was dropped as the image wasn't "young" enough.

Cascade Pale Ale is still labelled as such, and is a gem if you can get a fresh bottle. Probably one of those beers that hasn't been fcucked over too much by the accountants.

Both lagers of course, and I expect similar for Reschs DA. Carlton black is a lager AFAIK, TB may advise.

 

[Screwtop]

Lots of old Brisbane pubs and even some country hotels had cellars, a few in Toowoomba had them. There was a hatch in the footpath, used to see the brewery trucks turn up and roll the kegs down planks into the cellar. Some used an old bed matteress or some such at the bottom as it was a one man job, roll off the keg, go down into the cellar and roll the keg into place, back up and repeat the process. Even remember an old alcoholic publican who used to lock himself in the cellar for days while he was on a drunk. Wife had to run the pub, drinkers in the bar could hear him yelling and growling poor bugger. Think cellars were included in Pub design in Qld more out of convention than by necessity as they weren't very cool.

Screwy

 

[Phoney]

Lots of old Brisbane pubs and even some country hotels had cellars, a few in Toowoomba had them. There was a hatch in the footpath, used to see the brewery trucks turn up and roll the kegs down planks into the cellar.

You still see many pubs in Sydney where they roll kegs down a hatch from the footpath. There's one pub in the Rocks that has a tunnel that links the cellar to the harbour...

There are many stories surrounding The Hero. The best known is that of the tunnel which runs from the cellars of the hotel to the Harbour. The tunnel was used for rum smuggling and involuntary recruitment of sailors. A young man might find himself drunk at the bar, dropped through a trap door into the cellar, dragged through the tunnel, to awake next morning at sea shanghaied aboard a clipper, and so legend goes.

A maze of stone cellars under The Hero bear silent witness to its nefarious past. This Historic Australian landmark is classified by the Heritage Councill and The National Trust.

 

[wtfddk]

Compressor refrigeration modern style.
Absorption Chillers older style tech , remember kero fridges ?
Fridges - hot water - ground sourced heat pump might be a good investment for the brew shed ?

 

[brett mccluskey]

Was thinking the other day about how beer was served in Australia years ago. Did we use those beer engine thingies the poms still use for their real ales? I suppose what I am getting at is, before gassing up everything with CO2, how did we get the beer from the cellar to the bar?
Also, was the beer more commonly an ale as opposed to the lagers CUB make today? If so, when did lagers take over?
If anyone can point me to a book with the history of Australian brewing and pubs with this sort of information I would be very appreciative.
Cheers
Spud

The Breweries of Australia- A History. By Keith.M Deutsher.Lothian books.First published in 1999 A great book for any Aussie beer lover to have on the shelf :beer:

 

[Feldon]

The Breweries of Australia- A History. By Keith.M Deutscher.Lothian books.First published in 1999 A great book for any Aussie beer lover to have on the shelf :beer:

 

[brett mccluskey]

View attachment 45924

Thanks Feldon,I was actually browsing it when i saw the O.P. A top book i love to go back to again and again :icon_cheers:

 

[Pollux]

You still see many pubs in Sydney where they roll kegs down a hatch from the footpath. There's one pub in the Rocks that has a tunnel that links the cellar to the harbour...

I used to have a job that involved being the sucker catching the kegs as they slide (bottom end first) down the slide at one pub......I had a technique of letting it slide most of the way them yanking on the base so it spun 90deg and rolled the last 1/4 of the slide and across the cellar towards the coolroom....

Don't miss that shit at all.

 

[Bribie G]

View attachment 45924

Wherefrom?
Book Depository are out, and Abe Books want around $100 <_<

 

[Amber Fluid]

Check Booko. Mosaic Resources have it for $51

 

[drtomc]

I believe the Cohn Brothers brewed the first lagers in Australia. The emigrated from Denmark during the gold rush and opened a brewery in the goldfields. I don't have the book of family history with me at work, so I can't remember exact place and date, but one of the brothers, Julius, from memory, went back to Germany to learn the new technique of lager production. Later they moved in to soft drinks - Cohn Bros bottles can still be found in old wares shops in places like Daylesford and Bendigo.

T.

 

[kymba]

:icon_offtopic: here is an interesting link to the ways of old, maybe further back than what you are looking for

http://www.mspong.org/cyclopedia/brewing.html

 

[Bribie G]

:icon_offtopic: here is an interesting link to the ways of old, maybe further back than what you are looking for

http://www.mspong.org/cyclopedia/brewing.html

They were certainly self sufficient in those days, they have you doing a genuine double decoction for Bavarian lagers :mellow:

 

[brett mccluskey]

Wherefrom?
Book Depository are out, and Abe Books want around $100 <_<

Feckin' hell !!! $100 !! I got my copy from Libro books about 10 years ago for $10/15 :lol: I've got a collectors item And i used to drink Cohns soft drink all the time as a kid,every milk bar in country Vic sold it :icon_cheers:

 

[spog]

good read had a signed copy given to me a while back,must have another look at it soon....cheers..spog.....

Wherefrom?
Book Depository are out, and Abe Books want around $100 <_<