Brewery

See also: Winery
Kettles in a modern Trappist brewery

A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant.[1] The commercial brewing of beer has taken place since at least 2500 BC;[2] in ancient Mesopotamia, brewers derived social sanction and divine protection from the goddess Ninkasi.[3][4] Brewing was initially a cottage industry, with production taking place at home; by the ninth century, monasteries and farms would produce beer on a larger scale, selling the excess; and by the eleventh and twelfth centuries larger, dedicated breweries with eight to ten workers were being built.[5]

The diversity of size in breweries is matched by the diversity of processes, degrees of automation, and kinds of beer produced in breweries. A brewery is typically divided into distinct sections, with each section reserved for one part of the brewing process.

  1. ^ Gammelgaard, Jens (2013). The Global Brewery Industry. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 52. ISBN 9781781006351. Archived from the original on 2022-06-04. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Alulu was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Susan Pollock, Ancient Mesopotamia,1999:102–103.
  4. ^ Hartman, L. F. and Oppenheim, A. L., (1950) "On Beer and Brewing Techniques in Ancient Mesopotamia," Supplement to the Journal of the American Oriental Society, 10. Retrieved 2013-09-20.
  5. ^ Glick, Thomas F.; et al. (27 Jan 2014). Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine. Routledge. p. 102. ISBN 9781135459321.