As Beer lovers, we are pretty certain that we know the beer brewing methods used by the mega-breweries pale in comparison to the love and attention we lavish on our own home brew recipes whether they be from the commercial brew brewing kits or our very own recipes.

But we owe a great debt to the commercial breweries and their history of improving the brewing process to the point where we can enjoy home beer brewing as the satisfying hobby that it is.



Way back in Mesopotamia some 50 centuries ago beer and bread were staples of the daily diet and both were produced in individual homes by the women of the time. While the process of fermentation was understood very early on, the various technologies required to centralize the brewing process into one location in greater quantities did not begin to come into use until the tenth century when European monasteries began to expand their beer brewing methods to include additional product which could be used as payment for the monasteries bills. The monks are also credited with much improving beer brewing recipes by coming up with adding hops to the process. The addition of hops was first mentioned in the eighth century and again in the tenth. This transition from primarily home brewed beer to also marked the exclusion of women from brewing responsibilities.

These early breweries were almost always built in multi story buildings and arranged so that the earliest stages of the brewing process took place on the highest floors so the brewers could depend on simple gravity to help move the product from one brewing stage to the next. The state of the brewery, with relatively few improvements such as the use of copper vats instead of wood, remained pretty much the same for several hundred years. It wasn't until the 1700s that the brewery started to take on the appearance we would be familiar with today.

The development of the steam engine in 1765 brought the ability to mechanize aspects of the brewing process including the mixing and stirring of the batch. Pumps operated by steam power were also developed which gave the brewers the ability to mix more reliably while heating which reduced the possibility of the mash scorching. Overall, steam power gave the brewery the ability to produce larger quantities of beer since they no longer had to rely on just human powered mechanisms.

The next great improvement in brewery technology was in the late 1800s when the capability to refrigerate the beer was introduced. Before refrigeration, because yeast is extremely temperature sensitive, most beer was brewed in the cooler winter months in great enough quantities to last through the warm summers. With the ability to maintain the desired cool temperatures yeast requires, beer could now be reliably brewed all year round.

The work of Louis Pasteur was to also greatly influence beer brewing methods. The discovery that yeast is a living microorganism that fermented the wort lead to the development of pure yeast cultures chosen for their fermentation ability and flavors they produce.

Today's modern brewery, whether huge or a local micro brewing operation, are almost all constructed from stainless steel which has distinct advantages over the materials used in years past. It does not flavor the beer itself in the way wood casks did, and it is very easy to clean since it doesn't react with many chemicals.

Heating is now done with pressurized steam but some smaller breweries do use direct fire methods. Cooling is achieved by installing cooling jackets on the tanks. This arrangement helps control the temperature of each tank individually and very accurately.

Perhaps the best improvement in today's breweries is the amount of testing that takes place for quality control. Not only is the batch sampled many times during the process for any impurities or unwanted variations, so also are the incoming shipments of the raw ingredients tested for compliance to quality standards.




Although beer has been around in one form or another for thousands of years, the beer brewing methods have changed dramatically. The large beer brewing companies have worked tirelessly to improve the brewing art. From stainless steel to pure strains of beer brewing yeast, commercial brewers have added a great deal to the art of brewing beer. Whether you make your own beer ore are involved in a micro brewing operation the history of the brewery has lessons for us all.