DFH Alehouse 2009
A few British breweries continue to use brewing systems dating from the early 1800s . These days most breweries used closed fermenting vessels but these British systems harken back to the days of open fermenters, which are still used by several American breweries including Shipyard Brewing and Geary’s in Maine.
Samuel Smith Brewery in Tadcaster, Yorkshire uses Yorkshire Squares, slate squares cut from Welsh quarries; Brakspear Brewery in Henley-On-Thames uses a double dropping system to separate the yeast during the brewing process, and Marston’s Brewery in Burton-Upon-Trent brews in Burton Unions, the original system for making pale ales which has an unusual system of wooden casks linked by pipes and troughs called unions.
Samuel Smith, the oldest brewery in Yorkshire, draws its brewing water from the original 85 foot well, sunk when the site was established in 1758. The yeast strain used in the fermentation process, which has adapted to Yorkshire Squares, has been used continuously since approximately 1900 - one of the oldest unchanged strains. The strain does not fully ferment the wort sugars, resulting in a relatively full bodied beer.
The Yorkshire Squares are double decked, open fermenters built with a porthole between the upper and lower fermenters. This construction allows the yeast to bubble up through the porthole where the excess yeast is skimmed off. This skimming is repeated several times during the fermentation process. These beers also are known for their thick, creamy heads. Samuel Smith is among the minority of breweries in the world which uses whole hop flowers, rather than processed, pelletized hops, in their brewing. The main U.S. craft breweries using whole hop flowers are Sierra Nevada in California and Deschutes in Oregon.
Brakspear Brewery in Henley, England, the town of the renowned rowing regatta, originated double dropping system for making ales. The brewery was founded in 1711 and moved to Henley in 1812. During the early 20th century this was the most used method for brewing English ales. This system requires a two-tiered brewhouse which proved to be expensive to construct and so the method fell out of favor.
During the double dropping process the wort is fermented in the upper chamber, typically for about 16 hours, and then gravity dropped into the lower chamber where fermentation continues. The process has two primary effects. The dropping from the upper vessel leaves behind dead yeast and haze forming proteins, leaving a cleaner beer and yeast for later fermentation. Dropping also aerates the wort, resulting in a clean yeast growth and more complex flavors, some of which Brakspear attributes its very old, specialized yeast strain.
Brakspear beers are now produced using the original Henley equipment which has been moved to the Wychwood Brewery in Witney, North Oxfordshire, owned by Refresh UK.
Marston’s Brewery is also the only remaining brewer in England to use Burton Union Sets; a system whereby wooden fermentation barrels and copper troughs are linked together by a complex system of copper and brass pipework. The unions were developed in Burton-on-Trent in the 19th century to cleanse the new pale ales of yeast but Marston’s is the only remaining brewery in England using unions in an enormous space called "The Cathedral of Brewing." In the U.S., Firestone Walker Brewery in Paso Robles, CA uses a similar "Firestone Union" process originally constructed from used wine barrels.
In the union system, the fermenting wort and yeast, as they heat, rise up through swan necked tubes into the overhead troughs. The wort runs back into the casks but the yeast is trapped. This prevents excessive beer and yeast loss through foaming, and allows the beer to be in contact with more wood and in contact with the beer in the linked casks which results in a more consistent flavor.
These remaining, unique English brewing systems provide flavorful beers that can still be enjoyed everywhere, along with American counterparts that use similar systems.