Answers.Body: <p>Actually, there are still people who brew the same way people did before the discovery of yeast, so we have a pretty good idea how it worked. There are also data from early 20-th century ethnological surveys where brewers describe their methods. Some of the equipment used for yeast transfer is still in use, or in ethnological museums.</p>
  
  <p>People usually didn't brew that often, so they couldn't transfer the yeast cake itself. Instead, they would collect yeast from the previous brew and either keep it in a jar that they kept cool, for example in a well, or by drying it on a wooden log, piece of linen, straw ring, etc etc etc. There were lots of methods, but they basically boil down to either keeping wet or dry yeast. Odd Nordland's 1969 book is the only detailed source of information on this that I know; unfortunately it's near-impossible to get hold of.</p>
  
  <p>As far as I know, this type of yeast and yeast use only survives in two places: the Lithuanian province of Aukstatija, and western Norway (specfically, Hardanger, Voss, and Sunnmøre).</p>
  
  <p>I've written <a href="http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/264.html" rel="noreferrer">a summary of what's known of Norwegian practices</a>, and earlier this year I was able to brew with a brewer who still uses his family's ancestral yeast strain. I've published <a href="http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/291.html" rel="noreferrer">an account of that brewing session</a>.</p>
  
  <p>I hope people will forgive me for linking to my own stuff here. I don't know of any other detailed sources of information on the web anywhere.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2021-10-06T17:47:10.393Z
Answers.Text: I have come across some ancient recipes that mention using a starter. I'll try to find the references. I do know that in the old wine making tradition, the blessing of the destemmed & crushed grapes in a vat would include the pouring of wine in a bottle (presumably containing lees with resident good yeast) from a previous vintage. That would have acted as a starter as well. The bottom line is that wine & beer makers of the past were more sophisticated than what is commonly understood these days.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Jess
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-07-22T14:05:12.337Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-07-23T07:01:48.923Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2014-07-23T07:01:48.923Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Lars Marius Garshol
Answers.Body: <p>You don't need to know what something is to use it effectively.  Though yeast was only identified as a microorganism recently, it has been known as the cause of fermentation for many centuries.  It's easy to underestimate how sophisticated people throughout history were.</p>
  
  <p>Before yeast was monocultured in labs it was actively cultured by brewers.  They would transfer the yeast cake from a batch that's finishing into a recently-brewed batch.  This cake contained a whole ecosystem of yeasts and bacterias, but a few strains were usually dominant.</p>
  
  <p>By applying artificial selection brewers developed different strains of yeast in different areas.  The yeast culture was <em>the</em> make-or-break characteristic of a brewery, and defined the styles of beer that could be produced more than any other factor (other than water in Burton).</p>
  
  <p>Evidence of this process comes from the history of lager: bottom-fermenting yeast (Saccharomyces carlsbergensis) emerged in the fifteenth century as a direct result of the cold storage regime of northern brewers such as Carlsberg.</p>
  
  <p><strong>They may not have known it was a microorganism, but middle ages brewers most certainly knew that yeast was the cause of fermentation.  That's why they called it "Godisgood".</strong></p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2018-09-13T09:27:43.243Z
Answers.Text: A point of pedantry: Carslberg itself was founded in the 19th century, so while it may have emerged from the regime of northern brewers in the 15th, Carlsberg itself wasn't involved.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Jack Aidley
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-01-29T15:53:09.787Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-01-29T15:53:09.787Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: couchand
Answers.Body: <p>There are many plants where yeast grows in symbiotic mutuality. Take fresh dark grapes - the slight white "sediment" on the surface is natural yeast, and you won't find grapes without it. </p>
  
  <p>Another such plant is barley. Normally, the yeast only appears on the seeds, in relatively small amounts. Malting creates optimal environment for the yeast growth though, making the whole volume of the seed (as opposed to just the surface) nutritious for the yeast, and as it grows, it produces alcohol.</p>
  
  <p>Sure there is always a risk that a different culture of fungi or bacteria takes over, killing off the yeast (and e.g. producing vinegar instead of alcohol) but if brewing is performed in relative cleanliness, with little contaminants that could disrupt the process, the natural yeast will take over and dominate it, killing off all competing cultures.</p>
  
  <p>Currently, cultured yeast provide a kick-start to the process, simply leaving no time for different cultures to dominate the batch, and radically shortening the process that would normally take a long time until natural yeast reaches concentrations you create by just adding cultured yeast, but it's not essential to the process - it's just a strong push in the right direction.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-01-29T09:58:15.303Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-01-29T09:58:15.303Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: SF.
Answers.Body: <p>Before brewers discovered the importance of yeast in the brewing process they had to rely on the local wild yeasts for fermentation.  Louis Pasteur discovered the importance of yeast to brewing in 1857.</p>
  
  <p>Ancient brewers still used the same process of mashing the grains to extract sugars for fermentation and adding hops for bittering and preservation.  As a side note, prior to the use of hops in brewing brewers used a mix of herbs called "gruit" which provided flavoring but no preservation.</p>
  
  <p>Certain areas of the world are known to have wild yeasts better suited to brewing and still produce beers of this style today, such as Belgian lambics.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-06-11T19:25:46.080Z
Answers.Text: I'm sorry, but this is all wrong. Brewers were well aware of yeast centuries before Pasteur. A Norwegian yeast log, an implement used to preserve the yeast between brewings, has the year 1638 carved into it. In Sweden, Olaus Magnus's recipe from 1555 mentions yeast, etc. There are even hints that brewers knew about yeast in Roman times. Very likely ancient beers were not spontaneously fermented, for a whole number of reasons.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Lars Marius Garshol
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2021-10-06T19:32:46.280Z
Answers.Text: Lars, do you have the reference to yeast being mentioned in Roman times? The New Testament has reference to Jesus warning about the yeast of the Pharisees. The standard interpretation is that it is a reference to yeast in bread making. However, since wine and beer making involved the use of yeast as well, it could have had a broader application. After all, bad yeast can result in sour beer and wine that results in headaches. Fun fact: Wine makers often get rid of their barrels, infected with brettanomyces, to beer makers. It's a win/win situation.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Jess
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-01-29T13:42:29.423Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-01-29T13:42:29.423Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: itsme_timd
Answers.Body: <p>There is no production of alcohol without yeast. Before the &quot;discovery&quot; (better: selection and cultivation) of the Yeasts we know and use today, humans had to rely on luck.</p>
  <p>Its a wild fermentation, many different microbes and fungi are competing for their nutrition (sugar).
  The problem here is: Many yeasts produces fusel alcohol, i.e. methyl alcohol (which can cause blindness).
  Other bacteria could cause the fermentation to vinegar.</p>
  <p>So the resulting product seldom was good, mostly it was not drinkable for us today ;)</p>
  <p>Since the cultivation of special yeasts it's possible to control the fermentation, while adding a big amount of the yeast. So this yeast has a big advantage over others. Further the produced alcohol and carbondioxyde protects the beverage from other organisms.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-01-29T15:53:46.790Z
Answers.Text: "fusel alcohol".
Answers.UserDisplayName: couchand
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-01-29T08:53:46.477Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2021-09-29T17:31:30.270Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2021-09-29T17:31:30.270Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Marvin Emil Brach
Answers.Body: <p>Yeast as a microorganism was discovered by Pasteur. The Vikings did not have microscopes, likewise neither did the Germains who wrote the beer purity law of 1516 which does not include yeast as in ingredient. Brewers (often clergy or women called "brewives") believed it was a mystical process and kept beer consistent by saving sediment in patties or cakes for the next batch like bakers save chunks of dough. The term yeast may have been used before pasteur but he surely changed the meanining and revolutionized standardized beers by isolating yeast types.  As far as I know beers that rely on wild yeasts are the "farmhouse" styles compared to the main two; lager and ale yeasts.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2021-11-04T21:03:22.850Z
Answers.Text: You wrote: "Brewers...believed it was a mystical process and kept beer consistent by saving sediment in patties or cakes for the next batch like bakers save chunks of dough." Do you have a source for that comment? Are there recipes from the monks for beer & wine making? For example, I'm aware of an Italian tradition of taking wine from a previous harvest and pouring that into a fermentation bin as part of a religious blessing. I suspect the good residual yeast in the wine poured into the vessel, from a pervious harvest, acted as a starter to over power the wild (i.e. not so good yeasts).
Answers.UserDisplayName: Jess
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-05-29T05:30:18.107Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-05-29T05:30:18.107Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Trevor Mcelroy
Answers.Body: <p>The Vikings used to brew beer (some of us still do!). They did this without the specific knowledge of yeast. Each family owned a stock of wood that belonged to the family brewery which was used to stir the wort prior to fermentation. This inoculated the wort and provided the yeast needed for fermentation.</p>
  
  <p>Although they didn't know why it happened, they did know that unless they used the stirring stock, they wouldn't get beer.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2018-08-13T09:01:44.983Z
Answers.Text: I'm afraid this is false. The vikings had words for yeast (kveykur) and there's even a passage in the saga that talks about a brewer adding yeast to the beer, but it wouldn't ferment (probably stored too long) "so that all their work was in vain". They definitely knew about yeast.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Lars Marius Garshol
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-01-30T05:05:01.370Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-01-30T05:05:01.370Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: mdma
Body: <p>Yeast was identified as the cause of fermentation in the 1800s, but beer has been around since long before then.  How was fermentation started before the intentional introduction of yeast?  Was it all lambic-style ambient yeast, or what?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2014-02-25T01:01:27.700Z
Comments.Text: Not enough for an answer, but it's interesting to note that the infamous ["Reinheitsgebot" German beer law](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot) only explicitly permits water, barley, and hops. This is unsurprising since, as you note, yeast wasn't identified until the 1800s and the law dates to the 1400s.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Dennis
Tags: <history><yeast>
Title: How was beer brewed before the discovery of Yeast?
UserDisplayName: Fishtoaster
ThreadText: # How was beer brewed before the discovery of Yeast?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2014-01-29)
  
  Yeast was identified as the cause of fermentation in the 1800s, but beer has been around since long before then. How was fermentation started before the intentional introduction of yeast? Was it all lambic-style ambient yeast, or what?
  
  **Tags:** history, yeast
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Not enough for an answer, but it's interesting to note that the infamous ["Reinheitsgebot" German beer law](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot) only explicitly permits water, barley, and hops. This is unsurprising since, as you note, yeast wasn't identified until the 1800s and the law dates to the 1400s.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 7 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2014-01-29. Score: 25 | Accepted answer
  
  You don't need to know what something is to use it effectively. Though yeast was only identified as a microorganism recently, it has been known as the cause of fermentation for many centuries. It's easy to underestimate how sophisticated people throughout history were.
  
  Before yeast was monocultured in labs it was actively cultured by brewers. They would transfer the yeast cake from a batch that's finishing into a recently-brewed batch. This cake contained a whole ecosystem of yeasts and bacterias, but a few strains were usually dominant.
  
  By applying artificial selection brewers developed different strains of yeast in different areas. The yeast culture was *the* make-or-break characteristic of a brewery, and defined the styles of beer that could be produced more than any other factor (other than water in Burton).
  
  Evidence of this process comes from the history of lager: bottom-fermenting yeast (Saccharomyces carlsbergensis) emerged in the fifteenth century as a direct result of the cold storage regime of northern brewers such as Carlsberg.
  
  **They may not have known it was a microorganism, but middle ages brewers most certainly knew that yeast was the cause of fermentation. That's why they called it "Godisgood".**
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_5**: A point of pedantry: Carslberg itself was founded in the 19th century, so while it may have emerged from the regime of northern brewers in the 15th, Carlsberg itself wasn't involved.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2014-07-22. Score: 7
  
  Actually, there are still people who brew the same way people did before the discovery of yeast, so we have a pretty good idea how it worked. There are also data from early 20-th century ethnological surveys where brewers describe their methods. Some of the equipment used for yeast transfer is still in use, or in ethnological museums.
  
  People usually didn't brew that often, so they couldn't transfer the yeast cake itself. Instead, they would collect yeast from the previous brew and either keep it in a jar that they kept cool, for example in a well, or by drying it on a wooden log, piece of linen, straw ring, etc etc etc. There were lots of methods, but they basically boil down to either keeping wet or dry yeast. Odd Nordland's 1969 book is the only detailed source of information on this that I know; unfortunately it's near-impossible to get hold of.
  
  As far as I know, this type of yeast and yeast use only survives in two places: the Lithuanian province of Aukstatija, and western Norway (specfically, Hardanger, Voss, and Sunnmøre).
  
  I've written [a summary of what's known of Norwegian practices](http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/264.html), and earlier this year I was able to brew with a brewer who still uses his family's ancestral yeast strain. I've published [an account of that brewing session](http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/291.html).
  
  I hope people will forgive me for linking to my own stuff here. I don't know of any other detailed sources of information on the web anywhere.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_3**: I have come across some ancient recipes that mention using a starter. I'll try to find the references. I do know that in the old wine making tradition, the blessing of the destemmed & crushed grapes in a vat would include the pouring of wine in a bottle (presumably containing lees with resident good yeast) from a previous vintage. That would have acted as a starter as well. The bottom line is that wine & beer makers of the past were more sophisticated than what is commonly understood these days.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_6 on 2014-01-29. Score: 4
  
  There are many plants where yeast grows in symbiotic mutuality. Take fresh dark grapes - the slight white "sediment" on the surface is natural yeast, and you won't find grapes without it.
  
  Another such plant is barley. Normally, the yeast only appears on the seeds, in relatively small amounts. Malting creates optimal environment for the yeast growth though, making the whole volume of the seed (as opposed to just the surface) nutritious for the yeast, and as it grows, it produces alcohol.
  
  Sure there is always a risk that a different culture of fungi or bacteria takes over, killing off the yeast (and e.g. producing vinegar instead of alcohol) but if brewing is performed in relative cleanliness, with little contaminants that could disrupt the process, the natural yeast will take over and dominate it, killing off all competing cultures.
  
  Currently, cultured yeast provide a kick-start to the process, simply leaving no time for different cultures to dominate the batch, and radically shortening the process that would normally take a long time until natural yeast reaches concentrations you create by just adding cultured yeast, but it's not essential to the process - it's just a strong push in the right direction.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_7 on 2014-01-29. Score: 1
  
  Before brewers discovered the importance of yeast in the brewing process they had to rely on the local wild yeasts for fermentation. Louis Pasteur discovered the importance of yeast to brewing in 1857.
  
  Ancient brewers still used the same process of mashing the grains to extract sugars for fermentation and adding hops for bittering and preservation. As a side note, prior to the use of hops in brewing brewers used a mix of herbs called "gruit" which provided flavoring but no preservation.
  
  Certain areas of the world are known to have wild yeasts better suited to brewing and still produce beers of this style today, such as Belgian lambics.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_2**: I'm sorry, but this is all wrong. Brewers were well aware of yeast centuries before Pasteur. A Norwegian yeast log, an implement used to preserve the yeast between brewings, has the year 1638 carved into it. In Sweden, Olaus Magnus's recipe from 1555 mentions yeast, etc. There are even hints that brewers knew about yeast in Roman times. Very likely ancient beers were not spontaneously fermented, for a whole number of reasons.  
  > **username_3**: Lars, do you have the reference to yeast being mentioned in Roman times? The New Testament has reference to Jesus warning about the yeast of the Pharisees. The standard interpretation is that it is a reference to yeast in bread making. However, since wine and beer making involved the use of yeast as well, it could have had a broader application. After all, bad yeast can result in sour beer and wine that results in headaches. Fun fact: Wine makers often get rid of their barrels, infected with brettanomyces, to beer makers. It's a win/win situation.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_8 on 2014-01-29. Score: 1
  
  There is no production of alcohol without yeast. Before the "discovery" (better: selection and cultivation) of the Yeasts we know and use today, humans had to rely on luck.
  
  Its a wild fermentation, many different microbes and fungi are competing for their nutrition (sugar).
  The problem here is: Many yeasts produces fusel alcohol, i.e. methyl alcohol (which can cause blindness).
  Other bacteria could cause the fermentation to vinegar.
  
  So the resulting product seldom was good, mostly it was not drinkable for us today ;)
  
  Since the cultivation of special yeasts it's possible to control the fermentation, while adding a big amount of the yeast. So this yeast has a big advantage over others. Further the produced alcohol and carbondioxyde protects the beverage from other organisms.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_4**: "fusel alcohol".  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_9 on 2019-05-29. Score: 1
  
  Yeast as a microorganism was discovered by Pasteur. The Vikings did not have microscopes, likewise neither did the Germains who wrote the beer purity law of 1516 which does not include yeast as in ingredient. Brewers (often clergy or women called "brewives") believed it was a mystical process and kept beer consistent by saving sediment in patties or cakes for the next batch like bakers save chunks of dough. The term yeast may have been used before pasteur but he surely changed the meanining and revolutionized standardized beers by isolating yeast types. As far as I know beers that rely on wild yeasts are the "farmhouse" styles compared to the main two; lager and ale yeasts.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_3**: You wrote: "Brewers...believed it was a mystical process and kept beer consistent by saving sediment in patties or cakes for the next batch like bakers save chunks of dough." Do you have a source for that comment? Are there recipes from the monks for beer & wine making? For example, I'm aware of an Italian tradition of taking wine from a previous harvest and pouring that into a fermentation bin as part of a religious blessing. I suspect the good residual yeast in the wine poured into the vessel, from a pervious harvest, acted as a starter to over power the wild (i.e. not so good yeasts).  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_10 on 2014-01-30. Score: -1
  
  The Vikings used to brew beer (some of us still do!). They did this without the specific knowledge of yeast. Each family owned a stock of wood that belonged to the family brewery which was used to stir the wort prior to fermentation. This inoculated the wort and provided the yeast needed for fermentation.
  
  Although they didn't know why it happened, they did know that unless they used the stirring stock, they wouldn't get beer.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_2**: I'm afraid this is false. The vikings had words for yeast (kveykur) and there's even a passage in the saga that talks about a brewer adding yeast to the beer, but it wouldn't ferment (probably stored too long) "so that all their work was in vain". They definitely knew about yeast.  
  
  ---
  
  