HORACE BROWN MEMORIAL LECTURE A CONSPECTUS OF BREWING PROGRESS

Horace Brown, who started as a brewer just over a hundred years ago, was an outstanding pioneer in the introduction of science to explain and guide brewing practice. His own and Pasteur's work saved brewing from repeated crises due to spoilage infections and so made it safe to brew thoughout the year. Attempts to control infection gave rise to Brown's great interest in the nitrogen compounds and led him to notable discoveries, apart from his outstanding work in many other fields. The writer followed with researches on the nitrogen compounds of barley, malt, wort and beer. These are summarized here and the potentialities for further developments today in the study of proteins are outlined. Against the background of the changing scene in brewing, a summary is given of the writer's further work on the agricultural aspects of barley growing, on barley germination and malting and on “sediment action” and yeast nutrition in fermentation. In addition a summary is given of his contributions in biological engineering, to continuous fermentation and to a scientifically‐based conditioning process, using lupulin extracted from hops and incoporating a greatly accelerated haze‐prevention method, which is economical. While drastically shortening the process, this and the other stages have been beneficial rather than otherwise to beer flavour.