Dreher and Sedlmayr Study British Brewing in London

On July 25, 1833, Anton Dreher and Gabriel Sedlmayr the Younger met in London with fellow brewers Georg Lederer and Franz Xaver Meindl during a wider study journey through European brewing regions. They repeatedly visited Barclay, Perkins & Co., one of London’s enormous porter breweries, and examined the scale, machinery, malting practices, and methods of measurement used in the technologically advanced British brewing industry. In London, Dreher and Sedlmayr learned to use the saccharometer from former brewer and brewing writer John Richardson Booth. The instrument allowed brewers to measure wort strength and fermentation more systematically, complementing the thermometer already familiar to Continental brewers. Their British journey contributed to a wider transfer of analytical methods, industrial technology, and pale-malt production to Central Europe. Dreher and Sedlmayr later applied and developed this knowledge in their respective breweries, helping modernize the production of Vienna and Munich lager without simply reproducing British porter.