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BREWING HISTORY Of Spaten and Sedlmayrs The appliance of science to brewing methods It was two hundred years 1589 – this would have been akin to modernisation programme, which ago this year that a selling beer to Harrods! Much of this culminated in the introduction of relatively straightforward success was due to Sedlmayr’s steam power in 1844 – the first use of brewery purchase in a readiness to encompass some of the a steam engine in a brewery outside ‘new technology’ that was being of Britain. A year later and the two southern German city developed in other parts of Europe, brothers went their separate ways initiated a series of events but, as we shall see, this was only the when Gabriel II bought out his that were to transform the beginning of the family’s attainments brother, who then promptly engaged European brewing scene and their significance in the brewing upon his own brewing venture in the totally and irrevocably. fraternity. city becoming owner of the Leist Sedlmayr had two sons, Gabriel Brewery, which eventually merged jnr.and Josef, who themselves with the famous Franziskaner By Ian Hornsey became brewers, and who assumed Brewery which had been founded in control of the brewery when Gabriel 1363 ‘next to the Franciscans’. snr. died in 1839. The two brothers In those days, aspiring brewers in or it was in 1807 that one Gabriel were as dynamic as their father had Bavaria were required to undertake a FSedlmayr, Hofbraümeister to the been, and, over the next five years, two-year apprenticeship, followed by Bavarian Royal Court, took over the the brewery was the focus of a a period working as a ‘journeyman Spaten Brewery in Munich, and so RIGHT: This 1839 heralded the beginning of one of the daguerreotype shows world’s great brewing dynasties. Sedlmayr, Dreher and a During the next seventy-odd years, chap named Lederer the Sedlmayr family were to be at the about whom we can find forefront of the transformation of nothing! Plenty of room small-scale brewing mostly based on for stowing industrial empirical knowledge into large- espionage samples in scale, science-based production. those hats! One of the lasting legacies of these developments is what we refer to as ‘lager’ and during this period, there “As a result of was a gradual transition from top to journeys through bottom fermentation in most of Prussia, Bohemia, mainland Europe. The influence of Austria, Belgium, the Sedlmayrs certainly led to the Holland, and Great industrialisation of brewing in Britain, Sedlmayr Germany and then on to many other came to appreciate areas of the planet. how greatly Munich Spaten had started life as a Munich brewing practices brewpub in 1397, and from 1622- 1704 had been owned by a family differed from those named Spaeth from which the name in other European ‘Spaten’ (spade) was derived. The countries. In brewery then passed to the Siesmayr particular, he noted family, who owned it until 1807. that British brewers Sedlmayr’s brewing acumen, energy were far more and enterprise transformed the advanced in their brewery from near-obscurity to a use of steam power position of considerable eminence, and in the such that, by 1820, Spaten had application of basic improved its standing amongst the scientific fifty-two Munich brewers from last techniques, such as to third (behind Hacker and Schorr) the use of the as measured by malt consumption, thermometer and which increased twenty-fold during saccharometer.” this period, By 1830, Spaten beer was respectable enough to be available in Munich’s world-famous Hofbrähaus, which was founded in The BREWER & DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL • Volume 3 • Issue 12 • December 2007 • www.ibd.org.uk 24 brewer’at home, or abroad, before further. Thomson accumulated a vast then analysed them when they entering for the Master Diploma. To body of data and in 1806, his returned to their rooms. Sedlmayr Jr, fulfil part of this programme, the findings relating to changes in the wrote to his father explaining the younger Gabriel embarked upon an specific gravity of wort, due to situation thus: extensive ‘grand tour’of noted attenuation, were included in Papers “…We have, therefore, ourselves European brewing centres and presented to the House of Commons to seek the information. For this during this trip he met Anton Dreher, relating to experiments… to purpose we always carry small flasks whose mother owned a small ascertain the relative quantities of which we fill up furtively and then brewery in Klein-Schwechat just malt made from barley and Scottish weigh with our saccharometer at outside Vienna. This meeting, in bigg: etc. The report, which was home. But the filling of flasks is 1832, marked the beginning of a life- originally aimed at helping the tax- often accompanied with great snags long friendship and business man, contained an important chapter because they never leave you alone association, and both men were about the diffusion of scientific in the fermentation room and, as a destined to become primarily analysis in breweries and distilleries. rule, one has to perform it [the filling responsible for the subsequent rise of A German translation of Thomson’s of flasks] in their presence without their family businesses to pre- work was not published until 1822. It really allowing them to notice…. we eminence. was not until 1833 that Carl Balling have managed to obtain access to a came across it and appreciated its brewery but only under the Journeys abroad scientific content. Balling, who was conditions that we are permitted to As a result of journeys through Professor of Technical Chemistry at observe the fermentation Prussia, Bohemia, Austria, Belgium, the Polytechnical Institute in Prague, phenomenon but nothing more. Our Holland, and Great Britain, used Thomson’s report as a base for a art of stealing, which we became Sedlmayr came to appreciate how series of large-scale experiments. He especially masterly in, furnished us greatly Munich brewing practices also visited numerous breweries and already with an almost complete differed from those in other distilleries, in order to get first-hand fermentation. The small thermometer “By coincidence, it European countries. In particular, he information about fermentation renders magnificent service. was also in 1833 that noted that British brewers were far technology. As a result, Balling Nevertheless, I feel daily a shiver the younger more advanced in their use of steam produced his seminal Die running down my spine when we Sedlmayr and Anton power and in the application of basic saccharometrische Bierprobe in enter the brewery and I count myself Dreher visited the scientific techniques, such as the use 1843, a work that enabled the brewer, fortunate to come out of it without British Isles, taking in of the thermometer and for the first time, to control the getting a beating. In order to avoid it breweries in saccharometer. This situation was course of his fermentations, and his in the future, we are now having Birmingham, partly due to the lack of a German ‘Attenuationslehre’became a major walking sticks made of steel, Liverpool, translation of the pioneering, late- influence on brewing science in lacquered, with a valve at the lower Manchester, 18th century, work of the Hull Bohemia, Austria, and Germany. end, so that when the stick is dipped, Sheffield, Newcastle, brewer, John Richardson (1743- By coincidence, it was also in it fills. When taken out, the valve Edinburgh, Burton, 1815) and his contemporary, James 1833 that the younger Sedlmayr and closes and we have the beer in the and Alloa, as well Baverstock (1741-1815), who Anton Dreher visited the British stick and in that way we can steal some of the major brewed variously in Alton and Isles, taking in breweries in more safely.” concerns in London. Windsor. Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Whether our travellers felt any They were Although Richardson, thanks to Sheffield, Newcastle, Edinburgh, remorse for their skulduggery is not particularly his Statistical Estimates of the Burton and Alloa, as well some of known, but Sedlmayr and Dreher Materials of Brewing (1784), and his the major concerns in London. They kept the information that they had fascinated by the 1788 The Philosophical Principles of were particularly fascinated by the gained from Britain very much to fact that British the Science of Brewing, is often fact that British brewers could themselves and made very good use brewers could credited with being the pioneer in the regularly produce beers of consistent of it in their own breweries when regularly produce use of the hydrometer, it was equally strength, and that this was achieved they returned home. In essence, the beers of consistent Baverstock’s experimentation with with the aid of a saccharometer, an British leg of the trip provided our strength, and that the instrument at Henry Thrale’s instrument with which they quickly travellers with a foundation for the this was achieved Anchor Brewery in Southwark in became familiar (Bass reputedly first methodical means of brewing with the aid of a 1770, together with the early presented Sedlmayr with his first lagered beer. It is reported that saccharometer, an thermometry undertaken by Michael instrument). Whilst they were Dreher subsequently wrote to one of instrument with Combrune in his London brewery warmly welcomed in some his English hosts to apologise for the which they quickly (documented in his Theory and breweries, they were rarely divulged ‘unfair means’that had been became familiar.” Practice of Brewing of 1762), that precise technical information and employed to secure information, and paved the way for the introduction of they were seldom left unsupervised warned that other inquisitive brewers science into the brewery. It was in sensitive areas such as the should not be given the same Richardson who was the first to fermentation room.