One day, in 1876, a beer nerd sat down to write a book called “Studies on Beer”. He explained in the introduction that he was driven by the misfortunes of his nation - that he had carried out his research as fast as he could after a recent humiliating military defeat, and he hoped that this would strengthen his country’s domestic industry and so enable it to hold its head up high against the enemy.
Yes, let’s have a good snigger at such an apparently capricious enterprise. But the name of this oddball.... Er, none other than Louis Pasteur.
Pasteur had form when it came to applying his scientific talents to alcohol. He had previously written “Studies on Wine”, complete with a sycophantic tribute to his royal patron Napoleon III in the introduction. (He did some stuff about germs and the like as well, but this is not the subject that we are addressing today). Then, in 1870, France was humiliated in the war with Prussia and Napoleon deposed. The French gave us the word “malaise” and they were certainly feeling it back then. But there was one area of German advantage that he could do something about - the brewing of beer, “dans laquelle”, he lamented, “l’Allemagne nous est superieure”.
Pasteur’s great contribution, as the great microbiologist that he was, was to understand yeast and fermentation. He established ways in which this process, which had been something of a lottery, could be applied consistently. This revolutionised the mass production of beer around Europe. Pasteur’s work enabled Emil Hansen to develop a yeast that was perfect for making Pilsner, and it was duly named “saccharomyces carlsbergensis” after his employers. The young Gerard Heineken was another person for whom Pasteur was the enabler.
The ghosts of various German alewives must have stirred at this point, as Pasteur had proved that their allegedly having muttered something was not the cause of a bad batch, and burning them as witches had therefore been a waste of wood (see "The Beer Witch Project" https://www.londonbiermeister.co.uk/blog/the-beer-witch-project-march-2021). Better late than never, I suppose.
A great British supporter of Pasteur was Henry Younger, scion of the Edinburgh brewing dynasty of that name. Pasteur duly visited Edinburgh in 1884, and Youngers laid on a special train carriage to convey him into Waverley Station. Youngers, together with Ushers distillery, ended up endowing a Chair of Public Health for him at Edinburgh University. Which shows that the sheer brass neck of the alcohol industry in associating themselves with public health campaigns is not new.
While we are on the subject of scientists and alcohol, let us return for a moment to Russia (see "When you wish upon a Tsar" https://www.londonbiermeister.co.uk/blog/when-you-wish-upon-a-tsar-january-2021) and address the myth that Dimitry Mendeleev invented modern vodka to the “Russian Standard”. The claim to this effect on various vodka labels does not seem to have any basis in fact. It was true that Mendeleev’s 1865 doctoral dissertation was entitled “a discourse on the compounds of alcohol and water”. It is also true that he served on a Government commission on the taxation of vodka. But that is about as far as it goes. We are left with his slightly less interesting idea of arranging the chemical elements into families and sticking them on a wall chart. Which I am sure will never catch on.
To round off this blog, I tried to find an excellent French beer with which to toast the memory of Pasteur. Unfortunately... well, France produces many amazing alcoholic beverages, but ultimately Pasteur's great vision of a French beer industry that rivalled those of its neighbours appears to have been futile. As previously hypothesised on these pages, the episode whereby France levied punitive taxes on beer and thus drove a load of beer producing monks (including the Trappists) across the border into Belgium seems to have been self-defeating. So instead I am working my way through an eclectic mix of beers from the Beer Hawk bottle shop. Staying with the Russian theme, the “St Petersburg” imperial stout from Thornbridge is a cracker, and very accessible at “only” 7.4% and under £3. I have also enjoyed a couple of high quality Americans - the “Juliet” wild Belgian ale from Goose Island and the Christmas ale (bit late I know) from the Anchor Brewery of San Francisco.
I know the pub gardens are open again. I must confess that so far I find the prices charged in pubs - and not always for great beer - somewhat daunting.