The History of Beer III – Medieval Europe 4: Technology

I’ve always found technology far more interesting than economics, which explains why I desire new shiny gizmos more often than I can afford (or need) them. Anyway, it’s time to look at some medieval brewing technology and the progress that was made. Most of the changes were gradual, the entire process being somewhat iterative, but they were vital for increasing production scale, quality, and consistency – modern fast food has only managed two out of three of these so there must be something we can learn.

The Evolution of Brewing Equipment: Pots, kettles, and tuns of fun

As we saw earlier, medieval started as a domestic activity, and as such used whatever pots and pans the particular household already had. As brewing became more specialised, so did the equipment dedicated to it. This is a phenomenon that any keen hobbyist will be familiar with whereby as your interest in a topic increases, so does your need/desire for increasingly obscure and expensive equipment even if your budget doesn’t. Anyway, the innovations were deemed crucial and the kogelpotten¹ were born. These large, spherical, er… pots were capable of holding up to 100 liters or more. As well as allowing for the efficient heating of water, some also sprouted spouts for use in filtration.

The next major advancement was the development of metal vessels, with copper and iron being the materials of choice. Not only were these more efficient, they were also more hygienic, which was important as while the people of the time held their own cleanliness in low regard, they did recognise its importance for good beer².

*Image 1: The middle-ages, dirty people, clean beer*

This isn’t to say that wood went out of fashion, it was still popular and was used in increasingly elaborate and sophisticated ways, mostly for the large wooden tuns that were used for mashing and fermentation, and which allowed the wort to be separated from the detritus of grain. While these did increase in size to meet the needs of commercial brewing, it was the arrival of copper kettles at the tail end of the 13^th century and thicker, riveted kettles in the 15^th century that truly led to industrial scale brewing as these vessels could hold 1,000 litres or more³.

People weren’t happy to stop there though; they wanted to beat the sun at its own game when it came to malting with the creation of specialised malting ovens or kilns. Evolving from crude furnaces to complex apparatus with perforations allowing hot air and smoke to pass over and through the grain, these ovens gave brewers the control needed to make different types of malt, and thereby distinct styles of beer.

*Image 2: Kilns gave greater control over colour and flavour*

Despite the control that kilns brought to the malting process, temperature regulation was still a significant obstacle during the actual fermentation of the beer⁴. Brewers were forced to rely on their own experience, seasonal temperatures, and the ambient conditions of their brewing spaces. If they lived in the 21^st century they would claim to be using heuristics and producing beers in harmony with nature, but PR and marketing hadn’t been invented at the time, so they persisted in trying to overcome these limitations. Unfortunately, other than the introduction of bottom-fermentation and lagering in the 15^th century, they were at somewhat of an impasse as they waited for technology to catch up with their precision temperature control needs⁵.

More Wood! Storage, Transport, and Coopers

If there is one piece of brewing technology that has stood the test of time, it is the cask. While more intricately connected with transport and logistics, it was the cask that made trade in beer possible. As we saw earlier, beer was initially stored in earthenware, but this had been replaced for the most part by 300AD. Casks were, in the words of Daft Punk, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger; or put another way more space efficient, easier to handle, and more durable.

*Image 3: Casks are popular due to their superior durability, better volumetric efficiency, and relative ease of handling*

Although a variety of woods, such as birch and fir, were also used by Celtic coopers, oak was and still is the wood of choice thanks to its strength, workability, and the subtle (or not so subtle, yes, New World vintners, I am looking at you) flavours it imparts⁶.

Cooperage and coopers became essential to the beer industry as it expanded. Casks had to not only keep the beer in, but also keep out contamination in order to prevent spoilage during long journeys. The growth of the industry was intrinsically linked to refinements in cask technology, for while the adoption of hops made beer stable enough to withstand long journeys, this was only beneficial if the casks could ensure that the beer would complete the journey unharmed. The largest of casks were known as tuns (I finally managed to get the heading into the body) and were able to be combined with dunnage – loose planks and wedges – to efficiently store beer on ships and wagons.

So, we see that there was a deep synergy in the co-evolution of brewing process technology and logistics technology. This synergy transformed beer from being a local product to a global commodity, and we see the effects of this to this day in the form of multinational brands and global taste preferences.