BREWING HISTORY Of Spaten and Sedlmayrs The appliance of science to methods

It was two hundred years 1589 Ð 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 ‘’ 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 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 . 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. opportunity as he had been accorded! publish tabulations that connected Even up until the mid-19th the original gravity of wort to the Industrial espionage century, Munich brewers using alcoholic strength of a beer. To overcome the lack of detailed malted barley as their raw material Richardson’s correlation of wort information on offer, Sedlmayr and were still constrained by Bavarian attenuation with the amount of Dreher resorted to what can only be law (a modification of the original ethanol in finished beers was described as industrial espionage. Reinheitsgebot of 1516) to brew their imprecise and it was the eminent From several breweries they beers solely in autumn and winter as Scottish chemist, Thomas Thomson managed to secure wort and beer the brewing of beer was proscribed (1773Ð1852), who took matters samples in clandestine fashion, and between St.George’s Day (23rd

The BREWER & DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL ¥ Volume 3 ¥ Issue 12 ¥ December 2007 ¥ www.ibd.org.uk 25 BREWING HISTORY

An early diagram of Mechanical refrigeration and by using the local lightly-cured, Linde’s refrigeration Sedlmayr II set about ridding his low protein malt produced a unique, machine. brewery of the need to acquire vast lightly coloured beer, which became Photo: Linde AG, Munich quantities of ice for cooling extremely popular and known under purposes, and, accordingly, in 1873 the generic name of ‘pilsner’. he persuaded the German engineer Tradition has it that a Bavarian monk Carl von Linde (see panel) to install smuggled a yeast sample from his one of his experimental mechanical homeland and took it to Pilsen for refrigeration units at Spaten to Groll to brew with. The demand for April) and Michaelmas (29th control fermentation and beer this light-coloured ‘lager’beer September). To allow for this, storage temperatures. Linde’s increased dramatically, and, in 1894, brewers were obliged to store their original machine was built by Spaten, for fear of losing trade, beer in barrels often kept in alpine ‘Maschinenfabrik Augsburg’(now became the first brewery in Germany caves for subsequent drinking during ‘MAN AG’) and used dimethyl ether to brew such a product, which they summer months. This State measure as the refrigerant, but, two years named ‘helles’meaning ‘bright’. The was primarily invoked to prevent the later, more efficient ammonia-based new beer was originally meant for production of notoriously poor cycles were developed. This was the export to northern Germany, but quality beer during summer months, first time that mechanical proved so popular in Bavaria that the “While Spaten although it was a costly because it refrigeration had been used in a style became synonymous with that based its Helles on meant that vast quantities of ice were brewery, and Spaten was now region. Czech ‘Pilsner’, the required for cooling purposes. In uniquely equipped to produce While Spaten based its Helles on water in Munich practice, storage encouraged the ‘sound’, bottom-fermented beer Czech ‘Pilsner’, the water in Munich had high levels of yeast to sink to the bottom of the throughout the year. Its beer was had high levels of carbonates, carbonates, storage vessel, and, over time, much more stable and could be causing generously-hopped beers to causing resulted in the evolution of ‘bottom- brewed to a lower strength. In taste excessively bitter, and even generously-hopped fermenting’yeast strains. addition, it was found that the lower harsh. As a result, classic Munich beers to taste These were vastly different from temperatures attainable during beers have a lower bitterness and the ‘top-fermenting’strains prevalent noticeable malt sweetness, with a excessively bitter, fermentation actually stimulated the in most European breweries at that growth of bottom-fermenting yeast delicate balance of spicy hops. Thus and even harsh. As time. The right to brew top- strains. By now, Spaten was the a new beer genre was thus born; a result, classic fermenting wheat beer from January largest brewery in Munich (a ‘pilsner lager’beers which were light Munich beers have through to December was the sole distinction it ceded to Löwenbräu in in colour and lightly hopped Ð and a lower bitterness privilege of Bavaria’s rulers, the 1890s). would in time sweep the globe! and noticeable malt although such brewing was allowed Elsewhere, in 1842, the citizens of sweetness, with a in other parts of Germany. All this the Bohemian town of Pilsen (now Carlsberg connection delicate balance of changed in 1865, and it became Plzen) had acquired for themselves a One of the younger Gabriel’s pupil spicy hops. Thus a permissible to brew bottom- new municipal brewery, and hired a brewers was the Dane Jacob new beer genre fermented beer in Bavaria Bavarian brewer, Josef Groll, to run Christian Jacobsen (1811-1887), was thus born; throughout the year. it. Groll brewed in the Bavarian style who had become similarly imbued ‘pilsner lager’ beers which were light in colour and lightly The ice man cometh... hopped – and would in time Carl Paul Gottfried von Linde (1842 – 1934) was an sweep the globe!” engineer who pioneered the basics of modern refrigeration. Born the son of a priest, Linde was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps, but embarked upon an entirely different career. In 1861, he started an engineering course at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. In 1868, Linde heard about the opening of a new university in Munich, the Technische Hochschule (now the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and he applied for a lectureship. He was accepted aged 26 and he set up a laboratory where students such as Rudolf Diesel were taught. In 1871 Linde published an essay on improved refrigeration techniques. This This is the first refrigerator actually sold by Linde. It was caught the interest of a large number of breweries, delivered to the Dreher brewery in Trieste in 1877 and was and soon he was supplying them with his manufactured in Vienna. It is now in the Technical Museum of Vienna. refrigerating machines, while constantly working to Photo courtesy Linde AG, Munich improve them. In 1878 Linde made the decision to put all his time Business went well; the company sold products to and effort into the production of refrigerating breweries, slaughterhouses and cold storage machinery; he gave up his professorship and companies all over Europe. In 1890, Linde moved founded a refrigerating company, Lindes back to Munich, where he took up his professorship Eismaschinen AG, (now Linde AG) in Wiesbaden. once more, and developed his new, ground-

The BREWER & DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL ¥ Volume 3 ¥ Issue 12 ¥ December 2007 ¥ www.ibd.org.uk 26 with Sedlmayr’s ethos of applying rigorous science to brewing. In 1845, using an inheritance from his mother, Jacobsen built a new brewery on a hill in Valby, near Copenhagen. He named the brewery ‘Carlsberg’, after his young son Carl (with bjerg being the Danish word for ‘hill’), and used a yeast sample from Spaten as his starter culture. Legend has it that the yeast (which was collected unsurreptitiously from Munich) was transported on the long journey back to Copenhagen in a hat box. Still much enthused with brewing science, Jacobsen senior founded the Carlsberg Laboratory in 1875 with the intention of making it a leading As is often the case, there was a LEFT: Carl Jacobsen centre for brewing research. Unlike nice ‘twist’ to the Sedlmayr story, photographed in 1861 other brewery laboratories that were Kjeldahl’s establishment of a when, in 1922, the two brothers set up towards the end of the 19th general method for the breweries became united once more. ABOVE: 1890 century, the results of the work quantification of nitrogen in organic Gabriel’s Spaten and Josef’s advertisement for carried out in Copenhagen were compounds; Emil Hansen’s work on Franziskaner-Leist breweries Jacobsen’s Ny published and made readily the culture of pure yeast samples merged to form the ‘Gabriel und Carlsberg brewery in available to the scientific community (free from bacteria and wild yeasts); Josef Sedlmayr Spaten- Copenhagen. Note that in his house journal. S¿ren S¿rensen’s establishment of Franziskaner-Leistbräu AG’. The the swastika was not a The Carlsberg Laboratory the concept of pH; the discovery of move was seen as being an attempt to twentieth century invention. consisted of a Department of the homothallic life cycle of budding circumvent the post-WWI depression Chemistry and a Department of yeast, the Mendelian separation of in Germany. Some fifty years later the Physiology, and was enlarged and yeast genes, by ¯jvind Winge, and combined venture went ‘public’, and References renamed the Carlsberg Research the pioneering work into a little later it merged with Dienel, H-L., Linde: History Centre in 1976. It has been fundamental protein chemistry Löwenbräu, which itself, has a long of a Technology responsible for some of the most carried out by Kaj Linderstr¿m- history, dating back to 1383, when it Corporation 1879-2004. Palgrave Macmillan, estimable milestones of modern Lang. Hansen’s work, isolating the was brewed at ‘Zum Löwen’(The London, 2004. science (let alone brewing science) first single strain yeast in 1883, Lion’s Inn) by a victualler-brewer. Hornsey, I.S. A History of and has been held in high regard by transformed the way in which Finally, in 2004 it formed a Beer and Brewing Royal scientists over the decades. Of the brewers went about their work and ‘strategic partnership’(as they have Society of Chemistry, more memorable work to originate paved the way for the precise became known) with Interbrew, now Cambridge. 2003. Teich, M. The from there we may cite: Johan science of fermentology. InBev. Industrialization of Brewing in Germany (1800-1914) In: Aerts,E., Cullen, L.M., breaking refrigeration technique, now known as the based on the works and Wilson, R.G. (eds) ‘Linde technique’. of James Prescott Production, Marketing and Linde’s first system, developed in 1871, worked Joule and Lord Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages Leuven on dimethyl ether and was built at the Augsburg Kelvin, and the University Press, Leuven. factory. The second generation of refrigerators, introduction of the 1990. from 1876, worked on ammonia. Both systems used counter-current Teich, M. A Chapter in the the principle of cooling gas; until then cooling had technique. Air is History of Transfer of taken place mechanically. In 1894, following a sucked into the Information on Attenuation Brewery History No.121: request from machine, where it is 40-46. 2005. the Guinness compressed, pre- brewery in cooled and In addition, the history of Dublin for a decompressed; at Spaten under the two new cooling this point it cools Sedlmayrs has been technique, down. In the counter written by Fritz Sedlmayr: Die Geschichte der Linde current heat Spatenbrauerei unter developed a exchanger, the air Carl Linde in 1868. Gabriel Sedlmayr dem revolutionary which has already Alteren und dem Jungeren new method been cooled is used to cool more compressed air, 1807-1874 sowie Beitrage (Linde which again cools the next input of air. The zur bayerischen technique) for continuation of this leads to further lowering of the Brauereigeschichte dieser Zeit Volume I, published in the temperature until the air is liquified. Munich in 1934; volume II liquefaction of Linde’s invention made it possible for physicists published in Nuremberg, large to study cryogenics and separate the elements of 1951. quantities of liquid air by fractional distillation. In 1901 Linde This cooling machine ‘Type 7’ was a successful and widely-copied pattern. air. This began work on a technique to obtain pure oxygen Photo courtesy Linde AG, Munich method was and nitrogen. 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