The Czech Research Institute of Brewing and Malting

After my freelance research in Prague it was back to the day job. I was visiting the Research Institute of Brewing and Malting. Arriving in the morning we were offered a choice of refreshing beverages: tea, coffee or beer. As there was no kettle in the hotel room I was severely lacking in tea so went for that. I did have a beer later though, it would have been rude not too.

The malting part of the institute is in Brno, with lots of lab equipment and two pilot breweries in Prague. The small one (50L), which is soon to be replaced, had the look of something made by a keen home brewer, though all in copper.

The larger one (300L) was an altogether more modern affair and looked more like a scaled down big brewery. Though they still seemed to do their fermentations in temperature controlled fridges.

They had a big gold statue of František Ondřej Poupě, which is definitely a step up from having a Horace Brown portrait. Poupě was an early Czech brewing scientist, who adopted the use of the thermometer.

 I was there as part of a project about a multi-use sensor, which will include temperature monitoring, so I think Poupě would approve.