Hook Norton Coolship

[Merkur]

I have probably taken close to 100 brewery tours in my life, but my favorite brewery tour I have taken is hands down the one at Hook Norton in Oxfordshire England. Part of the tour is to view the giant coolship where wort was chilled prior to plate chillers coming into existence. My understanding is that it's a single piece of copper and the louvers were opened to allow the cool air to flow over the hot wort and cool it. I also understand that this is still used occasionally for 'special' limited edition beers.

If you haven't been, you should. This is just one of the amazing sights at Hook Norton.

My question is why the beer doesn't sour with the natural yeast in the air?

Paul

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

Wish I could find the link where a brewery were moving and took the slats and adjacent wood in the hopes of carrying the bugs with them. Some of the bugs were spiderwebs Cool ships are done in the cooler months for the funk in the air.

May have been Cantillon. It's a worm hole following breweries and spontaneous fermenting. There's tons of breweries on the US that do it. To me it's an art form and not a quick brew. It takes time to find out what you made.

https://elsewhereadventureclub.com/home/2018/12/3/cantillon-the-champagne-of-belgium

 

[Witherby]

I have probably taken close to 100 brewery tours in my life, but my favorite brewery tour I have taken is hands down the one at Hook Norton in Oxfordshire England. Part of the tour is to view the giant coolship where wort was chilled prior to plate chillers coming into existence. My understanding is that it's a single piece of copper and the louvers were opened to allow the cool air to flow over the hot wort and cool it. I also understand that this is still used occasionally for 'special' limited edition beers.

If you haven't been, you should. This is just one of the amazing sights at Hook Norton.

My question is why the beer doesn't sour with the natural yeast in the air?

Paul

The most comprehensive thing I have read about coolships as they are/were used by breweries in the British Isles, Germany, Czechia, and Belgium is by Dann and Martha Paquette, founders of Saint Mars of the Desert in Sheffield, England and their former brewery Pretty Things in Boston:

https://beerofsmod.co.uk/blogs/news/the-koelship-a-flat-cooler-for-all-occasions

The main takeaway:
"cooling in itself isn’t the main reason. Our friend Andreas Gänstaller of Gänstaller Bräu in Schnaid, Franconia, Germany uses his kühlschiff every brewday and his vintage facility was one of the inspirations for our small brewery here in Sheffield. “I’m a big fan of kühlschiff because all of the trub and cloudy stuff from the wort really saddles down on the bottom – clears out very well. All the negative stuff in the wort goes away, like D.M.S.” You read this a lot from German brewers, they like their wort really clean and the flat cooler does the job."

The wort doesn't sit there too long (not overnight like the lambic brewers) and is then quickly chilled by other means and then pitched with healthy doses of yeast that overwhelm any critters that did manage to get into the wort. A little chilling, but mostly dropping out cold break, it seems.

And as for those lambic brewers, which would seem to be the main users of coolships but in the history of brewing beer are just a small statistical anomoly:
"If the traditional use of a flat cooler was overshadowed by fear of infection, the lambic brewers must conversely fear that not enough infection will occur. My suspicion has always been that a lot of the magic of these beers, rather than sprouting “spontaneously” from a single night in a cooler, is from the repetitive use of the cooler combined with wooden fermentation and maturation vessels, which creates a growing microbial foundation inside the wood and in the surrounding fermentation areas."

 

[rlrohan]

Beautiful piece of equipment. Would love to see it someday.
I’ve been reading a book, “ Modern Lager Beer”, and they talk about Coolships a bit. In modern use of Coolships they don’t let the wort cool below the 140s so they can avoid outside bugs. Then they finish cooling with other methods such as plate chillers.

 

[Merkur]

The most comprehensive thing I have read about coolships as they are/were used by breweries in the British Isles, Germany, Czechia, and Belgium is by Dann and Martha Paquette, founders of Saint Mars of the Desert in Sheffield, England and their former brewery Pretty Things in Boston:

https://beerofsmod.co.uk/blogs/news/the-koelship-a-flat-cooler-for-all-occasions

The main takeaway:
"cooling in itself isn’t the main reason. Our friend Andreas Gänstaller of Gänstaller Bräu in Schnaid, Franconia, Germany uses his kühlschiff every brewday and his vintage facility was one of the inspirations for our small brewery here in Sheffield. “I’m a big fan of kühlschiff because all of the trub and cloudy stuff from the wort really saddles down on the bottom – clears out very well. All the negative stuff in the wort goes away, like D.M.S.” You read this a lot from German brewers, they like their wort really clean and the flat cooler does the job."

The wort doesn't sit there too long (not overnight like the lambic brewers) and is then quickly chilled by other means and then pitched with healthy doses of yeast that overwhelm any critters that did manage to get into the wort. A little chilling, but mostly dropping out cold break, it seems.

And as for those lambic brewers, which would seem to be the main users of coolships but in the history of brewing beer are just a small statistical anomoly:
"If the traditional use of a flat cooler was overshadowed by fear of infection, the lambic brewers must conversely fear that not enough infection will occur. My suspicion has always been that a lot of the magic of these beers, rather than sprouting “spontaneously” from a single night in a cooler, is from the repetitive use of the cooler combined with wooden fermentation and maturation vessels, which creates a growing microbial foundation inside the wood and in the surrounding fermentation areas."

Very good. I like this. Thanks for the comprehensive reply.