As is the case today the late medieval and early modern brewing process can be divided intofour phases: malting, brewing in the proper sense (boiling), fermenting and conditioning. Ananalysis of these phases shows that technological and organizational progress was ratherlimited in this period, especially when compared with the great innovations of the 19thcentury. The brewer of the pre-industrial era relied on his sensory experience and based hismanual work on the orally transmitted traditions that from time to time were completed withsome tips from a written recipe or a printed beer manual. Prospective brewers learned theircraft as an apprentice to a master within the guild. The main innovation in the brewingprocess was undoubtedly the full assimilation of hops as an essential raw material. Otherimprovements must have occurred as well, though they are difficult to detect. The growingsize of the kettle provides a good indication of such improvements since it proves that the sizeof an average brew was continuously increasing between 1400 and 1800.
