Brewing Industry Research Foundation

Last updated

Campden Brewing Division BRI
AbbreviationBRI
Formation1946
PurposeBrewing research in the UK
Location
Coordinates Coordinates: 51°13′49″N0°07′20″W / 51.23041°N 0.12235°W / 51.23041; -0.12235
Region served
Worldwide
Membership
55 staff
Director General
Dr Steven Walker
AffiliationsDEFRA
Website Campden BRI

The Brewing Industry Research Foundation is now part of Campden BRI , a research association serving all sectors of the food and drink industry. [1] The Brewing Division is based next to the M23, and the other Divisions are located in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, where about 330 people are employed.

Contents

History

Formation

In 1946 the Institute of Brewing recommended the setting up of an experimental research station, the Brewing Industry Research Foundation, with a full-time Director of Research and in 1947 Dr J Masson Gulland (Professor of Organic Chemistry, the University of Nottingham) was appointed to that position. [2] Sadly Dr Masson Gulland was killed in a train crash before taking up his position and hence Sir Ian Heilbron (Imperial College London) agreed to become the second Director of Research at the new Brewing Industry Research Foundation (BIRF)in 1949. [3]

Research building

In 1948 Lyttel Hall, Nutfield in Surrey was purchased and the main Hall was converted into laboratories, the squash court into a pilot brewery and other new buildings were developed as a workshops and conference facilities. [4] In 1951 the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip formally opened the site. BIRF later became The Brewing Research Foundation, BRF International, Brewing Research International and today is simply known as BRI.

Research scope

Initially the BIRF focused on fundamental and applied research for the malting and brewing industries of the UK. Its staff made useful contributions in the areas of barley germination and yeast physiology. [5] Since that time its role has evolved to become more service orientated offering analysis, food safety and information packages to an international client base.

Brewers Patents Ltd

The control of Brewing Patents Ltd was transferred in 1976 from the Brewers' Society to the Brewing Research Foundation.

Important Brewing Scientist Training Ground

Many young scientists of the Brewing Industry found initial employment at this Foundation to become important contributors elsewhere in the Brewing and allied industries.

Merger

In October 2008, Campden BRI was formed by the merger of Brewing Research International with Campden & Chorleywood Food Research Association (CCFRA) of Chipping Campden, which was formed in 1919 and is the largest membership-based food research organisation in the world. In the 1920s it devised the Campden Solution, which was later commercialised as the Campden Tablet.

Functions

Its services are used by the vast majority of the world's brewing companies.

Related Research Articles

Beer Alcoholic drink made from fermented cereal grains

Beer is one of the oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic drinks in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. Beer is brewed from cereal grains—most commonly from malted barley, though wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. During the brewing process, fermentation of the starch sugars in the wort produces ethanol and carbonation in the resulting beer. Most modern beer is brewed with hops, which add bitterness and other flavours and act as a natural preservative and stabilizing agent. Other flavouring agents such as gruit, herbs, or fruits may be included or used instead of hops. In commercial brewing, the natural carbonation effect is often removed during processing and replaced with forced carbonation.

Brewing Process in beer production

Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, at home by a homebrewer, or by a variety of traditional methods such as communally by the indigenous peoples in Brazil when making cauim. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archaeological evidence suggests that emerging civilizations, including ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, brewed beer. Since the nineteenth century the brewing industry has been part of most western economies.

Hops Flower used for beer and other alcohol

Hops are the flowers of the hop plant Humulus lupulus, a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to which, in addition to bitterness, they impart floral, fruity, or citrus flavours and aromas. Hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine. The hops plants have separate female and male plants, and only female plants are used for commercial production. The hop plant is a vigorous, climbing, herbaceous perennial, usually trained to grow up strings in a field called a hopfield, hop garden, or hop yard when grown commercially. Many different varieties of hops are grown by farmers around the world, with different types used for particular styles of beer. The first documented use of hops in beer is from the 9th century, though Hildegard of Bingen, 300 years later, is often cited as the earliest documented source. Before this period, brewers used a "gruit", composed of a wide variety of bitter herbs and flowers, including dandelion, burdock root, marigold, horehound, ground ivy, and heather. Early documents include mention of a hop garden in the will of Charlemagne's father, Pepin III.

Espresso Type of strong coffee

Espresso is a coffee-brewing method of Italian origin, in which a small amount of nearly boiling water is forced under 9–10 bars of pressure (expressed) through finely-ground coffee beans. Espresso coffee can be made with a wide variety of coffee beans and roast degrees. Espresso is the most common way of making coffee in southern Europe, especially in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Southern France and Bulgaria.

Kombucha fermented tea beverage

Kombucha is a fermented, lightly effervescent, sweetened black or green tea drink commonly consumed for its purported health benefits. Sometimes the beverage is called kombucha tea to distinguish it from the culture of bacteria and yeast. Juice, spices, fruit or other flavorings are often added to enhance the taste of the beverage.

Carlsberg Group Danish brewery group

Carlsberg A/S is a Danish multinational brewer. Founded in 1847 by J. C. Jacobsen, the company's headquarters is located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since Jacobsen's death in 1887, the majority owner of the company has been the Carlsberg Foundation. The company's flagship brand is Carlsberg. Other brands include Tuborg, Kronenbourg, Somersby cider, Neptun, Russia's best-selling beer Baltika, Belgian Grimbergen, and more than 500 local beers.

Campden tablets are a sulfur-based product that is used primarily to sterilize wine, cider and in beer making to kill bacteria and to inhibit the growth of most wild yeast: this product is also used to eliminate both free chlorine and the more stable form, chloramine, from water solutions. Campden tablets allow the amateur brewer to easily measure small quantities of sodium metabisulfite, so it can be used to protect against wild yeast and bacteria without affecting flavour. Untreated cider must frequently suffers from acetobacter contamination causing vinegar spoilage. Yeasts are resistant to the tablets but the acetobacter are easily killed off, hence treatment is important in cider production.

University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague

The University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague is the largest university specializing in chemistry in the Czech Republic. Though founded in 1952, UCT Prague has origins dating back to the early nineteenth century and Prague Polytechnic, a precursor to the present-day Czech Technical University in Prague, and, since that time, it has been one of the leading chemistry research universities in Central Europe. More than 3,600 students are accepted every year. In 2014, UCT Prague had 510 academic staff and 361 research staff.

Potassium metabisulfite Chemical compound

Potassium metabisulfite, K2S2O5, also known as potassium pyrosulfite, is a white crystalline powder with a pungent odour. It is mainly used as an antioxidant or chemical sterilant. As a disulfite, it is chemically very similar to sodium metabisulfite, with which it is sometimes used interchangeably. Potassium metabisulfite has a monoclinic crystal structure.

History of beer

Beer is one of the oldest drinks humans have produced. The first chemically confirmed barley beer dates back to the 5th millennium BC in Iran, and was recorded in the written history of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and spread throughout the world.

Sir Ian Morris Heilbron DSO FRS was a Scottish chemist, who pioneered organic chemistry developed for therapeutic and industrial use.

Keurig is a beverage brewing system for home and commercial use. The machines are manufactured by the American company Keurig Dr Pepper. The main Keurig products are: K-Cup pods, which are single-serve coffee containers; other beverage pods; and the proprietary machines that brew the beverages in these pods.

Worthington Brewery

The Worthington Brewery, also known as Worthington & Co. and Worthington's, was founded by William Worthington in the English Midlands town of Burton upon Trent in 1761. It is the second oldest continuously brewed British beer brand after Whitbread. The best known Worthington beers are the Creamflow nitrokeg bitter and White Shield India Pale Ale.

European Brewery Convention

The European Brewery Convention (EBC) is an organisation representing the technical and scientific interests of the brewing sector in Europe. The EBC defines itself as the scientific and technological arm of The Brewers of Europe. Among brewers, EBC is perhaps best known for the EBC units measuring beer and wort colour, as well as EBC units for quantifying turbidity in beer. Equally, the EBC congress is recognised globally as a significant meeting event for the world's brewing, malting and beer fermentation scientists and technologists, taking place every two years.

The United States Brewers' Association was a trade organization that existed from 1862 to 1986.

Ernest Stanley Salmon British mycologist and plant pathologist

Professor Ernest Stanley Salmon was a British mycologist and plant pathologist best known for his work in breeding new varieties of hops. Salmon crossed a wild Manitoban hop with cultivated English stock to create hybrid C9a, which was released to commercial cultivation in 1934 as Brewer's Gold. Though the original wild hop died during the winter of 1918–19, Brewer's Gold has become the ancestor of nearly every new high-alpha hop variety released since then.

John Masson Gulland

John Masson Gulland was a Scottish chemist and biochemist. His main work was on nucleic acids, morphine and aporphine alkaloids. His work at University College Nottingham on electrometric titration was important in leading to the discovery of the DNA double helix by James Watson and Francis Crick, and he was described as "a great nucleic acid chemist." He established the Scottish Seaweed Research Association and the Lace Research Council.

Women in brewing

Women have been active in brewing since ancient times. Though Western societies have viewed brewing as a male-dominated field for the last 150 years, traditionally, it was an activity engaged in by women. Ethnographic and archaeological studies have shown that brewing was an outcropping of gathering or baking traditions, which were predominantly women's roles throughout the world. From the earliest evidence of brewing in 7000 BCE, until the commercialization of brewing during industrialization, women were the primary brewers on all inhabited continents. In many cultures, the deities, goddesses and protectors of brewers were female entities who were associated with fertility.

George Gerald Henderson was a chemist and professor at the University of Glasgow. He was known for his work on terpenes.

References

  1. "Science and technology for the food and drink industry". Campden BRI. Archived from the original on 2 July 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  2. Anderson, R. G. (1992). "The Pattern of brewing research: A personal view of the history of brewing chemistry in the British Isles". J. Inst. Brew. 98 (2): 85–109. doi:10.1002/j.2050-0416.1992.tb01095.x. Archived from the original on 25 August 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  3. Alan Cook (2004). "Heilbron, Sir Ian Morris [formerly Isidor Morris]". In Watson, K. D (ed.). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33799.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. "The Institute of Brewing" (PDF). The Institute of Brewing. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 August 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  5. "Brewing Industry Research Foundation" (PDF). Nature. 170. 1952. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 August 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2020.

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