Sous-titres (114)
0:00For decades, Cincinnati has had a lot going
on above ground.
0:05But what makes this historic city unique is
what's hidden below it.
0:10In the 1830 and 40s, hundreds of thousands
of German refugees fled to the United States
0:16in hope of a life free from repression and
inequality.
0:22They settled in the historic Over-the-Rhine
district, and they brought with them their
0:27most treasured product.
0:29Beer. The United States is often referred to
as a nation of immigrants.
0:34Julie Carpenter is an architectural historian
specializing in the region's rich history.
0:42By the time Over the Rhine was fully
developed, the neighborhood was between 60
0:50You see a lot of buildings that have German
language on them.
0:54What we know is Republic Street today was
originally called Bremen.
0:59Cincinnati already had an established brewing
industry, but the newest residents added
1:04something distinctly German.
1:06For as long as there have been people in
Cincinnati, people have been brewing beer.
1:10The earliest breweries were run by English,
Irish, Scottish, and they were making
1:16traditional English style beers, ales and
porters.
1:21While the English breweries remained above
ground, the German ones relied on
1:26subterranean chambers.
1:28To craft their delicious concoctions.
1:31So we're walking into the fermentation level
of the Jackson Brewery.
1:37Mike Morgan is Cincinnati's resident beer
expert.
1:41This room looks huge and cavernous now, but
it would have been packed with fermenting
1:49Huge wooden vats going up and down both
sides of it.
1:53The only real difference between a lager and
an ale is that lager yeast requires cool
1:59temperatures to ferment, and ale yeast
ferments at room temperature.
2:04At their peak, nearly 35 breweries were
producing more than 30 million gallons of
2:12As demand grew, local business owners had to
dig additional tunnels and cellars to
2:17accommodate production.
2:21Lagering in cellars have two levels, and on
the upper level they would ferment the beer,
2:27and on the lower level they would age it.
2:32Most of the beer was consumed locally, but
soon the German lagers popularity spread far
2:39beyond the city limits.
2:41It was sending a lot of what was made here
down to New Orleans.
2:45So if you went to the French Quarter, good
chance was it came from right here in these
2:56Demand increased exponentially over the
Rhine, and the city of Cincinnati experienced
3:02an economic boom due to beer production.
3:04So much so, the city earned its nickname as
the Beer Capital of the world.
3:10But building cellars large enough to house
not just fermentation tanks, but also
3:15thousands of barrels of the finished product
was no easy task in the 1850s.
3:22The enterprising brewers got creative.
3:24The magic of beer in Cincinnati is right down
these steps.
3:29Steve Hampton works for an organization
revitalizing the brewing district.
3:34So we're 30ft underground in the Crown
Brewery Cellars.
3:38They use archstone construction.
3:40They use stone floors and were typically
built by a very specialized contractor,
3:44cellar diggers. It was very hard to do 30,
40ft underground.
3:50You were in the middle of a dense urban
neighborhood where there were people working
3:54and living and playing literally right next
to you.
3:58What Brewers soon realized was that their
underground recipe for success had a lethal
4:08Fermentation produces significant amounts of
carbon dioxide.
4:13Built up CO2 would not only make these
tunnels off limits for people, it would also
4:18starve the fermenting process of oxygen and
slow or even stop the production of beer.
4:24They built these series of ventilation
shafts.
4:26They look like fireplaces, but they're
actually ventilation shafts.
4:29They could actually use the natural stack
effect and let the warm air out of this space
4:34and keep fresh air in here.
4:37Ventilation solved the carbon dioxide
problem, but keeping the cellars cold enough
4:42for the lager fermentation process needed
further innovation.
4:46Early on, they would use ice that they would
harvest from the lakes and the rivers and the
4:50canals and literally cut that in blocks,
pack it away with the barrels of beer down
4:56There's a lot of cons to ice.
5:00It also melts and that creates all sorts of
problems.
5:04So they started using artificial
refrigeration as soon as that was possible.
5:09And when they did, there would have been
lines crisscrossing through here.
5:13And it was ammonia that was run through
those lines.
5:19While the early brewers had addressed the
temperature issue, they unknowingly
5:23introduced another complication.
5:26Ammonia remains a very effective coolant.
5:30We don't use it today because it will kill
you.
5:36They would oftentimes have ammonia leaks from
the cooling systems that would kill draft
5:40horses. It could even overcome the the
workers down here.
5:46Coolant leaks were just one of the many
dangers facing workers in Cincinnati's
5:50underground breweries.
5:52They were often at risk of being injured by
rolling kegs or kegs, falling down in massive
5:58kegs of a couple hundred pounds each,
breaking legs and ankles.
6:03Beer was part of your pay, and so often you
were drinking while you were on the job.
6:08And so drinking and old cellars weren't
always the most conducive to safety.
6:13And so we had a lot of accidents that way.
6:16As the breweries continued to boom, they
managed to adapt and prosper.
6:21However, by the turn of the century, a
nationwide shift was about to cast a dark
6:26shadow over Cincinnati's beer making
industry.
6:30All of this industry and all of this culture,
it really all starts to collapse all at once.
6:39In the 19th century, innovations in beer
making required breweries to undergo major
6:44upgrades. Cincinnati was at the forefront of
these changes.
6:48Pasteurization in 1864.
6:53You don't have to consume it immediately
without it spoiling.
6:57We then get into technology around steel.
7:00So we go from wooden vats to big metal tanks
that are easier to clean and get the bacteria
7:06out of. And we also start to see revolutions
in glass.
7:11And then in 1892, we had the crown bottle
cap.
7:19Despite these investments, society was
changing and the industry was in for a rude
7:27The United States enters World War 1 in 1917.
7:31When that happens, all of that germanness
that made Over-the-Rhine such a unique
7:36European feeling place, that all becomes
bad.
7:40So that's really the first blow.
7:44Prohibition goes into effect nationally in
1920.
7:48And so all of this industry and all of this
culture, it really all starts to collapse all
7:55By 1918, laws were passed forcing breweries
to shut down, and for many years things
8:02looked very bleak for the Over-the-Rhine
district.
8:06Some breweries tried to survive by brewing
illegally, but police raids squashed most
8:12efforts and soon the Cincinnati breweries
were seemingly forgotten.
