<story><title>List of oldest companies: Before 1300</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies#Before_1300</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rconti</author><text>Lots of breweries. Belgian Abbeys; Grimbergen, Affligem... Can anyone opine on how similar today&amp;#x27;s beers might taste to how they did &amp;quot;back in the day?&amp;quot; I&amp;#x27;m sure some of the beers are based on the original recipes, and with the Reinheitsgebot, it&amp;#x27;s fairly plausible that all of the ingredients in the German beers in particular are very similar. But I&amp;#x27;m not sure how the process might have changed over the years, or how the ingredients might taste different now than they did a century ago.</text></item><item><author>navidfarhadi</author><text>The oldest name on this list that stood out to me is Weihenstephan brewery, founded in 1040 in Bavaria, Germany. They have some of the finest lagers I have ever tried. If you enjoy crisp, refreshing lager beers, I highly recommend their beers. My favorite one is probably the Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier, followed by the Hefeweissbier Dunkel.&lt;p&gt;Note: I am not affiliated in any way with the company, I just highly enjoy their beers.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>soundwave106</author><text>The modern Trappist Belgium styles (&amp;quot;dubbel, tripel&amp;quot; etc.) were pretty much conceived by Westmalle in the 1920s-1930s. (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.homebrewersassociation.org&amp;#x2F;how-to-brew&amp;#x2F;a-brief-history-of-the-trappists&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.homebrewersassociation.org&amp;#x2F;how-to-brew&amp;#x2F;a-brief-h...&lt;/a&gt;). Duvel is the template for the Belgium Golden Strong variety of beer -- that &lt;i&gt;also&lt;/i&gt; was developed around the 1920s-1930s. (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;allaboutbeer.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;belgian-strong-golden-ale-2&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;allaboutbeer.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;belgian-strong-golden-ale-2&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;p&gt;So, no, the beers back then did &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; taste similar to today&amp;#x27;s beer. I would say that lambics might be the closest reflection to a style that is close to &amp;quot;back in the day&amp;quot;. (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;lostbeers.com&amp;#x2F;lambic-the-real-story&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;lostbeers.com&amp;#x2F;lambic-the-real-story&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;) Even then, the link between today&amp;#x27;s lambic and the past only goes to the 1700s at best, and it&amp;#x27;s not clear how representative it is (at least what I can see from skimming the linked blog with Google Translate&amp;#x27;s help -- &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;lambik1801.wordpress.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;lambik1801.wordpress.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;p&gt;There are also plenty of technical differences between brewing now and brewing then that would make for a different taste. It was probably a bit sweeter (less attenuation), possibly spiced different before the 1600s, possibly smoky until coal drying came into the norm, probably dark until pale malt was developed in the 19th century, probably had more room for sour notes (before pure yeast cultures were developed in the late 19th-early 20th century), etc.</text></comment>
<story><title>List of oldest companies: Before 1300</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies#Before_1300</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rconti</author><text>Lots of breweries. Belgian Abbeys; Grimbergen, Affligem... Can anyone opine on how similar today&amp;#x27;s beers might taste to how they did &amp;quot;back in the day?&amp;quot; I&amp;#x27;m sure some of the beers are based on the original recipes, and with the Reinheitsgebot, it&amp;#x27;s fairly plausible that all of the ingredients in the German beers in particular are very similar. But I&amp;#x27;m not sure how the process might have changed over the years, or how the ingredients might taste different now than they did a century ago.</text></item><item><author>navidfarhadi</author><text>The oldest name on this list that stood out to me is Weihenstephan brewery, founded in 1040 in Bavaria, Germany. They have some of the finest lagers I have ever tried. If you enjoy crisp, refreshing lager beers, I highly recommend their beers. My favorite one is probably the Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier, followed by the Hefeweissbier Dunkel.&lt;p&gt;Note: I am not affiliated in any way with the company, I just highly enjoy their beers.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>timcederman</author><text>I did a beer tour of Belgium and apparently all of their beers are very modern (at most ~100 years old), and the dates refer to either the first brewery in the area, or the abbey itself.&lt;p&gt;Not specific to Belgian&amp;#x2F;German beers, but I found this interesting: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;AskHistorians&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;2vo36v&amp;#x2F;during_the_middle_ages_was_the_beer_they_drank&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;AskHistorians&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;2vo36v&amp;#x2F;durin...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>