[Beer Lecture] Chapter 11. It’s all About Water
Historical period: the 18th century CE
Scene of Action: Burton upon Trent
This is the Chapter 11 of my free book on beer and brewing history.
In the beginning of the 18th century, London was the world’s brewing capital by a vast margin. Hansa hadn’t recovered after the Thirty Years’ War of 1618–1648; the Netherlands, which was severed by the wars of religion even stronger than the League, at the end of the 17th century had rebuilt its economics, but not the brewing industry — because of multiple reasons, from high taxes to the grape wine and strong alcohol expansion throughout Northern Europe. The growing popularity of porter strengthened London’s superiority even further.
However, closer to the end of the 18th century, Londoners got an unexpected (and initially barely visible) competitor: the small town of Burton located on the banks of the Trent river, which population was mere 1800 citizens in 1710. Burton was well-known for its beer since the Middle Ages, but since it was quite far from trade routes, this popularity never exceeded its direct vicinity. The situation changed in 1712 when the Parliament extended the navigation on Trent from the port of Hull down to Burton.
The first commercial (e.g. not related to some local pub) brewery was opened in Burton by Benjamin Printon in 1708. With the trade possibilities expansion, other establishments emerged, including those by Benjamin Wilson (which later passed to Wilson’s great-nephew, Samuel Allsopp), William Worthington, and William Bass[1].
The opening of the river trade coincided with another important factor: the growing interest in English beer from the Baltic states, namely Poland and the Russian Empire. It is said that Peter the Great of Russia had brought from England that he visited at the end of the 17th century the love for English beer. No reliable source on the matter survived, and Peter in his own vigorous way had, first of all, established the beer industry in Russia itself. However, the maritime trade was growing, accelerating further towards the end of the century. Imports to Russia, the majority of which were controlled by Burton, comprised 100 thousand liters in 1750 and more than 1.5 million liters in 1775[2].
Burtoners owed this expansion to water: first, the River Trent that gave access to British ports; second, the unique qualities of local water sources. Burton’s water was hard and rich in calcium and magnesium sulfates. It turned out that this water suited brewing exceptionally well, stimulating the growth of yeasts and allowing for intensive hopping. Burton beer was more carbonated and much more clear than the London one (and it also got the unique ‘Burton snatch’ — the fleeting ‘aroma’ of sulfur that occurred shortly after pouring).
It’s interesting
London brewers were struggling to solve the puzzle of Burton water, and finally developed the ‘burtonisation’ process of enriching water with sulfates.
Yet another factor that contributed to the development of the brewing industry as a whole (and the Burton one in particular) was the spread of pale malts. England had been struggling with the wood shortage for decades and had converted to using coal quite early. One problem: coal might be used for heating wort, but not for kilning as the sulfur smell of burning coal was considered unacceptable[3]. As a result, malt was dried over expensive wood, even more expensive straw, or the best Wales anthracite, the supply of which was limited.
In 1603, Hugh Plat got a patent for his invention of producing coke from coal, analogous to the production of charcoal from wood. For some time, the invention remained unnoticed until the malt makers employed it in 1640s. Coke demonstrated extraordinary qualities: first, it produces no fumes; second, it burns in a much more controllable manner in terms of fire temperature. Because of those, in controllable low-temperature conditions, brewers were able to produce malt that was not ‘smoked’[4]; this malt was called ‘pale’, and the resulting beer, ‘pale ale’.
Pale malt has a huge advantage over darker malts: it contains more sugars, which allows for more effective beer production (and the taste of the resulting beverage is much clearer as yeasts might break down a higher proportion of chemical compounds dissolved in wort). This fact was likely not known to brewers until the saccharometer (e.g. the sugar concentration measuring device) was invented; and if it was known, it would still make a little impact as coke initially was too expensive for commercial brewing. Pale ales were mostly produced in the households of wealthy gentry in Northern England.
Let us stress out that malt will be ‘dark’ or ‘pale’ depending on the temperature it was dried at. Technically, it’s possible to produce ‘pale’ malt in a wooden kiln (though it would still be ‘smoked’, e.g. dark in color). Making pale (and even non-smoked) malt was very much possible before the invention of coke, but required much more effort. Let’s just say that making brown malt required thrice less time[5].
It’s interesting
The Netherlands started suffering from the lack of wood even earlier than England. However, instead of inventing coke, the Dutch just switched to using peat. You might imagine the taste of Dutch beer in the 16th century.
Those two factors, namely hard water and pale malt, led to the birth of the ‘Burton Ale’, which was a thick, strong, intensively hopped sweet beer. It was not literally pale: malt was additionally roasted or caramelized. Today, we would call this beer ‘amber’.
The history of Burton Ale consists of rises and falls, half a century in-between each. The period of prosperity based on the Baltic trade did not last long. In 1783, Russian authorities imposed a 300 percent tax on beer imports; then went the continental blockade of Napoleonian time and the annexation of Poland by Russia, which had closed the Polish market for English brewers. Finally, in 1822, a new Russian customs tariff was introduced that effectively banned all sorts of imports (including beer) from Britain. As a result, at the beginning of the 19th century, the Burton brewing industry deteriorated (four out of 15 breweries were closed, several others sold[6]) — just to make the rebirth from the ashes (story of which we will tell in the next chapter) even more spectacular.
After the sales were rerouted to other markets, Burton Ale of the middle-to-end 19th century became exquisitely pale (it’s hard to tell what was the difference between ‘Burton Ale’, ‘old ale’, and ‘barleywine’ of that period), but in the early 20th century the pendulum swung in the opposite direction: the public adored dark caramel beers once again, and Burton Ale (in its original dark sweet form) gained its popularity anew. It was so popular that in the British Air Force there was a euphemism for those who had not returned from the mission — ‘gone for Burton’[7].
The 1960s proved to be disastrous for Burton Ale: it disappeared almost overnight.
How to taste
The only Burton Ale that survived the 20th century is ‘Winter Warmer’ by Young. Other renowned examples of the style are ‘1845’ by Fuller’s and Ballantine Burton Ale, production of which was restored based on the surviving recipes, and also Marston’s Owd Rodger and Theakston’s Old Peculier. And of course, there are craft versions.
References
- 1 Webster, I. (2018), pp. 7–9, 19
- 2 ibid, pp. 9–10
- 3 https://www.beeretseq.com/where-theres-smoke-theres-pale-ale/
- 4 Cornell, M. Burton: NOT the first place in the world to brew pale beers
https://zythophile.co.uk/2009/11/26/burton-not-the-first-place-in-the-world-to-brew-pale-beers/ - 5 Pattinson, R. Mid-18th Century Malting
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2009/09/mid-18th-century-malting.html - 6 Webster, I. (2018), p. 29
- 7 Cornell, M. (2010), p. 43