Beer History Question v. Yeast

[Bigsnake]

Have a question about the discover of yeast. I know the discovery of the microorganism of yeast and what it actually is happened pretty recent in terms of history.

I'm mainly wondering, when did brewers learn enough about their beer to know how to get their beer to ferment without having to let it sit out in the open air for wild yeast to inoculate it? They had to know when they brewed the foam or the sediment on the bottom of their fermenters could be used to get other batches fermenting? Or that they could pitch part of a previous batch into their old batch to start fermentation?

I'm mainly interested in how the early Belgian Monks handled getting their batches fermenting in the early 1800s when they first started brewing there.

This is also me looking into why the Belgian monks decided, or anyone for that matter, to ferment in large, open fermenters? Since Belgian monks started brewing in the 1830s I figured at that time they would know enough that these were not designed to capture wild yeast and were probably more of a traditionally designed fermenter.

 

[john from dc]

monks were brewing in europe long before the 1800s the trappists started around the time you mention, but they did not invent open fermentation or cultured yeast. those have been around for thousands of years.

yes, the simplest and probably oldest method of using cultured yeast is to pitch on top of the lees from a recently fermented batch. i've also read about "brewing sticks" which would pick up the yeast from one beer and then be used to stir another batch, innoculating it with the same yeast.

 

[Bigsnake]

monks were brewing in europe long before the 1800s the trappists started around the time you mention, but they did not invent open fermentation or cultured yeast. those have been around for thousands of years.

yes, the simplest and probably oldest method of using cultured yeast is to pitch on top of the lees from a recently fermented batch. i've also read about "brewing sticks" which would pick up the yeast from one beer and then be used to stir another batch, innoculating it with the same yeast.

True, Monks were brewing before the 1800s but it's hard for Belgian monks to brew before that since Belgium wasn't founded until 1830.

But, really, my questions is specific to the Belgian Monks since their abbey's were recently founded and recently started (1836, then after war starting up again in the early 1900s). At least the ones that are still around are like that. I'm assuming they were not setup for brewing, meaning the Monks had to design/build the equipment themselves. Was wondering the reasoning behind the open fermentation chambers if it was for wild yeast inoculation or simply because of brewing traditions. Made me think since the Belgian Monks seem to be innovators in beer, then they would probably come up with their own methods or do everything for a reason. Then again, maybe they weren't being innovative in the beginning?

If there was an understanding of inoculating beers when the Belgian monks started brewing, then the open fermenters had to simply be done for traditional brewing reasons, right?

 

[Bobby_M]

I really don't know but I can take a few guesses. They probably realized that leaving the wort uncovered for a few days got fermentation to happen. Simple cause and effect logic there. They probably then found that it would happen more rapidly if the windows were open at the time. Hmm, must be something about outside air.

Now, if you're asking about why they would still do the open-louver inoculations when we know that they know it's yeast that can be propagated and pitched manually then I have no idea. It's probably about tradition. Afterall, Asians have SEEN the fork and spoon right?

 

[giligson]

I think it also likely that yeast innoculation into "the next batch" likely started with baking leavened bread. Of course the argument also goes that beer and bread were roughly the same thing to start with.

Whatever Happened to Sumerian Beer? - BeerAdvocate

 

[Bigsnake]

I really don't know but I can take a few guesses. They probably realized that leaving the wort uncovered for a few days got fermentation to happen. Simple cause and effect logic there. They probably then found that it would happen more rapidly if the windows were open at the time. Hmm, must be something about outside air.

Now, if you're asking about why they would still do the open-louver inoculations when we know that they know it's yeast that can be propagated and pitched manually then I have no idea. It's probably about tradition. Afterall, Asians have SEEN the fork and spoon right?

What I'm thinking happened too.

The one mead book I have has the "magic bag" idea. It's the idea that they carried honey and water in bags. One of those got infected with wild yeast and when they drank out of that bag they felt the effects of alcohol. It became a magic bag because when they added more honey to the bag the same thing happened again.

It's kind of like how I heard early bread makers would keep some of the old batch of bread around to mix with the new batch because they knew it worked, but no clue why.

 

[flyangler18]

Yeast wasn't identified as the organism responsible for fermentation until Pasteur's discovery in 1860. The dominant scientific belief was that fermentation was a chemical rather a biological process.

 

[rawl28]

I read once in a beer book that the Egyptians would throw plums into the wort, which had wild yeasts on it, and cause fermentation to start.

 

[Bigsnake]

Yeast wasn't identified as the organism responsible for fermentation until Pasteur's discovery in 1860. The dominant scientific belief was that fermentation was a chemical rather a biological process.

Isn't everything biological a chemical reaction?

But, you know anymore information on this like how they thought the reaction took place, as in, what did they think had to come together in order to get fermentation? Obviously putting wort in a sealed container wouldn't alwas get fermentation like they wanted.

 

[budbo]

Afterall, Asians have SEEN the fork and spoon right?

And they use them.

If it ain't broke, why fix it?

 

[john from dc]

Isn't everything biological a chemical reaction?

depends if you ask a biologist or a chemist. personally, i see it all as applied physics

ian spencer hornsey of the british royal society of chemistry wrote a really awesome looking book called a history of beer and brewing. large portions of it are available on google books here. if you're curious about early techniques for innoculating wort that's got a ton of info.

as for the trappists themsevles, the book "brew like a monk" by stan hieronymus is a good place to start. it has a lot of info on current techniqes, and while i don't have it in front of me the bibliography is probably a good resource if you want to dig deeper. also i found this article on beeradvocate to be a good read. cheers!

 

[Eves]

I do not believe there is any historical evidence that states specifically how yeast managed to get its way into a primative wort and ferment into beer. From what I've gathered just about everyone believes it was simply an accident that wild yeast made its way into a wort at some point. History shows beer having been brewed back as far as the Babylonians (and possibly before then). Bigsnakes' "magic bag" theory is probably on the right track for how the first wild yeasts were manipulated from one beer to the next wort. Beer was an extremely important part of early diets (not just for the alcohol) therefore I'd bet it wouldn't have taken long for a civilization to figure out to use the leftover yeast from one brew to the next.

History has told us that, generally speaking, that private organizations (typically religious organizations) would keep the secrets of brewing from the general public. This practice continued until in western civilization to the point were during the early Christian church's reign beer was primarily brewed only by monks in abbeys. Those 'Belgian' abbeys may not have existed as being 'Belgian' but I'd bet some existed before the Belgian state existed. And even those that did not probably just continued the brewing art that had been passed down from abbey to abbey since the early reign of the church.

Off topic: Sadly, as I understand it, most of the 'abbey' beers that are available to the public are not brewed by abbeys. Breweries buy or lease an abbey's name and slap that name on their beer. In some cases those brews follow old abbey recipes...though not all cases.

 

[Bigsnake]

depends if you ask a biologist or a chemist. personally, i see it all as applied physics

ian spencer hornsey of the british royal society of chemistry wrote a really awesome looking book called a history of beer and brewing. large portions of it are available on google books here. if you're curious about early techniques for innoculating wort that's got a ton of info.

as for the trappists themsevles, the book "brew like a monk" by stan hieronymus is a good place to start. it has a lot of info on current techniqes, and while i don't have it in front of me the bibliography is probably a good resource if you want to dig deeper. also i found this article on beeradvocate to be a good read. cheers!

That History of Beer book looks really good. I'm going to do some reading of it on google and see if I want to track a copy down.

I do have Brew Link a Monk and Rajotte's book Belgian Ale, but I don't remember either of them really going into the Why's of the brewery design of discussing this history of the yeast.

 

[menschmaschine]

Off topic: Sadly, as I understand it, most of the 'abbey' beers that are available to the public are not brewed by abbeys. Breweries buy or lease an abbey's name and slap that name on their beer. In some cases those brews follow old abbey recipes...though not all cases.

This is true. There are two different designations: Authentic Trappist Product and Abbey Ale. ATPs are brewed within an Abbey and there are 6 (Belgian) of them today that brew beer... Westmalle, Westvleteren, Orval, Rochefort, Achel, & Chimay. To be called an ATP, it has to be brewed within the walls of an abbey. Each abbey has different levels of monk involvement, some of which are just running things and it's the "laypersons" that do the brewing, in others monks are actually involved with the brewing itself. Most of these breweries are state-of-the-art and most ATP beer recipes were developed within the last century, some as recently as the 1980s. In these companies, profits are divided up to maintain the brewery and Abbey, sent to charitable organizations or just straight to Rome to let the Vatican deal it out. Any other abbey-style Belgian beer not brewed by one of these abbeys is an Abbey Ale and brewed under license of an abbey.

 

[david_42]

Open fermenters were used before closed, just as batch sparging preceded fly sparging. Wild yeasts are so common, that it is just about impossible to prevent fermentation in anything that could ferment, be it gruel, milk or fruit juice. Brewers knew long before the invention of the microscope that adding some of the trub from the previous batch improved the process.