Brewing in relation to natural science

Abstract

Although the art of brewing has been practised for untold generations it is only within the past century that efforts to arrive at any degree of scientific understanding of the phenomena involved have been made. I do not need to dwell upon the epoch-making contributions of Pasteur to this subject, nor to the vast ramifications into which his fermentation studies, as recorded in his famous work Études sur la Bière , have led. At the same time it is interesting to recall a few of the ties between pure science and brewing in this country. Almost coincident with Pasteur’s discoveries, Böttinger, a pupil of Liebig, was Manager of Allsopp’s Brewery, Burton-on-Trent. His work there is reflected in his contribution on brewing written in 1860 for Muspratt’s Chemistry as applied to arts and manufactures . Böttinger was soon joined in the same brewery by Griess, earlier a private assistant of Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry, and the discoverer of the diazo-compounds. In 1866 O’Sullivan, another former pupil of Hofmann, entered the brewery of Messrs Bass and Co. It was here that he carried out his pioneer work on the diastatic conversion of starch into sugar. Without pursuing this inquiry in undue detail it is interesting to recall as well the close connexions abroad between science and brewing. The first Director of the Carlsberg Laboratorium, Kjeldahl, has left his name indelibly stamped on analytical practice, while science owes a similar debt to his successor, Sørensen, for his conception of pH value.