Tower brewery
A gravity-fed vertical brewery from the late Victorian period.
A tower brewery is a type of brewery where the main buildings are stacked vertically like a tower. This design lets the brewing process flow downward by gravity after the raw ingredients—water and barley malt—are lifted to the top, avoiding the need to pump or lift the liquid between stages.
These breweries first appeared around 1870, with most built in the 1880s. Steam power was available then, but electricity was not. Running one large pump to lift materials to the top was practical, but running many small pumps throughout the building was far less so. The building typically has about six floors. Sometimes there is a single tower, but many breweries have sections at different heights. The highest floors are small; the very top is a water tower, and just below is a ventilated attic that provides good airflow for coolers.
The brewing process has many stages, each in its own vessel. Several brews can happen at once, with a new one mashed and boiled most days, then fermented for a week in one of several fermenting tuns.
Brewing starts at the top. Water is pumped to a cold liquor storage tank on the fifth floor. (Liquor is the term for water that will become beer.) Water quality is crucial and often determines where the brewery is located; it may come from a borehole and so has already been pumped from underground before being raised again. Barley malt, already malted in a separate malthouse and possibly stored, is lifted mechanically by sack hoist or continuous elevator. On the fourth floor, a grist mill crushes the grains to open the seed coat for extraction. The third floor holds temporary storage: grist is weighed and kept in a grist hopper, and liquor is heated in a hot liquor tank using steam, avoiding the need for a furnace and fuel high up.
Brewing proper begins with mashing on the second floor. Grist is steeped with hot liquor in a mash tun to extract maltose sugars and starches, producing a sweet liquid called wort. This starts early on brewing day and takes a couple of hours, allowing starches to convert to fermentable sugars. The wort is then run off, and the drained mash is sprayed with more hot liquor (sparging) for a couple more hours to extract remaining sugars.
Wort flows down to brew coppers (kettles) on the first floor. These were originally heated by fires beneath them, but now usually by steam for better temperature control.
- First examples
- around 1870
- Majority built
- 1880s
- Typical floors
- around six
- Power source
- steam engine
- Noted architect
- William Bradford of London
Lore & Background
Tower breweries developed in the late Victorian period, with the first examples from around 1870 and the majority built in the 1880s. At this time steam power was available, but not electricity; powering a single large pumping step was practical, but multiple small pumps around a building would have been much less so. The buildings are arranged as a tower with around six floors. There may be a single tower, but many breweries were less regular, with portions reaching varying heights. The highest point would be a small water tower, the next highest a prominent ventilated attic giving good airflow for coolers.
Brewing begins at the top of the tower. Water is pumped up to the cold liquor storage tank on the 5th floor. Barley malt, already malted in an external malthouse, is lifted mechanically by sack hoist or continuous elevator. The grist mill on the 4th floor crushes the grains. The 3rd floor holds the grist hopper and hot liquor tank. Mashing occurs on the 2nd floor in a mash tun, producing wort that runs down to brew coppers on the 1st floor. After boiling with hops, the liquor is pumped back up to coolers in the 4th floor attic, then flows down to fermenting tuns on the 1st floor. Fermentation takes around a week, and beer is then run to storage on the ground floor.
Reader's Guide
Tower breweries represent a significant adaptation of brewing to the technological constraints of the late Victorian period. By arranging the brewing process vertically, they minimized the need for multiple pumps, relying instead on a single steam engine to lift water and malt to the top of the tower. This design was practical when steam power was available but electricity was not. The architecture of tower breweries often served as advertising, with brewers using impressive buildings to display their beer's identity. Many breweries were highly distinctive, employing architectural whimsy such as Mock Tudor half-timbering and polychrome brick. The timbered architecture was encouraged by the necessary timber louvres forming the upper story around the wort cooler. Roof shapes were often complicated, with many sections of hipped roof and triangular dormers. A noted architect of such breweries was William Bradford of London, responsible for several listed breweries. Many tower breweries survive today, including Arkell's Brewery, Harveys Bridge Wharf Brewery, Hook Norton Brewery, and Wadworth's Northgate Brewery, among others.
Did You Know?
- A single steam engine powered the lifting of water and malt, as well as other tasks like driving the grist mill and pumps.
- The highest point of a tower brewery was a small water tower, with a ventilated attic below for coolers.
- William Bradford of London was a noted architect of tower breweries, designing several listed examples.
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