The Beer Of National Revenge
Retrospective
It amazes me what really motivates people some times.
A French man named Louis Pasteur was a world renowned man of science from the golden age of classical science. He was a world class chemist, pharmacists and an instrumental figure in the establishing the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization.
He is the reason we can enjoy our coffee with milk or cream even in a camping trip and it is thanks to him that we can vaccinate our pet companions to protect them from Rabies.
Well, after Prussia invaded France in 1870 it left a lot of resentment in the hearts of the French. This included Louis Pasteur, that decided to strike a blow against the pride of Germanic Prussia. He would hit them were it would hurt them the most. He would create a beer so unbelievably amazing that it would dethrone Germany as the center of European beer brewing. He set out to create a beer so pure, so tasty that nobody would dare to question his results. It would be a beer of vengeance...
He called it the Beer of National Revenge.
His first step towards a delicious beverage that non could deny, was to set up a series of test bottles with the right ingredients to prove that a pure chemical reaction could produce fermentation, unlike what the Germans believed. Then, he went about identifying the biological processes carried out by the microorganisms that really cause fermentation. He even identified several compounds that made beer spoil or caused it go sour. But unfortunately for him removing those microorganisms was not commercially viable due to the staggering cost it would require. So Pasteur’s ultra-pure beer full of spite was not meant to be. Or so it seemed…
His research did kick-start the scientific age of brewing, and several of his students would go on to run research labs at Scandinavian brewers, helping them eventually eclipse German breweries in size and distribution. In 1886 in Amsterdam, Dr. Elion, a student of Dr. Louis Pasteur, discovered the famous Heineken®, a strain of yeast that is still used today in a beer brand that is sold almost universally around the world.
So I guess vengeance does work some times.
