Abbreviation | BRI |
---|---|
Formation | 1946 |
Purpose | Brewing research in the UK |
Location |
|
Coordinates | 51°13′49″N0°07′20″W / 51.23041°N 0.12235°W |
Region served | Worldwide |
Membership | 55 staff |
Director General | Dr Steven Walker |
Affiliations | DEFRA |
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.
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]
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.
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.
The control of Brewing Patents Ltd was transferred in 1976 from the Brewers' Society to the Brewing Research Foundation.
Many young scientists of the Brewing Industry found initial employment at this Foundation to become important contributors elsewhere in the Brewing and allied industries.
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.
Its services are used by the vast majority of the world's brewing companies.
Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grains—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The fermentation of the starch sugars in the wort produces ethanol and carbonation in the beer. Beer is one of the oldest alcoholic drinks in the world, the most widely consumed, and the third most popular drink after water and tea. Most modern beer is brewed with hops, which add bitterness and other flavours and act as a natural preservative and stabilising agent. Other flavouring agents, such as gruit, herbs, or fruits, may be included or used instead of hops. In commercial brewing, natural carbonation is often replaced with forced carbonation.
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 communally. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archaeological evidence suggests that emerging civilizations, including ancient Egypt, China, and Mesopotamia, brewed beer. Since the nineteenth century the brewing industry has been part of most western economies.
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.
Espresso is a concentrated form of coffee produced by forcing hot water under high pressure through finely-ground coffee beans. Originating in Italy, espresso has become one of the most popular coffee-brewing methods worldwide. It is characterized by its small serving size, typically 25–30 ml, and its distinctive layers: a dark body topped with a lighter-colored foam called crema.
A French press, also known as a cafetière, cafetière à piston, caffettiera a stantuffo, press pot, coffee press, or coffee plunger, is a coffee brewing device, although it can also be used for other tasks. The earliest known device was patented in 1852 in France by Jacques-Victor Delforge and Henri-Otto Mayer.
Beer was introduced to Canada by European settlers in the seventeenth century. The first commercial brewery was La Brasseries du Roy started by New France Intendant Jean Talon, in Québec City in 1668. Many commercial brewers thrived until prohibition in Canada. The provincial and federal governments' attempt to eliminate "intoxicating" beverages led to the closing of nearly three quarters of breweries between 1878 and 1928. It was only in the second half of the twentieth century that a significant number of new breweries opened up. The Canadian beer industry now plays an important role in Canadian identity, although globalization of the brewing industry has seen the major players in Canada acquired by or merged with foreign companies, notably its three largest beer producers: Labatt, Molson and Sleeman. The result is that Moosehead, with an estimated 3.8 percent share of the domestic market in 2016, has become the largest fully Canadian-owned brewer.
Campden tablets are a sulphur-based product that are used primarily to sterilize wine, cider and in beer making to kill bacteria and to inhibit the growth of most wild yeast. They are 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 they 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.
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.
Beer is one of the oldest human-produced drinks. The written history of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia records the use of beer, and the drink has spread throughout the world; a 3,900-year-old Sumerian poem honouring Ninkasi, the patron goddess of brewing, contains the oldest surviving beer-recipe, describing the production of beer from barley bread, and in China, residue on pottery dating from around 5,000 years ago shows that beer was brewed using barley and other grains.
Sir Ian Heilbron DSO FRS was a Scottish chemist, who pioneered organic chemistry developed for therapeutic and industrial use.
Worthington Brewery, also known as Worthington & Co. and Worthington's, is a British brewer founded by William Worthington in Burton upon Trent in 1761. It is the third oldest continuously brewed British beer brand, after Shepherde Neame and Whitbread. The best known Worthington beers are its Creamflow nitrokeg bitter and White Shield India Pale Ale.
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.
Sir James Irvine Orme Masson FRS FRSE MBE LLD, generally known as Irvine Masson, was an Australian-born chemist of Scots descent who was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield from 1938 to 1953. He is usually referred to in documents as J. I. O. Masson.
The National Collection of Yeast Cultures (NCYC) is a British yeast culture collection based at the Norwich Research Park in Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom, that currently maintains a collection of over 4400 strains and operates under the Budapest Treaty.
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 have been active in brewing since ancient times. 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.
Apiwe Nxusani-Mawela is a South African brewmaster. Nxusani-Mawela is the first person from South Africa to earn a National Diploma in clear fermented beverages. She is also the first black woman in South Africa to found a microbrewery. Her company, Brewsters Craft, introduces students to the science of beer making through training and provides professional breweries a service through beer quality testing. She helped organize International Women's Collaboration Brew Day (IWCBD) events in South Africa.