Brewery

A brewery is a facility that produces beer. Typically a brewery is divided into distinct sections, with each section reserved for one part of the brewing process. Breweries can take up multiple city blocks, or be a collection of equipment in a homebrewer's kitchen. The diversity of size in breweries is matched by the diversity of processes, degrees of automation, and kinds of beer produced in breweries.

History

The oldest brewery in the world still in operation is believed to be the Bavarian State-owned brewery Weihenstephan, found in the German city of the same name, which can trace its history back to 1040.

Related Topics:
Bavaria - Weihenstephan - German - 1040

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The industrialization of the brewery

Beer, in some form, can be traced back almost 5000 years to Mesopotamian writings describing daily rations of beer and bread to workers. Before the rise of production breweries the production of beer took place at home and was the domain of women, as baking and brewing were seen as "women's work". Breweries, as production facilities reserved for making beer, did not emerge until monasteries and other Christian institutions started producing beer not only for their own consumption, but also to use as payment. This industrialization of brewing shifted the responsibility of making beer to men.

Related Topics:
Mesopotamia - Monasteries - Christian

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Early breweries were almost always built on multiple storeys, with equipment on higher floors utilized earlier in the production process, so that gravity could assist with the transfer of product from one stage to the next. This layout is often preserved in breweries today, but mechanical pumps allow more flexibility in brewery design.

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Early breweries typically used large copper vats in the brewhouse, and fermentation and packaging took place in lined wooden containers. Such breweries were common until the Industrial Revolution, when better materials became available, and scientific advances led to a better understanding of the brewing process. Today, almost all breweries are made of stainless steel.

Related Topics:
Vat - Fermentation - Industrial Revolution - Stainless steel

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Major technological advances

A handful of major breakthroughs have lead to the modern brewery and its ability to produce the same beer consistently.

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The steam engine, vastly improved in 1765 by James Watt, brought automatic stirring mechanisms, and pumps into the brewery. It gave brewers the ability to more reliably mix liquids while heating, particularly the mash, to prevent scorching, and a quick way to transfer liquid from one container to another. Almost all breweries now use electric-powered stirring mechanisms and pumps. The steam engine also allowed the brewer to make greater quantities of beer, as human power was no longer a limiting factor in moving and stirring.

Related Topics:
Steam engine - 1765 - James Watt - Mash

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Carl von Linde, along with several other people, is credited with developing the refrigeration machine in 1871. Refrigeration allowed beer to be produced year-round, and always at the same temperature. Yeast is very sensitive to temperature, and if a beer was produced during summer, the yeast would impart unpleasant flavors onto the beer. Most brewers would produce enough beer during winter to last through the summer, and store it in underground cellars, or even caves, to protect it from summer's heat.

Related Topics:
Carl von Linde - Refrigeration - 1871 - Yeast

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Most importantly, the discovery of microbes by Louis Pasteur was instrumental in the control of fermentation. The idea that yeast was a microorganism that worked on wort to produce beer lead to the isolation of a single yeast cell by Emil Christian Hansen. Pure yeast cultures allow brewers to pick out yeasts for their fermentation characteristics, including flavor profiles and fermentation ability. Some breweries in Belgium still rely on "spontaneous" fermentation for their beers.

Related Topics:
Microbe - Louis Pasteur - Fermentation - Microorganism - Wort - Emil Christian Hansen - Belgium

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The modern brewery

Breweries today are made predominantly of stainless steel, although vessels often have a decorative copper clading for a nostalgic look. Stainless steel has many favorable characteristics which make it a well-suited material for brewing equipment. It imparts no flavor in beer, it reacts with very few chemicals, which means almost any cleaning solution can be used on it (concentrated chlorine bleach being a notable exception) and it is very sturdy. Sturdiness is important, as most tanks in the brewery have positive pressure applied to them as a matter of course, and it is not unusual that a vacuum will be formed incidentally during cleaning.

Related Topics:
Stainless steel - Copper - Cleaning solution - Bleach

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Heating in the brewhouse is usually achieved through pressurized steam, although direct-fire systems are not unusual in small breweries. Similarly, cooling in other areas of the brewery is typically done by cooling jackets on tanks, which allow the brewer to precisely control the temperature on each tank individually, although whole-room cooling is also common.

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Today modern brewing plants perform myriad analyses on their beers for quality control purposes. Shipments of ingredients are analyzed in order to correct for variations; Samples are pulled at almost every step and tested for oxygen content, unwanted microbial infections, and other beer-aging compounds; and a representative sample of the finished product is often stored for months for comparison when complaints are filed.

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