Tuesday’s ad is for the Barley and Malt Institute, from 1959. This is the fourth ad I have from the now defunct trade group for barley growers. In this one a feminine hand is adding beer to a fondue pot, while a man is stirring it and holding up the “OK” sign, presumably to indicate there’s enough beer in the mix. And that tagline, “Fun-Flavors your creative cookery;” I’m not even sure that quite makes sense. But cheese and beer? Now those are some fun flavors.
Archives for September 24, 2013
Everything Old Is New Again: Non-Stop Fermentation
I just stumbled upon this interesting article from May in Phys.Org entitled More sustainable way to brew beer: Non-stop fermentation saves resources. It details efforts by researchers at the Technische Universität München to develop “a fermentation process that takes place in stages over a number of interconnected tanks. The tank system can be operated continuously over a period of several months, which leads to an energy reduction. The new method also promises significant resource efficiency gains.”
They talk about the advantages of such a system. “With this new process, yeast and other sedimented substances can be fractionized and re-used if required, and “unlike the conventional system[s], the brewers can fill and empty the tanks continuously from the top part of the tanks. The bottom connection of the tank can hence be used to discharge yeast cells and other particles.”
Lead researcher, Konrad Müller-Auffermann explains how “Continuous operation makes the fermentation plant more efficient. ‘This new method reduces the incidence of energy peaks, so that breweries will be able to save on electricity. In addition, less beer will be lost — and breweries can save water and cleaning detergents.'”
So far, so good. It sounds interesting, but here’s where they lost me. “Brewers have been juggling with the dream of turning the classical batch fermentation into a continuous process for over 100 years. In all this time, however, no one has managed to develop a widely applied industrial concept.”
Um, maybe somebody with more technical expertise can explain this to me, but New Zealanders (and possibly the Australians) have been using what they call “continuous fermentation” since 1953, and at least one brewery is still using it today. I did a sidebar about Continuous Fermentation for All About Beer magazine in 2008.
One of New Zealand’s most interesting contributions to brewing sciences is the process known as continuous fermentation. This process was patented in 1953 by Morton Coutts, whose family had been involved in brewing since the 19th century. His father founded the Waitemata Brewery, which eventually become DB Breweries.
Essentially, Coutts created a “wort stabilization process” that made the wort more consistent and clear, and then separated the main functions of the yeast into two stages. In the first, yeast grew, and in the second, it fermented. By splitting these two functions, Coutts created a “continuous flow,” so brewers could continually add raw materials to the first stage, and draw off a steady supply of finished beer from the second thus allowing the brewery to run constantly.
It also shortened the brewing process by as much as several weeks. Recognizing the economic advantages to continuous fermentation, Lion and DB worked together jointly to develop a practical way to use the method in a commercial brewery, opening the world’s first continuous fermentation brewery in 1957 in Palmerston North, a town in the south central part of the North Island.
Continuous fermentation works best in a brewery making only one style of beer, because it’s difficult to stop the process and start up again with a new beer. As a result, Lion largely abandoned continuous fermentation in the 1980s in order to brew a wider variety of styles, while DB continues to use the method, as do several other large breweries around the world, such as Guinness.
The University of Aukland’s Business History Project has a good overview on Morton Coutts, father of continuous fermentation. You can also read more at Alcohol Fuels and Ken & Dot’s Allsorts.
So nothing against the German effort at non-stop fermentation. It looks interesting and innovative. But it doesn’t seem all that different from continuous fermentation that was invented sixty years ago. Maybe there’s a subtle or technical difference I’m missing, but they don’t even mention being aware of it when they insist people have been trying to figure out this problem for over a century, which seems a little strange. So while they’re understandably excited about their discovery, I wish they’d acknowledge Coutts. Or am I missing something?
The Great American Beer Fest Rap
This is a pretty funny video, JDirty and BIG Trox — GABF “Great American Beer Fest Rap”, made at last year’s Great American Beer Festival, which Charlie Papazian just tweeted. Enjoy.
Oktoberfest, By The Numbers
Today’s infographic is yet another poster about Oktoberfest, which began three days ago in Munich, Germany. This one is called the Oktoberfest, By The Numbers and was created by Julie Teninbaum for United Airlines’ Hemispheres.
Click here to see the poster full size.
Per Capita Beer Consumption By State
Business Insider/Thrillist had an item not to long ago about per capita beer consumption by state, though they unceremoniously titled it The States That Guzzle The Most Beer. The data is based on information from the Beer Institute’s “Shipments of Malt Beverages and Per Capita Consumption by State 2012.” Business Insider made the statement that “the more unassuming states tended to out-booze their brethren, proving once again that you should always look out for the quiet ones silently pounding ales in the corner.” But whenever you look at per capita data, it always favors the less-populated states, and so doesn’t seem like a particularly accurate or meaningful measure of anything. It’s fun to see, but I don’t think you can draw too many grand conclusions from it. Here, for example, is the top ten.
- North Dakota
- New Hampshire
- Montana
- South Dakota
- Wisconsin
- Nevada
- Vermont
- Nebraska
- Texas
- Maine
Not surprisingly, Utah drinks the least, per capita, but the fact that New York and New Jersey are in the bottom five should tell you everything you need to know about how meaningless consumption by per capita can be. California, the most populous state, and with twice the number of breweries as any other state, ranks 44th, very near the bottom. Here’s the bottom five.
- Maryland
- New York
- New Jersey
- Connecticut
- Utah