How Brewing Became Modern
History of Brewing: From Monastery Brewhouse to Industrial Giant
The history of brewing is a history of measuring and cooling. For centuries, monasteries and municipal brewhouses brewed by experience alone. It was only the thermometer, the refrigeration machine, and 19th-century research into yeast that turned the craft into the industry of large-scale breweries.
Why Did Monasteries Brew Beer?
In the Middle Ages, monasteries were substantial economic operations. They provided for monks, pilgrims, and guests, and had the means to run their own brewhouses. Beer was a dietary staple and, during periods of fasting, a permitted source of calories. Many monasteries therefore brewed for centuries, and some German monastery breweries still exist today.
Alongside them, secular brewers were active from the start: farmwives brewing at home, inns, municipal brewhouses, and citizens holding brewing rights. Cities issued early regulations on ingredients and prices, as in Weimar in 1348, Munich in 1487, or the Bavarian Landesordnung of 1516 in Ingolstadt. The image of the monk as the sole brewer is therefore too simple.
Important for today: a monastery brewery is not the same as a Trappist brewery. Trappist is not a beer style but a seal from the International Trappist Association, awarded to beers brewed under the supervision of Trappist monks within their abbey.
Brewing by Season: The Summer Brewing Ban
Without refrigeration, warm weather was beer's greatest enemy. In Bavaria, the Brewing Order of 1553 permitted brewing only between Michaelmas on September 29 and St. George's Day on April 23. In summer, beer fermented too easily out of control and spoiled. Märzen, brewed in the last month of the brewing season, was therefore made stronger and stored in deep cellars.
Above these cellars, brewers planted shade-giving chestnut trees and spread gravel. This is how Bavaria's beer gardens came about. Ice cut from ponds and lakes in winter and stored in ice cellars kept temperatures low through the summer. Bottom-fermented lager beer remained, for a long time, a matter of climate and cellar construction.
The history of Pils shows just how widespread cold brewing was in Bavaria. On October 5, 1842, Bavarian brewer Josef Groll from Vilshofen brewed the first batch at the newly built Bürgerliches Brauhaus in Pilsen. Bavarians had long brewed with bottom-fermenting yeast. What was new was the pale color, made possible by very light malt and Pilsen's soft water. The beer went on sale starting November 11, 1842.
Thermometer, Refrigeration, Yeast: How Did Brewing Become a Science?
In the 18th century, English brewers in particular began using thermometers and hydrometers. For the first time, rest temperatures and extract content could be measured rather than estimated. Brewing became predictable, and recipes could be repeated reliably.
The biggest leap came with refrigeration. Carl von Linde developed his refrigeration machine with support from Gabriel Sedlmayr, owner of Munich's Spaten brewery, and received a Bavarian patent in 1873. An improved ammonia machine went to the Dreher brewery in Trieste, where it ran for three decades starting in 1877. This made it possible to brew bottom-fermented beer year-round, independent of ice and winter.
At the same time, yeast was being understood. Louis Pasteur showed in his 1876 Studies on Beer that microorganisms could spoil beer. Emil Christian Hansen isolated the first pure culture of bottom-fermenting yeast in 1883 at the Carlsberg laboratory in Copenhagen. Since then, breweries have been able to work with a single, stable yeast strain instead of a mixed culture. Interestingly, this yeast originally came from Munich, since Carlsberg had received it from Spaten in 1845. Hansen did not invent lager yeast — he purified it. His method spread quickly because it dramatically reduced faulty fermentations.
From Copper Kettle to Industrial Brewery
Steam power, railways, and refrigeration reshaped the market in the 19th century. Beer could now be transported over long distances. Large breweries grew, while smaller ones closed. The 20th century brought stainless steel tanks, automated brewhouses, and eventually international corporations running hundreds of brands under one roof.
The counter-movement began with brewpubs and the craft beer movement, first in the US and later in Europe too. Today, small breweries often use the same technology as the giants, just on a smaller scale. Some deliberately revive old techniques, such as decoction mashing, open fermentation, or barrel aging. Tradition and industry, then, are less opposed than often claimed.