The coolship (kuhlschipf) was used to chill wort prior to the development of counter-flow chillers. Referred to simply as coolers in colonial-era newspaper accounts of the inventories of breweries for sale or lease. Air temperature determined whether it was brewing season as there had to be a big enough difference in temperature between boiling wort and the air in order for the wort to liberate its heat to the atmosphere in a timely fashion. If the air is warmer than about 40 degrees Fahrenheit cooling will not be fast enough to prevent spoilage from air borne beer spoilers. The first view is presumably Whitbreads brewery circa 1850. It must have been dramatic to see a batch of beer come down the trough and begin filling the broad shallow surface cooler and filling the room with steam. Note the louvered windows that permit the steam to escape. Generally the wort was pumped to an upper floor then upon cooling, to the fermenting cellar below. The first innovation was to place a fan in the room to accelerate the cooling process. In 1882 Leslies Monthly featured interior views of a lager beer brewery and captioned this picture a lake of lager. The next is from Berner & Engels Modern Brewing of an Ancient Beverage (1896) showing how the wort was sent through an atomizer to permit oxygenation and cooling as it rained down into the surface cooler. Finally, a room in an upper floor of the old Hohenadel brewery taken in the late 1980s. The things that look like tombstones are actually supports for the coolship. Most breweries had gotten rid of this method during the post-WWII era. Sealed wort chillers prevented any contact with the atmosphere. Finally, a working coolship at the Walter Grieves 1803 (re-created) brewery at Genesee Country Village & Museum It was their re-enactment of historic process that showed the importance of cold atmosphere. The wort simply does not cool when they demonstrate the process in the summer. When it gets down to around 40 degrees in the fall, the coolship does the trick.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 19:55:22 +0000
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