Interesting. But I don't like the statement "they used it because invert syrup tastes sweeter than sucrose", in both cases there is complete fermentation and no sweetness resides from these sugars.
So, inverting syrup was discovered in 1811. How fermentation works was discovered in 1857. Refining sugar probably has a long history, but processes probably changed to a great extent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
One should probably set out and follow this timeline along two tracks, brewing and sugar refining, and seeing how the sugar refining and the knowledge of fermentation influence each other.
I suppose (hypothesis from my side) that at the side of the sugar refinery working with inverted sugar at a certain point becomes easier than working with sucrose, because there is less chance of crystallisation.
What little I know of Belgian sugar refining shows that it is incrementally refined giving different kinds of darker syrups, with at the end molasses. But molasses from sugar beets is cattle fodder, while that from sugar cane is nice. I suppose that somewhat the same refining is done from sugar cane juice.
But somewhere on the timeline of brewing and sugar refining, there is in Ronald Pattinson's archives the mention that some British brewers made invert syrup themselves, using sulphuric acid and then lye to stop the process. So would that been done in the belief that this was better for the yeast?
But I have another side note to be made w.r.t. this. The main administrator (Jacques Bertens) of the Dutch homebrew forum says that there is no difference between adding invert syrup or sucrose (he likes to test such hypotheses). However, he does recommend to add extra glucose for bringing out banana in a beer. Would that also be something to consider in (historic) British brewing?
So, inverting syrup was discovered in 1811. How fermentation works was discovered in 1857. Refining sugar probably has a long history, but processes probably changed to a great extent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
One should probably set out and follow this timeline along two tracks, brewing and sugar refining, and seeing how the sugar refining and the knowledge of fermentation influence each other.
I suppose (hypothesis from my side) that at the side of the sugar refinery working with inverted sugar at a certain point becomes easier than working with sucrose, because there is less chance of crystallisation.
What little I know of Belgian sugar refining shows that it is incrementally refined giving different kinds of darker syrups, with at the end molasses. But molasses from sugar beets is cattle fodder, while that from sugar cane is nice. I suppose that somewhat the same refining is done from sugar cane juice.
But somewhere on the timeline of brewing and sugar refining, there is in Ronald Pattinson's archives the mention that some British brewers made invert syrup themselves, using sulphuric acid and then lye to stop the process. So would that been done in the belief that this was better for the yeast?
But I have another side note to be made w.r.t. this. The main administrator (Jacques Bertens) of the Dutch homebrew forum says that there is no difference between adding invert syrup or sucrose (he likes to test such hypotheses). However, he does recommend to add extra glucose for bringing out banana in a beer. Would that also be something to consider in (historic) British brewing?