he determined that beer was fermented not by chemicals but by microorganisms—that is, yeast. He noted that bacteria, mold, and wild yeast were often responsible for the sour beer that plagued France and other countries. With this new understanding, he and other scientists began to refine techniques that could contain impurities like bacteria, and thus quality control for beer could be effectively implemented. The process of killing such bacteria and stabilizing beer would come to be known as pasteurization.
As brewers began to understand how temperature and bacteria affected their brewing process, lagers and ales could be shipped, and beer became an even bigger business. When the Industrial Revolution gave birth to improvements in road and railway transportation, and with the invention of automatic bottling, a beer could be shipped far and wide. In the 1870s, Adolphus Busch perfected a design for double walled railcars that could keep the beer cool using ice.
By 1880, there were more than 2,000 breweries in the United States alone. Compare that to the early 1990s, when five breweries produced almost 90% of the country’s beer, and you can see how competition increased and circumstances changed for beer in our country. One of these circumstances was economic. World War I and the Great Depression made quality ingredients for beer hard to come by, and this is when a lot of lower-quality adjuncts like corn and sugar entered the beer scene in a big way. And the start of Prohibition in 1920 didn’t help things (everything good is forbidden at some point in time). This forced many breweries to shut their doors due to a lack of business.
After Prohibition was repealed in 1933, only 160 breweries survived in America. The beer that emerged in modern times was the pasteurized lager, and the companies that mass-produced this beer made huge profits. Around 1960, Budweiser was selling around 10 million barrels a year. Pasteurized light lager was popular in many countries other than America; it remained the dominating beer in the business. By the 1970s, about 44 breweries were operating in America.
The craft/microbrew revolution began in 1976 in Sonoma, California, at a brewery called New Albion, founded by a passionate homebrewer. Though this brewery lasted only six years, it set fire to other homebrewers, who began to follow suit and open small operations. The 1980s were a time for microbrew pioneers (and big hair and shoulder pads), experimenting with styles far more varied than the light lagers dominating the market. The late 1990s were good for American craft beer, as breweries gained in profit, and by 2000, there were about 1,400 breweries in America.
PROPS TO PLINY
One of our favorite historical beer-geeks is the honorable Pliny the Elder. Perhaps you recognize his name because of Russian River Brewing’s beloved Double IPA of the same name. But have you ever asked yourself, “Why the hell is that beer named after a dead old Roman?” Well, Pliny the Elder, aka Gaius Plinius Secundus (you can see why he chose a street name), was a man of many talents. Born in 23 CE, he was an author, advocate (lawyer), officer, philosopher, botanist, procurator, historian, and naturalist. And in his spare time he wrote an encyclopedia. Pliny wrote about pretty much everything he could, documenting all that he saw and trying to understand in depth the world around him. So what does this have to do with beer?
While he took a break from all of his other exploits, Pliny gave hops its proper botanical name, Humulus lupulus, which translates to “wolf among weeds,” no doubt in reference to the bitter bite of hops. Russian River pays homage to the man with its super-hoppy beer. It also has a bigger hop-head beer called Pliny the Younger, who wrote about the life of his uncle, Pliny the Elder.
Pliny the Elder was also one of the first people to examine the effects of terroir on winemaking, pointing out to many for the first time that the
As brewers began to understand how temperature and bacteria affected their brewing process, lagers and ales could be shipped, and beer became an even bigger business. When the Industrial Revolution gave birth to improvements in road and railway transportation, and with the invention of automatic bottling, a beer could be shipped far and wide. In the 1870s, Adolphus Busch perfected a design for double walled railcars that could keep the beer cool using ice.
By 1880, there were more than 2,000 breweries in the United States alone. Compare that to the early 1990s, when five breweries produced almost 90% of the country’s beer, and you can see how competition increased and circumstances changed for beer in our country. One of these circumstances was economic. World War I and the Great Depression made quality ingredients for beer hard to come by, and this is when a lot of lower-quality adjuncts like corn and sugar entered the beer scene in a big way. And the start of Prohibition in 1920 didn’t help things (everything good is forbidden at some point in time). This forced many breweries to shut their doors due to a lack of business.
After Prohibition was repealed in 1933, only 160 breweries survived in America. The beer that emerged in modern times was the pasteurized lager, and the companies that mass-produced this beer made huge profits. Around 1960, Budweiser was selling around 10 million barrels a year. Pasteurized light lager was popular in many countries other than America; it remained the dominating beer in the business. By the 1970s, about 44 breweries were operating in America.
The craft/microbrew revolution began in 1976 in Sonoma, California, at a brewery called New Albion, founded by a passionate homebrewer. Though this brewery lasted only six years, it set fire to other homebrewers, who began to follow suit and open small operations. The 1980s were a time for microbrew pioneers (and big hair and shoulder pads), experimenting with styles far more varied than the light lagers dominating the market. The late 1990s were good for American craft beer, as breweries gained in profit, and by 2000, there were about 1,400 breweries in America.
PROPS TO PLINY
One of our favorite historical beer-geeks is the honorable Pliny the Elder. Perhaps you recognize his name because of Russian River Brewing’s beloved Double IPA of the same name. But have you ever asked yourself, “Why the hell is that beer named after a dead old Roman?” Well, Pliny the Elder, aka Gaius Plinius Secundus (you can see why he chose a street name), was a man of many talents. Born in 23 CE, he was an author, advocate (lawyer), officer, philosopher, botanist, procurator, historian, and naturalist. And in his spare time he wrote an encyclopedia. Pliny wrote about pretty much everything he could, documenting all that he saw and trying to understand in depth the world around him. So what does this have to do with beer?
While he took a break from all of his other exploits, Pliny gave hops its proper botanical name, Humulus lupulus, which translates to “wolf among weeds,” no doubt in reference to the bitter bite of hops. Russian River pays homage to the man with its super-hoppy beer. It also has a bigger hop-head beer called Pliny the Younger, who wrote about the life of his uncle, Pliny the Elder.
Pliny the Elder was also one of the first people to examine the effects of terroir on winemaking, pointing out to many for the first time that the
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