Burton and the Licensing Bill (part two)

Before we get on to the broad coalition in Burton against the Licensing Bill, there's a short description of the brewing process in the article.

"The processes of brewing are most interesting. Pumped from the wonderful wells of the town into great tanks, the water passes into boilers, and, after reaching boiling point, is drawn into huge mash tubs, where it is mixed with malt. Here the "Porcupine," with its long teeth, constantly revolves, and converts it into a pulp of a certain evenness. Time is then allowed for the chemical changes which convert the starch into saccharine, and the clear liquid, or "wort," is run into a capacious wooden vessel, which opens into the "coppers." In these coppers the hops are added, and after a long period of boiling the liquid passes through the "Hop-back," which contains the hop-refuse, and is then converted into ale by the process of fermentation, in the fermenting squares. In this "Square" room the Excise officials make their calculations on which the excise is charged to the Company, and the turgid yellow liquor pours into troughs, each six feet deep, and holding 2,000 gallons. The yeast having been added to the liquid in the "squares," converting the saccharine into alcohol and carbonic acid gas, the "wort" at last becomes ale, which passes through the "Union Room," to be thoroughly cleansed from its yeast, thence into the racking squares, from which it is racked into casks ready for delivery. The construction of the barrels themselves in the steam cooperages is a revelation to the outsider, the staves of Russian oak are cut and pressed into shape by hydraulic machines with such accuracy that, when finished, they are completely water-tight; every detail, down to vent-pegs and bungs, being completed by special apparatus."
The Graphic, March 21st 1908, pages 410 - 411.

That stuff about the porcupine converting the malt into a pulp is a bit misleading. Not sure the author really understood what was going on in the mashing process. The porcupine is presumably an internal rake mashing machine. At least he does accurately describe the beer's time in the unions as cleansing rather than fermentation.

The text does confirm something: the use of small fermenters in Burton. 2,000 gallons is approximately 56 barrels. Very small for a brewery making nearly 30,000 barrels a week. I make it 519 fermenters of that size that you'd need for a week's production. It seems an awful lot. Why didn't they use larger ones?

Russian or Memel oak had long been British brewers' favourite for making casks. Mostly because it was the oak that imparted the least flavour. Unlike their modern counterparts, brewers didn't want any oak character in their finished beer. They went to considerable effort "seasoning" barrels to prevent them flavouring the beer inside them. Remember this is a period when Bass Pale Ale for bottling was likely to spend at least 6 months maturing in a hogshead.

The Shore Brewery, Alloa (part three)

Yet more on Calder. When we finally get a glimpse of the shiny things.

I've no time for a long introduction. I'll let Barnard do the talking.

"Our steps were first directed to the ground floor of the malting which adjoins the brewhouse, where is situated the mill for crushing the malt, and from whence it is conveyed to the grist-house. Next, we ascended some stone steps, which lead into the brewhouse, a square structure built with stone, and having an open louvred roof. Making our way to the top gallery, we were shown a domed heating copper, holding fifty barrels, constructed of copper, and fitted with a manhole. It is commanded by the cold-liquor tank, and is for heating the brewing water, which runs thence through a copper main direct into one of Steel's mashing machines.

Returning to the floor, we took a peep at the mash-tun standing in the centre of the house, which is constructed of oak and fitted with gun-metal draining plates. It is a seventeen-quarter tun, and is generally used twice a day, to meet the increased demand for Calder's ale. Beneath the tun there is an underback, from whence the wort is pumped up to the copper, whither we followed it. Ascending another stair, to a gallery placed at a great elevation, we found ourselves on a level with the copper, a fine vessel 10 feet in diameter, which is constructed of copper, is heated by fire, and holds eighty barrels. In a recess on this stage, or gallery, is the brewer's sampling sink, and close to it, the grist hopper, etc. ."
"Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 4", Alfred Barnard, 1890, page 390.

Scottish breweries were sturdily built. Often, like the Shore Brewery, of stone. It may not have been as grand as Willaim Younger's breweries in Edinburgh (they looked like castles), but it was still built like a brick shithouse.

Steel's masher. If it seems like everyone had one, that's because they did. It's an incredibly useful piece of equipment, allowing a brewer to fine-tune the consistency of his mash. It's no wonder that they're still common.

Now it's time for my favourite bit: mashtun mathematics. Calder had a single 17-quarter mashtun, used twice a day. Reckoning about 4 barrels to the quarter, that's a daily capacity of around 136 barrels. Or around 40,000 barrels a year. Which is very similar to the 50,000 barrel capacity quoted in their 1905 prospectus. Not a huge brewery by any means.

Let's move on to the cooling and fermenting and cooling departments.

"Passing into the next building, we ascended a flight of steps, leading up from the cleansing room to the cooling department. It occupies the topmost storey of the fermenting-house, which measures 60 feet square, and looks out on to the quay and river. The walls are louvred on all sides from floor to roof, hence the breezes from the Forth play pretty freely throughout the building, and the wort is rapidly cooled. On the west side of this chamber stands the hop-back, constructed of pine, and fitted with gun-metal draining plates. It is divided off at one end, where there is a surface aerator, through which the wort is conducted to two large coolers ; these occupy a considerable portion of the floor; and they are connected with two of Morton's horizontal refrigerators, which have a capacity of forty barrels per hour, and are cooled by well water. From these machines, the worts descend to the tun-rooms below, the larger of which contains four square fermenting vats, with a capacity of 300 barrels, where also are the tanks for holding the store yeast. In the smaller room, are five fermenting rounds, with a capacity of 180 barrels, and both rooms are fitted throughout with hot and cold water pipes.

Following our guide down a narrow stair, we reached the settling-square room, a chamber measuring 50 feet in length, and having numerous small windows looking out on the yard and road. It contains, besides other vessels, six settling-squares, constructed of pinewood, and fitted with attemperators. Descending still lower, we came to the basement of the building, where the cleansing operations are completed, and the beer finished for delivery to customers. Through a wide doorway, we passed into the cellars, where certain classes of ale are matured and stored for the local trade. The most important, however, is the cellar, situated in the building on the quay. This fine structure, which was erected some years ago by Mr. Calder, the senior partner, is of great height and capacity. The walls are 2.5 feet thick, and space has been left within the building for putting up another storey. This immense cellar is used principally for pale ales, and 6,000 barrels can be stored therein. Adjoining this cellar, is an export bottling store of similar dimensions, containing two storeys. At the back of the ground floor, the bottle-washing is conducted, the front portion being used for the filling operations. The upper floor is used for labelling, capsuling, and packing the bottled beers, for shipping to Australia and the West Indies. Included within this block, is the brewer's private house, several other stores, some houses for the workmen, a stable yard and a dray shed."
"Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 4", Alfred Barnard, 1890, pages 390 - 391.

You can imagine how drafty that cooling loft must have been. The brewery had an pretty exposed position, virtually on the shore of the Forth. The same comment as I made about Steel's mashers applies to Morton's refrigerators. Everyone used them. Though unlike the mashers, refrigerators of this type have been superseded by my modern devices. There's another reason why wells were important: as a supply of cold water. Deep wells are totally immune to the vagaries of the surface temperature.

Time for another bit of brewhouse calculus. Four squares of 300 barrels. Is that each or combined? I suspect combined. The brew-length was only 70-odd barrels. It would take two days of brews (brewing twice a day) to fill a 300-barrel square. Whereas 75-barrel fermenters would contain a single brew each. 480 barrels fermentation capacity doesn't seem like much. Or enough to keep pace with the mash tun. Depending on how long fermentation took. But look, they're using settling squares. The wort probably didn't stay in the fermenters more than two or three days before being dropped into the settling square. Using each of the fermenters twice a week would give enough capacity to match the mash tun virtually exactly. 960 divided by 12 (two brews each day, six days a week) is 80. Or a little more than the brew-length of seventy-something barrels.

This is where I get confused. The cleansing department ins below the settling squares. Surely the settling squares were for cleansing? Or did they, as described in an earlier post, run the beer into butts for cleansing? Is that what was in the basement?

In the 1890's not everything was running beer yet. Explaining wht some types of beer still needed to be matured in the brewery cellar. Almost certainly this would have included some of their Pale Ales. This was still brewed sometimes as a Stock beer.

That cellar on the quayside sounds totally out of proportion. 6,000 barrels is about two months worth of production. To have that capacity just for Pale Ale says much about Calder's trade. And how long Pale Ale was being stored before sale. As the 19th century progressed, beers was increasingly exported in bottles. Which meant brewers needed a whole set of new equipment to wash and fill the bottles. Funny the two destinations that are mentioned: Australia and the West Indies. We saw just a couple of days ago that many Scottish brewers were exporting to Australia in 1910.

The most exciting bit is still to come. When we sample Calder's beers.

Mashing at George Younger in the 1890's

I'm taking my Scottish theme deadly seriously. Just a warning. There will be lots, lots more in the coming weeks.

As a relief from tables full of beers details, I'm making a small detour to Barnard, chronicler of  Britain's breweries at their late 19th century peak. First we'll look at one of the less fashionable Youngers, George of Alloa.

Brewing is a funny industry. Sometimes it settles in obvious places, such as large population centres, like London or Edinburgh. Others it pops up in seemingly random small towns such as Burton, Alton, Newark-on-Trent and, where we'll be today, Alloa. Water is usually cited as the reason for these strange sitings. And it certainly played a part in the case of all the examples I've quoted. All had the gypsum-rich water demanded for  Pale Ale brewing.

Though George Younger had been knocking around since the mid 18th century, mostly brewing strong Alloa Ales, their business only boomed when they got into Pale Ale. They were quick to spot the domestic market for  Pale Ales and were one of the first Scottish brewers to brew them in a big way.

Introduction over, let's see how they mashed.

"By the advice of our guide, we proceeded to the mashing-stage on the first floor of the brewhouse, passing through the Excise office to see the grist-hoppers, two in number, depending over the mash-tuns, and capable of holding 100 quarters; the crushed malt being delivered thereto by a Jacob's ladder. The hoppers are constructed of timber, stained and varnished, each being lined with zinc. The mashing-stage covers nearly half of the first floor of the brewery, and is 60 feet in length. It contains three domed mash-tuns, constructed of cast-iron, lagged and encased with match-boarding, which is stained and varnished. The mashing capacity of these tuns is 100 quarters, and they all contain the usual draining plates, mashing gear (driven by steam-power), and overhead revolving spargers. All the tuns are commanded by Steel's mashing machines, which are for saturating the malt and water, at a heat of about 150 degrees, or thereabouts, according to the lightness or heaviness of the malt, and this brings us to the subject of liquor or water, which plays such an important part in brewing. It may be as well to explain, that the water for brewing is obtained from a deep well in the north yard, which is excavated 100 feet, and bored to a depth of 300 feet There are also four other wells on the premises, used for different purposes. The storing tank is placed at the top of the brewery and commands a large malleable iron water heater, lagged with composition and heated by double furnaces. It is placed in a brick built room 50 feet long, on the south side of the copper hearth, and has a capacity of 300 barrels. On the copper hearth there are two more heaters, both used for heating mashing water, and containing together 400 barrels."
"Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 2", Alfred Barnard, 1889, page 437.

A mash tun with a 100 quarter capacity gives you a brew-length of approximately 400 barrels. Have three such tuns and you've a daily capacity of 1,200 barrels. Or an annual capacity of 360,000 barrels. That would put George Younger easily in the top 20 biggest breweries in the UK.

The kit is pretty standard. Cast-iron vessel insulated with wood; Steel's masher (that's the external screw that mixes grain and hot water on their way into the tun), internal mashing rakes and a sparger.

It may seem odd that there were two different types of mashing machine. Internal rakes had been the first type of mashing machine, inventd in 1807, it mechanised the mixing of grain and malt which until then had been performed by men with paddles. Must have been great fun in a tun containing hundreds of barrels.

Steel's masher, or the external masher, was invented in 1853. It gives a much more consistent mix of grain and water and does it as they both enter the tun. Such a good design that it's still in wide use today. So, if the mixing has been done before the grain has even got into the tun, why still have internal rakes?

Two reasons. First, for underletting. The standard late 19th century way of mashing was mash, underlet, sparge. Underletting, or introducing hot water from the bottom of the tun, was a way of doing a simple step mash. After underletting the rakes made a couple of revolutions to mix the hot water thoroughly into the mash. Second, to loosen a stuck mash.

See what Barnard has to day on this subject:

"The object of the rakes, or internal machine, inside the tuns is to stir the "goods" or mash, to make them homogeneous as to consistency and it is useful  for the draining operations  afterwards. We noticed also that the tuns are each tapped by several cocks placed in the bottom of the mash-tun, the object being to secure an equal outflow. The sparging is to sprinkle the goods evenly all over for the purpose of still further securing this object. When the tuns are drawn off, the grains are made to fall through spouts direct into the farmers' carts, which are drawn up in the grains' shed beneath."
"Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 2", Alfred Barnard, 1889, pages 437 - 438.

Sparging was, of course, initially a purely Scottish practice. I don't think Barnard has quite understood its purpose, which is really to extract sugars left in the grains after running off the first wort.

That was so much fun I'm going to do it all over tomorrow. Except then we'll be discussing boiling. Can't wait.

Messrs. Ind Coope and Co. Limited (part one)

Time to resume my never-ending series on Burton breweries, as described by Barnard in the 1890's. I just can't get enough of this stuff.

Ind Coope, in case you aren't aware, were originally based in Romford in Essex. Their brewery there didn't close all that long ago. When I were a lad, it was Allied Breweries main southern plant. It seems they led the dash of southern firms to establish a brewing facility in Burton.

"The brewery at Burton, the property of Messrs. Ind and Coope, Limited, of Romford and Burton, was acquired in the year 1856, when it had only been partially erected, by a Mr. Middleton, from one of the large breweries in the town. On taking possession, they immediately completed the buildings, and fitted up the brewery in a modern style. This was the first instance of what may be termed a London firm opening an establishment in the famous town of Burton; for then, as now, Messrs. Ind and Coope carried on an extensive brewery business at Romford, near London, which will be described hereafter.

So rapid was the progress of the business under able management, that in a few years Messrs. Ind and Coope attained the position of the third largest brewers in Burton. The premises—which are close to the railway station, and adjoin those of Messrs. Allsopp and Son, Limited, and others—cover upwards of twenty-three acres, and are everywhere intersected by private lines in connection with the Midland system. They are grouped together in three sections, the brewery itself being on the north side of Station Street, the stores and cooperage on the south side, and the maltings on the west side of the railway station. From any point of view the brewery has an imposing appearance, as will be seen from our illustrations. The buildings, which are constructed of red brick, and most substantially built, are of lofty elevation, and are fitted up with every modern appliance and machine known to the trade."
"Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 2", Alfred Barnard, 1889, pages 53 - 54.

I wonder what happened to the Ind Coope Burton brewery? When they merged with Allsopp in the 1930's, they would have had a spare brewery in Burton. It seems that the two breweries were next to each other, so I assume they just knocked them through into one.

That aside, let's get on with a description of the gubbins inside the buildings.

"From this place, we bent our steps to the brewery, and commenced our inspection at the malt stores, which are very capacious, passing on to the mill-rooms, where there are two sets of steel malt-rollers for crushing the malt. After this, we took a peep at four large heating tanks, and, then, proceeded downstairs to the mashing department, which occupies two rooms right and left, of the building, containing, in both apartments, eight mash tuns, fitted with most approved  machinery and sparging apparatus.

These vessels,  which possess the usual draining plates, are each 11 feet in diameter and hold 100 barrels, and, it is here, that the crushed malt is mixed with water of a proper temperature, and mashed by the powerful stirring rakes within the tun, the hot water being admitted from the bottom at first, but, at certain stages of the mashing process, from the top also. The six underbacks connected with these tuns are on the basement level of the brewery, and the wort, which since its arrival in these vessels has been kept at a proper temperature, is pumped therefrom, by a three-throw pump which delivers at the rate of 300 barrels per hour to the wort boiling coppers. The grains left behind are afterwards discharged, by means of sluice valves, direct into railway trucks. Before folllowing the process, to save the trouble of retracing our steps, we crossed a short wooden bridge into the water tower before referred to.

This building, the roof of which is covered by a water tank, is 42 feet by 32 feet, and consists of several floors, whereon are placed as many as six water tanks, the whole storing 85,200 gallons, all being available, at any time in case of fire. Below, we observed six other tanks, for hot water, provide with sluice valves, and divided into two compartments.

Resuming our peregrinations, we followed our guide across the mashing rooms, and then passed, under a brick archway, to the copper stage, a long and narrow paved gallery, extending upwards of 150 feet. Here are placed six copper vessels, beautifully clean and bright, for boiling the worts, each of which holds 150 barrels, and the aggregate boiling capacity is over 24,000 gallons. The hops are added whilst the liquor is being boiled, and, when the process is completed, the wort is discharged into two hop straining backs, constructed of copper, fitted with gun-metal strainers. The hops left behind are then compressed by two powerful hydraulic presses, and the liquor pumped into the receiver, and, from thence, to the refrigerators. Continuing our walk, we came to the cooling room, containing two spiral refrigerators, which consist of a series of coils placed on a cast-iron circular frame, 8 feet high and 12 feet in diameter; each frame contains upwards of a mile of 1.25-inch copper pipe (covered with canvas to prevent corrosion), placed on bearers, or open shelves, about a foot apart. Over the top, there is a revolving cold water apparatus, exactly like a sparger, only on a larger scale, containing a set of 2-inch pipes, which rain a heavy shower of cold water over the coils, breaking it up into the finest of rain, and reaching every bit of pipe in the machine, making the contents as cold as necessary, even in the hottest weather."
"Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 2", Alfred Barnard, 1889, pages 56 - 58.

Eight mash tuns, each with a capacity of 100 barrels. That size of tun would produce 150 to 200 barrels of wort per brew. Taking the lower figure, that gives an annual capacity of 360,000 barrels. Or pretty damn big. Not quite at the same level as Bass or Allsopp, but still one of the largest breweries in country. You'll note that their mash tuns were fitted with internal rakes. I'm assuming that they also had an external Steel's masher. That was pretty standard by this time. Unfortunately, you can't see on the illustration if there is one there or not.

I'd forgotten that water in a brewery could be used for purposes other than brewing and cleaning. Breweries were big fire risks. Which is why many had their own fire brigade. And obviously you'd need plenty of water to put out an industrial-size fire.

I can see from the illustration that Ind Coope, like all the other Burton breweries we've looked inside, had open coppers. I'm starting to believe that stuff about Pale Ale being served better by an open copper.

That refrigerator sounds a bit odd. I'll be honest. I'm having trouble visualising it. It sounds weird, with that giant sparging arm. Anyone heard of this type of device? Or better still, anyone have a picture of one?

Next we stroll over to the fermentation room. Any guesses as to what we'll find there?

Rake mashing machine

I forgot to mention this last week. When James and Oz were visiting a whisky distillery in last week's programme, they had a great bit showing an ancient-looking rake masher in action. It's been the highlight of the series for me so far.

The rake masher looked at least a century old. Maybe even older. I've only seen illustrations of thesee machines in old brewing manuals. I'd wondered exactly how they moved. Well, now I do. So thank you, James and Oz.

I suppose I should file this post under "sad old obsessive".

Brewery equipment 1880-1914

Ever wonder how a late-19th century brewery was kitted out? No? Then you'd probably best skip this post. It discusses brewing kit in more detail than any sane person needs to know.

Today's source is "Principles & Practice of Brewing" by Walter J. Sykes & Arthur R. Ling, published in 1907. Though it's an expansion of an earlier book, published a couple of years earlier, authored by Sykes alone. It seems more reliable than some earlier brewing manuals. Though it wouldn't surprise me if it contained some dodgy science.

If you think Faulkner's theories on mashing are bollocks, you should see his explanation of fermentation. He manages somehow to combine the diametrically opposed theories of Pasteur and Liebig. The stuff about two much protein in beer being the cause of acetic production is pretty funny. He had a bit of an obsession with protein.

Before anyone brings it up, I'm aware that below I don't properly explain the working of a Yorkshire square, just its form. I haven't got to that bit yet.

In case you hadn't already noticed, I'm posting my research in near real-time. These are notes I took yesterday. Which is my excuse for the gaps and incomplete explanations. I like to think of this series as Study-along-with-Ron.



Layout of a tower brewery
This was the period of the tower brewery, a design which had developped during the course of the 19th century. The concept was to organise the layout in such a way so that the raw materials started at the top of the building and moved downwards in each successive stage in the brewing process by gravity rather than mechanical means. It also gave the brewery the smallest possible footprint, important in restricted city centre sites. The main disadvantage was that it was difficult to expand without major rebuilding.

Increasingly, breweries were purpose-built rather than being converted from buildings erected for other uses. There were architects that specialised in the design of breweries. Many of these sturdy and sometimes elegant structures still survive, though not all are still in use as breweries. My home town, Newark-on-Trent, has two such tower breweries from the late 19th century. One is now flats, the other shops.

Cold-liquor tank. A rectangular tank, made from cast-iron plates or sometimes wood, which was placed at the very top of the building. It supplied water for brewing and sometimes also for the attemperators, though it was better to use water directly from the well for the latter as it was generally cooler. When just used for brewing water, it needed to have a capacity of 2.5 barrels per quarter of malt used in a brew. When used for attemperator water too, it needed to be double that size.


Hot-liquor tank. A covered, cast-iron tank which was either rectangular or circular in shape. It was placed above the mash tun, for which it provided hot water. It was encased in wood or some other insulating material to prevent heat loss. The capacity was large enough to hold all the water for a brew, or about 6 barrels per quarter of malt used. Heating was effected by a variety of methods: injecting steam directly into the water through perforated pipes, by passing steam through a copper coil or by means of a high-pressure heater. The latter was a closed cylinder though which two inch diameter tubes passed. The space between the tubes and the cylinder was filled with high-pressure steam. A thermometer was fitted to the tank with its bulb in the water and the scale protruding outside so it could be easily read.


Malt-mill. This consisted of a pair of smooth iron or steel rollers which rotated in the opposite direction. The distance between the rollers could be very precisely controlled by means of screws. The idea was to crack the malt but not crush it into dust. The rollers were sometimes grooved. They were powered by a steam engine, via pulleys and belts. The rollers were fed by a hopper in the shape of an inverted pyramid suspended above them.


Grist case. Crushed malt was held in the grist case. This was usually directly below the mill and above the mash tun. When located away from the mill, the crushed malt was moved either by means of a Jacob's ladder or a screw. The upper part was square and the lower part in the form of an inverted pyramid. It was made from either smooth, well-seasoned wood or painted iron. A slide at the apex of the pyramid was opened to allow the grist to fall into the mash tun below.


Mash tun. Cylindrical in shape, these were made from a variety of materials such as wood, iron, copper, or wood lined with copper. Wooden tuns were tapered slightly at the top so the hoops could be hammered down to tighten the staves. Iron tuns were cylindrical and lagged with wood for insulation. Thick wooden covers were fitted to keep in the heat during mashing. A false bottom, made of copper, iron or gun-metal, was placed between 1.5 and 2 inches above the real bottom. For ease of removal, it was made in pie-shaped sections called "plates". The plates were either perforated or slotted. The holes were between an eighth and a sixteenth of an inch in diameter, spaced an inch apart.


Underback. A large open tank situated below the mash tun. The wort was run from the mash tun into the underback, from where it was pumped to the copper. It was important to prevent the wort from cooling so the underback was fitted with a steam coil. The wort was kept for as short a period as possible as, until it had been heated to 190º F in the copper, diastatic activity continued.


Mashing machines. There were two types of mashing machine: internal and external. Their purpose was to mix grain and water in the mash tun without the need for manual intervention. The rake mashing machine, an internal type, was invented by Matterface in 1807. A series of iron rakes rotated around a central axis, stirring the grain. It was quite a complicated piece of machinery with lots of moving parts. The first external mashing machine was invented by Steel in 1853 and devices of this type are still called Steel's mashers. It consisted of a screw encased in a closed metal cylinder. Water and grain pass through the cylinder on their way into the mash tun and are mixed together by the turning action of the screw. The cylinder was between 3 and 6 feet in length and 9 and 22 inches in diameter. The flow of grain and water could be regulated to get the perfect mix. It was powered by a steam engine via belts and a pulley. The great of this type of machine was speed - 200 quarters of malt could be mashed in just 20 minutes. There were various other patented mashing machines, but Steel's and the rake masher were by far the most common.


Underlet. This was a pipe leading from the hot-liquor tank to the bottom of the mash tun. Through it, hot water could be introduced to the mash tun from beneath the false bottom. Such hot water was called "piece liquor". It could be used either to adjust the temperature in the mash tun or to perform a simple step mash.


Steam coil. Another method of heating the mash was a copper coil placed beneath the false bottom through which steam was passed. Sometimes the coil was perforated so that stem could be introduced directly to the mash. Its use was similar to the underlet.


Steam plough. Fitted to the bottom of the rake shaft, this consisted of pair of hollow, plough-shaped vessels through which either hot or cold water could be added to the mash.


Sparger. This consisted of two or three perforated tubes called "Sparge arms" which rotated around a central axis. A cylindrical, copper reservoir placed at its centre which was connected via a pipe to the hot-liquor tank. Through the sparger, hot water could be sprinkled over the goods. The holes were all placed along one side of the arms so the the water escaping through them would cause the arms to rotate.


Copper. There were two types of copper: fire copper and steam copper. A fire-copper was heated directly by a furnace placed beneath it. A steam copper was, as the name suggests, heated by steam.

Fire-copper. I'll quote from Sykes and Ling here, as they describe the two main varieties of this type of copper so succinctly. The most common type was a "bench copper". "The lower portion is in the shape of an ordinary pan; at about half-way up it suddenly widens out a few inches, to form what is termed "the bench". From this the copper is continued up with parallel sides. The flues which surround the copper are only carried as far as the bench; consequently the portion above the bench, not being heated, has, to some extent, a cooling action on the wort, which tends to prevent boiling over." "The dome-copper is, as its name implies, covered in with a dome, round which there is a sort of tray, which has an outlet into the body of the copper. At the summit of the dome is a large opening, to which is attached a wide tube 1.5 to 2 feet in length. When the copper is boiling, the communication is left open between the tray and the copper, and through this the wort, as it boils out at the wide tube, after pouring over the sides of the dome and falling into the tray, finds its way back into the interior of the copper. When the wort has finished boiling and the heat is slackened, the plug fixed in its place, and a second batch of wort may be placed in the tray, which will be heated to some extent before being allowed to pass into the copper."

Steam-copper. These were cylindrical in shape with a domed bottom. Another cast-iron dome was fitted around the bottom, leaving a gap of about 3 or 4 inches into which high-pressure steam was pumped. It had several advantages over a fire copper. The heat could more easily be raised or lowered and it was more economical on fuel. Not being in direct contact with the furnace, it could be heated before the wort was added which consequently could be more quickly brought to the boil.


Hop-back. This was a wodden or iron container, through which the wort passed on its way from the copper to the cooler, provided with a perforated false bottom to hold back the hops. Some were circular in shape and fitted with a device similar to a sparger through which hot water passed to wash out any wort retained by the hops.


Cooler. This was a large but shallow vessel made of wood, iron or copper into which the wort passed after leaving the hop-back. It was located in a room with louvred window to allow air from the ouside to pass over it. The initial cooling of the wort took place here. By this time most breweries also had refrigerators which finished off the cooling process. The wort was not usually allowed to cool below 140ºF in the cooler for fear of infection. In addition to cooling, it also served to remove impurities from the wort, which settled to the bottom as a sludge. The cooler also served the purpose of hot aeration, that is the exposure of the hot wort to air. This helped the later clarity of the wort.


Refrigerator. This was a type of metal heat exchanger which finished the cooling of the wort down to pitching temperature. Cold water was passed through a series of horizontal copper tubes over which the wort flowed in a thin layer and was collected in a trough at the bottom. From the trough the wort was fed through a pipe directly into the fermenting vessel. There were several variations on this basic design, though all worked on the same principle. In breweries with an ice machine, refrigerated brine was used in place of water.


Fermenting vessels. There was much variation, both in materials used and method of construction, in the vessels used for fermenting wort. The most commonly used materials were wood, stone and slate. The vessels needed to have smooth surfaces which could be easily cleaned and which would not be damaged by the boiling water used in the cleaning process. The two basic types were "rounds" and "squares", named after their shape.

Rounds, much like barrels, were made of oak staves held together with iron hoops. Squares were made of wooden planks held together with iron bolts. The wood used was oak, American cedar or, most commonly, fir. Both were open-topped. Wort was filled to within two or three feet of the top, the rest being left for the head of yeast. A hole 30 inches square was cut just above the level of the wort to allow access to the inside. This was closed with boards when the tun was in use.

Yorkshire stone squares. These were traditionally constructed of slabs of hard stone, but increasingly slate was being used. The slabs were held together with iron bolts and cement was used to make the joints watertight. They had double walls and the space between was filled with water which acted as an attemperator. Slate versions usually had single walls and were fitted with a standard attemperator. Above the main chamber was a second stone vessel, called the "yeast trough", which was 24 to 30 inches deep. In the centre of its bottom a circular "manhole" 18 inches in diameter was cut. Around the hole was a collar of stone 5 inches high onto which a lid, also of stone, fitted. In one corner, a pipe (called the "organ-pipe) ran from the yeast trough down to just a few inches above the bottom of the lower vessel.


Loose pieces. These were casks used for cleansing. Usually puncheons holding around four barrels, they were placed on troughs called stillions in which the yeast escaping from the bunghole was caught. To stop the yeast just running down the side of the cask, a conical tin pipe was fitted into the bunghole. Another tin pipe stuck out from this at a right angle which was long enough the extend past the side of the cask. The yeast was expelled through the horizontal pipe, while the cask could be refilled through the vertical pipe.


Pontos. These were used in some London breweries for cleansing. After a short initial fermentation in rounds or squares, the wort was tranferred in pontos, barrels holding between four and six barrels. Here fermentation continued, with yeast forcing its way out through an opening in the head and into a slate gutter. This was going out of fashion and being replaced by the dropping system.


Burton Unions. This was a more sophisticated version of the loose pieces system of cleansing. Casks with a capacity of about four barrels were permanently fixed onto a wooden stand. A curved pipe called a "swan's neck" was fitted into the bung hole. Yeast was forced up through the pipe and into a long wooden trough (called the "yeast trough") which ran between two parallel rows of casks. At one end of the yeast trough was another vessel called the "feed trough". This was connected via pipes to a hole in the head of each cask and was used to keep them filled with beer. A tap at the bottom of the cask, opposite the bunghole, was used to remove the finished beer. This system was still being used by Bass until the 1980's. Marston's is the only remaining British brewery that ferments in unions.


Racking square. Beer wasn't usually racked into trade casks directly from the fermenters but first transferred to another tank called a racking square. Often they were very large in size, containing the equivalent of two complete brews. They were constructed of either slate or wood. Taps were placed a few inches above the bottom of the tank. Rubber hoses, with a metal nozzle at one end, were connected to the taps and used to fill casks.


Attemperator. The temperature of wort in fermenting vessels was controlled by an apparatus called an attemperator. It was a a series of tubes through which cold water was passed.


Rouser. Yeast was mixed into the wort by a simple device called a rouser. This was a flat piece of wood with a hole in the middle attached to a handle.


Aerator. These were used to aerate wort in the fermenting vessel. The simplest type of aerator was a weighted wooden cask with the heads removed and several holes in its sides. It was lowered into the wort on a rope and then quickly pulled out again. Powered devices included a pump which could draw wort from the bottom of the tun and spray it out above the surface. Operated in reverse, it could pump air directly into the wort.

Other vessels. Wort or syrup used for priming casks and caramel used for for colouring had to be kept in a special vessels, where the volume and gravity could be checked by excise officers. This was a legal requirement.


Casks. Trade casks were made of oak staves held together with iron hoops. The wood mostly came from the Baltic. Unlike on the continent, they were not lined with pitch so beer came into direct contact with the wood. Sometimes the wood become so badly infected with bacteria that they had to be discarded. That wood wasn't the perfect material for the storage of beer was aleready apparent: "Probably in the future some material which does not take up impurites so readily as wood will be employed in the construction of brewery cask, such as steel lined with tin, or wood with a lining of some indifferent metal."