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Tuesday 4 June 2013

Brewery

A brewery is a facility where beer is produced through the brewing process. The brewing process involves the fermentation of ingredients such as malted barley, water, hops, and yeast to produce beer. Breweries come in various sizes, from small craft breweries to large industrial facilities.

Eldridge Pope brewery, Dorchester. Copyright Nigel Mykura 

The basic steps in the brewing process typically include malting (where barley is germinated and dried), mashing (where malted barley is mixed with water to convert starches into sugars), boiling (hops are added for flavor and aroma, and the liquid is sterilized), fermenting (yeast is added to the cooled liquid to convert sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide), conditioning (allowing the beer to mature and develop flavors), and packaging (bottling or kegging the finished beer).

Breweries can vary in the types of beer they produce, the scale of production, and the level of automation. Some breweries focus on traditional or specialty beers, while others may produce a wide range of styles to cater to different tastes. The craft beer movement has also led to the emergence of numerous small and independent breweries, each with its unique approach to brewing and beer styles.

HISTORY

A recipe for brewing beer from loaves of multigrain bread mixed with honey dates to approximately 4,000 years ago from ancient Mesopotamia, and is the oldest surviving beer recipe in the world.

The use of hops was unknown to Ancient Egyptians as was the process of carbonation. To a modern-day beer drinker, an Egyptian brew would taste more like a fruit drink.

The Weihenstephan brewery in Freising, Bavaria has been brewing beer since 1040. It is thought to be the world’s oldest brewery. The brewery claims to have been the first to use hops to flavor beer.


The origins of InBev, the world’s biggest brewer date back to 1366 at the Den Hoorn brewery in Leuven, Belgium.

Heinrich Knaust wrote the first extensive book on brewing in Germany in 1573. He described in detail about 150 different beers and called the “noble Hamburg beer the queen of all other wheat beers.”

The first commercial brewery in the New World opened in New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island in 1612 after colonists advertised in London newspapers for experienced brewers.

Harvard University, founded in 1636, ran its own brewery in colonial times and doled out cider and beer to students at every meal.

Shepherd Neame is believed to be the oldest brewery in Britain. It was founded in 1698 by the mayor of Faversham, Captain Richard Marsh. It remains a family business with a Neame still on the board.

In 1708, Sébastien Artois became head brewer at the Den Hoorn brewery in Leuven. Artois purchased the brewery and gave his name to it in 1717, as Brouwerij Artois. Stella Artois was first brewed by the Artois Brewery in 1926.

When Arthur Guinness founded his brewery in 1759, he signed a 9000 year lease at an unused brewery in Dublin. By 1886 it became the largest brewery in the world.

Samuel Whitbread (1720-1796) created the first purpose-built mass-production brewery in the United Kingdom — quickly becoming a household name across the country. He used his wealth to become an MP for Bedford, going on to campaign for the abolition of slavery and the introduction of a minimum wage. When he died on June 11, 1796, the Gentleman's Magazine claimed that he was "worth over a million pounds".


William Bass founded the Bass brewery in Burton-upon-Trent, England in 1777. In the 19th century the company developed a thriving export trade with its India Pale Ale; there are even two bottles on the bar of the Folies Bergère in Manet's famous painting.

D.G. Yuengling & Son, Inc., located in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, is widely recognized as the oldest operating brewery in the United States. Founded in 1829, the brewery has been continuously brewing beer for nearly two centuries and is currently operated by the 5th generation of the Yuengling family.

The founder of Heineken, Gerard Heineken, was 22 years old when he took over De Hooiberg, a brewery that had been around since the 17th century, on February 16, 1864. Gerard Heineken didn’t let his lack of knowledge about the brewing industry, dissuade him from showing interest in purchasing it. Despite his lack of industry knowledge, Gerard went on to create a very successful business. The first Heineken brand beer was brewed in 1873.


After working in a Denver brewery, the German immigrant Adolph Coors founded the Adolph Coors Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado in 1873. He claimed the lager he was brewing took its flavor from the pure water of the Rocky Mountains.

American beer is generally bland because 19th-century brewers were trying to convince Prohibition supporters that beer was a healthier and cleaner drink than whiskey and other liquors.

The Australian Foster's Group Limited was founded in Melbourne in 1888 by American brothers William and Ralph Foster, who happened to own a refrigeration plant. Their new beer, Foster’s Lager, was produced in an American style with refrigeration, a lagering process and bottling.

In 1890, the Polish-born British entrepreneur Henry Lowenfeld (1859–1931) built the Kops Brewery, the United Kingdom's first brewer of non-alcoholic beer on an eight-acre site in Townmead Road, Fulham, London. A blue plaque on the building reads, "Kops brewed non-alcoholic ales and stouts on an eight-acre site and exported its products throughout the British Empire".

For many years the world’s second largest brewer, SABMiller started in 1895 as South African Breweries The firm operates today in 80 countries and sells 73.5 billion bottles a year. Top brands include Fosters and Miller. On October 10, 2016 SABMiller was acquired by AB InBev.

During Prohibition, Pabst Brewing Company stopped making beer and switched to cheese production, selling more than 8 million pounds of Pabst-ett Cheese. When Prohibition ended, the company went back to selling beer, and the cheese line was sold to Kraft.

The Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company was an American brewery based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, whose namesake beer, Schlitz was known as "The beer that made Milwaukee famous." Schlitz first became the largest beer producer in the US in 1902 and enjoyed that status at several points during the first half of the 20th century, exchanging the title with Anheuser-Busch multiple times during the 1950s. However, they started messing with the ingredients to cut costs and the plant was closed less than 30 years later.

Home-brewing beer or wine with an ABV greater than 0.5% was illegal in the US until 1978 when President Jimmy Carter deregulated home-brewing. This led to the craft beer industry the country knows today.

In 2004, Belgian brewer Interbrew and Brazilian rival Ambev merged in a deal valued at $11.2 billion, forming InBev, which became the world's largest brewer at the time. This merger had a significant impact on the global brewing industry, consolidating power and reshaping the landscape.

In 2008, InBev further expanded its empire by acquiring Anheuser-Busch, forming the current brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev).

During a world-wide hop shortage in 2008, Sam Adams brewing company sold craft brewers their hops at cost to keep them in business.

FUN BREWERY FACTS

InBev sells 174 billion bottles a year, including Stella Artois, Budweiser, Corona and Bass.

Stella Artois brewery in Leuven

Vermont has the most craft breweries of all the states in the United States with approximately 15.5 breweries per 100,000 adults over 21, according to a 2022 report by Statista.

Great Leap Brewing, Beijing's first microbrewery, makes beers with distinctly Chinese flavoring adjuncts such as Sichuan pepper and tiěguānyīn oolong tea.

A herd of forty-five thirsty, rambunctious elephants stampeded into a brewery in Midnapore, India, where they smashed vats and slurped up beer in a bender that went on for two days.

Including the amount needed to grow the ingredients, it takes around 20 gallons of water to make one pint of beer.

Source Daily Mail

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