A HISTORY OF SURREY 



knowledge of the possibilities of the applica- 

 tion of steam power to mechanical processes, 

 to introduce into the brewery a 24 horse- 

 power steam-engine erected by Boulton & 

 Watt. This engine seems to have been in 

 use until 1884, when it was replaced by a 

 horizontal one, by James Watt & Co., 

 capable of being worked up to 125 horse- 

 power and said to be one of the finest engines 

 in London. 



In 1 812 the buildings and offices of the 

 brewery occupied a space of nearly 6 acres 

 and comprised, in addition to the brewhouse, 

 shops for the diflPerent trades auxiliary to the 

 brewing business, such as the cooperage, car- 

 penter's shop, and the like. The manufacture 

 on the premises of its own casks has always 

 been a feature of the Anchor brewery. The 

 stables formed a quadrangle and could accom- 

 modate 126 horses, for the fine breed of 

 which Messrs. Barclay, Perkins & Co. have 

 long been celebrated. The storehouses were 

 capable of containing 120,000 barrels and the 

 malt-lofts 20,000 quarters. In the different 

 departments of the business about 200 persons 

 were employed and sixty carriages. 



The description of this brewery in 1850 

 well illustrates the advance that had been 

 made at that date in the application of 

 mechanical science to the whole process of 

 brewing.* ' The malt is conveyed from one 

 building to another, even across a street, en- 

 tirely by machinery, and again to the crush- 

 ing rollers and mash-vat ; the cold and the 

 hot water, and the wort and the beer, are 

 pumped in various directions, almost to the 

 exclusion of human exertions ; nearly every 

 portion of the heavy toil being accomplished 

 by the steam-engine.' Two improvements 

 in the operation called for special notice : the 

 ' Jacob's ladder ' and the refrigerators. The 

 former was the endless chain or elevator 

 which picked up the malt and carried it along 

 in buckets until it capsized it into the hoppers 

 from which it passed into the mash-vats, the 

 empty buckets returning again to the malt 

 heaps. The refrigerators enabled the wort to 

 be drawn ofiF and cooled in an incredibly short 

 time, thus minimizing the risk of the beer 

 turning sour before the fermenting process 

 was reached, and obviating the difficulty which 

 had formerly made brewing only possible at 

 certain seasons of the year. The operation 

 of mashing was now performed entirely by 

 mechanical process, with far greater speed and 

 with more certainty that all would be equally 

 soaked, than had been possible by the earlier 



methods. Hot water at exactly the tempera- 

 ture required and to exactly the right quan- 

 tity could now be supplied from the boilers 

 in use. 



The brewhouse at this time contained five 

 complete sets of brewing apparatus, two of 

 which were now employed for the production 

 of ale. Each of the copper boilers, which 

 cost nearly ;^5,000, consisted of a furnace, a 

 globular copper holding 320 barrels, a pan or 

 covering boiler containing 280 barrels, and a 

 cylindrical cistern that would contain 120 

 barrels. The total number of hands em- 

 ployed in all the different departments of the 

 brewery was 430, and the number of barrels 

 of beer annually produced about 375,000. 

 A table of the quantities of malt brewed by 

 the principal London brewers during the seven 

 years from 1846 to 1852 inclusive shows 

 Messrs. Barclay, Perkins & Co. at the head 

 of the list each year, with an average con- 

 sumption of 118,000 quarters, their only 

 serious competitors being Messrs. Truman, 

 Hanbury & Co., with an average of a little 

 over 108,000 quarters.^ 



To turn from these particulars of the 

 brewery in the middle of the last century to 

 its present day condition, we find that Messrs. 

 Barclay, Perkins & Co. still represent one of 

 the largest and most important businesses that 

 have to be considered in any account of the 

 industries of Surrey. The business is now 

 so vast a one that to describe in detail the 

 whole process of manufacture is hardly pos- 

 sible within our present limits. Attention 

 may however be drawn in the following 

 sketch of the present extent of the works to 

 some of those new inventions which the 

 Company has been one of the pioneers to 

 turn to practical account in the art of brew- 

 ing. 



The brewery now covers more than 14 

 acres of ground. Only within the last year 

 or two have some extensive premises been 

 acquired by the firm to be transformed into 

 the additional stores and cellars rendered 

 necessary by its increasing trade. The 

 works consist of several lofty buildings con- 

 nected over the three thoroughfares by which 

 they are divided by iron suspension bridges. 

 The ale side and the porter side form two 

 distinct departments, the latter being still the 

 more important. On the river side is the 

 wharf, where the beer is shipped for exporta- 

 tion and the malt from the company's own 

 makings in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Hertford- 

 shire is landed. 



1 Brayley and Britten, Hist, of Sun. v. 

 14-16. 



App. 



art. 



McCulloch's Dictionary of Commerce (1859), 

 'Ale and Beer.' 



390 



