A talk by the well-known scientist now traveling in the United States.
As published in the American Brewers’ Review – July 20, 1896
Professor Henri Van Laer, the well-known Belgian specialist on fermentation, paid a visit to the office of the AMERICAN BREWERS’ REVIEW a few days ago, being engaged on a tour of the United States for the purpose of studying various points of the American methods of brewing. The brewers’ associations of Brussels and Ghent have charged him with looking into the use of corn in the brewing trade, the distilling business and the manufacture of glucose. At the same time, he has some private missions with reference to the study of American top-fermentation beers and intends to address American brewers in the interest of the Kühn process of pasteurization in casks.
Prof. Van Laer talked entertainingly and instructively about the beers of his native country and the peculiar conditions of the brewing trade in Belgium, his conversation being set down in the following:
Belgium has between 2,600 and 2,800 breweries, all of them small. A big brewery is one that works 100 tons of malt per year.
There are three kinds of beer produced. First, lager beers of the Pilsen and Munich types; secondly, the top-fermentation beers, which are the most common; thirdly, the spontaneous fermentation beers of Brussels, which are made without any pitching with yeast at all.
The lager beer breweries are very few, only about 15. The most important firms under this head are Wieleman-Ceuppens, of Brussels; Artois, of Loewen; Caulier frères, of Brussels; Loeklberg, of Brussels.
The processes used are the same as in Germany for Pilsen and Munich beers, except that no raw grain at all is used. The beers of the Pilsen type are generally very good, but the Munich beers brewed in Belgium cannot be compared to those of Germany in point of quality. They cannot get the peculiar taste of the Geran Munich beers because the malt is not prepared properly. They make two qualities, one called “Bock,” the other “petite Bavière.” The “Bock” has an original gravity of 14 Balling, the “petite Bavière” from 8 to 9. The lager beer, for the most part, goes to the public houses and is kept on draught, but is also bottled for family use. The big brewers supply the public houses with ice, so that their profit is very small. The lager breweries have no Hansen pure yeast apparatus. All the pure yeast used in Belgium comes from German breweries which have pure yeast plants. Competition is very great in Brussels between the lager beer brewers.
The most common beer is the top-fermentation kind. The malts used for this beer are not of very good quality. They are germinated too fast and are not kept in the dry-kiln long enough. Very few substitutes for malt are used. In the Walloon part of the country some glucose is used, about 10 to 20 per cent of the malt. Some breweries in the same district use Indian corn and rice, but in ratios not exceeding 20 per cent. A great number of Belgian brewers who tried raw grain gave it up again and now work only malt.
The hops used are generally of Belgian growth, from Aalst and Poperinghe, the former being better. Some German, Californian, and English (Kent) hops are also consumed.
The beers made from these materials are brewed in at very different gravities. In the Liège district the original gravity is 6-7 Balling. In the Charleroi district the gravity is a little greater, going to 8-9 B. In Brussels it is 10 B, in the Flemish parts of the country between 10 and 15 B. For instance, in Ghent they have la simple, of 10 B; la double, of 14 B, and la triple ou speciale, of 15 B. or more.
The mashing process is very different according to the different breweries. The general method is called the système mixte. This is an intermediary process between infusion and decoction. The water is heated to 36o R. before the malt is added. They make a thick mash, run it into the copper, boil it, and return into the mash tub. The final temperature is very variable, from 52-60o R. Some establishments employ the English infusion system, other the German decoction method. The wort in the copper is generally heated by direct fire. Most of the Belgian brewers consider the use of steam for that purpose dangerous.
The worts are cooled in the ordinary way by being left on the surface cooler overnight. Most of the top fermentation breweries have no refrigeration.
The most peculiar feature of the manufacture of this beer is the mode of fermentation. The worts are pitched with yeast in a special vessel called cuve quilloire, at a temperature of about 14.5o C. Immediately after pitching and stirring, the wort with the yeast goes into the shipping casks. These casks are disposed in line on scaffoldings (chantiers) under which are placed shallow vessels to receive the yeast. A few hours after the wort has reached the casks, fermentation sets in. First, some scum works out, then the yeast rises and flows from the top of the cask, runs down on the outside of the cask and drops into the pan below. The vacant space created above the fluid in the cask is filled up by the beer which has been carried out of the cask with the yeast. Fermentation is finished two to three days after pitching. At that time the beer is not bright. It is fined by different means. Some add a small quantity of finings which sink to the bottom. In other cases, the finings are expelled at the top. The most common fining used is isinglass dissolved in tartaric or sulphurous acid. As soon as the beer has been clarified the cask is closed and goes on the market. It is only in the Flemish parts that they make stock beers, which are brewed in winter, fermented as described, and then put in big casks until they are quite bright and until they have acquired the taste of old beer. They are kept at ordinary temperature and, in the summer, mixed with young beer.
In Louvain they make a white beer that is quite similar to the Berliner Weissbier, but fermented differently. In Berlin they ferment it in vats, while the Belgians ferment theirs in casks. The casks are se on end, the yeast coming out through the tap on top. The attenuation of this beer is very small. It is quite cloudy when it is drawn and served.
Another type of top-fermentation beer is called la Diest, a very brown beer for which a great quantity of molasses is used. Generally, in the Walloon part of the country, the beers are primed before the casks are closed. For priming glucose, cane sugar, dexvert (a specially prepared mixture of invert sugar and glucose), maltose, etc., are used.
The Belgian top-fermentation yeasts are very different from the English top-fermentation yeasts. The Belgian yeasts ferment very quickly and give a less degree of attenuation than the English. The English yeasts ferment more slowly. The top-fermentation yeasts of Belgium may be divided into three classes: first, the ordinary top-fermentation yeast used in the whole country except the Liege district; secondly, the pure composite yeast produced by the sociètè anonyme des ferments purs which is also used in the whole country except for the Liège district; thirdly, the Liège district yeast. This yeast has this peculiar characteristic that it gives only a very small attenuation, reducing the gravity from 6 B to 3.5 B. The sociètè anonyme is also starting to give a pure composite yeast for this district.
There is a peculiar taste to these beers. The taste of the top fermentation beers is quite different, both from the lager and the English beers. It can be said generally that the predominating taste is a bitter one except in the Flemish district where the beers are a little acid because they are mixed with stock beers. In some towns the people like very young beer. In other towns they like very acid beers. But we can say that the number of acid beers diminishes every year, people taking more to the young beer.
The most peculiar beer of the country is that produced by spontaneous fermentation. This beer is made without any additions of yeast at all. The wort when cooled is run directly into casks where it ferments by itself. This beer is made only in the Brussels district. It is called Mars, Faro, and Lambic. The Mars is a beer of little gravity, the Lambic is of high gravity, the Faro is of medium gravity. The worts of these beers are made with 40 to 50 per cent of raw wheat mixed with barley malt. The mixture is put into the mash tun, water is run in, and then a part of the mixture goes into the copper where it is saccharified at a high temperature. Then it goes back into the mash tub so as to have a temperature of about 52o R. Another part of the mash is taken to the copper and then returned to the mash tub at 56o R. A third time part of the mash is taken to the copper and returned so as to make the temperature 60o R. This wort is very dextrinous. When it has cooled it is run at once into casks. There it ferments under the influence of the wild yeasts which are contained in the wood. The casks are disposed one of the other and communicate with the air through a very small hold. Fermentation becomes noticeable two, three days, sometimes a week after the wort has been introduced into the cask, depending upon the temperature of the cellar. A black, thick fluid oozed out through the little hole. After about two weeks of fermentation this hole is closed up by itself owing to the thick fluid drying and becoming solid. The beer then is left for two, three, or even 5 years. It is brewed only in winter, from October to April. Every year when summer comes this beer begins to work again. After two years is remains still. The brewer goes and samples the casks, and if the beer is very bright, if the taste is clean and as the customers like it, it is taken out and run into the shipping casks.
The beer so obtained is very acid, containing great quantities of lactic and acetic acid. The very acid Lambic is bottled and keeps very long. It is called gueuse Lambic. These beers are often seasoned with sugar. Then you have a drink that is both sour and sweet, and the old Brussels people like it very much. There is, of course, no uniformity in the beer, even the different casks in the same brewery often being different in character. In many cases, after the first year the beer is ropy, which to many Brussels brewers is a very good sign, saying that a Faro, Mars, and Lambic which has been ropy gives the best beer and is more appreciated. This beer is not found in the great cafès but in the old Flemish public houses, of which there are a great number reputed for the quality of their spontaneous beer. In the places one can meet the best people of Brussels in the evening, where they drink for or five gueuses Lambics and smoke their big Dutch pipes.
This spontaneous fermentation is a remnant of the ancient ways of beer brewing. The early brewers made barley wine as they made their grape wine. The wort was simply put in the cask and left to ferment.
There are in Belgium two principal brewing schools. One is in Louvain, being attached to the Catholic university and having a denominational character. It is directed by Prof. Vuylsteke. The students spend three years there and received diplomas as ingènieurs brasseurs. The second place is the Institut supèrieur de brasserie de Gant. This school was founded ten years ago by the sociètè des brasseurs pour L’enseignement professionel. It is the official school of the Belgian brewers’ societies. The expenses are divided between the government, the municipality of Ghent, and province of Flandres oriental, and the brewer’s associations. The school contains three sections. One is for workmen, who have one year’s study, lectures being given alternately in Flemish and French every Sunday, free of charge. The second section is for maitres brasseurs, one years’ study. The studies are quite professional and intended for brewery owners and their sons. The third section is for ingènieurs brasseurs, two years’ study. Here the students receive a thorough scientific and practical education. This school is under the direction of Prof. Van Laer.
nota bene oR is degrees Réaumur – an obsolete French scale with 0 as freezing and 80 as the boiling point of water.
36o R = 113 F / 45 C
52o R = 149 F / 65 C
56o R = 158 F / 70 C
60o R = 167 F / 75 C
Crescent City Brew Talk 