Obsah
Beer Cooling in the Past and Present
- In the past, beer was cooled in cellars with ice brought from ponds
- To have sufficient stock, breweries stacked ice in yards
- In the 1920s, the brewery in Plzen needed 600 railway cars of ice per year
- The very last piece of ice was supplied to the Plzen brewery only 20 years ago
- Pubs cooled beer in cellars; later, beer pipes were conducted through ice-filled boxes
- If Pilsner Urquell is properly cooled, its tempretature is 7 oC
For many centuries, beer has been an inseparable part of Czech tradition and culture. To ensure proper flavour for consumers, beer must be cooled properly. A remark on Prague’s ice cellars, made by Karel Ad. Redeln in 1728, proves that chilled beer was not always commonplace: “Those who are not used to drinking ice-chilled beer do not like it. Yet those, who are used to it, will relish an enjoyable beverage not losing its zest having the same zest all year round.“ For instance, the right Pilsner Urquell’s temperature is 7 oC. Ideally, this should also be the storage temperature. For hundreds of years, brewers have strived to maintain the same temperature in the course of the whole year, including a sultry summer like this year’s.
How Was Beer Cooled in the Past?
Beer has always had to be stored in a chilled space, to ensure proper fermentation, maintain optimum quality and give it the right taste. Therefore, in the past every brewer used to have a large cellar. Also, extensive underground corridors stretching over a couple of kilometres were built beneath breweries. For instance, a nine-kilometre labyrinth of corridors has been preserved under the premises of Plzensky Pradzroj in Plzen up to now. Cellars built in rocks did not have to be cooled. If not, brewers needed vast stocks of ice to obtain spaces with the optimum temperature of 7 oC in the summer.
Where Did Breweries Get Ice?
In the winter, every brewery had to create a sufficient stock of ice for the entire summer. Breweries even tried to obtain ice for several years ahead in case next winter was not cold enough and ponds and lakes did not freeze. „In the 1870s, Plzensky Prazdroj rented a space along the dam of Bolevecky rybnik (a pond in Plzen) as a source of ice. In 1883, a railway siding was built from the Zatec railway, for the transportation of ice to the brewery cellars,“ says Jiri Hana from the Brewery Museum in Plzen.
Would you like to know how much ice was needed to sell Pilsner Urquell of excellent taste, for example, in 1920 when the brewery made 400,000 hl of the golden liquor? The icemen on the Bolevecky rybnik had to extract and suply to the brewery an incredible amount of 600 railway cars of ice. (Today, Plzensky Prazdroj would need over 12,000 cars to chill all its beer produced in its breweries and sold in the Czech Republic).
To make ice loading less difficult and more efficient, an iron conveyor was erected on the dam in 1942. Its capacity was 100 tonnes of ice in a single hour. One may thing that such romantic times passed long ago. Yet, the last piece of ice was supplied to Plzensky Prazdroj’s storage cellar as late as 1987, and the conveyor was removed in the mid 1990s.
Do you wonder what icemen were doing in the summer? Perhaps the question should stand what farmers were doing in the winter. For them, ice extraction was a welcome additional income in the winter season when they had little work and could do a temporary job in the brewery.
How Should Ice Be Stored to Remain Fresh for a Long Time?
Creating a stock of ice for two years ahead in the “pre-electricity” age? This is not a joke. „Ice could be kept for several years in a brewery courtyard, shadowed with a patulous tree from the south. Ice was stacked in the yard after an ice cellar had been filled. It was put on a well-insulated platform made of wood, ash, tar-coated cardboard and sand. Pieces of ice were put in stacks and gaps between them were filled with crushed ice. In freezing weather, the stacks were poured over with water, to create an unbroken monolith,“ explains Jiri Hana.
„However, the most important is the selection and obtaining of a material for covering and protecting the stacked ice. For this purpose, various easily available materials can be used: sawdust, peat, shive, chaff, chopped and whole straw, reed, etc. That is, any cheap material with low conductivity. Where peat meadows are available, they provide a source of rotten clay developed from vegetation remnants, an excellent substance to be used for covering an ice stack although or, maybe, because it is humid and adheres to ice perfectly.... Other materials must be pressed to ice with rods fitted around the stack and boards fastened to them,“ say period records. Such wooden boarding should have been 60 to 80 cm thick.
„Since ice began to be used in brewing, brewmasters have not had to worry about temperature fluctuations during the year (if not taking into account extraordinary caprices of nature), being able, if business goes well, to brew and sell beer in the summer and in the winter in the same unworried way.”
Beer Transportation in the Heat of Summer
Ice was used to chill beer in fermentation and storage cellars, in pubs, but also during transportation. For this purpose, there were special beer railway cars with double walls. In between them, ice was put in the summer and special heated bricks in the winter – to prevent beer from freezing.
Through cities, beer was distributed on carts by maltsters. Period records say they did so with unheard-of swiftness proving the strength and perseverance of Czechs.
After all, a horse-pulled cart is still being used in Plzen to distribute beer. The tradition is being kept alive by a daughter of a carter who had carried beer to Plzen’s pubs till he was 77. But this is a different story, to be told next time.
How Was Beer Cooled in Pubs?
Houses holding a brewing licence and pubs had to cool beer, too. They had to obtain ice themselves, or received it from Plzensky Prazdroj which supplied ice to them to make sure that Pilsner Urquell has an excellent taste. Karel Ad. Redeln in his book about Prague at the beginning of the 18th century describes ice cellars as a rarity. “In winter, pieces of ice are cut off the frozen surface of the Vltava river and placed in ice cellars, filling one half of the cellar up to the ceiling. The rest is arranged at the entrance so that beer barrels can be put behind this ice barrier. In this way, beer is kept chilled the whole year round. To collect water flowing off, a well is built from which water is then pumped away.”
Ice used to be placed in the highest-level cellar room. Thus, it cooled the air running into the celar and, as the laws of physics say, the cold air further descended into the lower cellar levels. Water from the melting ice usually ran through the cellar, thus also cooling the entire space.
How Much Did Ice Cost and Where Was It Sold?
At the beginning of the 18century, a supply of ice cost 20 florins which was the cost of two cows. A carpenter could have had ice supplied for the same price after having worked for three months. Normally, ice was supplied by the same person who delivered beer to publicans.
In winters not cold enough, peculiar merchandise would appear in marketplaces after every minor temperature drop or snowfall. „Marketplace would then be filled with piles of snow and ice, brought on carts from every little pond in the neighbourhood. Just like wood, these commodities would be traded regularly.”
Where Would Chilled Beer Be Brought to the Table From?
Beer brewed in a house holding a brewing licence was frequently drunk there, too. It was drawn straight from a maturation vessel in the cellar. A jug or another beer container would be brought from a chilled cellar and put on a table to fill people’s glasses. Better pubs used to have an earthen slab in the middle of the table where beer in the jug would be kept to remain cold. Beer could also be brought in a metal pot which would be put into a wooden cask full of ice. Later, when beer was conducted to the bar by pipes, but the bar still lacked chilling, a box filled with ice would be put under the bar to run the pipes through it. In this way, beer was cooled down right before pouring.
Replacing Ice with Modern Technology
Nowadays, Pilsner Urquell requires the same care as 160 years ago. The beer served must be of a perfect condition, to have the right zest and unforgettable flavour. Mostly, beer kegs are kept under the beer tower in the bar or in a cellar. The latter is optimum. The “healthiest” beer is stored at a temperature of 5 to 10 oC. While running through the beer pipes towards the beer tap, beer is usually cooled to have the temperature of 7 oC, the best temperature for drinking Pilsner Urquell. In the bar, beer is cooled by a “wet cooler” (i.e. a water bath) or a “dry cooler” (beer runs through a chilled aluminium box).
No Barbecue Party Can Do without Nicely Chilled Beer
Barbecue is one of very popular distractions for Czechs. A research made recently by Unilever proves that thirty per cent of Czechs organize evening barbecues regularly. Every single respondent has admitted barbecuing from May to August. “Not by accident, beer consumption grows in the same period. Grilled meat goes best with chilled beer. In June, we broke the record in selling Plzensky Prazdroj’s brands: 910,000 hl was sold,“ says Otakar Binder, Sales, Distribution and Trade Marketing Director.
„Have you ever been thinking about how to obtain delightful beer for a night party with friends? We recommend borrowing a beer dispensing device, including a cooler. A range of portable dispensing devices are available in the Sales and Distribution Centres of Plzensky Prazdroj and the Cash&Carry chain. Borrowing it costs just several hundred crowns, a price certainly worth the pleasing memories of a successful party,“ adds Otakar Binder.
An alternative to the chilled dispensing device is a so-called „party tap“. Plzensky Prazdroj’s experts recommend storing a keg in a cool cellar and bringing it to the place where you are going to serve your guests right before the party begins. Do not shake the keg much, and do not roll it by any means. Let it settle for a while before you start pouring beer. You may also need ice. To maintain the proper temperature, the keg may need to be put into a tub with cold water and ice. Somewhat surprisingly, a useful aid to check if a bottle is chilled properly has been developed for drivers. On every Radegast Birell bottle, there is a special field displaying the word Birell if the beer temperature is below 10 oC.
This information has been compiled with the assistance of the Brewery Museum in Pilsen, the oldest of its kind in the world and the only in the Czech Republic. If the history of brewing has intrigued you, come and get more information in the Brewery Museum.
Brewery Museum
Veleslavínova 6, 301 14 Plzen
Tel., fax: +420 377 235 574, +420 377 224 955
E-mail: muzeum@pilsner.sabmiller.com
Bibliography:
Časopis Kvas, Nakládání ledu do stohu, roč. 1890.
Petr Mazaný, Vladislav Krátký, 100 zajímavostí ze staré Plzně, Plzeň, 2003.
Čeněk Zíbrt, Z dějin piva a pivovarnictví v zemích českých, Praha, 1894.
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