Sanitation!

Why are we all so anal about sanitation when humans have been making beer for centuries, and they obviously didn't have cleaning products like we do now and also didn't know much about bad bacteria?

I'm just curious :-/

Because vinegar beer sucks.

lewishowardm3 said:

Why are we all so anal about sanitation when humans have been making beer for centuries, and they obviously didn't have cleaning products like we do now and also didn't know much about bad bacteria?

I'm just curious :-/

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Correct, they did no know about bacteria. But they did know that really hot or boiling water made better beer. They also knew that beer was safer to drink than water. They just didn't know what bacteria was and that the boiling water killed it. I'll bet their beer was not as tasty as it is now either!

People used to run their sewage into the source of their drinking water also.

And take baths once a week or less!

They also only lived into their 60's

Does that sound good to you? It doesn't sound so great to me!

lewishowardm3 said:

Why are we all so anal about sanitation when humans have been making beer for centuries, and they obviously didn't have cleaning products like we do now and also didn't know much about bad bacteria?

I'm just curious :-/

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They still had to throw batches out once in a while. I don't want to do that. If you think that risk is worth skipping sanitation, I'm not stopping you.

The beer will not hurt you without sanitation, but it might taste terrible.

To seriously answer your question, beers used to be drunk very young because they would sour fairly quickly after being brewed. They most likely tasted smoky as well (from malting and brewing using open flames, most likely wood-fired).

kh54s10 said:

People used to run their sewage into the source of their drinking water also.

And take baths once a week or less!

They also only lived into their 60's

Does that sound good to you? It doesn't sound so great to me!

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Yummy Fleet Street water

Hmm I wasn't suggesting that I wouldn't sanitise. I was just curious about it all. Cheers

They drank the beer green and fast. It didn't sit around for weeks or months. It was consumed usually very fast.

Even just two centuries ago, the life expectancy of a beer drinker was around 25 years. On the up side, the average non-beer drinker was likely already long dead.

So, gimme plenty of sanitation practices, please!

Besides...when I invest fitty bux or more in some massive beer, I want to be able to piss that all away, not just pour it down the toidy...

Cheers!

lewishowardm3 said:

Why are we all so anal about sanitation............:-/

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I'm not anal at all about sanitaiton....I just use star san liberally....pitch lots of yeast (usually a slurry from a previous batch), and after fermentation is complete, say 10 -14 days, keg and store cold....keep an eye on sanitition and storing cold keeps the bad buggers easily at bay IME.

Modern chemicals such as Star San and the modern refrigerator / keezer work amazingly well at halting funky off growth....

Perhaps if I cellared my beer warm I would be more concerned, I don't really know? Cold is good for beer IME!

wilserbrewer said:

Cold is good for beer IME!

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+1 on cold.