RJV World

Did you know that early beer makers left their brews in open vessel exposed to air borne yeast? They didn’t realize that the foam on top of the fermenting brew consisted of millions of yeast cells.

However, they always scooped off the foam to use it as a starter for the next batch. With out realizing it, they were breeding top fermented yeasts. Later a monk took up beer brewing. Benedictine monk carved beer cellar into the rocks beneath the monastery and packed them with ice from frozen rivers and lakes so that beer brewed in the fall could be saved for later use in the summer. Stored in such cold temperatures, the beer became more stable and the yeast sank to the bottom. This was the origin of bottom-fermenting yeasts. Yeast is one of the most important ingredients in brewing and is jealously guarded by brew master, sometimes unsuccessfully. Once the son of a Bavarian brew master and an Austrian friend journeyed to England and, with the aid of a metal tube with a hidden valve, stole yeast samples from the British. As more and more scientific methods were applied to the brewing process, both the quality and types of beer improved. Today there are over 25 different types of beer.