Huntington Library acquires Pasteur’s beer notes

The Huntington Library in California has acquired Louis Pasteur’s notes on beer brewing it has been announced.

The famous library already owns an “extensive” collection of the French scientists notes as well as a first edition folio of William Shakespeare’s plays.

The Denver Post reported that the Huntington announced the acquisition on Tuesday alongside some unpublished letters and poems by Janes Austen and drawings by 19th century sailor “Wicked Ned”.

The notes date from the 1870s and show that as well as trying to produce better beer, he was taking ideas from the brewing process that he would later apply to “pasteurisation” and his other disease-preventing vaccines.

The library’s history curator, Melissa Lo, said that as well as providing a “key window” into that era of science and Pasteur’s own work, “my sense is that these may well be of interest to researchers who more and more are investigating the history of food and drink, as well as hand-crafted beer,” she added.