Chilling Wort Years Ago

I've been curious, how did they chill wort back 200-300 years ago? How did they chill the wort for pitching? Or did they? Wouldn't that ruin the beer?

Also, when did lagers come around? The first commericial fridge came out in 1911. But I've heard lagers were first created by monks in the late 1800s. How did they do the lagering process?

 

I'd guess that they didn't chill the wort. Seeing that until the mid 1800 they didn't know about yeast I'd be willing to bet they didn't pitch any! Beer ferming was somewhat of a mystery, brew your wort and let it sit for a few days a it would magically start to ferment. Most likely due to airborne yeast spores.

As far as the Lagering goes, caves, either natural or dug out, and deep cellars were how they "lagered" beer (from the German word Lagern, or to store).

 

See the last picture in this post.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=388647&postcount=19

 

Many older beers were fermented on the grain and not boiled at all, so cooling wasn't a consideration. Fermentation was done with wild yeast or "god's blessing', the cake from the last batch. They drank them young and older sour beer was a standard.

 

Ask this guy...

 

What a hoot

 

Night of the Living Dead Thread... LOL

Searching Wort Chilling and found this - cool vid.

 

Well, one way was to pump it into big shallow pans on the roof, where it would cool faster in the breeze. (It would also give off a lot of steam, which is one proposed origin for the term "steam beer.")