Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures
- Principal Dramatis Personae
- Introduction
- 1 The Curious Brewer
- 2 The Theorist and the Thermometer
- 3 Brewery Instructors in Public and Private
- 4 The Value of Beer
- 5 Chemists, Druggists and Beer Doctors
- 6 Professors in the Brewhouse
- 7 Treatises for the Trade
- 8 Analysis and Synthesis
- Conclusion
- Glossary
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Introduction
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures
- Principal Dramatis Personae
- Introduction
- 1 The Curious Brewer
- 2 The Theorist and the Thermometer
- 3 Brewery Instructors in Public and Private
- 4 The Value of Beer
- 5 Chemists, Druggists and Beer Doctors
- 6 Professors in the Brewhouse
- 7 Treatises for the Trade
- 8 Analysis and Synthesis
- Conclusion
- Glossary
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
Though the art of brewing is undoubtedly a part of chemistry, and certainly depends upon fixed and invariable principles as well as every other branch of that science, these principles have never yet been thoroughly investigated. For want of a settled theory, therefore, the practice of this art is found to be precarious; and to succeed unaccountably with some, and misgive as unaccountably with others.
This is a book about credibility. Its characters are the many researchers who, across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, tried to address beer-brewing in ways they called ‘theoretical’, ‘philosophical’ or ‘scientific’. It is easy to imagine why such approaches were not always taken seriously. We are used to thinking of scientific investigators performing systematic experiments, searching for universal explanations in nature and communicating their findings on paper, usually by open publication. The craft and trade of beer-brewing conjures up an opposing set of ideas: down-to-earth artisans, mistrustful of theorists and tinkering; local customs of production, fiercely guarded from outsiders; skills passed down to a chosen few apprentices by hands-on experience. Nevertheless, a credible and coherent enterprise of brewing science existed by around 1880, the work both of theorists from outside the brewery, and of established brewers with theories of their own.
Credibility, for all investigators, meant showing that their claims were not merely valid, but actively useful to some relevant audience.
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- Information
- Brewing Science, Technology and Print, 1700–1880 , pp. 1 - 10Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014