Horace Tabberer Brown

Lore & Background

Brown was born in Burton upon Trent, the sixth child of Benjamin Tabberer, a farmer, and Jane Atkin Tabberer. His father died five months before his birth. In February 1849, his mother remarried Edwin Brown, a banker and amateur naturalist, which sparked Brown's interest in science around age 12. He was educated at Burton and Atherstone Grammar Schools and at the Royal College of Chemistry. He started work at the Worthington Brewery in 1866, focusing on solving practical brewing problems by employing and developing fundamental scientific principles. His research covered barley germination, beer microbiology, water composition, oxygen and fermentation, beer haze formation, wort composition, and beer analysis. He also studied geology due to water supply needs for Burton, embodied in a paper on the Permian Rocks of the Leicestershire Coalfield.

Reader's Guide

Brown's significance lies in his pioneering application of scientific method to brewing practice over a career exceeding 50 years. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1889 and from 1890 onward studied the assimilation of carbon dioxide in plants. He established the Guinness Research Laboratory in Dublin in 1901. His awards include the Longstaff Medal (1894), Royal Medal (1903), and Copley Medal (1920). The Institute of Brewing and Distilling awards the Horace Brown Medal every three years to an eminent scientist, with the winner giving the Horace Brown Medal lecture. Recipients include Henry Edward Armstrong (first in 1926), Ernest Stanley Salmon, John Simpson Ford, D E Briggs, Lionel D Maule, Graham Stewart, Tim Dolan, and Charlie Bamforth.

Did You Know?

• Brown's father died five months before he was born.
• The Horace Brown Medal is awarded every three years by the Institute of Brewing and Distilling.