18th Century Beer Brewery Walkthrough

We have a very special episode today! Brian Nagel, from Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY, takes us on a tour of The 1803 Walter Grieve's Brewery located on the site. Brewing beer played such an important roll during this time in history, and the amazing presentation of the brewing process is a must-see for anyone who enjoys history as well as the art of brewing. If you're ever in the Rochester, NY, area, be sure to put Genesee Country Village & Museum on your itinerary! you won't regret it!
Genesee Country Village and Museum - www.gcv.org/
This video channel is made possible by the patronage of our customers. Be sure to visit our website: www.townsends.us

[@Szederp]

Insane craftsmanship...just look at that equipment. I'm completely speechless. European high culture is just unparalleled.

[@TheRedMooncorp]

True, also look at music, a piano is such a sophisticated and complex insrtument :D

[@Szederp]

@@TheRedMooncorp Indeed. We are losing the most valuable culture here.

[@TheRedMooncorp]

@@Szederp How are we loosing it? Beer is more diverse and sophisticated than ever and classical instruments are not only popular in classical music, which is widespread, but also in lots of metal music.

[@FranzDebussy]

true, I love being white

[@B3OWULF416]

I love being beige

[@TheDandyMann]

I'm a brewers son and I loved seeing all of the old tech they use. In all this time making beer hasn't changed all that much. It's just gotten cleaner and more efficient.

[@TheDandyMann]

@@himalayanknight8 My dad's a craft brewer, not a major beer maker. Meaning he makes tastier beer than what you would usually find on shelves. And again, the process hasn't changed that much over time and my dad does the exact same stuff as these guys except with modern technology. He doesn't filter it either meaning that there's more nutrition than modern beer you see on the shelves.

[@fivefingerfullprice3403]

@@himalayanknight8 There's exactly zero chance it would be tastier and healthier. What a dumb thing to say, they probably had a ton of bad batches people drank.

[@fivefingerfullprice3403]

@@himalayanknight8 Everyone is smarter than you are today when you talk like this.

[@hirdeshbajwa8906]

@@himalayanknight8 no it is not better! They had no chemistry knowledge of what was actually happening in the wort back then. They usually used the same yeast to make all the beer. They didnt understand that oxygen is big deal for the fermentation to start successfully. Then CO2 is something that is beneficial in preserving the beer. Later on, oxygen ruins the taste because it reacts with the compounds that make it taste and smell awesome. With modern technology and understanding of chemistry, we can make objectively better beer. The most obvious problem would be that refrigerators werent common till the 1930s

[@memezoffuckery3207]

@@himalayanknight8 “traditional is always better” No, no it’s not, that statement has been foiled many times, with the primitives usually getting screwed in the process. “Sir we why can we just use modern bolt action rifles instead of muskets?” “bEcaUse tradiTiONAL iS aLwaYs bETter!”

[@DrFranklynAnderson]

Modern brewing guides: “Nooooo!! You can’t just let something that hasn’t been thoroughly sanitized come into contact with the wort!!!” 18th century brewers: “haha hand go splish-splash”

[@lancehobbs8012]

True, but the liquid in the tub you saw him touch gets boiled and sterilised that way. Historically we can prove its a myth that surgeons didnt understand sterilization , you cant brew without understanding sterilization. Ancient egyptian brewers understood it.

[@DesertScorpionKSA]

You can touch the mash with your hand because the wort will be boiled later when the hops and extra sugars are added. You want to keep it clean, after the wort has cooled for fermentation, so you don't risk an infection and sour the beer.

[@Tonyx.yt.]

everything BEFORE the boiling dont need to be sterilized at all, just keept clean but nothing more. the real problem about sanitation is AFTER boiling, keeping pipes and tanks sterilized is not so easy even today with stainless steel and chemical detergents

[@konairflashley]

I understand you don’t need the equipment sanitized before the boil, but how did 18th century brewers keep things sanitized after the boil? They transferred the beer with a leather hose and storing it in a wooden barrel 😂

[@SuperRS2008]

Man this creased me up. :D

[@professorpenne9962]

I went here on a school field trip as a kid, no surprise that the teachers skipped over this building during the tour. I'd like to go back now as an adult, it truly is an awesome experience.

[@jens-kristiantofthansen9376]

Why would they skip over that?

[@professorpenne9962]

@@jens-kristiantofthansen9376 parents were with us on the field trip and unsurprisingly, some were helicopter parents.

[@jens-kristiantofthansen9376]

@@professorpenne9962 How sad. Hopefully you've had a chance to make up for it since. :)

[@professorpenne9962]

@@jens-kristiantofthansen9376 you sure bet I did 🍻

[@KFKale]

This man's voice is amazing. It really adds to the video, as if wasn't interesting enough, it's nice to have someone with a voice like his to explain it. Great video, nonetheless.

[@chowderstevens9375]

LocJope so true, great voice

[@ifyouloveChristyouwillobeyhim]

Nonetheless? I think the word you were looking for was "anyway".

[@CaptainFlintthePirate]

BEER! Finally you did an episode on beer!

[@chumprock]

Huzzah!

[@vincentperratore4395]

I made my own beer, years ago but where I live now, there's not enough room for my vats and shelves for racking. But, what fun!

[@festungmittlewesten3108]

old fashioned ale & beer make me happy

[@fartzinwind]

One of my favorites is Weihenstephan, which is one of the places claiming oldest operating brewery in the world. They have some good verity, mostly wheat based. They even have it on tap at Gustav's Pub & Grill , at least the one in Vancouver, WA.

[@jshicke]

Stick around for 2 months or so and it will be ready.

[@ggbrady]

As a homebrewer, this is simply amazing! I can't tell you how much I appreciate this!

[@dustinwilliams1286]

Wow!! Thats so fascinating to see how it was done back in the 18th Century. Thank you guys for sharing that with us.

[@TimChuma]

I am not really into beer but shared this with people I know are. They were quite impressed.

[@michaelborgeest1681]

Genesee Country Village is a fabulous way to spend an entire day. Best part is the demonstrations and interpreters

[@PoyoPoyo-qd3ss]

Used to go for the Civil War days. That place is amazing. It's the closest thing I've experienced to using a time machine.

[@Davidsbeenhere]

Very interesting! Great job!

[@rosemcguinn5301]

It doesn't get any better at KZbin than this channel.

[@Masterhow101]

You guys rock, thanks for keeping old methods alive

[@JonEWeaver]

I'm a brewers assistant and it's crazy how not much has changed since then. Awesome!

[@noelwright1165]

No starsan back then!! This is awesome I love how it's just simple good quality beer and made by hand and made the old school way! Good on ya mate!

[@AFraccica]

This is so awesome. I live an hour or so away and never knew they had a historical brewery on site! It's always a treat to see something local pop up in my KZbin feed.

[@vashx21477]

With all the focus you did on brewers yeast for baking and the short clips of this brew house about the brewers yeast. I was really hoping for a video on the full process of brewing in the 18th century, you did not disapoint, this was fantastic.

[@chertmonkey2368]

Bravo!....Well done. Best historical brewing video I have seen yet....You did not disappoint me.How does a pump log work? I've never heard of one before.....

[@mrdanforth3744]

The pump is made of a hollowed out log. The carpenter bored a hole through from end to end. Then made a piston to fit inside, tight enough but not so tight it could not move. The piston has a wooden rod or pole attached, so it will work up and down by the handle. The piston has a hole in it, covered by a piece of leather. The piston is down deep in the well, under the water. When you lift the handle the piston moves down . The water pushes up past leather which is only held on by 1 nail. But once the water goes up it can't run back down because the leather covers the hole. So when you push down the handle the piston is lifted up. In this way each pump of the handle forces a quart of water up the pump. Depending how deep the well is there may be several wooden pipes fitted tight together. In the video you can see a joint near the bottom of the pump. In those days any metal was expensive. Iron and steel were made by hand in small batches. But the whole country was covered in forests. So many things were made of wood that we would make of metal today.

[@mrdanforth3744]

The leather hose was probably made by the town harness maker who knew all about working leather. You can see it is made of a long strip of leather, wrapped around into a tube and riveted together with copper rivets. It is probably sewn tightly together with waxed linen thread, with beeswax in the seam to help seal it up. The rivets for extra reinforcement. They even made leather hose for fire pumps, they would take quite a bit of pressure.

[@WorgenGrrl]

I would love to try a 19th century recipe beer.

[@Itsprincesweets]

Id love ancient roman wine

[@lancehobbs8012]

I brew them ! Guess what, its like a 19th century knife....just the same

[@Bryan-ed6ee]

Dos Equis

[@sandravalani359]

Excellent presentation! I learnt a lot today!!! What is so nice is this is a wonderful natural beer...without any harmful chemicals in it!!! Brian...you are an awesome teacher!☺😊😄

[@pmichael73]

Outstanding video! Few people appreciate how complicated it is and how it is a combination of art and science - real craftsmanship.

[@slimjim5609]

8:22 13% abv beer just in time for Christmas! truly a great time at the tavern.

[@frankvillatoro2331]

Absolutely amazing! I can just imagine going back over 200 years and working there... so historical. Love it!

[@johnm6972]

Hopps was a major crop in western new york back in the day. Believe it or not we learned about it in music class. Because of the Erie canal and all the different comerse many songs were written. I remember dance to the light of the silvery moon. This song was inspired by the harvest of hopes and barley. School students would come from the cities to help with the harvest and spoon with each other.

[@christinaclark9754]

I grew up going to the Genesee Country Museum. Haven't been there in a few years though. I really miss it.

[@charlesbaldo]

I live in Rochester, I have been there many times. You can go in that building and it has a great beer scent. It’s a local treasure.

[@hillbilysquirl]

thanks so much for all your hard work! keep it up! I also am a brewer! and homesteader, I and my family find your Chanel very important and helpful! we have tried many of your recipes and all have been perfect! this is American at its best!

[@lewspeedwagon6330]

This is a great video... I first visited Genesee village about 1987. At that time, they had an original 18th century two story log cabin brewery that had been moved to the village and refurbished... sometime later, it accidentally burned, and was replaced by this reproduction... still a great visit, and I look forward to return...

[@TheDroopYJ]

Genesee village is a really neat place. They have all the building arranged by period starting in the early settlement period of western NY all the way up to the early 1900's. Highly recommend a visit!

[@infoscholar5221]

As a homebrewer, I am continually baffled and amazed that they could make uncontaminated brews in the 1800s and prior years, as I can tell you, the smallest contaminant will skunk your beer and ruin your brew. I'd love to see an episode that delves into explaining this.

[@jmason61]

It is strange how (compared to our modern equipment) everything worked out and didn't leave people sick all the time...I suppose the alcohol is a sort of antibiotic? As for the skunk flavor, I'm sure as long as it got you a beer buzz they'd be drinking it

[@forgenorth1444]

It's great to see the leather hose although I'd like to see more detail of how it's made. I've been wondering what was used in the past before the rubber hoses they use now

[@lochness3224]

Even tho I do not drink ale , this was a very fascinating video to watch, it amazes me how even back then they could make ales/beers, with very few items, and how nowadays everything is computer controlled and involves a lot of machinery.

[@cougarhunter33]

This just feel right. Must be my Bavarian and Scottish blood.

[@drakepatrick3261]

absolutely wonderful

[@beerjudgedan]

As a new home Brewer and experienced winemaker this was the best and most amazing video I've ever seen... adding this place to my bucket list

[@twitchsopamanxx]

This is the only walkthrough on KZbin that i love to watch with commentary.

[@DokterKattenbakvulling]

Fantastic video. The head brewer is a great narrator, he cannot hide his passion! Greetings from Belgium.

[@KevinHorecka]

I was curious about some of the numbers listed in the video so I compared them to what I do when I brew at home. The numbers listed were: -Water, 160 gallons (pre-boil I believe, which raises questions about loss due to boiling) -Grain (Pale, Brown, and Amber Malts as well as Wheat), 250lbs -Hops (no mention of strain or properties), 2lbs Assuming a modest margin for error, this translates to a homebrew batch of: -Water, 5 gallons (post-boil) -Grain, 9lbs -Hops, 1oz Was pleasantly surprised to find that that's about the same as some simple ale recipes I do. This must mean that malting processes and alpha-acid content were fairly similar to what they are now. Some follow up questions: 1. What was the typical throughput during production season per year in drinkable beer? 2. What grain-bill percentages were usually used (so what percent pale, brown, amber, and wheat), how variable were the recipes from run-to-run, and where were the ingredients usually sourced from (especially if you were in a region where hops didn't grow well such as the south)? 3. What sanitation prevention was done for things like the leather hose which is post-boil? 4. What percentage of batches failed due to sanitation issues? 5. Is it true that most beers in the 18th century were likely sour beers, and clean beers are a relatively new invention (thanks to improved sanitation)? Great video! Really enjoyed it.

[@dgracia18]

You know Kevin, I came across a Colonial Ale recipe from the 1700's where they put the wort in a bunch of smaller open fermenters for their primary fermentation. We would never do that now because of so much chance of bacteria or microbes infecting our wort and ruining the beer. Probably just less chance of that in the 1700's and 1800's, at least until after the industrial revolution. I don't believe they were anything like what we know of as "sour beers" now. Certainly the Lambic sour beers depended upon air borne yeasts and microbes but the main thing about sour beers is that they are acidic and I can't see how this example would end up being an acidic beer.

[@CasMullac]

There is logic in putting it in a few smaller batches for primary. If one failed and got infected , they didn't lose the whole batch.

[@dgracia18]

That certainly makes sense although I think it may have been to make it easier for the women to pick up the tubs after they were done. Here's a link to that Colonial Ale article where it's mentioned. It's a pretty interesting read: byo.com/bock/item/479-colonial-ale

[@MrJest2]

+Dan Gracia - I don't think there were any less strains of bacteria or other microorganisms back then than there are now. Just the term "sour" is pretty good evidence that the culprit would usually be the ubiquitous lacto-bacillus, just as it is today in most cases of infected beer. For readers who don't know, this is the bacteria that makes beer taste a bit like sour milk, which is no surprise because it does the same thing to milk. The only difference is that you don't want to drink sour milk, but while it's nasty, there's no reason one can't drink sour beer - nothing harmful can survive in beer, which is why humans drank it almost exclusively for thousands of years. Lacto-bacillus is actually part of normal human fauna, and goes everywhere we go, which is why it's so easy to get infected beer or milk - because humans are handling it. What is interesting to me is that the only significant change in brewing between 200 years ago and today is simply our understanding of microbiology and sanitation. Outside of that, the process is pretty much identical. And all that new understanding gives us is an ability to be consistent, and less infected brew batches - useful for large scale commercial production, but much less important for small scale village or single tavern brewers. Customers pretty much didn't care if the beer flavor changed a bit batch to batch; they were used to it. Particularly, as noted in the video, as brewers would rotate different brew styles throughout the seasons depending on the weather.

[@eddmather9529]

The Alpha Acid % of Hop Varieties of 18Th Century Hops would have been MUCH MUCH LOWER than today , at Ca 2.4 % a/a ; there`s also the factor of storage conditions of the hops , at harvest and throughout the process , until use in brewing , with aged hops having as little as 0.4 % a/a .

[@trentvoc4229]

I was there. Ten years ago I went to GCV&M, Brian was there then and gave the tour of the brewery. GCV&M has their own product they call it Fat Ox Ale. I hear now you can buy it at the concession at the museum. I've never had it, but always wanted to try it

[@NappingWanderer]

This is a gold mine of information for an amateur homebrewer such as myself and Brian Nagel explains this so well! Great video.

[@princesszeldaofhyrule7694]

I love how original these pepole are!

[@tsuruky88]

This was very interesting. Thank you Brian for the great tour of your brewery.

[@mattalley5064]

Wow, would love to try that beer. I imagine its amazing

[@dgracia18]

That was a great video Jon! A couple of side notes about it. To get a small beer, they would do another run through of hot water the same grain that they used for the first one. The first run has a higher gravity, so more fermentable sugars to turn into higher alcohol content (ABV rating). The second runnings are basically rinsing any remaining fermentable sugars out of the grains that didn't make it into the first runnings. So the second running with lower gravity would result in lower alcoholic content and would become "small beer" presuming it was fermented separately. One of the British methods still used by Newcastle Brewery (Newcastle Brown Ale) is to make two separate beers (fermented separately), one dark and one light, and then blend them together to get their final product. In modern home-brewing we combine the two runnings from one batch by draining the wort out from the mash and running more hot water through the grains to get any residual fermentable sugars into our typically small batches (usually about 5-gallons) and ferment them together. I was a little surprised at the "blood temperature" quote of how much to cool the wort before adding (pitching) the yeast. Most yeasts of the period and today can't do anything in 90-100° temperatures. They need to cool down to ~75° before they will start working and if they get cooler than ~64° they stop working until the temp comes back up. Of course, thermometers were not commonly available so temps were always approximated. German "lager" yeasts were quite different (bottom fermenting as opposed to top fermenting) and needed even much cooler temps than yeasts for ales and beers. Lagers were originally only brewed during the Fall and Winter months and took many more months to be ready to drink.

[@michaelstevens2359]

Love everything about beer from taste to how it's brewed. Cheers everyone 🍻

[@kendrickkelly2336]

What a terrific episode...Thanks to the enthusiastic Brian Nagel. I loved the diagrams that explained the process!

[@joshuacurwen4652]

We must keep this man safe 🥺🥺 all of his videos are so pure

[@mysteriousyoungman]

Wonderful video! I have actually wanted to see how brewing was done in the 18th century for a while. Thank you very much for sharing.

[@whatiseeification]

I live about 10 min. from the museum. I have had some of the beer made in that brew house and was awesome.

[@doublea7054]

Great! As a homebrewer i really enjoy the history!

[@ChuckUnderFire]

This is worth a trip to NY (from NC) JUST to taste this beer.

[@corgifloofi4840]

Drank a lot of Genesee while at college in utica NY lol I homebrew now and it's so cool to see how the process is fundamentally unchanged throughout time going back to Sumeria.

[@oooooooooooo1802]

Except that in Sumeria most brewers were women. Even in medieval Europe it was traditionally a female profession until the Black Plague years -- in fact, beer brewing was one of very few ways how an unmarried young woman could earn her living in those days. After the Black Plague, though, men formed brewing guilds and pushed the competing women from this occupation by propaganda along the lines of "When women brew beer it gives them a source of income, resulting in too much independence and ultimately makes them promiscuous and sinful."

[@Zimph_]

That's really amazing to see early industrial processes in brewing large batches of beer. Do you have any beer recipies from the 18th century to share? Specifically small batches that would be feasible for homebrewers? It would also be really cool to see you do one of these recipes if they exist. Thanks for the great content!

[@johnstevenson1709]

There's lots of historic recipes on Ron pattinsons blog shut up about Barclay Perkins plus lots of beer and brewing history

[@klausbernkopf2386]

Excellent video and explanation about historical brewing techniques. I wish I would have seen that before I went to NY last year.

[@ericbeltrami2718]

One of my fav episodes.

[@Grubbyfoot]

He mentioned using a hydrometer to test the alcohol content; would these have been common back then? They seem like quite a delicate precision instrument, and mine all feel super fragile (I have a couple of old ones as well as the modern one I use for homebrewing). In case anyone was wondering, a hydrometer is a weighted glass stick marked in a similar way to a thermometer that you can use to measure density of liquid; the higher it floats, the denser the liquid. As sugar is turned into alcohol some mass is released (as CO2) and so the liquid becomes less dense, and so you can work out how much alcohol has been produced by comparing before & after readings.

[@yves-170]

This video is amazing! Keep up the good work.

[@michaels9213]

Very interesting, as a brewer of 20 years I would have guessed that they would have used at least some decoction for such a lengthy single infusion mash - especially in the cold months. i do marvel at being able to reach into the strike water and say "yeah, that's about right" without a thermometer. The addition of sugar must have been important because i can't imagine that they could have had very good mash efficiency, which is why i would have thought a german decoction method would have been employed.

[@willschmit436]

In a way, they are actually step mashing. When the kettle gets "just right", he starts dipping the mash water. Because it is continuing to heat, the mash goes through an acid rest (just right), and continues to heat as the dipper continues to pass hot water down the pipe. It would be at 160 by the time the last dipper fell. The enzymes would have been developing through the process, and would be just below the denaturing temperature. You are right - dipping from the mash to the kettle, and back would have been decoction (a German or Czech method), but that would have employed a fire below, and the mash and kettle to be on the same elevation.

[@modelmanjohn]

I'm always fascinated by things like this. I always wonder how people even THINK up of the process to do things like this!

[@Efferheim]

I want to like this video twice, I adore traditions of brewing!

[@jacobishii6121]

Hops is not only to balance the sweet from the sugar/grains.....hops also helps preserve the beer longer.

[@Red66-VYCM]

so interesting to see... I live in Rochester, quite close to there, and have actually been inside that building myself. so neat to see a place i recognize in a video!!!

[@johnnyjoestar7553]

1:47 I don't know why, but I get dark souls boss vibes from this man.

[@OswegoWriter]

I'm at the other end of Seneca Lake; I guess I'll have to stop by this summer.

[@worseto1]

Beautiful

[@mr.robert2507]

Outstanding. I always wondered how they made beer in those days. I'm still curious how they were able to keep things sterile. I'm a craft brewer and if anyone ever told me I could use a leather hose, I would have thought them crazy! Again, congratulations on a excellent video.

[@oooooooooooo1802]

I suspect that the trick here is that they pitch with a yeast colony that has been sustained live and active long-term and they pitch in large quantities -- probably what today's brewers would call "overpitching". This gives the yeast plenty of head-start to outcompete and dominate whatever bacteria in the wort. Another possible trick is to use more aggressive yeast strains -- in fact, even now there are yeast strains ("killer yeast") that are especially efficient in killing bacteria. In contrast, today the brewers pitch with small amounts of a starter comprised of yeast that were only recently revived from a dry state. For this reason, weak yeast colony in low numbers can only outcompete bacteria if there were not too many bacteria to begin with. And the yeast strains used today are breeded for their specific beer-making qualities (foam production, added flavour (e.g. fruitiness), nitrogen requirements), not their proficiency in killing bacteria.

[@fisheatinweasel]

Greetings from Valparaiso! I recently watched your presentations on pemican. One of the things that struck me as odd was the use of spring berries. These fruits would not be available in fall, during mass harvest of large game. One fruit that is in abundance during October is spicebush berry, Lindera benzoin. These berries supposedly contain substantial quantities of benzoic acid, a well-known preservative. Was this property known by the natives and early settlers, and was it used in pemican or other cached foods? Thank you!

[@Unclesmokey314]

Old/Strong Ales and Barleywines.... be still my heart..

[@loveinthelandfill1124]

Without sanitizer how were the folks in old days brewed beer?

[@jessejames6991]

that brewmaster was so cool!

[@llantup]

This has been fascinating! Thank you very much for presenting it!

[@Jartisann]

Excellent. Excellent!

[@Baldmaxx]

That was really neat! Jon, your channel just keeps getting better and better. 😉🖒

[@exodusfivesixfivesix8050]

I want to try some of that beer. Prolly go up there in spring.

[@dcavic6157]

Wow, quite amazing how they did it and still do. If the power goes out ill make sure to do this note by note haha.

[@timengland3649]

I don't know anything about brewing beer but this was fascinating!

[@hlynnkeith9334]

Outstanding!

[@harkjohnny]

Massively informative and fun to watch - great production and wealth of historical brewing knowledge. Well done on all levels. Cheers!

[@rafntumble]

Now this was an extremely interesting video.

[@turksandwich7538]

Five seconds in, and I'm giving this video a thumbs up!

[@lancehobbs8012]

I gave it at the title

[@wevikings1790]

What a interesting place thanks for sharing.

[@Maluhia808]

WeVikings I wish Americans were more people like these guys :)

[@samhaspowers]

In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens implied that in the eighteenth century it was more sociably acceptable to drink in excess in the eighteenth century than in the nineteenth century. I've also read that on the Mayflower(17th century), each person was allotted one gallon of beer to drink per day. How much alcohol was drunk daily for people in the eighteenth century? Did this amount change based on water quality?

[@pilsplease7561]

that was also due to the fact that beer was safer than water because its sterile. Whereas water could get you sick

[@aucuneideejsp8891]

Beautiful images ! Loved to visit your brewery❤

[@davidroy3679]

I just Love beers

[@nathanfischer4050]

How could one simply dislike this

[@ocrun6765]

Why would anyone downvote this?

[@ice9tom]

Fascinating

[@jackkerouac8439]

Great video, very interesting!!!! We will definitely stop by to check out the brewery, looks awesome!

[@EddyGurge]

You guys really find some fantastic people to do these. Bravo!

[@efraim3364]

he didnt specify how he cultivated his yeast, a lot of brewers back then used wild yeast as opposed to keeping a starter on hand

[@Cellblock1138]

Often they'd pitch in "finished" beer, that is, beer that had already completed the fermentation process. Alternately to restart the season each year some brewers would keep their "special" brew paddle drying in the rafters. It'd keep the yeast from the prior year. They'd use it to stir the grain and wort and that would inoculate they wort with the yeast. Neither option was ideal by today's standards, but it did the trick.

[@jshicke]

They would also sell some of the 'claussen', the foam that collects on top, and sell it for people making bread to use.

[@efraim3364]

PCShogun yeah that was common practice. what im interested is if they used wild yeast as opposed to reusing the same type. Some Brewers would leave the wort exposed to the night air and let whatever yeast came along ferment it, i know some brewers today who do that and it produces some very interesting flavors

[@jshicke]

I know Lambic was made with open top fermenters which allowed wild yeast in. Before brewers knew about yeast, it was fermented due to the yeast that had settled into the pores of the barrel wood, but that typically made a weak watery beer. I had always believed that a small amount of the previous batch was put into the new batch, like a sour dough starter, to ferment the next batch. A commercial brewer would want consistency in the product and not be willing to accept the random chance of wild yeast strains. Further, if wild yeast can blow in, so can bacteria, and that makes all the difference between tasty sparkling ale,or sparkling pond water, in your kegs.

[@MayorOfEarth79]

Wild yeast can be gained from a number of resources, but it's very possible they could have used bread yeast as well.

[@Nebelung13]

Awesome episode.

[@EudaemoniusMarkII]

Really great video. This great bear of a host was also delightful!

[@cawfeedawg]

im totally jealous of this guys job!

[@noaharthurbradley8726]

Wow thank you for your work.

[@Granite]

This is great.

[@preetdatta5353]

Actually boiling at High temperature no contamination and natural water sources great soft water from spring were used. Tanks were wooden kasks and alcohol and steam sanitation used hot water cleaning. Some specific Yeast was used.. wooden kasks sealed were dipped in chilled cold ice waters and salts and

[@bludmakesgrassgrow]

This guy is great!

[@CapitanFantasma1776]

Fantastic! Thanks!

[@justinlay2092]

making beer is very safe. in fact some home/small batch brews are healthier because there are many more vitamins and minerals in them. this is mainly because the modern process eliminates much of the wort during racking. furthermore beer/wine/liquor was only safe liquid to drink the alcohol in the them prevents/kills many bacterium and fungi that existed in fresh water.

[@shawnrusselld]

if you get a chance you need to check out Carillon Brewery in Dayton. It's a period specific brewry and they got some good stuff